Supporters of 'other' English/Scottish clubs

**Gerrit** · 26/05/2005, 8:57 PM

A nice thread is treatened to be ruined with this discussion that is off-topic... We've had all those politics-infiltrated Rangers and Celtic topics, we've discussed Man Utd and Chelsea several times, ... Now there's actually a very interesting topic on people who support British football without gloryhunting, and then we turn it into an EL vs PL thread ?

On-topic: I'm at Tolka every week, but show interest in foreign leagues as well. Rosenborg's my favourite team in Europe since 11 years now, which doesn't stop me from being a loyal EL attendant.

In England, I'm Aston Villa all the way. From a distance though, as I will not be kept from sleeping when Villa plays, which is a different thing with Rosenborg or Shelbourne or Ostend. But let's say that I have very very strong sympathies for Villa. Would love to go to Villa Park for a game, unfortunately I haven't found any Irish based Villan yet to carpool with (I see Man U jerseys every day... where are the claret and blue ones ??) and so I emailed the Irish Villans (contact address at www.avfc.co.uk) but they don't reply... Maybe I should try emailing the Cork Villans if the Dublin based fanclub doesn't reply very soon.

So yeah I do support few foreign clubs. Mainly Norwegian football interests me, but have a favourite team in almost every country, even the likes of Luxembourg and Greenland. Doesn't stop me from being a loyal EL fan as well, and this goes for most people on the boards it seem. So I don't get what the fuss is about Eanna. I also don't like people that don't care about Irish football and just sit in pubs wearing Man Utd or Arsenal jerseys. I have no problems with the ones combining love for the Eircom League with love for a foreign club. It's not like in marriage where you're only entitled to love one woman !

**Pat O' Banton** · 27/05/2005, 3:33 PM

Originally Posted by Gerrit

In England, I'm Aston Villa all the way. From a distance though, as I will not be kept from sleeping when Villa plays, which is a different thing with Rosenborg or Shelbourne or Ostend. But let's say that I have very very strong sympathies for Villa. Would love to go to Villa Park for a game, unfortunately I haven't found any Irish based Villan yet to carpool with (I see Man U jerseys every day... where are the claret and blue ones ??) and so I emailed the Irish Villans (contact address at www.avfc.co.uk) but they don't reply... Maybe I should try emailing the Cork Villans if the Dublin based fanclub doesn't reply very soon.

Ah head over by yourself; boat train goes straight to Birmingham and is a great way to start any trip. Birmingham isn't to bad a city and if you drink around Digbth (sp

) you'll hook up with some people along the way, I remember having a great night there with a couple of Villa fans even though Arsenal had just hockeyed them 4-0!

Don't know about Goth clubs in the area though!

**adamd164** · 27/05/2005, 5:41 PM

what gets me is its all 'england, england, england'!

why don't you see supporters clubs for, say a Norwegian lower division team?

**superfrank** · 27/05/2005, 5:42 PM

You get millions of Irish people saying they support Celtic, now they're hardly an English team.

**Bolnoy Bratchny** · 27/05/2005, 5:46 PM

I cant understand why people like Eanna get so annoyed by supporters of "foreign" teams. I myself support Celtic but also regularly attend el games.
My mates who support the el (most of whom dont like/support british teams&i attend el games with) dont slag me off for being a plastic paddy etc., instead they talk of the positives of supporting the local team and encourage me to come out with them. This is surely a better and more effective way of advertising the league and attracting new fans?

Pepole that do annoy me are those who call themselves fans of Man u/Liverpool/Celtic but have never or rarley attended games. Had to watch my mate cry with joy when liverpool won the cl yet he never bothered his arse taking half hour flight to see a game in his life!

Lastly, supporting teams outside their own domestic league is not just an Irish thing, every small country in Europe is the same. Look at numbers of Bayern Munich fans from Austria, premiership fans from Scandanavia and even Barca fans from South of France.

**superfrank** · 27/05/2005, 5:47 PM

Originally Posted by Gerrit

.....Now there's actually a very interesting topic on people who support British football without gloryhunting, and then we turn it into an EL vs PL thread ?

Just for the record I began following Chelsea BEFORE they were a succesful, in any sense of the word, team. It was back in the days just after Glenn Hoddle had left but months before they won the FA cup and Cup Winner's Cup the year after so.......it was just good timing on my part.

When I was even younger I also liked Aston Villa. But that was at least a decade ago.....

