To think the anyone but England mentality is cringe?

[SolitaryMind]

I’m Scottish, I was brought up to be anti English, SNP mad household, despite having English grandparents. I’ve always thought it made no sense, England is part of the UK like we are. I now have an English dp who is step- parent to my child, I support England in football as does my dc, every match my social media is filled with support for any country playing against England, I don’t get it! Can someone explain the logic to me, I can’t be the only one surely!

Isn’t it just little brother syndrome. Scotland, wales, Ireland are smaller countries so they punch up to England.

England is the bigger so doesn’t really think about the smaller.

I’m English but want our neighbours to do well. I like Scotland, wales and Ireland.

You do know that technically the Scottish anthem is God Save the King as its the UK anthem?

Flower of Scotland is the unofficial one.

If Man City were knocked out of the Champions League, the Man United fans wouldn't suddenly support them because they're down the road. It's sporting rivalry, it exists in every sport and place, and is more pronounced in some areas than others.

🤷🏻‍♀️ by Fifa. Who I would assume know more than most of us, however there is a section on the website about the procedures. Perhaps you could provide some feedback about improvements?

@Daydreamer12345 they're not MY home team that's the whole bloody point ffs!!

England does not equal U.K.

If only all the English/pretending to be British media would grasp this concept it would make things a lot easier to deal with.

Hence the 'inverted commas'

Nail on head.

Jealous.

Scots are just jealous.

@themanwho I'm not sure why you're including Ireland in that list given we're not in the UK and I can assure you that we are not England's 'little brother'.

It’s sport not the real world.
I’m rugby and it’s all a out the London Darby ( Quinn’s versus Sarries ), West Country (Bath, Gloucester, Bristol) . Same as a football fan would want any team to beat Southampton if they were Portsmouth or vice versa

You are confusing "Home Team" with "Home Nations Team"

I would cheer on any of the Home Nations Teams V The Rest Of The World. We are group of countries that have, for various right and wrong and historic reasons, become a nation and will support all of that. It seems that only the bitter and angry will encourage a dog bite their own leg to prove a point.

It's fine to choose to only support your home team.

ABE is different. It's the choosing to support any team that is not England.

I’m Scottish and its cringeworthy. We have a real chip on our shoulder and an inferiority complex in general that seems to manifest when England reach these tournaments. If Scotland ever got to the World Cup quarter finals I’m sure we’d generate a lot of coverage.

I’ve found the commentators to be not bad really this time round. Those in the studio maybe less so but if you have a problem just mute it or watch on another channel.

The seethe on social media when an England game was on BBC Scotland or STV while Scotland were playing and on Sky or BT sports or the like was something else - until it was pointed out that these channels chose not to go with the Scotland game themselves for whatever reason. It wasn’t foisted on them from HQ in London.

England DID win the World Cup in 1966 and are the last and only home nation to have done it so of course they go on about it.

Don’t let anyone tell you if Scotland had won a major tournament decades ago we wouldn’t mention it, when there are plenty of people up here that use Bannockburn 1314 as a valid political point 😆

England - the only country where it’s supporters are not allowed to get excited or have expectations of their team at a World Cup.

About what? All of England's trophies in recent times? nope

You’re not the only person who lives in Scotland

Maybe there are other people in Scotland who don’t feel as you do

I’m Scottish and wanted england to win tonight
Massive Man Utd and Foden fan

Agree with many it’s the arrogance of the media that make people hate the english team

Why would I make this up? I live in England and I have met many people who are surprised that Scottish people don't support England at sporting events like this one, almost as if England should be the default Scotland team if Scotland doesn't qualify. Do you think that's an unfair assessment?

i agree. If Everton got knocked out of (say) the FA cup, their supporters wouldnt start supporting LFC, God forbid!

But the ABE thing isnt about supporting your team, its about hating a whole other country. Its Xenophobia dressed up as fandom. ALthough, as I said earlier, it seems to be happening less and less in younger fans which is a good thing. Turns out young people are in fact a lot more respectful than older people would say they are!

It's about power dynamics. You don't see it happening in inverse (Anyone but Scotland) because power dynamics tend to work in one direction, causing disadvantage to one party.

