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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

201 replies

MuseumofInnocence · 08/03/2019 16:03

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?

OP posts:
IndigoSpritz · 10/03/2019 11:38

Can anyone please explain, without prejudice, why Manchester United is popularly known as 'the scum' ? I find it juvenile and unpleasant.

Thankyou.

Progress2019 · 10/03/2019 11:48

You really ABU. People without passions and real interests are not people I want in my life.

People love all kinds of things. From being obsessed with the soaps or Strictly, to fashion or football. I have friends who are mad about Harry Potter, and one who loves all things disney. Football is my biggest interest, but I don’t spend a lot of time talking about it to people who don’t enjoy it. Equally my friend who worships Philip Schofield doesn’t talk much about him to me.

Live and let live, and be grateful we’re all different.

Jsmith99 · 10/03/2019 11:54

I am a season ticket holder at my home-town club, which currently plays in the Championship. I was born, grew up and went to school within 2 miles of our old ground, which was demolished in the 90s and replaced by a modern out-of-town stadium.

I definitely have more respect for real fans who support their local team than those who randomly pick a big Premier League club with which they have no actual connection. (Funny how it’s always a big PL club and not, for example, Accrington Stanley, isn’t it?).

Some years ago I worked with a guy who made himself out to be a fanatical Man Utd supporter. He was from Hampshire, spoke with a public school accent and he admitted he had never actually been to Old Trafford....

notanothernam · 10/03/2019 11:57

I don't understand when someone follows a team in a city theyve never lived in (or been to in some cases!) growing up we had no local team and people would support the usual Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea etc, having no connections to it whatsoever. I've never understood that personally.

Vulpine · 10/03/2019 11:58

Progress - in general those other 'obsessions' don't dominate others lives in the same way sport does.

soulrunner · 10/03/2019 12:01

Can anyone please explain, without prejudice, why Manchester United is popularly known as 'the scum' ? I find it juvenile and unpleasant.

I think it's mainly City supporters that call them that and I think it's because they're from Salford (I.e not really Manchester).

wizzywig · 10/03/2019 12:06

they act like how extremists of a religion. as in totally blind and fanatical and very good with the history and facts of the sport. There was a programme on bbc i think about someone who went to bradford with a copy of the satanic verses. and the reactions were still very extreme towards the book even by those who hadnt read it. and i find there are football fans that are just like that.

WillGymForPizza · 10/03/2019 12:08

My DM supports Liverpool. She used to live there years ago and did actually used to go to Anfield fairly often to watch matches (I think it was easier to get tickets then), but she hasn't been in years.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 10/03/2019 12:11

I know people who,as kids, got interested in football. Their families were never into football so had no affiliation to a team. The towns and cities they lived in weren’t in the premiership so they just ended up watching players and adopting a premiership team to follow.
That’s how they end up supporting teams like Manchester United and Arsenal when they don’t live anywhere near the teams.

WillGymForPizza · 10/03/2019 12:15

And yes it is all very juvenile. I have a Man United supporting family member who refers to Liverpool as 'the scum'. He's been getting so worked up recently because they might win the league, lots of anti Liverpool/scouser memes on Facebook, some of them actually down right nasty. You can see it genuinely angers him. He hates Man City as well although not as much as Liverpool.

Aside from the fanaticism I really don't understand why you'd get so het up about what another team is doing? I didn't realise until recently that Spurs are a Jewish team and get a lot of anti Semitic abuse from rival fans.

Fucking weird!

IndigoSpritz · 10/03/2019 12:17

Thankyou soulrunner. I live in, and am native to, Leeds and I frequently hear the expression among my work colleagues, including the Liverpool supporter I mentioned upthread. It's rather pathetic when sports rivalry gets that low.

pickletickled · 10/03/2019 12:28

I don't understand when someone follows a team in a city theyve never lived in
There's a whole host of reasons. Glory supporting is one reason but for many it's not that. Personally, I'm a huge football fan, have been since I was young. I have a local team, which always comes 1st. Had a season ticket for many years until work made it impossible to continue.
I am also a massive Man Utd fan - which is over 200 miles away from where I live. I've supported them for roughly 30 years and you know what started it off? I was watching a match with my Granddad one day and Man u got beat - I felt so sorry for them....and from that day my love for them began. I'd want to watch them play, I was happy when they'd win (except when they'd play my No1 team of course, which isn't an issue now as they aren't in the PL ) It's a passion that's kind of hard to explain.
It's like really liking a song that you can't relate to - should you then not listen to it? Or can you only be an ABBA fan if you're Swedish? Of course not! Same applies to football teams.

