Red Devils (supporters club)
Red Devils or Bulgeun Angma (
Origin
The club was established as the "Great Hankuk Supporters Club" in December, 1995. The current name, "Red Devils", comes from a term coined by the international media in 1983 when the Korean youth team reached the semi-final of the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship. Because the national football team's official jersey color is red,[1] the media dubbed both the team and supporting fans "Red Furies", and it was translated as "Red Devils" in Korean. The name was selected in 1997 as the official name of the organization.[2]
Mascot
The mascot for the Red Devils is
Membership
Membership is open to those who wish to support the
Cheering
The main activity for the Red Devils is supporting the national football team, i.e. cheering. The cheering of the Red Devils is noted for being highly organized and extremely passionate, so much so that they are called "the 12th member" of the football team.[7]
The most common cheer is in a cadence of shouting and clapping: "대~한민국! (大~韓民國, Dae~han Minguk,
Cheering is done in stadiums, theaters and also many public plazas and squares in front of jumbo screens.
Supporters wear red, like the national football team players. Devil horns and other adornments are popular as well.[12]
Be the Reds!
"Be the Reds!" was a phrase popularized on T-shirts during the
Origin
The first incarnation of the T-Shirt featured a white brush stroked
Controversy
In late 2003 someone trademarked the phrase and began selling "Be the Reds!" items commercially. In retaliation, the person who first made the logo on a T-shirt copyrighted the font in which it was written, thus forcing the owner of the phrase to print his shirts in a different font. Those shirts did not sell as well as the phrase owner had hoped. Because of those two trademarks, no further "Be the Reds!" items (in the original font) have been made legally since 2003. The Korean Football Association has since abandoned the slogan, opting for their own trademarked one, "Reds Go Together!" for the 2006 World Cup. In 2010, there are competing slogans, KFA's All the Reds! and Red Devils' "The Shouts of Reds! United Korea!"
Other uses
The original London internet café Cyberia was bought by Koreans and rebranded as "Be The Reds" in the early 2000s.[13]
In late 2002, Korean soccer star
Some fans of the J-League's
While it never caught on as a widespread fad, a few supporters of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds have also been known to sport clothing bearing the same phrase.
References
- ^ (in Korean) History of national football team's uniform, Sports Chosun, 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2010-06-18
- ^ a b c (in Korean) Red Devils at Doosan Encyclopedia
- ^ a b (in Korean) Trademark of Red Devils Archived 2010-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (in Korean) Chiwoo at Doosan Encyclopedia
- ^ (in Korean) Red Devils membership Archived 2010-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Red Devil Fever and the Branding of Korea
- ^ (in Korean) History of the Red Devils, Inews, 2006-05-21. Retrieved 2010-06-18
- ^ S. Korean fans gear up for World Cup, Channel News Asia, 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-06-18
- ^ South Korean football fans, Global TV Calgary, 2010-06-12, Retrieved 2010-06-18
- ^ Keep rooting for Korea, Korea.net, 2010-06-18
- ^ (in Korean) 2010 South Africa World Cup report #2109, Chosun Weekly, 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2010-06-18
- ^ (in Korean) Red Devil fashion, Newsen 2010-06-18
- ^ Eric Pfanner (2 September 2004). "'The world's first,' Café Cyberia in London, takes a bow : A decade of Internet cafés". The New York Times.