tifo

[ tee-foh ]

noun

, Chiefly Soccer.

1. a coordinated display, including large banners, flags, and sometimes signs or cards, executed cooperatively or performed in unison by the most fervent supporters and ultra fans in the stadium.
2. an element or elements of a coordinated display by fans in a stadium, especially a large banner raised by ropes and pulleys or spread over the people seated in the supporter section:

   Fans spent weeks hand-painting the canvas of the giant tifo, a 100-foot-long, 60-foot-tall mural they unfurled behind the goal just moments before the start of the game.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tifo¹

First recorded in 2000–05; from Italian; literally “typhus (fever),” hence, “fevered, impassioned support”

Example Sentences

Before their group-stage debut - a 2-0 win against Austrian side St Polten at the Tele2 Arena - the players were welcomed on to the pitch by a huge tifo showing captain Alice Carlsson planting a Hammarby flag in the centre of a map of Europe.

From BBC

In 2006, he began bringing his daughter, then 7, to sit together in the rowdy supporters section, where fan groups banged drums and held aloft a giant banner known as “tifo.”

From Los Angeles Times

From emerging from the tunnel at half-time in the club's final league game of the season to see a giant Tifo of himself and just standing in awe of it.

From BBC

There were some big puffs of the cheeks and looks of disbelief when the retiring goalkeeper watched an impressive fan tifo unfurl behind him at the start of the second half.

From BBC

They also made a giant tifo in his image, featuring Mbappé in a trademark pose with his arms crossed.

From Seattle Times