Willisleepeighthoursagain · 10/03/2019 15:04

That's because Man U are scum haha! ....it's just old rivalries especially back in the day between Arsenal and Man U - some very brutal games.
Man U and Liverpool has always been considered a derby, before Man City started to do well. So the old rivalry is there.

I don't understand why you'd all get so upset about it and call it juvenile. If you don't follow a team or care then you really have no clue about the feelings associated.

You get racist issues world wide - go to Russia where it's horrendous for black players!

Willisleepeighthoursagain · 10/03/2019 15:06

@pickletickled - Love your 'can you only like ABBA if you're Swedish'. Exactly true!

I don't live in North London but have always supported Arsenal, as did my dad and my Grandad. I wouldn't dream of supporting anyone else - it is just what it is!

BluebellsareBlue · 10/03/2019 15:49

@10IAR 😂 I'm a season ticket holder of 31 years of the team that are desperate to stop 10IAR. But... I live in Dundee, catholic and passion was passed down through the generations. All the best from a mumsnet pal in blue 💗

PissOffPeppa · 10/03/2019 16:38

I know what you mean OP. I love football... when England are playing. I watch all the matches, I’ve been to games, I keep up with what’s going on. I feel a connection to the team.

I really, really want to like club football, but I just can’t connect with any team. The teams near me are all non-league which is of course fine, but if I want the excitement of a big match, there’s nothing within about 50 miles. And of course the players can be from all over the world and switch teams when they get a better offer, so it’s not like they’re loyal to a club anyway.

My dad is the same- supports England but doesn’t have a team, so I guess I got that from him. If he’d supported a particular club, I would probably be a fan of theirs. He’s very into non-league football though.

If you don’t live near a team, and you don’t have family connections to one, how do you decide who to support?

IndigoSpritz · 10/03/2019 19:08

Where I live is very much Rugby League territory and a good deal of my colleagues follow the sport, particularly Leeds Rhinos. However, the passion that's commonly associated with football isn't obvious and the various teams' performances don't get discussed and improved by armchair managers to the same degree.

10IAR · 11/03/2019 12:17

@BluebellsareBlue it wasn't so long ago we were the ones desperate to stop 10IAR Grin I still vividly remember the day we did.

All the best from a green and white MNetter Smile

(And mostly a massive hope that all the awfulness across the board in Scottish football just now stops!)

DontCallMeCharlotte · 11/03/2019 12:28

I also think it's hilarious when football fans refer to their favourite team as 'we', as though they themselves were on the team

Likewise when my team had an amazing season (way back when!), people would congratulate me and talk to me as if I had played myself!

ChodeofChodeHall · 11/03/2019 12:44

YANBU! I will never understand why some people take sport so seriously. You're crying over P.E. FFS.

Original poster
MuseumofInnocence · 11/03/2019 13:11

I don’t get how people ‘don’t get’ it. Not want to, not feel the same, don’t have the need fair enough. But surelt you can understand the basics of why people do?

I suppose I could sort of understand it from a juvenile perspective, but not as an adult. I do understand that the tribalism that occurs in a stadium is contagious, as I have experienced it. I'm trying to distinguish it from the enjoying and following a team, and wanting them to win, from the state of obsession and how it forms an identity. Rather than adding to life, it seems to take away from it.

OP posts:
Original poster
MuseumofInnocence · 11/03/2019 13:17

Weirdest of all is people who doggedly support two different teams. I knew of a man who was a committed fan of both Aston Villa AND West Ham.

PS, I got the David Cameron joke!

OP posts:
Lifecraft · 11/03/2019 13:57

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.

How many Man Utd fans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two, one to change the bulb and the other to share the driving on the way back to Sussex.

icannotremember · 11/03/2019 14:25

I was a Rangers fan when they were dominant, a Rangers fan throughout the banter years, am a Rangers fan now that they are starting to rebuild (although this season has left me spluttering tbh, Celtic are going to win it despite at times seeming to try very hard not to). I wasn't born in and have never lived in Glasgow, I inherited my allegiance. But it's lifelong.

10IAR · 11/03/2019 14:31

icannotremember I'm the same (although the polar opposite with team allegiance - I'm a Tim)

I tell Celtic fans whining now about poor results to remember 1994 (I do, all too well) and the 9IAR years, all of it. So I'm enjoying this bit, fully aware it won't last forever.