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

[HuwEdwardsBottom]

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.

It's not always that simple. My dad's team went into administration (and dissolved, no saviours to be seen) in 1974, leaving Bradford City to be the only team. But as they'd been his rivals he started to follow the team in the next place up the motorway and where he worked - Leeds Utd. Then they got relegated for 17 years so when he watched Europe/PL he backed Arsenal as he thought they played good football.

The family teams here are Leeds, West Ham and Liverpool, with my DS's godmother being a Middlesbrough season ticket holder. I like lots of teams (as long as they're not from Manchester). 😀

Success breeds success.

Sometimes players draw you in. And players move.

You don't have to prove yourself. And have a passport of criteria of why you're ' allowed ' to support a team.

Teams need and thrive from support. Good on you if you only support local and maybe losing teams.

But let's face it , it's just I'm " more than you" type of snobbery.

Yes it's wrong as for every day you see my son in a Liverpool shirt you aren't seeing the Crewe shirt in the wash.

It's perfectly possible to support prem and local. AND SPL and town in my family.

My local team is a premier league football team.

My Dad supported Brentford through thick and thin as he was born and brought up in the area. He then moved all over the world but stuck with Brentford and if he were alive would never believe in a million years that they would be premier league. He could never ever been seen as a fair weather supporter. On many occasion when asked what team he supported he got the same reaction from the milk advert from years ago of "who are they?".

I’ll be honest, I never thought that Wrexham V Notts County would ever be a sellout but I’m really glad it was (last season). I guess it proves the PP’s reasonable point about small clubs and poor v good publicity though.

Neither is my club, by the way.

Loads of plastic Liverpool and Man U fans at my workplace (not in the NW). For every southern fan whose nan was the cleaner at Anfield in the 1930s there are dozens of total plastics. You can kind of understand it from starstruck kids, but grown adults talking about “us” winning the league or whatever are an bit embarrassing imo. But that’s up to them.

Who do you count as a "plastic fan". ? @VictorianChic

If you watch matches and you care, what more is needed?

A ‘plastic fan’ is someone who puts on a shirt, grabs the remote, gets abit bored if the team isn’t winning and switches over to watch something else.
They neither watch matches or care that much.
The majority where I live support either Liverpool or Manchester United, no family reasons no tie to either club.
Of course there are reasons to support a non local team, many very good ones written about on this thread.

Or one who turns up at the local side when they've had a good run of results or for the big games.

Great, if your club is in a major city with a large pool of potential talent. Not so great if you’re Fleetwood Town.

Or one who turns up at the local side when they've had a good run of results or for the big games.

Nothing wrong with that. Success builds success.

Yep, beginning of this year my local L2 side were rock bottom of the league, had been playing shit for weeks and not scoring. Drew a PL team in the cup and 'fans' appeared in their droves to pack the stadium. Same fans nowhere to be seen a week later to watch Gills take on Hartlepool 😂

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, I said that's what is known as plastic fans.

IMO lower league clubs need to embrace locals who follow bigger clubs but will come along to their local club from time to time or casual supporters who attend when they're not doing anything else. You never know they might get the bug.

The only thing wrong with that IMO is that Gills don't make more effort to get those people to come back.

Smaller clubs don't want people to go "now and again". That won't pay for better players, better training facilities, etc. Most, even L2 clubs, rely heavily on volunteers, and the "occasional" extra few supporters paying £20 once or twice a year does diddly squat, that's why they're not going to invest in marketing costs!

We all know that the entire league structure is weighted in favour of the Premier League and Championship, who are happy to take the huge monies, but resent paying towards the L1/L2 clubs and non league clubs who are often the "feeder" clubs for the higher divisions and expand the pool of talent.

We've supported our L2 club for 15 years, through thick and thin, ownership crises, corrupt/thieving owners, very close to bankruptcy, etc. A few years ago, they got promoted to L1, and all the glory hunters arrived, all whingeing about lack of facilities, claiming the club was "amateur", etc - well, no surprise there, then, where were you when the club needed you?

Over the years, we've had a few young stars coming through our academy, ever single one poached by PL or CL clubs just when we needed them the most as they were turning pro and ready for "proper" games, often with all kinds of dodgy dealings to minimise the amount of compensation they had to pay our club, and then after a few years, just chucked them out again, after having never played at that level. If they'd have stayed at our club, they'd have been regulars and could have developed properly, probably rising to the top teams of L2 or L1 which is still a pretty good career for young footballers. Instead, though, PL and CL clubs just waste their time and best playing years, leave them floundering in their academics and second/third teams, and eventually chuck them out again when they realise they've not got the next Sallah!

