Sunderland A.F.C. supporters

Supporters of the club, and people from Sunderland in general, are traditionally called Mackems, but during their near century long tenure at Roker Park they were also referred to as Rokerites and Rokermen.

Sunderland's attendances typically reflect their status as a one-club city with a large traditional catchment area.

Despite a long period with relatively little success, Sunderland held the third highest average attendance in the country in the 2000–01 season with 46,791 fans.

Di Canio was long associated with Italian Fascism having spoke generously of Benito Mussolini in his 2001 autobiography.

[21][22][23] During the 2010 season he was pictured giving the Roman salute while playing for S.S. Lazio against clubs considered to have left leaning politics.

[27] The appointment also met with opposition from the Durham Miners' Association which threatened to remove one of its mining banners from Sunderland's Stadium of Light.

[32][34] Supporters of Sunderland launched a campaign to get the song back into the chart, to coincide with their team's Capital One Cup Final on 2 March 2014 at Wembley Stadium.

[43][44] The fans recorded the song due to the fact the manager often had a dour demeanour, whilst the team was doing well, and even won promotion at the end of the season.

[47] The "Fulwell End" was the name of a stand at Roker Park and "73" is a reference to the 1973 FA Cup Final, the last time the club won a major trophy.

[51] Conversely, sections of fans share a mutual friendship with Dutch club Feyenoord; this was developed after Wearside shipbuilders found jobs in Rotterdam during the 1970s and 80s.

[55] The most famous hooligan firm is the Seaburn Casuals, named after the Seaburn area near Roker Park stadium, even though early hooligan firms of Sunderland fans appeared as far back as the 1970s and the 1980s, like the Vauxies (named after the Vaux Breweries), who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

[59] Before the 1998 FIFA World Cup, 26 Seaburn Casuals hooligans were arrested in a police raid after a military-issue smoke bomb was let out at a local pub after a fight with bouncers.

[56] In March 2002, the Seaburn Casuals fought with hooligans from the Newcastle Gremlins in a pre-arranged clash near the North Shields Ferry terminal, in what was described as "some of the worst football related fighting ever witnessed in the United Kingdom".