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.

Thank you.

Don’t worry, I’m not even on here that often and I can see what is going on as I have seen the other threads. I’m sure others know too.

Can you give a clue about the nature of them?

Looks like I can't but sorry for the snappiness.

I'm supporting France. No reason. I haven't told my colleagues though as they're all ardent England supporters. I like to pick a different team each tournament. I think it's because I don't really care.

Ok no worries.

Well spraying offensive graffiti over a mural of Marcus rashford because he missed a penalty was pretty bad….hundreds of racist comments on Saka and Sancho’s social media….appreciate that was the euros but I felt truly ashamed to be English that day

Oh come on. I'm an England supporter and even I can see that England fans have had a well earned reputation over the years. Domestic violence increases when England play, for a start. This isn't just by a few percentage points either - by 26% even if England win or draw and by 38% if they lose.

Given the recent penchant for adorning lamp posts and roundabouts with the George Cross to mark their territory, there's a hard core who are even more primed to cause trouble this time around.

I support the England team, and I want them to do well. But I'd much rather see the Tartan Army celebrating in the streets if we're talking about the fans.

That was bad but it was an isolated incident which was widely and instantly condemned by everyone in the footballing world. Hardly indicative of the majority of England fans, who on the whole are as well behaved as any other group of international fans.

well I guess we just have different bars

Can you be specific about recent poor behaviour involving travelling England fans?

It's easy to gush sentimental about the 'Tartan army' when they rarely qualify for major tournaments and are usually only involved for a short time (not slagging them off, it's simply the truth). Given the extremely poor behaviour seen by fans of certain teams in the Scottish domestic league, it's wishful thinking to imagine that Scottish fans as a whole are any 'better' than England fans.

Guess you haven't heard of the Old Firm? I also imagine domestic violence is the same across any country or club playing.

You don't have to support any team that you don't want to support.

You can live in a country and not be that nationality and therefore not support that team in a national competition.

Supporting Scotland is a lovely way for you to still feel involved.

In the past I've been involved in sweepstakes for international sports competitions which has given me a team to follow even when Wales hasn't made it.

I see the comments saying "why would you set up home in a country and not support the national team" and I remember living in England during rugby world cups as a Welsh person and there was no way on earth that I would've switched loyalty! I have cousins who've been born in England and raised in England who have a Welsh parent and have played international sport for Wales. They are not going to support England in a sports competition even if they live and work in England.

I live in Wales and we have friends from England, Scotland, France and other countries. They will support their own home nations during the World Cup as is their right. They still engage fully in the community, they love living and working here and we love having them here. I would never ever expect or request or demand that they support Wales just because they live here.

Honestly it’s not that deep.

I’m a passionate fan, hate was probably the wrong word but unfortunately I can’t turn my feelings off at the end of the season and suddenly get behind the players I have disliked from Aug-May.

Like I’ve said in a previous post it wouldn’t bother me at all if England did well or even won it, I’m not ‘rabid’ enough to be supporting whoever plays against them, I simply just wont be cheering them on. I’m gonna enjoy the World Cup as a football fan but just not support anyone in particular. Not sure how I’m part of any “problem”.

In the sense that I don't blame an entire fandom for the behaviour of a small group of people (many of them anonymous online posts) from several years ago then yeah, I guess we do.

I'm supporting France as my 3rd team behind England and Scotland. I've got them in the office sweepstake and took home the pot last time I got them. Plus, I like France and it's almost a second home for me.

Unless you had the spray paint and were making racist comments, why would you feel ashamed? I didn’t know any English fans involved in that and everyone I knew was disgusted. If you’re not doing it, you don’t need to feel ashamed, unless you believe in judging the many by the few. It’s not a good thing to do.

Everyone but the English hates England in the World Cup, keeps it interesting. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

As a country, even taking account of your point about Celtic v Rangers, England still lead the pack. Every game, of every major tournament, the stats are similar. Not so with Scotland internationals.

Support who you like OP. No one cares. Everyone is entitled to support which ever team they want 🤷‍♀️

I don't deny that but I do dispute that Scottish fans are a group of benign fans who never drink and never cause violence when they are away. Of course they do. However I think the behaviour of English fans has massively improved and I don't think I have read about many instances of violent disorder recently.

I am English born & bred but not supporting England.

That said, I am not supporting any country because as far as I am concerned it is a total non-event of absolutely no interest to me whatsoever.
My OH is exactly the same so there will definitely be no football in this house and no supporting of any team.

It's not just football, neither of us follow any type of sport.

What were the teams which won lost in the African cup of nations whose performance caused massive rioting in Paris?

Can you be specific about recent poor behaviour involving travelling England fans?

You've changed the parameters of the question you originally asked, which was:

What 'behaviour' specifically? Have England fans behaved particularly badly at recent World Cups

I gave you an example of behaviour (domestic violence) by England fans that is worse during major tournaments. They might not have been rioting in the streets in recent times (excepting some notable disorder in Germany in 2024 of course...), granted. Yet, I should add.

I usually support Italy and I was born and raised in England. I hate enforced patriotism. They didn't qualify, so I'll be supporting Scotland instead. (I have Italian and Scottish blood in me, as well as Welsh.)