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?

I don't really understand what you are saying tbh

I was talking about primarily about those who become mega fans of clubs, without any connection, or hardly ever going

?

I guess it's quite subtle and difficult to convey, but I have been trying o make a distinction between a fan (someone who supports a team, enjoys it, is happy when their team win) and the mega-fan (someone who being an Arsenal supporter is central to their identity, gets very upset if their team loses, strives to convert their children to it (so they try and convert their children way before they're old enough to understand football), vociferously dislike the rival, e.g. Spurs, and so on).

So using your logic, no one should be interested in anyone or anything else? As your statement could apply to:

Strictly, Great British Bake Off, Dancing on Ice, Eastenders, Coronation Street, any member of the Royal Family, characters in books, characters in films, any celebrity, actors, singers, anyone on Instagram.... yet all of these have "followers" so why not give them shit too?

Yes, I think that obsessing about soaps or royals, or following celebrity Insta feeds are fantastically vapid. However, having said that, I cannot think of anyone throwing a huge strop because their favourite contender didn't win GBBO, or because Megan Markle didn't name her baby Tegan-Doria, as they said she would...? Nor do Coronation Street fans drunkenly dominate city centres on days when it's shown, or dominate the airwaves with pundits endlessly banging on about what happened in that day's episode, or that segments of actual news programmes treat developments in Coronation Street like events of national importance.

*So using your logic, no one should be interested in anyone or anything else? As your statement could apply to:

Strictly, Great British Bake Off, Dancing on Ice, Eastenders, Coronation Street, any member of the Royal Family, characters in books, characters in films, any celebrity, actors, singers, anyone on Instagram.... yet all of these have "followers" so why not give them shit too?*

I don’t know anyone who gets legitimately upset or angry when their favourite doesn’t win bake off, Ive never seen anyone dancing around their lounge with joy because someone on strictly did a good routine.

Domestic violence rates don’t increase during the X factor final but they do during world cups.

My baby is 5 weeks old and already a junior gunner. I guess I'm 'obsessed' - fucking ridiculous thread!

He's a baby wearing an Arsenal babygro that a parent has put on him, Willi.

strives to convert their children to it

Not necessarily so. As i said up thread me and my OH are lifelong supporters of different clubs, our son is a lifelong supporter of a different club to ours ( One that is an arch rival to my OH club at that
If our son wouldn't have taken an interest in football, it wouldn't have bothered us, just as it doesn't that our youngest doesn't like it.
My Father is a lifelong fan of a club, a different one to mine, my brothers are meh about it.

vociferously dislike the rival

You could apply that to anything in life though. Of course people are going to be disliking of their rivals. You want your team to do well and squash your rival into the mud, its natural. Just the same as for example, an F1 follower may be a big fan of say Hamilton and hopes that Vettel crashes out so Hamilton wins. A rival is always going to be cursed by the opposing fans, no matter what the sport is.

@ BeGoodTanya
Mine wore strips of both mine and my OH teams as babies. It's no wonder our son went on to support a completely different club.

@BeGoodTanya - Don't really get your point. I'm a big Arsenal supporter but obsessed is a strong word and not one I would use to describe a passion for a football.

@BeGoodTanya There's a difference between obsessed and passionate.
Obsessed is to eat, sleep and breath the object of your obsession.
Many fans aren't obsessed.

I cannot think of anyone throwing a huge strop because their favourite contender didn't win GBBO

I can. A woman at work was almost in tears over someone who lost, to the point where she was told to shut the fuck up boring people about it.
Which brings me to the point of, I've yet to meet anyone in work who talks about football to a none football fan, except for when the WC is on. But bloody hell, we get sick of hearing people banging on about strictly, towie, bake off and all the rest of it

@WhoWasIt - Or people banging on about their diets or going gym....now that's obsessive!

I suppose the point (which is half the point of any AIBU thread) is when does something reasonable merge into something unreasonable. When does passion become obsession?

I can talk about children and football teams, and we've all seen it. I have seen parents who have bought the odd piece of merchandise for their children, and football is part of their life, so if their child likes it, then great, if not, not a problem.

On the other hand, I have seen parents where it seems all important that their child becomes a fan of their club. I know someone whose 3 year old is the "no 1 fan" of a certain player for their team, even though their child has no idea what's going on. Subjectively, for me, that becomes odd, and that's an example of what I don't understand.

If it's being forced on the children and they haven't a clue that is odd. It is not, however, the norm.

My 5 yo DD is a massive fan of Kieran Tierney (Celtic left back) and nearly exploded when he signed her strip. She loves football, and like me, will watch games not involving our team.

