FOOTBALL and politics mix in many different ways, from supporters using the sport’s profile to highlight issues, to the game at the top level becoming increasingly inseparable from the global political theatre.

Sometimes football’s relationship with politics via supporter movements can involve elements of humour, and this was on display in Burlington, Vermont, last weekend, where Vermont Green supporters unveiled a tifo in tribute to their state’s representative at the US Senate, Bernie Sanders, during their USL League Two final against Ballard FC.

The banner, organised by the club’s supporters group Green Mountain Bhoys (whose name is partly inspired by Celtic), read: “Welcome to the Berniebeu.”

It went viral and was one of the most prominent American soccer stories of recent weeks, capturing the imagination in the sport and beyond.

“Bernie is definitely a fan,” said Vermont Green co-founder Patrick Infurna, ahead of the final.

“We’ve hung out with him at a few games. He’s a busy man, but the fact that he’s made time to come… he’s come to speak at the games, but he also comes in and he watches the action. 

“He’s a sports guy. He loves baseball, he loves basketball, and we think he’s coming around to soccer!” 

The tifo’s play on words around Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium is not without its political connotations, either.

Santiago Bernabeu, after whom Real Madrid’s stadium is named, fought for Francisco Franco’s nationalists in the Spanish civil war.

There were suggestions that Vermont Green fans had missed this additional political aspect in favour of the play on words, but in fact, the idea was that their stadium and their outlook are the opposite of what Real Madrid and the top level of football is now seen to represent.

As Green Mountain Bhoys founder Tyler Littwin says: “There was something nice about celebrating America’s most prominent modern socialist and co-opting the name.”

Vermont Green’s ground, Virtue Field, is based at the University of Vermont, and is shared with the University teams.

There has been huge demand for tickets for Vermont Green games at Virtue Field this season, and as the team progressed through the play-offs, matches have sold out almost instantly.

It encouraged the club to look for ways to expand the capacity, including offering “courtside seating,” which consisted of some folding chairs lined up at the side of the pitch.

As an amateur team, there are fewer restrictions on the stadium etiquette than there are in the professional game, and the university grounds offered room for fans to make their own arrangements.

Supporters took a viewing spot wherever they could around the field, including climbing ladders to see over walls and perching on the top of shipping containers or portaloos. The main unofficial spot was a grass slope behind one of the goals, where supporters camped for the day, bringing their picnics along with their support.

Around 2,700 tickets were sold for these games, but the club estimates that they could have sold at least 15,000. Around 5,000 fans were in attendance for the final against Ballard, many of whom had turned up much earlier in the day to claim their spot around the stadium.

At this stage, it’s worth a reminder that this is not an MLS team, but a fourth-tier American soccer club.

There is currently no promotion and relegation between leagues in the United States, though USL hopes to introduce it within its own divisions. 

Places in professional leagues are currently bought rather than earned on the field, so it can feel inaccurate to label American leagues as Division One or Division Two, etc. But the United States Soccer Federation (USSF, their equivalent to the FA) does assign divisional status to its professional leagues, creating a league pyramid of sorts.

In the men’s game, this ranges from Major League Soccer in the first tier to USL League One and MLS Next Pro in the third, with the USL Championship in the middle.

USL also has what is effectively a fourth tier, USL League Two, and this is where you will find Vermont Green.

The team themselves are coached by a Liverpudlian, Chris Taylor. He was promoted to the head coach role at the start of the season, having been at the club as an assistant coach since its inaugural season in 2022.

Under his coaching, and the work of sporting director Adam Pfeifer, the club went unbeaten in 2025, building a team on the back of an impressive, unexpected 2024 NCAA national championship win by the University of Vermont’s men’s team.

Max Kissel scored the winning goal in the USL League Two final last Saturday, having also scored the winner for the university team in their NCAA championship game at the end of 2024.

Returning to the plodding MLS regular season, and the contrived Leagues Cup competition introduced in recent years by MLS in an attempt to play more lucrative games against Mexican opposition, felt flat in comparison.

It also demonstrated the draw of the drama of cup competition at any level, and makes a case for cup competitions and playoffs which are increasingly the most entertaining competitions across the world of football, away from the often more predictable league tables.

Vermont Green’s progress and the interest they are generating from their own community and beyond could also be seen as part of a wider trend of supporters turning to more accessible non-League and lower league football.

Last week, the BBC reported that “average weekly attendances across the top four non-league tiers reached an all-time high of 117,586 last season, marking an increase of 43 per cent over the past five years and 89 per cent in a decade.”

Teams like Clapton CFC, Dulwich Hamlet, and Forest Green Rovers (who were an inspiration for Vermont Green) are among the clubs that are noticeably doing things differently in England, and there are a growing number of American teams with a similar community-first ethos.

Vermont Green are one of the US clubs leading the way. Their Bernie Sanders tifo was a reminder that politics is never far away, whether in the way these clubs are run or through the things they stand for, and showed it can even bring some humour to proceedings as well as tackling serious issues.