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Original poster

Football supporters. Can someone please explain...

82 replies

WildRosie · 26/09/2021 11:27

I'm not a sports fan so I'm on the outside looking in, in wonderment. How does a person become a supporter/fan of a football club for which they have no plausible connection ? At my workplace, the local club is a Premier League side and I can count on one hand the number of fans among my colleagues. The other football fans support clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City and United and Newcastle United. Yet, they are all locally raised and resident. One oddity is a chap who does support the local Premier League side but also has a Glasgow Rangers tattoo - he is not Scottish! Whenever I've genuinely enquired as to their support choices, I've received some peculiar answers, such as who won the FA Cup on the day they were born or the town where they first got their leg over. I kind of understand familial connections - my nephew was born in Middlesex yet supports his Dad's local side, i.e where he was born. One chap I've known for about a decade has supported four different Premier League sides in that time!

The explanation may be a lot more simple - glory supporters, associating themselves with a fashionable, successful club for their own self-validation. I wouldn't be so bold as to suggest this in person to these people - I have to work with them, after all - plus no one would be likely to admit it!

OP posts:
MinnieMountain · 26/09/2021 14:20

DH supports Peterborough United as that’s his local team and his DPs are also fans.
His cousin who also grew up there supports Arsenal as the nearest Premiership side, but has since moved to live in Lancaster.

RobertaFirmino · 26/09/2021 14:30

One of my colleagues is a Liverpool supporter and wants everyone to know it, even though he has no connection to the city. He takes the Hillsborough disaster personally even though he was barely a year old at the time and wasn't even there

All LFC supporters care deeply about the disaster, the victims, those left behind and the ongoing fight for justice. We will never forget the people who were unlawfully killed and the police officers who got away with it. We'll never forget the lies printed in the s*n, nor will we forget the article Johnson wrote for The Spectator.

It doesn't matter whether you were there or not and it doesn't matter how old you were, or even if you were born then. Our anthem is 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and we actually mean it.

ladygracie · 26/09/2021 14:33

My son supports Liverpool because Steven Gerrard played in the first World Cup or euros he watched and he really liked him. He played for Liverpool so ds supports Liverpool.

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user1471453601 · 26/09/2021 14:33

@WildRosie a lot of Liverpool supporters take the death of the 97 personally (me included). I won't bang on about everything that happened post Hillsborough, but for the families and survivors, it was a long hard fight.

ladygracie · 26/09/2021 14:34

@RobertaFirmino and yes, that is so true. We stopped shopping at our local newsagents because they have a huge banner for that newspaper across the top of the shop.

EssentiallyDisorganised · 26/09/2021 14:34

My parents aren't big fans, although my dad nominally supports the city near to where he grew up. When I was young Liverpool were the trendy club even though I lived in the south of England (Keegan era), to be different I decided to support the town I was born in (but had never been back to as we moved away soon after). However I never saw them play, never knew anyone else that supported them and they were lower league so never even saw them on TV, it was not a real fan experience. When I was 17 friends invited me to go and see our nearest city team play and I was hooked, they will always be my team now, I had a season ticket for years pre DC and still go with the same set of friends and our DCs 30+ years later. I don't even know what league my childhood team are in now. DS supports a not-so-fashionable Premier League team that we have no connections with but is happy to come and see my team with me as they have never been in the same league in his lifetime and are not rivals, equally I have a soft spot for his team now too.

Etinox · 26/09/2021 14:44

I was at Stanford Bridge yesterday (I hate going, hate the booziness and the swearing and so many bloody men). There are banners hanging from all the stands from supporters clubs all over the world, Texas, Malta, Cyprus- it’s heartening to think of people around the world united.
I follow Tottenham because Gary Lineker played for them before Barcelona and I fancied him was learning Spanish the same time as me and West Ham because it was my dads boyhood side and Chelsea because family season tickets mean I get dragged along.

