To not understand the allegiance that some people have to sports clubs?

[MuseumofInnocence]

I have some friends and family who are fans of certain sporting clubs (I'm referring to football mainly). I can sort of understand it for those who have some connection to the club (maybe they grew up near the club or their parents did), but I have friends who became fans of clubs hundreds of miles away when they were children, have been a handful of times to a game, but act as if they're the biggest fans ever.

Am I unreasonable, or is this weird?

[RoboticSealpup]

YANBU It's flipping weird.

[RUOKHUN]

Why is it weird? Perhaps it was a club that their family has supported through generations, perhaps years ago the family lived in the area but moved away and the support has been ‘handed’ down.

Football is a very old game. So, yeah, YABU. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[WorraLiberty]

If you understand passion then no it's not weird.

[MuseumofInnocence]

I'm referring to people who haven't had it passed down. I'm talking of people at age 8 deciding to become a (for example) Arsenal fan, and having barely been to a game, 30 years later, being a megafan.

[Shamoo]

Supporting a football team is like following a religion. If you don’t support one, that’s fine and you won’t ever understand the people who do. But there is nothing inherently wrong in supporting one.
In the same way I don’t understand how people believe in God, but I respect that they do and I don’t judge it, I don’t expect to be judged for supporting a football team.

And the basis of where your support comes from is irrelevant to everybody else, just like why somebody follows a specific religion is.

Obvious caveat to both is if the person uses their support as an excuse to be violent etc.

[MuseumofInnocence]

I suppose I don't have a very tribal mindset in my case, but human history tells us that many people do

[Slowknitter]

People like to belong to a tribe, show great devotion to it, and display hostility to its rivals. Part of human nature innit? On balance it's probably better to do this through an excessive devotion to a football team, singer or actor than to go and attack the people from neighbouring tribes (well, villages or towns) with spears.

[Slowknitter]

Cross-posted. No I'm not very tribal either. Some of us are clearly more civilised and have shaken off more of our primitive instincts, OP.

[SneakyGremlins]

@Slowknitter less fun though.

[frenchknitting]

YANBU - I don't get it either. (Or religion for that matter.)

I understand becoming a fan of a particular player or sports person and following their career. But over the course of a few years a football team will have different managers, coaches, players, etc. It is just supporting a "name". It makes no sense.

[SellFridges]

It happens across all types of culture. People who enjoy something (in this case football, but could easily be music, art, dance, yoga, anything) decide they like the way a certain team/individual plays (or sings, or draws, or salutes the sun). So they defend and advocate for that team etc. They form allegiances with others who are like minded, and have (hopefully) friendly debates with supporters of others.

Now, get me talking on why it’s ok for a man to passionately follow his team across the UK every week but a woman who goes to a few gigs of the same band is seen as bat shit. That’s an issue.

[Halloumimuffin]

My DP supports the club from my hometown despite no connection to it. It's the only thing that makes his obsession with football bearable.

[10IAR]

I'm football daft, but then we all have season tickets and go to games.

There's lots of things I don't get about what other people like. But that's ok, we all like different things.

[RoboticSealpup]

DH supports his local team in another country, just like his whole family does. This, I can understand. He also supports a British premier League team which was chosen on the basis of their colours when he was about ten years old and playing a videogame with this brother. He gets genuinely upset when they lose. 🤨

[Babymamamama]

Yes I don't understand any of it regarding team allegiances but then I don't get religion either. Each to their own.

[BackforGood]

It is that sense of belonging.
We all like different things though.
Some people will pay out mega ££ and travel a long way to see a certain band / group / artist.

[ScreamingValenta]

I don't follow any sports teams, but I think YABU because it's no different from being passionate about any other hobby - everyone likes different things.

I think the only time sports fans are unreasonable is when they take it too far into other aspects of their lives - e.g. I know a couple of people at work who fell out when one's football team beat the other's (argument over whether a goal was legitimate or something) and they didn't talk to each other for about six months.

[Slowknitter]

I also think it's hilarious when football fans refer to their favourite team as 'we', as though they themselves were on the team, e.g. "We played really well against X team on Saturday" . If you go and see a band, you don't say "We sang really well at that gig!"

[Birdie6]

My son is like this. He decided to support a particular football team when he was about 8, and now in his 30's he is a huge fan. The team is one that other people don't like for some reason - so over the years he has sustained a lot of bullying ( when at school ) and general nasty comments as an adult when he wears his beloved team jersey. When at high school, he'd insist on wearing his team jersey to school if "his team" was playing in a representative game or whatever.....he'd have to walk into school through groups of boys who hated his team and who'd heckle him mercilessly . The only thing he'd do to deal with this, was to ask to be dropped at school early so he'd get in before the main groups of boys arrived. The suggestion that he could just wear his school shirt, was met with derision . " I love them and I will always support them" was his answer.

I see it as a form of religion which gets stronger as he gets older - I don't understand it but he does , so on that subject we will be forever apart !

[RUOKHUN]

Please read meme

[MuseumofInnocence]

In real life I wouldn’t say anything , but anonymously I find the tribalism odd.

[ForalltheSaints]

Those who follow a team they have no connection with are glory seekers, pure and simple. Hence my pleasure at every Manchester United defeat as most of their fans have no connection with the area- apparently under a third of season ticket holders have a Manchester postcode.

[Patroclus]

A lot of it is like the reason people enjoy soaps I think and a replacement for religion. Very communal as well. Frank Skinner made an interesting point saying football crowds are the only place folk songs are still contemporary and created (chants). It really can lift a city as well, The first time Hull went into the Premier League it made a massive difference financially.

[Patroclus]

I an sort of understand 'glory seeking'. Its natural to want to see the best quality of the sport around and the most dramatic. I think even I supported Man U for the week when they won 99 champions league, and Man city with that league winning Aguero goal.

[BejamNostalgia]

Because they like watching the sport and supporting a team makes it more interesting.