Supporting British teams

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 2:26 PM

Better than a lot of Premiership matches too. I put that down to allocated seating.

**Peadar** · 08/09/2006, 2:36 PM

Had a conversation with a guy once about supporting foreign teams. He had a real problem with Irish people following English teams and the Old Firm. He made all the usual points about supporting your own, etc.

What struck me however, was that he had no problem with someone supporting teams from other leagues in Europe. It was as though following Ajax and Athlone Town meant that you were a real fan, as opposed to someone who followed Liverpool and Longford.

Seemed to me that the root of his issue was more to do with England than to do with following foreign teams.

**centre mid** · 08/09/2006, 2:41 PM

i've supported everton since i was 8 - go over 2-3 times a year

**mr.untitled** · 08/09/2006, 2:50 PM

was just reading an unofficial everton site and some lad was ranting on about reasons for hating liverpool f.c. Here are two of his reasons

* And having fans from everywhere except that city (what do Norwegians and people from Essex know about Liver Birds?).....

* And while I'm on that one, what kind of sh**house would rather support a team from hundreds of miles away rather than their home town team - that just about sums them up.....

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 2:53 PM

Originally Posted by northside hoop

A rovers fan full stop is a better human being than any other category.

Yeah, I always see you lot reading Balzac and listening to Beethoven at half time.

**NY Hoop** · 08/09/2006, 2:58 PM

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

Yeah, I always see you lot reading Balzac and listening to Beethoven at half time.

As opposed to you lot reading phonebooks and listening to braille?

KOH

**BohDiddley** · 08/09/2006, 2:59 PM

Originally Posted by mr.untitled

* And while I'm on that one, what kind of sh**house would rather support a team from hundreds of miles away rather than their home town team - that just about sums them up.....

Got a link for that?

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 3:03 PM

Originally Posted by northside hoop

I prefer reading Darwin, which is what my presumption is based on. An individual who has the mental capacity to choose the correct football club is obviously showing the benefits of generations of superior specimens breeding with each other.

The ironing is delicious.

**Dodge** · 08/09/2006, 3:26 PM

Originally Posted by northside hoop

An individual who has the mental capacity to choose the correct football club is obviously showing the benefits of generations of superior specimens breeding with each other.

Anbody who choooses their team is a w�nker. Me following Pats has nothing to do with choices.

I resent the insinuation that the eL fans here are the only ones who have a problem with glory hunters. Ask any fan of Swindon what their opinion of Man U fans from Swindon is and you'll get exactly the same responses. Some get mad, some find them pathetic.

Oh and I'm with WeAreRovers, I have no problem with people thinking I'm elitist.

**WeAreRovers** · 08/09/2006, 4:13 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Oh and I'm with WeAreRovers, I have no problem with people thinking I'm elitist.

Wanna be in my gang?

Re your Swindon analogy, I was on a bus with Cardiff fans heading to Watford for an away game when we met a bus full of Welsh Liverpool fans at a service station - Their flag said Cardiff Reds

The abuse these losers got from the Cardiff fans was hilarious and totally backs up your point about Swindon. Cardiff people should follow City and leave Liverpool for Liverpudlians. Simple as.

KOH

**Neish** · 08/09/2006, 4:15 PM

I support Finn Harps, but I also follow Man U & Celtic. I been following Man U since about 1990 when I was 10( only started taking an interest in footie after Ireland qualified for Italia 90). Started following Celtic when I was about 12 then. It wasn't till I was a secondary school round the age of 14 when I started going to Finn Park with a few mates after that there was only one club for me.
But I still take an interest in United and Celtic ie watching their big games, highlight etc but I never that bothered when eiter team lose or that excited when they when.

The only one thing that someone should consider when choosing a footie team is Geography. But saying that I don't have a problem with anyone following any team so long as they don't make fun of people like us for supporting our local clubs. People always ask me why I support Harps and it really bugs me.

**jebus** · 08/09/2006, 5:35 PM

Originally Posted by Roverstillidie

no you didnt.

not only are you a barstooler monkey who is helping kill Irish football, you are a liar too.

either debate the point of log off. that sort of sh�te contributes nothing.

Oh yeah sorry, I saw a lot of Bohs fans wearing Rovers jerseys chucking rocks around, Rovers fans have never in any way, shape or form been involved in any form of thuggery, its the rest of us who are wrong

**NY Hoop** · 08/09/2006, 5:47 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

Oh yeah sorry, I saw a lot of Bohs fans wearing Rovers jerseys chucking rocks around, Rovers fans have never in any way, shape or form been involved in any form of thuggery, its the rest of us who are wrong

This coming from a limerick fan?

FYI Chip there were people there that day in GAA jersies too. Werer you the clown who tried to hijack a bus that day? He looked like a mullah.........

KOH

**jebus** · 08/09/2006, 5:53 PM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

This coming from a limerick fan?

FYI Chip there were people there that day in GAA jersies too. Werer you the clown who tried to hijack a bus that day? He looked like a mullah.........

KOH

And with those words of wisdom ringing in my ears I bow out of this thread knowing that I am right and you are wrong good sir, I bid you good day

**Soper** · 08/09/2006, 6:08 PM

You weren't right though, and firther to that, you bringing this off topic is undermining the miniscule thread of logic your argument may have had.

**NavanBohs** · 08/09/2006, 6:55 PM

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

For me Its
1. Bohs
2. Everton
3. Ireland
4. England (parentage)

I have an interest in Barca and Nantes. In Italian football I'm anyone bar Juv�, AC Milan or Lazio.