If my kids weren't into football I wouldn't bat an eyelid. But they are, so I'm happy to fund their enjoyment.

I think extremes of any interest are tedious tbh. Whatever that may be.

dominate the airwaves with pundits endlessly banging on about what happened in that day's episode

Sorry but the news does end up covering GBBO, Strictly etc. There's always something about the winner and when the series are on TV there are website articles re capping the episodes and what happened. There are people that spend £80 to go and watch Strictly or X factor on tour. Or buy fitness videos/books from TOWIE or Strictly stars. I'd say that's pretty obssessive but i dont judge those that do because each to their own.

People do get het up over who wins these things or over things that happen online to celebs. There are also people that have to watch their favourite soaps and have to be back home by 7.30pm to catch it or spend a whole morning watching the omnibus and won't do anything else in that time.

Sport is largely contained to Sky Sport/BT on TV now so it's hardly in your face on free TV unless you seek out programmes that show the highlights.

So my point is following a TV show isnt that much different to following sports. These things are around in our lives because it's popular culture. And yes there are obssessive nuts following tv shows but they are not the majority just like they are a minority amongst sports fans.

Sport is largely contained to Sky Sport/BT on TV now so it's hardly in your face on free TV unless you seek out programmes that show the highlights.

Match of the Day both weekends nights? News programmes having a sports segment which is almost entirely devoted to football?

Sorry but the news does end up covering GBBO, Strictly etc. I suppose it depends on your definition of 'news', but I have never seen BBC news. for instance, devote time to any baking/dancing competition TV programme.

Willis, you were the one who used the word 'obsessed' about yourself, not me...?

MOTD starts at 22.30. Hardly prime time.

Match of the Day both weekends nights?

Hardly prime time slots!

News programmes having a sports segment which is almost entirely devoted to football?

It’s the national sport, I don’t think this is a surprise to be honest. Last weekend the sports segments on the news led with Six Nations

I suppose it depends on your definition of 'news', but I have never seen BBC news. for instance, devote time to any baking/dancing competition TV programme

There’s regularly slots on BBC news mentioning Strictly for example.

When Strictly is on, there is a programme EVERY night on bbc two about it. Why don’t you get worked up about that?!
Sport is always at the end of news bulletins so you can click off by then. Sport on websites is usually a separate tab or section so again you can avoid it.

Here’s the BBC covering the “winner” of GBBO including a “critics review” which is a roundup of what all the newspapers thought of it

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46029963

Oh give over, it’s such a false equivalency.
I’ve never seen news stories about people missing their own / relatives weddings for an episode of strictly.

I’ve never seen people going out in public in a GBBO pinny

I’ve never seen grown adults weep over the results of a reality tv show, or fly into a rage.

I’ve never seen an entire pub turn during an episode of strictly.

I’ve never seen a town square full of women beating the shit out of each other wearing strictly outfits.

And most importantly, as I mentioned before, there aren’t huge spikes in domestic violence incidents during those shows

My brother supports a team who are shit. He gets himself into an absolute state about it, as do his friends. It’s absolutely ridiculous. There’s plenty of things I’m passionate about but I don’t feel personally involved in the successes and failures of people I’ve never met, and I certainly don’t let it affect my mood if my favourite film does / doesn’t win an Oscar. I like tennis, a lot, but I’m not going to fly into a rage because Djokovic wins a match and I’m not a fan.

My brother supports a team who are shit. He gets himself into an absolute state about it, as do his friends. It’s absolutely ridiculous

With respect then your brother is a dick, I’m sure you appreciate that’s not all football fans.

There's an awful lot of folk confusing fans with hooligans.

And assuming that all football fans are men.

MOTD starts at 22.30. Hardly prime time

That's when I would be likely to be watching TV, if I were watching it.

And I agree entirely with Sinkgirl it really is the most straw man equivalency to compare football with reality TV or shows about dancing or baking, which wax and wane in popularity, have comparatively short seasons, and will get mercifully-- cancelled at some point when fashion moves on.

And, like Sinkgirl I can also think of two or three men I know who get ridiculously het up about their team's successes and failures, and, while they are not violent, or drinkers, their black moods have when their team loses have a huge impact on their families. It is definitely not unique to Sink's brother. I know a lot of football fans, male and female and DH works in football and I have never encountered a woman football fan, however passionate, who took out her feelings about 'her' team losing on her family.

You've not met me then @BeGoodTanya 😂

Despite there being five terrestrial and God knows how many other channels, you begrudge football fans 90 minutes of a show they enjoy on one channel, once a week?? @BeGoodTanya.
Nice!!