What is a Kop?

The large single-tiered stand in a stadium is often called a Kop, but why?

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[ramonvos]

Fun fact: 'kop' also translates to 'head', so you'd be standing at the head of the stands

[ManUtd-Gerrard]

Many older stadiums have areas known as Kops, such as Windsor Park. Before the 1990s, these sections were packed with fans, standing rather than sitting, often shifting sides to follow the team's action during each half. The Dutch club, De Graafschap, has a stand inspired by the Spion Kop, but they’ve given it a local twist, naming it "Spinnekop, " which, when translated, means "spiderhead."

[katM]

Liverpool fan from south africa, I love this❤🇿🇦

[sirrichel]

Iv been to many of the Anglo boer battle sites but have never visited the Spion Kop despite living within 100km of it.

[mduduzigama]

Liverpool fan from the town of Ladysmith, South Africa. This left me with a huge smile 😍😍

[OLskewL]

Coincidentally, some large portion of Liverpool fans in South Africa. Especially Durban 🇿🇦🌴

[colelongshaw]

I used to think it was the klopp end due to my Scouse friends terrible English pronunciation...
I believe they should rename Liverpool's kop end the klopp end.
Sincerely, a United fan.

[dreamjackson]

It should be mentioned, this was not an honourable war. It was during England's conquest of Africa. And was fought between Dutch settlers and the English, to have control over parts of South Africa. Exploiting and treating the people who natively lived there terribly.

And that ain't that long ago. It should be talked about more

[EarthlyEssenceASMR]

Who else thought it was named after Jurgen Klopp 😂

[BoereViking]

Spioen Kop directly translates to Spy Hill!

♥️🇿🇦

[ristokohout]

Fun fact: in Czech (and other slav languages) "kop" means "kick". So for example “penalty kick” is “pokutový kop”.

[phaphamamtshengu]

Love seeing all my SAn’s in the comments ❤️🇿🇦

[Gendonramsay]

We always use kop as a header as it comes from kopf (head). So if a player scored a great header we refer them as a kopf

[Random_Shorts]

As a south african i never realized that the word "kop" was inspired by south africa 🇿🇦 😂😂...now i get it

[azizwane]

Liverpool fan from Ladysmith here😅😂. I never would have assumed, and I frequent Spionkop Dam

[syakdudu]

Shhh don’t tell Liverpool fans that Arsenal had it first or else... 😭😂🤣

[thejamiebeal]

Kop means 'head' in dutch and spion means 'spy'.

[ptrknvk]

It reminded me the story of the poor Scouser Tommy:

...
Oooh, I am a Liverpudlian,
And I come from the Spion Kop,
I like to sing, I like to shout,
I get kicked out quite a lot,
We support a team that's dressed in red, it’s a team that you all know,
It’s a team that we call Liverpool, and to glory we will go,
We won the league,
We won the Cup,
We’ve been to Europe too,
We played the Toffee’s for a laugh, and left them feeling blue 5-0.
...

[SonRob]

I already learnt this because I wanted to know if it would be disrespectful to change the Kop to the Klopp but as it turns out it’s dodgy so we should change it anyways

[dev.rn]

“theres something that the kop wants you to know…”