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Why did you choose to support your team?

124

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,014 ✭✭✭Eirebear


    SectionF wrote: »

    As for saying I'd go to Old Trafford/Stamford Bridge more if I could afford it, isn't that the point? You don't live there, they haven't invented the technology affordably to beam you there yet. So it's not real to follow that team exclusively at the expense of a team where you do live.

    Football is about the game being played as a real sport, for real people and communities, in places you can touch and feel. Television is about looking at things happening very, very far away.

    While i agree with idea of what your saying, i cant particularly agree with this.

    I moved from Glasgow to Donegal at the age of 9, by that point i had had my first season ticket at Ibrox, i had seen my first old firm game and i was well on my way to having the passion for Rangers as i have now.

    It wasnt possible for me and my dad to travel over to ibrox every week to watch the football, and Scottish football was very rarely on the telly at that point.

    The things we did to get to know what was happening when Rangers played was amazing, we would drive the car down the road a little bit to a point were we could pick up an extremely faint and crackly reception of Radio Scotland and listen to the games there.
    I even remember going to the pub and "watching" the Old Firm game on Teletext! :eek:

    We would do ANYTHING within our possible reach in order to get some sort of live commentary on the game, and in many ways still do.

    My younger brothers grew up with this, the youngest of them was actually born in Donegal, and both of them are as fanatical about Rangers as myself, are you saying this is wrong and they should be supporting Finn Harps?
    because i wouldnt fancy trying to tell them that!

    What i am trying to say is, that while i understand your point about supporting a foreign team is at the expense of your local club, but to say that watching them on TV or listening on the radio if theyre not on TV makes them any less passionate about that particular club is wrong.

    People who are on edge when they know their team are playing, no matter where in the world they are, and will do ANYTHING they possibly can to get information on whats going on before they can relax are every bit as as passionate as those who stand in the terraces every week.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,745 ✭✭✭✭Villain


    I must be getting old in Boards terms I've seen a few of these threads over the years.

    Anway I started supporting Villa when Houghton, Townsend, Staunton and GOD (aka McGrath) were playing for them as I didn't want to be a glory hunter like my brothers who just picked Liverpool because they were winning everything at the time.

    I always laugh when people ask who I support and I say Villa and they laugh, I always say "are you one of those soccer fans that only wants 4 teams in the league". I don't have a problem with people supporting Utd or Liverpool but I do have a problem with those fans laughing at other teams because they decided to follow a top team.

    Up the Villa


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 41,926 ✭✭✭✭_blank_


    Ha ha.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,014 ✭✭✭Eirebear


    I have extremely mixed feelings about this thread.

    I have already made my feelings clear on the TV Vs Live action debate, but i find it really hard to understand the fact that people are able to just go ahead and "pick" a team to support.

    Surely there must be some form of attachment, some form of feeling within your actual being in order to really support a football team?

    This is where i side with the "local" team argument, at least with them, no matter how bad theyt may be, there is some sense of pride in them, some sense of camaradary with the people beside you in the stands or watching with you on the TV?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭eddiehead


    Eirebear wrote: »
    I have extremely mixed feelings about this thread.

    I have already made my feelings clear on the TV Vs Live action debate, but i find it really hard to understand the fact that people are able to just go ahead and "pick" a team to support.

    Surely there must be some form of attachment, some form of feeling within your actual being in order to really support a football team?

    This is where i side with the "local" team argument, at least with them, no matter how bad theyt may be, there is some sense of pride in them, some sense of camaradary with the people beside you in the stands or watching with you on the TV?

    Excellent point, as a Chelsea fan, I certainly fall into that category of fan. The thing is, Im from Carlow, I went to school with most of my local team, I really dont fancy having there posters on my wall, lol.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 41,926 ✭✭✭✭_blank_


    topnutz wrote: »
    Excellent point, as a Chelsea fan, I certainly fall into that category of fan. The thing is, Im from Carlow, I went to school with most of my local team, I really dont fancy having there posters on my wall, lol.
    Do you have Chelsea posters on your wall?

    :confused:

    Ashley, is it?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭eddiehead


    DesF wrote: »
    Do you have Chelsea posters on your wall?

    :confused:

    Ashley, is it?

    Not my point.....but YES*, problem?:D....

    Maybe "Posters on the wall" was the wrong analogy

    *may not actually be true


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭bohsman


    topnutz wrote: »
    Excellent point, as a Chelsea fan, I certainly fall into that category of fan. The thing is, Im from Carlow, I went to school with most of my local team, I really dont fancy having there posters on my wall, lol.