Twilightstarbright · 26/09/2021 14:47

I think generally it’s local team, family connection, or first match they went to. Young kids will switch though. Some of my cousins supported Liverpool or Man U as 6 year olds but by their teens they’d changed to local teams- mainly because they could actually go to the match.

DH grew up close to the stadium of a PL team and he’s always supported them. Occasionally gets accused of glory hunting but it’s genuinely where he was born and bred!

QueefofSheena · 26/09/2021 14:48

I can’t remember why I support my team, I just always have. It’s not for their huge success, as it’s Spurs!

purpleboy · 26/09/2021 14:51

One of my colleagues is a Liverpool supporter and wants everyone to know it, even though he has no connection to the city. He takes the Hillsborough disaster personally even though he was barely a year old at the time and wasn't even there. And he is very vocal about his contempt for the local Premier League side, even though he is a native. Bizarre.

Most Liverpool fans take it personally, it was a very tragic event that left the city in pieces, the consequences are still on show for everyone to see with the latest heartbreak being the death of Andrew Devine in July this year.
For those of us who lost someone the support and solidarity from the entire city not just Liverpool fans has been something which has helped families get through the past 32 years, let's not forget plenty of Evertonians lost friends and family that day also.

We sing "You'll never walk alone for a reason"

UnitedRoad · 26/09/2021 15:07

I’ve been an obsessive Man Utd fan since I was 8. My brothers are Arsenal supporters and my dad supports Chelsea as he played for their youth team about 100 years ago.

I used to play football stickers with boys at school (where you put them up against the wall and knock them down) and won a Gordon McQueen one. I stuck it on my lunchbox, and that was it.

Definitely not a glory hunter thing as they weren’t doing that well, but I just love them. My husbands a massive football fan but not a premier league team, and my daughters support Man Utd. They were brought up with football chants as lullabies!! ‘Park, Park wherever you may be…’

Cactus1982 · 26/09/2021 15:12

So many people support Liverpool and United because to put it simply, they are the two most successful teams and have won more over the years than anyone else. I don’t believe anyone out of Manchester supports City though, given they can’t fill their ground even on Champions League nights 😉😂

Original poster
WildRosie · 26/09/2021 15:14

My late father was, apparently, a loyal supporter of the local Division One ( as they were back then) and he went to as many home games as possible. However this had all but stopped by the time he and Mum had three young children. I don't know if parents taking their children to the football has been something of a rite of passage in England. It certainly wasn't for me; the only time I've been to the local PL ground was for a BBC Radio charity match. Radio 1 was the big draw, not the football itself! This might explain my lack of inherent interest in the sport but I'm still curious as to the fan machine and what motivates it.

For a spell in the early 1980s, my brother and a few of his friends became Barnsley supporters, for no other reason than Norman Hunter being the team manager or something similar. It didn't last.

OP posts:
Hellocatshome · 26/09/2021 15:17

I support the team from the town where I was born but then I also support the team from where I live and where DH and my children were born. When they play each other I just hope for a draw.

Original poster
WildRosie · 26/09/2021 15:18

Thankyou Cactus. That kind of underlines one of several reasons for ostensibly random or plain illogical club fandom.

OP posts:
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 26/09/2021 15:19

The only being able to play for your local team idea... Cricket used to be like that. You had to born in County. But it also meant that anyone not born in the country couldn't play... which have stopped my DD playing (as she was born in Germany).

ArcherDog · 26/09/2021 15:19

My Mum, someone who grew up and lived her whole life in the South East, is a Leeds supporter because when she was younger it was a team she could spell easily!

I’m an Arsenal fan as my uncle is, and he is the one who introduced me to football.

I know an Australian who has never been to England is a die hard Everton supporter.

I like the fact that you can support any team. Makes it more interesting.

nowwhat50 · 26/09/2021 15:35

I'm from a town that had a football team in the old 3rd division. It was quite normal to pick a top team to support as well as the local one. I chose Liverpool as it was the early 80's and they were hugely successful. We've had our ups and downs in terms of success, as all clubs do, but once you have a team, it's unusual to flip allegiance to another one.

