To not support England?!

[Feetballislife]

Live and work in England. Not English. My team didn’t qualify for the World Cup so I’m supporting Scotland! Lobe a plucky underdog, have some Scots heritage ( and some English to be fair) plus I NEVER support English sports teams. EVER.
Football has inevitably come up in the office and several colleagues are generally pissed off that I’m not supporting England, insist I should be etc etc. Stupidly I mentioned that I never support England … did not gone down well.
If you live here then you should etc etc

YANBU - support who you like!
YABU - you ingrate, you live in the country you should support the national team.

It would be a very small minority but I suspect some would be violent. I can't see England fans being as bothered if they saw a Scot wearing a Scotland shirt in Manchester for example. They just aren't as bothered.

A very, very small minority. And it would likely be fuelled by drink. But 99.99999% wouldn't care at all. I don't know anyone who would attack someone just for wearing an England shirt. If I did, I'd want nothing to do with them. Again, we don't hate the English. A lot of us just don't support them in sporting events. It doesn't mean we're going to get violent with them.

Also some questionable squad selections
England play boring games. I have fallen asleep before

I’m 99% sure I saw this exact post almost word to word last time there was a big football event.

How edgy of you to live in a country and make a big thing about not supporting them.

I just find it weird that English people are surprised by this. The people saying "support who you want but strange you would choose to live here..." are missing the point in a gargantuan fashion. It's England FFS we are Irish and do not cheer for England.

Conversations go like this

"Are you watching the match? Who are you supporting?"
"What match?"
"Football / rugby / whatever... The England game."
"Oh right, who are they playing?"
"*X country"
"Yeah, might do. I'll be supporting X country"

Do you honestly not know that many many Irish people feel like this? It's a bit of craic, nothing more for most of us .

It's rugby in our house and honestly people that never watch five minutes rugby all year will make sure their schedule is clear for the Six Nations England game in the hope of giving them a pasting

It is genuinely done in good spirits and my (English rugby loving) DH loves the vibe and always takes a ribbing well.

I suspect as the thread has gone on however that OP is not light-hearted about it, very defensive and insecure and it reveals a seriously big chip on her shoulder

Well, I'm English and would usually support England, but I got Croatia in the work sweepstake, so I'm in trouble on 17 June! 😬🤣

Lol! Although I think that's down to your mum's genes. DS's father is bald, my dad still has lots of hair, as does my maternal grandfather, so I definitely hope DS takes after my side. (His older brother is going bald in his 20s, judging from his Facebook pictures.)

But, they take it after my husband. A hairdresser once said to me, you don't actually have thick hair, you just have loads of normal hair. 😂

In that case, they are very lucky! 😃

I thought that was what thick hair was? My hair has never been thick, except when I was pregnant, and even then it wasn't much thicker.

I've got heritage including relatives by marriage in ten countries of the 48! Wales sadly have not qualified this time, hope it is not another 64 years as it was between 1958 and 2022.

OP following Scotland, a part of your heritage, perfectly valid. Unlike at club level where there are a lot of Liverpool fans with no Scousers in the family, and even more Manchester United fans with not even a Lancastrian relative.

It doesn’t matter a jot. It will have absolutely no impact on the outcome.

This isn’t about supporting England. I’m not English but I support it with my work and my taxes. This is just about football - it’s just a fun game. In the end it makes no difference who you support. It’s not going to make the players play better, you’re not going to win a prize if they win, and they really don’t know if you exist. Lots of people enjoy it and that great, but supporting England or any other team in a football tournament is irrelevant to their performance.

The thread is in AIBU
The title says To Not Support England? - not a mention of football, could have been about anything
There are people from many parts of the world on MN - sorry if you don't like that 😛
I am allowed to give my view, whether it relates to football or not
I suspect it is people like you who make others want to support anyone other than England

I get why you would do that with the football as Ireland never makes the cut with the international tournaments, so it's like if you aren't going to have an actual team to support you need one to "non support"

Exactly! It is not really our thing. On a national level we are about Gaelic football and hurling. In middle class areas it's very much rugby. Working class areas follow football / soccer but it's UK premiership teams. So the anyone but England is a way to unite the country in following the world cup when Ireland isn't part of it. You know everyone in the pub will be shouting for the same side.

'So the anyone but England is a way to unite the country in following the world cup when Ireland isn't part of it. You know everyone in the pub will be shouting for the same side.'

Ah well, isn't that lovely 🙄 You could always 'unite' by following England as it's one of your nearest neighbours but I know there's more chance of pigs flying

We’re mostly the same in Scotland except for die hard Rangers supporters.

We could but there's a tiny bit of historical tension there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_conflicts_involving_Ireland_against_the_United_Kingdom

I'm Irish, I'm aware

Let me guess; Wicklow or Meath?

A win win either way???

The nice thing about living in a nation of nations, is you can enjoy your neighbours ... currently enjoying the Bostonians being overwhelmed with the Tartan Army ... it warms the cockles it does, as DF might have said.

Neither! Why did you guess those two?

If one England fan farts at the wrong time the UK press will make a meal out of it, I've lived in quite a few countries and have never known a media so anti their home nation, in other countries any misbaviour is brushed under the metaphorical carpet.

It's England FFS we are Irish and do not cheer for England.**

Cheer for who you wish as you certainly won't be cheering for Ireland!