I can’t hear English. There are layers of translation and understanding the mind does which I would define as listening. When the mind is blank one hears languages without filtration, and German sounds brutal to my ear. Even “Ich liebe dich” (I love you) sounds like the start of a diss record.
That said, English—a Germanic offshoot—is often inadequate and thus borrows from other languages. There is no succinct way to describe the feeling of taking pleasure from others’ misfortune in English that possesses the potency of German’s “Schadenfreude.” The closest English gets is “epicaricacy,” but pronunciation is a challenge; loaning “Schadenfreude” from German is much easier.
“Schadenfreude” is a compound word combining “Schaden” (damage/harm) and “Freude” (joy/happiness) to create a descriptor for an emotion quite common in human beings, that is deriving joy from the misery of someone or something else.
I submit the feeling is so foundational one cannot fully grasp the nature of football without understanding Schadenfreude’s primacy.
Scientific journal New Ideas in Psychology published a literature review about Schadenfreude from Emory University psychologists in 2019. Shensheng Wang, Scott Lilienfeld, and Philippe Rochat proposed a new model of the emotion. They suggest “Schadenfreude comprises three separable but interrelated subforms (aggression, rivalry, and justice), which display different developmental trajectories and personality correlates.”
The justice subform is grounded in inequity aversion and one’s perception of fairness. If someone or something is successful or exalted by means deemed unfair, in receiving their comeuppance your feeling of pleasure or contentment would be rooted in morality. I can imagine Scar’s last appearance in “The Lion King” as an example.
Schadenfreude stemming from rivalry is peer-based and individualistic, effectively judging one’s position by another’s position. The misfortune of someone else gives the person feeling pleasure an ego boost as their standing is increased. Like discovering your classmate flunked a test you passed and their failure enhancing your fulfillment.
Wang, Lilienfeld, and Rochat posit group dynamics birth the aggression subform. The Schadenfreude felt when watching another group suffer is derived from believing that group’s failure represents an advancement or validation of one’s own group. This subform best describes the essence of football and football fans.
Sporting culture is dominated by tribalism. If tribes don’t naturally exist (e.g. boxing, tennis, athletics) people manufacture them, and no sport relies on the pillar of tribalism more than football. From players, to managers, to clubs, each tier has tribes in constant dialogue, and in that dialogue a measuring process is ongoing.
Win games, win trophies, and your group elevates. Elevation is one source of happiness, but not the only source. There is another means by which pleasure is taken: observing or causing other groups to descend in the measuring process is an alternate avenue of acquiring happiness. Because it involves something morally objectionable (i.e. basking in the sadness of others) fans don’t often lead with that as primary, but enjoying another team’s failure is in some instances more fulfilling than one’s team succeeding.
There are results every season that prove this tendency.
Liverpool hosted historic rivals Manchester United on Sunday. United were in great form. They had won eight of their last 11 Premier League games and lifted the League Cup last week. Conversely, Liverpool have underperformed to the point someone flew over Anfield calling for the removal of Fenway Sports Group. All signs pointed to three points for Manchester United, but Liverpool had other ideas. Jurgen Klopp’s side went up 1-0 just before halftime and were relentless in the second half, scoring seven without reply.
The loss equalled the Red Devils’ heaviest defeat in their 145-year history. Losing 7-0 to any club causes injury; losing 7-0 to a club considered one’s bitter rivals opens an entirely different wound. In the same way happiness compounds for the winning group, sadness compounds for the losing group.
Securing a domestic league or continental honour provides joy regardless of opponent, but winning isn’t always enough. There are times when avoiding failure is more important than success, not because of anything tangibly competitive, but because tribes need morale, and morale in most sports—football especially—is relative to the status of other tribes.
In other words: Winning is good, but beating you is better.
The expression on Jamie Carragher’s face with Gary Neville sulking in the background cannot be explained without some investigation of Schadenfreude. Nor can one explain the thousands of social media impressions the moment garnered without the same. It was a microcosm of the macrocosm. Liverpool delighting not just in their seven goals, but the pain those goals inflicted upon Manchester United fans.
It verges on sickness. Lilienfeld told Science Daily Schadenfreude “overlaps substantially with several other ‘dark’ personality traits, such as sadism, narcissism and psychopathy.” In my less-researched opinion, I tend to agree.
As I’ve slowly divorced myself from Chelsea Football Club, pleasure no longer comes from my group administering pain (in those rare moments of capability). I find joy in things football offers intrinsically. A great through ball, an extraordinary piece of skill, the art of winning fouls, these are how I wring pleasure from the game.
How I feel about football—and Chelsea more pointedly—is the healthiest relationship I’ve had with the sport since I began watching, but I can’t say healthy is more fun. It’s like dieting. Pizza tastes better than salad, even if salad is better for you.
The approach does create imbalance. Schadenfreude requires the losing person or group to feel legitimate dismay. Football and interpersonal relationships change when you don’t have equal access to the same range of emotional triggers. If presented banter about the miserable state of Chelsea, I offer camaraderie rather than combat. Disarming one’s ability to gloat destabilises the foundation upon which football fanship is built.
In that sense, Schadenfreude is an essential piece of being a fan. What I’m unqualified to answer is whether Schadenfreude is an essential piece of being human, but I suspect it is—and if so would help explain the conditions millions are subject to despite available resources. 🎯