54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
---
New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
So would it be okay for St. Mirren to schedule a money-spinning friendly with Manchester City or Arsenal on the same day they were scheduled to play Celtic, and just blow off the Hoops in favour of getting a big gate against one of them?
As always in Scottish football, it's one rule for the Old Firm, another for the rest.
My point is this: imagine this board weren't an enclosed order. If you could reach out to the barstoolers going to the Celtic-Liverpool game, would you speak to them in the manner that some posters here seem to think is required? I wouldn't see the scales falling from many eyes.
If you go to Liverpool forums you'll see dozens of threads complaining about day trippers and foreign fans. Do any of these stop Irish people being fans of Liverpool?
How many people have contributed to this thread? Maybe 30. Do you honestly believe that anyone thinks those 30 are representative of LOI supporters? It's the internet, the extremities are always on show.
Anyone who uses the "some mean LOIers made fun of me supporting Liverpool on the internet" line of thinking would NEVER, EVER think about going to watch a game.
And I say that as someone who couldn't care less who goes to this friendly, and how anybody chooses to spend their money. Not once have I ever attacked anyone for supporting a British side instead of an Irish one
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
---
New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
Now I could ask "what's your point, caller?". The thread is about the Celtic-Liverpool game, and how League of Ireland supporters should view it and the people who attend it. I don't think the thread is representative of League of Ireland supporters, only of those who post on it. You don't criticise people who watch British teams? Good for you. I'd like to hear from the people who do criticise people who watch British teams. Heck, I might even learn something.
I don't make a habit of criticising people who exclusively support a British (and, occasionally, even a Spanish) team (what would be the point?), but I do think it's a sign of a very deep malaise that they do. At this point I think its important to state that I don't think its a personal malaise, but a social, economic and cultural one that goes way beyond the whims and fancies of any individual, say, Liverpool supporter.
You could write a book on the myriad reasons why it possibly happens (a perceived poor domestic league; post-colonial servitude; globalised cultural homogenisation; the hyper-reality of late capitalism; lateral marketing enabled by media consolidation; and "just because"), but my main concern is that it is another nail in the coffin of people actually directly experiencing anything.
Supporting only a club that you cannot or do not attend is to make football, in this example, a mediated experience. This is happening everywhere and to most everything. Its a deeply problematic development for society. I try to avoid it myself by trying insofar as is possible, to always do things rather than consume things, even if this just means being a spectator in person, rather than a spectator through a TV screen. In this instance of the Liverpool/Celtic match, I'm actually quite pleased that people actually want to go and watch it in person. However, I'd prefer it if they could transfer this desire to watch football live into a more sustainable endeavour.
I instinctively feel less concerned about people who have collars and cuffs, so to speak - those that attend local football whilst supporting a British club. That however may be because it describes me too.
What? my point is there's no uniform LOI view on British football. I'd guess most have a rootng interest there. Some will invest more in their British teams than their irish ones. Others, like me, watch it on TV without "following" anyone. And some despise it.
What difference does any of it make to you? Why are you limiting the discussion to just a particular subset?
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
---
New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
Ah now, Ardee, this is a bit like throwing a grenade on your own doorstep, isn't it? I assume you think it's perfectly understandable a bunch of Irish people would be singing in support of their British teams?
Tbf, YNWA is not exclusively a 'British' song...
It's not British at all, it's American.
Bookmarks