    Id prefer to support people I went to school with than the likes of Ballack who signs for Chelsea at 100k a week and starts complaining about house prices.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭eddiehead


    bohsman wrote: »
    Id prefer to support people I went to school with than the likes of Ballack who signs for Chelsea at 100k a week and starts complaining about house prices.

    Fair point, but I think you missed my point. Supporting a local Dublin(EL) team is very different from most of the rest of the country, ye have stands, we have fields ,lol. The nearest EL/1st Div teams to me are the likes of Wexford or Kildare, niether of which I have any more affiliation to than Chelsea or Man U, so forgive me if I was bowled over by the more glamorous option as a kid.;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭bohsman


    Absolutely, people can support whoever they like, I have no problem with it, I just expect others to feel the same, ie not laugh at me when I say I follow Bohs and ask me who I really follow saying the el is ****e etc.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭eddiehead


    bohsman wrote: »
    Absolutely, people can support whoever they like, I have no problem with it, I just expect others to feel the same, ie not laugh at me when I say I follow Bohs and ask me who I really follow saying the el is ****e etc.

    +1,

    Id be delighted if Shels or Bohs etc were my local team, you should see what us culchie types have to settle for:eek:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    jank wrote: »
    So true. Football on TV is an event to be watched. Unfortunately for the EL the PL is sexy and attacts all the plaudits making the job to promote the EL much harder. The EL's quality has come on leaps and bounds in the last ten years but people dont give much of a toss about it. They would prefer to have their heine in a nice comfy chair watching United vs Wigan rather then go do the road and expereince real football where they can get invovled, all be it at a slightly less quality.

    Off the bat I'll just say I prefer watching my favorite team live than on TV.
    BUT to say the stuff on TV isn't 'real football' is just plain silly. Some people do prefer to watch matches alone. They like to watch the match undisturbed by (often inebriated) people yelling nearby. They like the added benefit of television replays and professional (depends on who they have on) commentary.
    I'm not saying either option is the one true way to watch football. Given the choice (money not being an option) I'd take a live match over the same match on TV any day of the week. But to say the guys who watch the champions League final on TV arent watching 'real football' is plain ludicrous.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 787 ✭✭✭bUILDERtHEbOB


    I started supporting Liverpool because one day in school my friend said that he supports Liverpool, I was 9. Honestly I don't see the point in just stopping supporting them even if there foreign, but I do attend the odd EL match.;)


  • Posts: 596 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    It was 1984 and I was a wee seven-year-old girl.

    My dad was very animated watching the European Cup final on telly, and was shouting for the team in red.

    I remember seeing a funny goalkeeper in a green shirt jumping around, waving his arms and pretending to be drunk. And I liked those red shirts.

    That was it, I was a Liverpool fan. Been over to Anfield more times than I can remember (on my own on some occasions!)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,700 ✭✭✭brayblue24


    Indeed you could be supporting Shels.:eek:


    Yep, that's where I was going with that one ( although not nowadays obviously )....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,985 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    brayblue24 wrote: »
    ( although not nowadays obviously )....

    ?????:confused:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,856 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    I was indoctrinated as a child, all my family are United fans.

    Having a vested interest makes watching sports all the more interesting, so ya might as well pick a team and support it, and United was my first team so I shalln't be defecting!

    I don't have any other reason to follow United (eg. proximity, family ties), nor do I take it too seriously, but life is more interesting if you devote yourself to some degree to something, and in the realm of sports, my thing is Man United.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,103 ✭✭✭estebancambias


    DaveMcG wrote: »
    I was indoctrinated as a child, all my family are United fans.

    Having a vested interest makes watching sports all the more interesting, so ya might as well pick a team and support it, and United was my first team so I shalln't be defecting!

    I don't have any other reason to follow United (eg. proximity, family ties), nor do I take it too seriously, but life is more interesting if you devote yourself to some degree to something, and in the realm of sports, my thing is Man United.

    Which is why I am devoted to Catholicism.:pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,856 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Ah -- I knew you were too smart to actually believe that crap! :pac: Actually wait...

    ;)

    edit: That's twice I've e-winked at you in the past minute... people will talk ¬_¬


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭jank


    Off the bat I'll just say I prefer watching my favorite team live than on TV.
    BUT to say the stuff on TV isn't 'real football' is just plain silly. