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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think people should support their local football teams, rather than premier league ones?

171 replies

HuwEdwardsBottom · 07/10/2023 21:18

Is it wrong that I silently judge people I see in a Man City/Liverpool/Man United etc shirt when they have a local team on their doorstep? Might not be premier league but still doing good things.

My local football team were absolutely dire for a very long time. They were also very badly run and suffered dreadful financial problems but they’ve also always had a very strong and loyal following both at home and away. Things have changed a lot in the last few years and we now have good owners and are doing well but you still see the glory hunters out and about in their premier league kits and I’m like why when you have all of this happening on your doorstep? We are literally miles away from all premier league clubs. I can’t fathom it out at all.

OP posts:
Sigmama · 07/10/2023 22:19

Does it really matter

TrashedSofa · 07/10/2023 22:20

What qualifies as local? Am I allowed to support, say, Everton if I live in Liverpool but there's a Sunday league team inbetween us? What about if I'm a Manc but I live closer to Stockport as the crow flies, have I to go for County then or can my Mancunian identity be taken into account? This all sounds very complicated.

murasaki · 07/10/2023 22:31

Dp is a stockport fan, his mum was Man City and his sister Man United. It certainly kept him out of trouble when questioned in pubs as he was never picking the 'wrong' side when asked. He did try to convince his godson to be the same, but the shiny gloss of the Premier league sucked him in. Sad really.

PandaExpress · 07/10/2023 22:36

HuwEdwardsBottom · 07/10/2023 21:54

@PandaExpress oh sorry lol!

Im not talking about people who’ve moved somewhere from out of the area where there’s a bit club. I’m talking people who’ve always live in the area, parents, grandparents etc.

I've never lived in Liverpool, just close by. It's the family team though, that's what I mean. Even if I was born and grew up 100 miles away, I'd still be a Liverpool supporter, because I was born into a Liverpool supporting family. So I understand people like that.
People who don't live in these big club cities, who just decide to support a big team, I get where you are coming from with them.

HappyMe6 · 07/10/2023 22:41

They should support whichever team they want to. Why silently judge anyone for supporting their favourite team

CeeChynaa · 07/10/2023 22:41

Maybe just maybe, the local team is shit and no one wants to support it just because it’s there local? They’d actually like to support a team that they think is good and if that means the team they’re interested in is in the Premier League or La Liga then so what?

Elvis1956 · 07/10/2023 22:41

No you cant. Really no. I'm from the West country and despite what you may see/believe you are either Bristol city, born South of the river avon, Somerset cricket and in the day Somerset light infantry. Or like me, North of the river, Bristol rovers, Gloucestershire cricket, the glorious gloucesters. I hate the idea of "second teams" I've called the BBC out about expecting 3rd tier football fans to give a flying fuck about the prem...fuck em.

Mammyloveswine · 07/10/2023 22:50

I'm a toon fan (born here and live here now!) but grew up in York.. I used to watch york city in the conference (they were and still are shit).

Newcastle has always been "home" though even when I was a young child. My children are geordies and support the toon. I was there during the dark days of Mike Ashley.. the relegations.. must armour am thoroughly enjoying life as a toon fan right now!

Oblomov23 · 07/10/2023 22:54

What a completely unfair criticism. There are various reasons why anyone suppers any team.

Plus, Many people do both. Local team may be in one league. Might also support a premier league team. It is allowed!

Susiesue61 · 07/10/2023 22:59

You support who you love. 😊 Me and my dad support thr team we grew up loving, there were nearer teams. DH and our children all support the same team, not our nearest but 10 miles away, it’s more a religion than a choice 😂

RaeHitsEbSire · 07/10/2023 23:03

People usually have a reason. My dad lives in the south and supports Man City. That's because he grew up down the road from their grounds, and has now been supporting them for more than 70 years, including for long periods where they were nowhere near the first division, as the premier league was then called.

ohfook · 07/10/2023 23:08

This is something I've never understood as a non-football fan. Surely you'd support the team you thought were best? I know it doesn't work like that, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I'm a music fan and I like the bands who I think are best not the ones that live closest to me.

Winteriscoming12 · 07/10/2023 23:15

But people support clubs for all sorts of reasons. My DB has been a Man U supporter since he was a kid. We live in the south. No rhyme or reason to it, but he has never wavered, despite rarely watching them live.

We live near a National League side that, as a non football supporter I would have had less than zero interest in until my DS starting at their soccer school at 4yo. He's 6 now, plays in their U7 team and we have season tickets for the club. We've started going to all the men's home games, some of the women's, and even went to the NL play offs away last season. I have gone from less than zero interest in football to a proper fan. But my DB wouldn't be interested. He just wants to watch really top level football or play himself. There's no middle ground.