**dancinpants** · 27/05/2005, 6:31 PM

And if I came on here and said I supported Negeri Sembilan, a club team in Malaysia, 90% of you supporters of Brit teams on here would rip the p!ss out of me. Why? Because it is a highly rediculous notion that an Irishman would support a team in fookin' Malaysia. Hence I don't understand Irish people supporting foreign teams while being so dismissive of the game being played down the street. Can you imagine how much better the game would be here, if every person in this country who supports teams overseas, stopped spending their money on jersies of foreign teams, and two or three yearly trips across the Irish Sea (just to help convince themselves that they are "real" supporters) on season tickets and jersies of teams here? But hey!!!, as long as the team from the city, that you have absolutely no connection with whatsoever, are winning trophies - it doesn't matter that the sport is struggling in your own country....

**jofyisgod** · 27/05/2005, 6:55 PM

Originally Posted by dancinpants

And if I came on here and said I supported Negeri Sembilan, a club team in Malaysia, 90% of you supporters of Brit teams on here would rip the p!ss out of me. Why? Because it is a highly rediculous notion that an Irishman would support a team in fookin' Malaysia. Hence I don't understand Irish people supporting foreign teams while being so dismissive of the game being played down the street. Can you imagine how much better the game would be here, if every person in this country who supports teams overseas, stopped spending their money on jersies of foreign teams, and two or three yearly trips across the Irish Sea (just to help convince themselves that they are "real" supporters) on season tickets and jersies of teams here? But hey!!!, as long as the team from the city, that you have absolutely no connection with whatsoever, are winning trophies - it doesn't matter that the sport is struggling in your own country....

Hear hear! Great, great post.

Originally Posted by Bolnoy Bratchny

I cant understand why people like Eanna get so annoyed by supporters of "foreign" teams. I myself support Celtic but also regularly attend el games.

I can. Why? The fact that you attend el matches doesn't exempt you from being questioned.

People are saying this happens in other countries too. Yes, it does, but not to the ridiculous extent it does in Ireland. This thread is meant to explore why, so if Bolnoy Bratchny can answer the above i'd be delighted.
EDIT: My last sentence is not entirely true, i got this thread confused with one in the eL section which was developing along similar lines. Still, would appreciate an answer.

**superfrank** · 27/05/2005, 8:21 PM

Originally Posted by dancinpants

And if I came on here and said I supported Negeri Sembilan, a club team in Malaysia, 90% of you supporters of Brit teams on here would rip the p!ss out of me. Why? Because it is a highly rediculous notion that an Irishman would support a team in fookin' Malaysia. Hence I don't understand Irish people supporting foreign teams while being so dismissive of the game being played down the street. Can you imagine how much better the game would be here, if every person in this country who supports teams overseas, stopped spending their money on jersies of foreign teams, and two or three yearly trips across the Irish Sea (just to help convince themselves that they are "real" supporters) on season tickets and jersies of teams here? But hey!!!, as long as the team from the city, that you have absolutely no connection with whatsoever, are winning trophies - it doesn't matter that the sport is struggling in your own country....

The only football matches I have ever attended have been in the Republic of Ireland, I own a season ticket for Bray Wanderes and I am a fan of the eircom League because it's our league.

However if I were to migrate then I would have little or no access to eircom League football and as a fan of the game I would go in search of a source for football which would doubtless lead me to a non-Irish league and therefore if I were to support any team in that league I would be an Irishman supporting a foreign team.

I know this isn't a clear point but what I'm trying to say is by keeping an open mind on football in other countries it's highly likely that you're going to develop an alliegeance to a certain team.

**Thunderblaster** · 28/05/2005, 1:09 PM

Being a scouser, I support the mighty reds.

**Gerrit** · 28/05/2005, 4:51 PM

Originally Posted by anti dub

what gets me is its all 'england, england, england'!

why don't you see supporters clubs for, say a Norwegian lower division team?

Not a lower division team, but if there would be any other Rosenborg fans around I'd like to help to get a supportersclub started and make a trip to Trondheim now and then. The only thing is that I am one of the only foreign Rosenborg fans (though at the supporersforum there is also one Czech fan, one Canadian fan and I seem to remember a fan from the south of Europe as well - any Irish Rosenborg fan may always PM me, who knows who turns out to support RBK here as well, could be the start of a nice club

)

**Karlos** · 29/05/2005, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by dancinpants

Can you imagine how much better the game would be here, if every person in this country who supports teams overseas, stopped spending their money on jersies of foreign teams, and two or three yearly trips across the Irish Sea (just to help convince themselves that they are "real" supporters) on season tickets and jersies of teams here? But hey!!!, as long as the team from the city, that you have absolutely no connection with whatsoever, are winning trophies - it doesn't matter that the sport is struggling in your own country....

