Last night I rented the movie Green Street. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it. The film follows a firm of hooligan West Ham football fans through the eyes of a Harvard dropout (played by Elijah Wood) who moves to England and is initiated into the 'scene'.

The part I found so fascinating is the social aspect of being a fan. It is another example of our need to find something to identify with - a hero, a group, a leader. A way to define ourselves as part of a special group and to be different from others.

As an avid sports fan, I have a deep feeling about why I support my team and why I despise the opposing side. As a humanist, I find the notion of hating another team or person very problematic.

Shortly after my American wife and I moved back to Israel, my favourite team, Maccabi Tel Aviv ,played a basketball game against a club from Greece. It happened to take place in proximity to the Jewish holiday of Hanukah. Maccabi fans where chanting songs about beating the Greeks and I explained to my other half  that the game had an extra significance because the holiday it coincided with celebrates a struggle between the Jews and the Greek Empire more than 2,000 years ago.

To this day, my wife finds it very odd that a basketball game should be ignited by a battle that took part in such ancient times. If you think about it logically, she is right. But the passion for sport runs much deeper then any logic.

I guess that is why last week, when Sportingo featured an article criticising West Ham, it took only a few hours for the rant to reach a couple of Upton Park fan forums and for us to be inundated with angry Hammers fans. The beauty of the site is our ability to offer these same fans a way to respond - and within 12 hours we received a submission through one of the fan forums providing an opposing view and backing their under-fire team.