Funny enough I support Nantes too. Been to see them at home twice (classy ground) and the European match in Cork.

For meself it's just Bohs really, interest in the English game has rapidly declined since the first visit to Dalymount about 6/7 years ago.

**Billy Lord** · 09/09/2006, 1:07 AM

Pointless thread, but as it's here and I'm still awake . . . I support Shamrock Rovers as it's in the blood, but I also regularly went to Old Trafford from 1974 until FC United was formed. If locals were denying themselves United well then I felt I couldn't justify going and stopped.
I go to see Roma and Hammarby on a regular basis, but merely as a Rovers fan who likes those clubs and their fans. It helps that they treat us as equals rather than village idiots.
But the average barstoooler feels Irish clubs are not good enough to be worthy of their support, which is a pathetic excuse, yet they follow Ireland rather than England, who are much better than we'll ever be. Surely if the barstoolers can support a rubbish international team because it's Irish, they could find it in their hearts to support a rubbish Irish club? Oh, I forgot. They're above that.
But, of course, supporting an Irish club would require them getting off their sofas and going to more than three games a year and your average Irish gloryhunter doesn't do that.

**dcfcsteve** · 09/09/2006, 1:42 AM

Originally Posted by Docboy

Mate I have to say that I think that comment is absolute cack. My father moved to London when he was 9 in the 1950's. Instead of supporting one of the successful london sides he plumped for WBA cos he liked their strip when he saw it in a mag. When he could he would travel up to the midlands or else see them play play in London. He also watched the successful Spurs team of the day as they were just up the road.

The point being, the team picks you and not the other way round. My da still follows WBA with all their ups and downs. Maybe if the EL had got more young people down back in the school days thing would have been different, but hey that's life.

Docboy - your point that "the team picks you" is self-admittedly ballax. Your dad picked WBA because as a very young kid he liked their kit. How the feck does that equate to them picking him...?

When I was a very young kid I supported Liverpool. There was no breaking of the clouds and a shard of light shining down upon me with the image of Bill Shankly, choosing me into the Liverpool-supporting ranks. It's just that Liverpool were good, and they used to come to Derry for autograph sessions through their Crown Paints connection. When I started to collect programmes I switched to United, as I loved the way their programmes had kept the same mast-head for decades. Again - I chose United, and for completely spurious/tediuos reasons. they didn't select me.

When Derry City came back into existence they became my first love. Over time I then dropped the English sides, as they really didn't mean anything to me. Even when I lived in Newcastle - a town I'm deeply connected to emotionally - I went along to a few games hoping to get into the team, and I just couldn't. It just really didn't mean that much to me.

Like most Irish people, I was a Celtic supporter up to a year ago when I just got fed up with the fact that Scottish football is absolute junk and the whole sectarian baggage that comes with the Old Firm. I was supporting Celtic purely because I was an Irish Catholic i.e. for sectarian reasons. As a result, I now don't support any teams outside of Ireland (with the possible exception of AFC Wimbledon, as I'm a shareholder, used to live in Wimbledon, and love the ethos of the club).

Irish people actively supporting British football as their first, true love, as if he team was "theirs", is completely and utterly absurd. There is no other way possible of looking at it. Their whole life is tied up in borrowed interest of some team they picked for spuroous reasons, such as the look of their kit one year, or the fact they had an Irish player once.

To highlight how thoroughly absurd it is, everyone who reads this just answer to yourself one simple question. Who do you support in GAA or international football ? In both those sports, people support their local team. Occassionally, some people will support another team due to where they now live, family connections etc. But you don't find kids in Sligo sitting down going "Jays - I'm gonna support Dublin or Cork cuz they're deadly, and Germany cuz they've got a nice top". No - they'd support Sligo and Ireland - no matter how muck either were. And that in a nut-shell highlights the complete absurdity of people supporting foreign football teams over their home grown variety. The fact that they don't do it in other sports highlights how wrong it is. Grasping for excuses to justify it does not change the fundamental absurdity of it all.

**1 9 2 8** · 09/09/2006, 1:52 AM

For me it�s Rovers no.1 followed by our U21, U18 etc etc I don't see how some one can support a club in a different city or country if you�re not from that place or have any connections in that area then how can you call yourself a supporter of that club... because you follow them you don't support them. I have to laugh when some one try�s to be different and supports a "European" club. Just take Roma or for example alot of Irish people support them because they think they are left wing with the whole Irish clan..

when really there fans are just left a Nazio but they are still fascist scum. I'm sure the same could be said for other clubs across Europe "us" Irish chose to "support"... I "support" so and so etc because of there politics...blah blah blah... Idiots

Pointless thread BTW but it's late

**DmanDmythDledge** · 09/09/2006, 8:01 AM

Originally Posted by Docboy

When their team starts to go into decline, go into the doldrums, get relegated, they will be seen down the local Champion Sports or Lifestyle buying the new champions replica jersey. And then the same bullsh*t again.

Mate I have to say that I think that comment is absolute cack. My father moved to London when he was 9 in the 1950's. Instead of supporting one of the successful london sides he plumped for WBA cos he liked their strip when he saw it in a mag. When he could he would travel up to the midlands or else see them play play in London. He also watched the successful Spurs team of the day as they were just up the road.

When i was 8 he brought me to see spurs when i was over in london visiting my gran and 20 years later they are still my club side. I've often joked over the years that he could have at least brought me to see the gooners so i could have had some success.

The point being, the team picks you and not the other way round. My da still follows WBA with all their ups and downs. Maybe if the EL had got more young people down back in the school days thing would have been different, but hey that's life.

Read my post again please.