Scotland might have a large expanse of land but we are a small nation of 5.5 million compared to 56 million in England. However you feel about the union, it's undeniable that our proportional representation has been poor historically and that we have a democratic deficit.

Things like football will play out those feelings. Those who harp on that you wouldn't hear the reverse statement are missing the underlying origins of the sentiment.

I'm married to a Welshman who thankfully is not like this, and supports England once Wales have lost. (As I would do the same in reverse)

I agree it is really annoying - have lots of Welsh friends who do it. But my husband doesn't.

To the PP asking why there isn't a UK team - national teams are based on countries and the UK is not a country. England, Scotland and Wales are countries within the UK state. Northern Ireland is treated as a country but I won't delve into the politics of that here.

There are only three countries in the world that do not have control of their own broadcasting - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Regional TV channels in some other countries have more control over their output than the miniscule broadcasting freedoms allowed in these three countries. This means that for most major broadcasts, we have no choice but to participate through the UK broadcaster which is understandably anglocentric.

In England you have no idea how it feels to have everything you view filtered through the lens of another country, or to rarely hear your own accent on TV unless its a token gesture, or for your country's news to always take second or third place. Imagine if you were in an alliance with the USA and all your news featured America first, read by Americans, most programming came from the US and all England could produce on the tiny budgets they were permitted was "local" drama, local newsrooms where the cardboard screens wobbled because they were so cheap, and your news was reduced to "man finds pie at bus stop" or a feature on the Norfolk Broads because only USA news was "real" news. Imagine if the only education news you heard was about US education, reducing your understanding of how your own system operated. That's about where we three countries are most of the time.

So back to football. It would be just sublime if the people of these three countries could watch a sporting competition through their own lens, hear what their own commentariat were thinking, considering their own prospects and perspectives, and not just hear England, England, England. We'd have our own hyperbole, not yours. If we thought England were shit, no-hopers, we'd be free to say so in a hopefully constructive manner, not excluded completely if our team didn't qualify, or have presenters from the other country being polite about your team's non-existent chances for 5 minutes just to prove they're not biased before returning to what they really want to talk about - their own country's team.

You won something once, 56 years ago and you've been living on the glory of it ever since. "Two world wars, one world cup". How old are these victories? And you didn't even achieve the first two alone but it's still a chant anyway. In 2022.

If you won something again, how much more would we have to endure? So no, let's dash that idea before you get anywhere near the prize, then we've only got the same old mindless crowing to continue enduring.

The current England Team do seem like far more decent young men than the swaggering egotists of old, but I'm afraid the broadcasting situation and the loudest elements of your fanbase means that we really need you out as quickly as possible. Either that or our own broadcasting which would leave you free to pontificate into your own echo chamber to your heart's desire, and we can provide our own coverage in whatever form that may take. I think you'd find a very different attitude then.

For the record, I don't feel the need to support other countries just because we're in a union with them. I didn't support all the EU teams when we were members and I feel no more inclined to support fellow UK members' teams. I support France after Scotland because they are our oldest allies and they gave my grandparents French citizenship as they did for all Scots until Westminster cancelled that arrangement without consultation. I also support the Netherlands as I have some ancestors from there. I have no reason to support England, but every reason to wish we didn't have to hear about them constantly whenever they think they might win something.

They are surprised because if England was knocked out and Scotland was still in, most Englanders would support Scotland against the ROTW. Home Nations Team.......of course we would. So the ABE thing is frankly bloody childish.

Why would England be the default team for Scotland to support? That’s like saying Celtic should support Rangers every game they play as they are both from Glasgow .

Because the English are deluded. They score 1 goal in the first half of their very first match against a low rated team in the group stages and immediately you get “it’s coming home!”. Well it clearly ain’t is it and hasn’t since 1966 ffs, not that England is the home of football anyway! The English fans are loathed across the world for that reason alone. Their hooliganism doesn’t help either.

There is a lot of truth in this. Equally you could be describing an inferiority complex.

If England were on the same level as Scotland football wise, we wouldn’t care so much.

This. 👏