The Barclays Premier League is one of most storied and celebrated sports leagues on the planet. Able to make legends and cult heroes out of mortal men, it has entertained millions since its inception in 1888. Clubs experience the immeasurable joy of winning the championship or the heartbreak of relegation.
At present, the league’s ebb and flow of success now rests with Chelsea Football Club, who have been top of the league table since opening day and are now just two wins away from securing their first championship in five years.
One wonders why, then, in a recent BBC study, Chelsea were found to be the most abused team on social media, with nearly 20,000 negative comments since the beginning of the season.
As a Chelsea supporter myself, I know we’re not the most likeable team, but are we really bad enough to merit all that hate? I would take up arms to defend my team’s honor in the face of criticism, but I can spare that passion for another time.
Instead, I will look objectively at Chelsea, and try to explain why the (arguably) most complete team to appear in the league in the last half decade are so detestable.
I’ve decided to examine two key elements of Chelsea that seem to incite rage amongst non-supporters, the first being the players themselves. There are two reasons I could see neutral observers hating Chelsea players, and the first is just how unlikeable Chelsea players’ personalities are. The primary scapegoat for this Chelsea stigma is without a doubt Diego Costa, Chelsea’s mercurial striker who has perhaps become the most vilified footballer since Luis Suarez, and that’s saying something.
Diego Costa perfectly embodies every negative aspect of Chelsea: he is brash, he gets on other players’ nerves, and most importantly he gets the job done, scoring goals without the flair that attracts the crowd, but with an air of arrogance and cockiness that
infuriates them. Chelsea fans adore him while everyone else wishes they could beat him over the head with a baseball (cricket?) bat.
If he’s not in the headlines for scoring a hat trick, he’s there because of a “crime” he undoubtedly committed like his “intentional” stomp on Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel’s leg, which earned him a three game ban. Costa is undeniably a polarizing figure, and when he is representing the club as a whole, you can bet there’s some hate coming Chelsea’s way.
The second way the players seem to rub people the wrong way relates to the way in which Chelsea acquired them in the first place. It’s no secret that ever since billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich purchased ownership of Chelsea F.C. in 2003, the club has benefitted from his seemingly bottomless wallet.
Eden Hazard ($48 million) and Fernando Torres ($74 million) are purchased players who perfectly represent the excess and near avarice that the club has indulged in during the past decade.
Compare this to other Premier League teams like Burnley, whose total net purchasing over the past five years has been less than the cost for Fernando Torres alone. You will begin to associate the devil horns and pitchfork with Chelsea F.C.
Couple this gross difference in spending with Chelsea’s lack of homegrown or English players, and it becomes easy to see how fans of other teams might treat Chelsea F.C. like the Antichrist (look up some comments if you don’t believe me, but be warned, they’re NSFW).
You might become confused when you consider that clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona splash cash on players like Gareth Bale ($107 million) and Luis Suarez ($100 million), respectively, and are still greatly admired in world football.
This discrepancy brings me to Chelsea’s second source of contention and hate: Chelsea’s success is new and annoying. It doesn’t take a regular football viewer to see this; all you have to do is examine the battle cry of Chelsea haters everywhere: “You Ain’t Got No History.”
Teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona are loved because they are embedded in the very roots of European football with 14 European Championships and 55 domestic titles between them.
Chelsea, on the other hand, had won one domestic title pre-Abramovich, winning three since then and two European Championships (2012 and 2013). Like the Miami Heat of 2010-14, this new wave of success brought along the emergence of “bandwagon, glory hunting, plastic fans” that any genuine fan (myself especially) wishes would just disappear. These new fans are only along for the ride and contribute to the hate toward Chelsea, which is already abundant.
I love Chelsea and all our recent success, but when you’re doing well, there will always be someone throwing rocks at the throne. In our case, however, these rocks are the size of boulders.
