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.

Arsenal V PSG. 2 teams, largely foreign players. When I was young, the foreign players in English teams were Scottish and Irish. When an English club played in Europe, we tended to support the English club out of patriotism.

Hmmm, sometimes OP, discretion is the better part of valor. I´m half EU country/half English. I never support the English team (don´t wish them ill, either) but don´t tell my English relatives that, and make appropriate noises when their team loses. And I don´t live in the UK. So, I´m afraid saying things to English fans like "would never support England" is being unnecessarily confrontational.
Also slightly bemused by pps who announce on this thread "nobody cares who you cheer" in a tone that shows that they DO care, and very much.

Why is everyone so obsessed with England though? I don’t know whether to be flattered to be from a country that seems to take up so much room in other people’s heads to the verge of obsession? All hate just misguided love I suppose

I think the point they are making it that no one would actually care if you didn’t announce in a morally superior way that you’d ’NEVER’.

just seems a bit odd.

OP, is your home country Ireland by any chance?

I’m an England fan and I’ll be getting up at 2am to watch the Scotland game. I hope they do well, just not better than us 🤣

I live in a v multicultural area. Lots of people have no issues supporting both England and their countries of origin.

One of my kids went to a school with hardly any English families. Some of the other parents would gently chastise me for moaning too much about transport etc and tell me all the things I ought to be grateful for, in being able to live here so easily in a place they had to jump hurdles to get to.

Football is global, and potentially unifying. Let's find ways to be together positively, in the face of increasingly polarising discourses. I think the difference between team sport and aggressive nationalism needs emphasising. Team sport is a (usually) healthy way of channeling what I guess must be natural urges for some. Without it I worry we'd have more of the aggressive nationalism tbh.

DH has dual nationality, his mum is from another country.

His mum, having lived here and having created a family of football fans, politely supports England as the country she lives in. But she still supports her home country.

DH and his brothers support both, which means double the number of "important" matches here and a win/win/lose/lose if they play each other.

Just do what feels right but be friendly about it.

Im not obsessed with England, I just won’t be cheering them on. Im a huge football fan so find it hard to cut off from the premier league mentality & struggle to get behind players I spend a season disliking. It’s not that deep, wouldn’t actually be bothered if they did well and even won it tbf I just wont be cheering them on.

I don't live in my own nation. I'd never declare in the office that I'm deliberately supporting the opposition.

I think to say I'll never support England but to make it your home is a bit odd. Particularly when your own country (which I can understand being your first team) isn't playing. I have someone in my team waiting for citizenship but anti England and her country didn't qualify, I find it odd. I lived overseas and supported that country and still have a big soft spot for them.

I didn’t mean you, I meant OP. Who has started an entire thread to discuss why she definitely doesn’t support English football (like Southgate was on the phone begging for her endorsement)

Where did the Op say they 'announced' it to be inflammatory. You're making assumptions.

We have family friends (2 families) who are dual English/ French and English/ German. They support both teams until they play each other... Then it's anyone's guess.

If you think that’s why fans of English clubs supported PSG over Arsenal you need to give your head a wobble!

Why is everyone so obsessed with England though? I don’t know whether to be flattered to be from a country that seems to take up so much room in other people’s heads to the verge of obsession? All hate just misguided love I suppose

Who is obsessed with England? I am not.

If you mean some people who live in England really really want England to win the World Cup then yes, they do. Just as, some people in Brazil really really want Brazil to win and some people in Spain really really want Spain to win etc etc etc This is hardly indicative of "obsession" though it it?

Yeah, the idea that English fans are uniquely terrible is a few decades out of date. Not that you'd know it to read this forum.

Not something I can get worked up about - support who you like!

I don't support england either, largely because the sooner we get knocked out of anything the sooner the diversionary "our lads national pride" can stfu.

Indeed. There was no ‘announcement’ it was sort of a football sweepstakes conversation … and in answer to a ‘why don’t you support England’ Q I said I never do… which is trues and people from my country generally don’t. The Scots guy said aye we’re the same. Thats all!

I don’t see any English fans creating threads as to why they definitely do not support other countries?

Go on op. you're avoiding the question. Please list why you choose to live in England..

Why create the thread then?

Anyway, it’s still a free ( ish) country and I will be rooting for Scotland and my sweepstake team. Let’s go!!!!

😂Never. Funny that isn't it. Ah well. Perhaps it's our security these people don't like..

I’m behind you as a Scottish persons I’ll obviously be supporting Scotland 😂 however prior to Scotland qualifying I have always supported England. I don’t get the big hooha about Scottish people supporting England all part of the UK xx