Can you imagine how much better the game would be in this country if every Eircom League fan for example went and did a FAI coaching course and went out into their local communnity, took a group of kids and taught them the basics of a beautiful game, encouraged sporting behaviour, empowered them and allowed them to experience the feelings of joy & despair that foolball can evoke.

As someone who rarely attends LOI football but spends almost ALL of my social life involved in the development of grass roots football in this country, I could only imagine what would happen if me and all the other non-LOI supporting coaches decided to give up up our friday night or mid-week caoching sessions to attend LOI games???

If spending your week working, having a few drinks and attending an eircom league game makes people feel like the saviour of Irish football then so be it but Without the development of more youth coaches in this country to a higher level, our national game will continue to suffer.

Want to do a favour for Irish Football? Take the 200 euro or whatever you spend on your LOI season ticket and donate it to your local club, go and help out coaching and try to produce a higher quality of player that can go on and one day win Ireland a world cup.

Some people are very misguided if they think buying a few LOI tickets and a club scarf suddenly makes you the biggest contributor to the future of Irish football.

The only way I can guarantee that my financial investment into Irish football works is by going and delivering it myself through coaching, buying new equipment for kids etc etc.....

We'll be waiting a very long time for the sales of club merchandise by LOI Teams to effectively enhance the development of youth football in this country.

Without junior and youth football there wouldn't be a LOI and those people who continually administrate, arrange, referree and coach in the youth leagues around this country are in my eyes the REAL supporters of Irish football.

So show your worth to Irish football and get out & do something about the state of the game.

end of rant.

**jorge** · 29/05/2005, 1:07 PM

anyone want to start up a sporting cristal supportersclub

**Sheridan** · 29/05/2005, 1:08 PM

Originally Posted by jorge lenehan

anyone want to start up a sporting cristal supportersclub

No way, I'm Deportivo Wanka till I die!

**jorge** · 29/05/2005, 1:42 PM

Originally Posted by Sheridan

No way, I'm Deportivo Wanka till I die!

they got relegated how did you hear of them

**Plastic Paddy** · 29/05/2005, 3:25 PM

Originally Posted by Pat O' Banton

Ah head over by yourself; boat train goes straight to Birmingham and is a great way to start any trip. Birmingham isn't to bad a city and if you drink around Digbeth you'll hook up with some people along the way, I remember having a great night there with a couple of Villa fans even though Arsenal had just hockeyed them 4-0!

Don't know about Goth clubs in the area though!

Weirdly enough, I used to DJ at a Goth club whilst a student in Birmingham in the early 1990s ("The Cage" at Edwards no. 8, but I digress). I spent a couple of years as a Goth, but was crap at it for a number of reasons: i) I smiled too much; ii) my skin was too brown, and iii) rather than looking emaciated, I was far too fat.

Gerrit, if you do head to Birmingham, PM me and I'll set you on the right road for a good Goth night out!

PP

**�anna** · 29/05/2005, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by KarlosIRL

Want to do a favour for Irish Football? Take the 200 euro or whatever you spend on your LOI season ticket and donate it to your local club, go and help out coaching and try to produce a higher quality of player that can go on and one day win Ireland a world cup.

And what about all the people who travel to England or Scotland every weekend to spend their money over there? If they put their money into Irish football, how much better would it be? If all the people who professto be football fans in this country put their money into the game in this country instead of abroad, there would be such a massive improvement in coaching and facilities.

**CollegeTillIDie** · 29/05/2005, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by Poor Student

By the way �anna I do not see this as exclusively Irish. As someone who has spent a great deal of time in Slovenia their league in some ways is as pathetically supported as ours. They can get much higher crowds for derby games and when teams are doing well but if a team is not crowds are in their low hundreds. For a couple of years Slovenian national television brought you a Premiership game every Saturday at 3 while the national league got even less live games than the eL (though they have a better highlights programme than eL weekly). In Slovenia too all national prospects go to another national league and most footballing fans support foreign clubs. Often English.

Poor Student

In Slovenia if I am not mistaken , Soccer is the 3rd most popular sport after Skiing and basketball .

**Poor Student** · 29/05/2005, 10:52 PM

Probably below olympic handball and ice hockey too maybe even athletics. Almost like Ireland in a way. You will see all these sports and the EPL on national TV but rarely the domestic league.

**Poor Student** · 29/05/2005, 10:54 PM

In fact when Maribor were in the Champions League like Shel's run last year suddenly their stadium filled up and there was massive hype. The same with the national team from 98-2002. No one could be arsed to go to games and no one has been arsed since.