And I must say, you do get a lot of people moaning about Johnny come latelys who've only started watching since the team started doing well and how it's not like it was in the old days. That sort of stuff can be a bit off putting. But I love the team now, and the best bit is my DS knows the players there, and he and the other kids get to talk to them after the matches. It feels like he belongs to something. He still supports Chelsea too, though.

FictionalCharacter · 07/10/2023 23:20

I "inherited" my PL club from my dad - it was his local team when he was a kid and he was a lifelong supporter.
PL is such a higher standard of football than you see with local teams so it's much more exciting to watch. I'm not very interested in our local team but it is well supported.

WandaWonder · 07/10/2023 23:22

You need to do 'this', but if course if you situation is this I allow an exception oh and it could be this, oh I never thought of this that is allowed then

Going by that we can judge anyone for anything but it is none of your business

Going by you 'logic' only men should support men's football and women only support women football, what about cricket? Basketball, golf etc. What is 'allowed'?

Maddy70 · 07/10/2023 23:23

I have been a season ticket holder for a very low-league football club for most of my life. I don't think anyone "shpuld" support anything that they dint feel passionate about. Each to their own

Clemally · 07/10/2023 23:24

I judge anyone over the age of 10 in any football shirt, local or national.

NoNoHellaNoNoHellaNoNo · 07/10/2023 23:58

I support my home town team who have been pretty much lower league / second tier for the whole of their existence (with a brief period of success about 30 years ago).

I have no issue with people supporting who they like but I don’t really understand how they can be genuinely emotional invested. For example, if you live in Kent and support Liverpool, surely you can’t feel as emotional about it as a scouser? Similarly, how can you get worked up about local derbies?

For me, supporting a football club is about the community it represents, and without an actual connection to that community, I think the supporter maybe misses out on something.

BlondeFool · 08/10/2023 00:01

Yeah I do support my local team. Arsenal as I grew up 10 minutes away. Lots of my friends supported Man U despite never leaving London. Fools.

Malarandras · 08/10/2023 00:05

A quaint notion if ever there was one! Where I’m from you support the team your father supported, which is the team his father supported etc. It’s the team that tells everyone else all they need to know about what ‘side’ you are on and it’ll be a cold day in hell before you support any other team. Which is why I have no interest in football!

UsingChangeofName · 08/10/2023 00:14

Softnatural · 07/10/2023 21:23

I support a lower league club and love the comminity of it, but it's not the same as watching the top game. You may as well say why go to the West End when you can watch amdram, why buy Elton John tickets when you can see a pub singer.

This, exactly.

That's coming from someone who is out in the local parks supporting my Sunday League side week after week.

As a pp said

You can do both
Radical idea I know!

I watch 3 different teams, quite regularly - all in very different Leagues.
There's things about each of them that are better and things about each of them that aren't so good. It doesn't have to be 'either / or' though.

Blanketpolicy · 08/10/2023 00:38

Ds(19) supports our local team and they are either near the bottom of the SPLF fighting relegation or at the top of the lower league fighting to back into the SPLF.

He has had a season ticket and gone with friends to home and away matches alone since he was 14 on the supporters buses and the fans keep an eye out for the younger supporters.

It is a totally different experience to some of his friends who support more distant top teams and only go to matches a couple of times a year. He used to also support a top team but when he experiencd going to the local team weekly matches, the local support, the frequent disappointment and the euphoria when they did win or got promoted the top team on tv was soon forgotten. Kids are missing out on so much if they support a team they only/mostly just see on tv.

He even works PT for his local team now in the hotel at the stadium as event bar staff along with 2 of his friends and they either give them split shifts so they can go to the home games or they time the shift start until they can get back from away games.

PandaExpress · 08/10/2023 01:04

Clemally · 07/10/2023 23:24

I judge anyone over the age of 10 in any football shirt, local or national.

That's a shame. My DS is 18 and asks for a kit every Christmas and wears them with pride. He's autistic, but you wouldn't know that when you looked at him and judged.
My DD is 12, plays in the girls league, is football crazy and wears kits all the time. Maybe it's time for her to wear crop tops and leggings all the time, like the majority, so she isn't judged.

Littlepinkstarsbyradish · 08/10/2023 01:31

you support who your mom/dad supports

they buy you the kit, they take you to the games, they own the tv remote and they are the oracle

that’s how it works. If your dad/mom moved to a new city, that means you support a team who isnt local 🤷🏻‍♀️

Original poster
HuwEdwardsBottom · 08/10/2023 09:16

@Winteriscoming12 I don’t think your DB is that unusual being a Man United supporter from down South. I thought that’s where all their fans came from?😉😂 When I was growing up in the 90’s we used to joke that all the proper Mancunians supported Man City (they were shockingly shit then and I think in Division 3 or something) and glory hunters from London supported United.

OP posts:
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