You can’t, after all, stop people from saying “I’m a fan of a sports team,” yet it becomes very easily a proxy for other opinions as well.

See also : Real Madrid V Barcelona, Rangers V Celtic etc etc.

In the Byzantine Empire, there were sports riots, just like in the modern day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism#Turkey

Nothing ever changes in Constantinople/Istanbul. The longer you live, the more you realize that the only things that truly exist in this city are merely riots, unrest and cats.