I'd far rather support my local team, which is at least honest, rather than supporting a plastic PL team owned by parasitic or criminal owners.

Of course they should "embrace" them, but they can't afford to molly coddle them and give them all the facilities they expect. That's the trouble really. They expect PL quality and facilities but won't attend often enough to help improve things.

yanbu. Support your local club,..

That's nonsense though. Does a restaurant or theatre only want people who go every week? No they want lots of people who go sometimes. Clubs need to accept that families aren't going to have the time or the money to go all the time, but if they can attract enough to go a handful of times a year, that's still good business. It's certainly not helpful when fans make people who can't attend regularly feel unwelcome. And some of those who start as a occasional visitors will become regulars, if they're treated right and given a good show. If they're not, the clubs get what they deserve.

Bit difficult when the club had a chairman who was rinsing the club dry. There was no money to entice new fans to return. Who would happily pay 23.00 a ticket to watch Gillingham hoof the ball up the pitch for 90 minutes? Quite happy to rock up to watch a PL side potientially give them an education though.

Thankfully Gillingham have a new owner, better players and the football is more pleasing on the eye which has resulted in more people in the stadium on match days. Not all clubs are as fortunate as Gills though.

That's exactly my point, the club was badly run. But the new owner was in situ when Gills payed Leicester, which is presumably the game you refer to?

that's just judgy though.
I support an absolutely shit team because it is our family team from my hometown (there are 2 teams so it can get... interesting). They are absolutely dire but they are my team. I now live abroad and so haven't been to an actual match in the stadium in at least 30 years. But I'm a Wednesday supporter through thick and thin. So much thin lately.

But when I talk about them on Twitter (I do, a lot) i get called a plastic fan, even though as a kid i went every other week with my grandad. Right now i can only name probably 2 players because i concentrate more on my actual local team (who, coincidentally, became well known in England in the 70s after playing against Liverpool a few times in what is now the Champions League). I have a season ticket, and a tattoo and i go to a few away games each season too. Am i a plastic fan because i wasn't born in Mönchengladbach? nope.

People should stop being judgy about how and why people support teams. And either accept that you'll never understand (so butt out) or if you know, you know.

*I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, I said that's what is known as plastic fans.

IMO lower league clubs need to embrace locals who follow bigger clubs but will come along to their local club from time to time or casual supporters who attend when they're not doing anything else. You never know they might get the bug.*

Yep calling someone a "plastic fan" is derogatory.

Posters have already described other people like that.

It's just snobbery. There's always the hardcore rain or shine supporters but who cares if other supporters get drawn in when a team gets success. That's what happens.

Yes, that's exactly my point

Sorry we're in a agreement then @Softnatural 👍🏻

I just think people should butt out of everyone else's lives. As i often say (mostly on twitter but often here and in RL) that everyone experiences being a fan of a team differently, and nobody should be telling anyone else they are "plastic" or "glory hunters" or whatever.

We have a thing over here in Germany where (all clubs, to a greater or lesser degree) have their ultra groups, which are officially recognised by the club. They have "their" area on the standing terrace (home end) where you are not allowed to stand unless you are going to do their singing/chanting (or whistling at RB Leipzig or silence when RB Leipzig come or whatever they're up to this week). Which is ok, because they are all together, and do make the noise.

They also organise all the choreos (i know people outside think the clubs organise it, they don't it is all done by the ultras, who then collect donations to cover it). And it is all well and good and everyone pretty much supports them, until they start chucking pyros about (eg last week our lot chucked smoke bombs on the pitch at an away match after some "discussions" with the emergency services about removing banners that were blocking an emergency entrance). Then because other people protested what they had done, they all left the stadium. Kindergarten.

So now they are being criticised, and throwing their teddys out of the pram and complaining that the "normalos" love them when they do a good thing, so must accept the bad behaviour. And again it keeps coming "we're the only true fans" blah blah blah.

Tedious.

Support who you like. But it would be great if people would support lower and non-league clubs in person more regularly.

(as for Wrexham: meh. Enjoy the new owners, OP. My club got a new owner. He's driven it into the ground. Our experiences are different. But both valid as are our feelings about it)