Original poster
WildRosie · 26/09/2021 15:55

Thankyou everyone for your responses. Clearly there are many reasons for a football fan to support or not a particular club, locality only being a part of the equation. I don't get any of it really but I'm glad I asked.

OP posts:
Oblomov21 · 26/09/2021 16:08

It's actually quite a complicated thing. Not always logical. What grandpa supported. Nearest. Yes I just saw it and liked it: eg living in Brighton and supporting Liverpool.

But the fact is, this is Ok. It doesn't even need a reason.

nowwhat50 · 26/09/2021 16:12

@Cactus1982

So many people support Liverpool and United because to put it simply, they are the two most successful teams and have won more over the years than anyone else. I don’t believe anyone out of Manchester supports City though, given they can’t fill their ground even on Champions League nights 😉😂
Man City have a growing fan base outside of Manchester and internationally. The comments by Pep about the attendance for a mid week Champions match were really very tone deaf, and he incurred the wrath of fans because of it. They have had a run of 5 home games out of 6 and the cost of going is hugely expensive. It's nothing to do with how dedicated the fans are but knowing the socio-economic profile of the majority of City fans.

Ones that will go to a late kick-off mid week match are the local ones, who are less likely to be as well off as the more recently acquired fans from further afield. Plus the ticket prices for the champions league game was around £40 but the Carraboa Cup was £12.50.

DH is a City fan btw. And we couldn't afford for him to go to the champions league game, as well as league games. It's £10 just to park the car. But he did go to the cup, as that ticket was much cheaper and the rest are part of his season ticket. We still need to budget carefully for that many home games so close together.

FrippEnos · 26/09/2021 16:15

I could support my amateur local team, a non division club. But having gone to school with the men that play for them, they are arseholes, dickheads and wankers to a man, they haven't changed since school.

I have no links to my local division teams (two of) and see no reason why I should support them than any other team.

The team that I finally chose was old division two when I picked them, I chose them because the usual vocal football fans chose Liverpool who were at the top of the league.

I have stayed with my chosen team for many years, yet still get called glory hunter. Its one of the many reasons why I don't talk to people about football.

IamaBluebird · 26/09/2021 18:42

I support my local team, they are lucky that I’ll be there as always still supporting them on Tuesday night .
Still muttering 5 bloody 1 to myself Daffodil

MadisonAvenue · 26/09/2021 18:58

They were brought up with football chants as lullabies!! ‘Park, Park wherever you may be…’

That along with 5 Cantonas and Build A Bonfire is my favourite chant 😂
My boys were a bit old for lullabies when Park played for us but You Are My Solksjaer (with a word missed out 😅) went down well when they were little.

Unfashionable · 26/09/2021 19:05

I am a football supporter and I’m afraid I can’t explain it either, OP. I’m a season ticket holder at my home town club. We currently play in the Championship, but we have played in the PL in the past. I didn’t choose to support them, I was born into it. I am part of my club and my club is part of me. Players, managers, even owners come & go so the only permanent things are the stadium & the core fan base of which I am part. I went to games at our old ground with my parents when I was a child, I went with my friends as a teenager and now I go with DP or on my own. I can’t even begin to imagine supporting another club.

My town is known throughout the game as a ‘proper football town’, we were founder members of the Football League and it must be different if you grow up somewhere which doesn’t have that heritage. I assume that’s how people end up supporting clubs they have no connection with. I remember working with a guy, a posh chap from Surrey who purported to be a life long Man Utd supporter. I got chatting to him about a couple of their promising youngsters who we had on loan the previous season, and I asked him a few questions about their backgrounds. It quickly became apparent he had never heard of these kids. He also admitted he had never been to OT. After that, he wasn’t so keen on talking football with me...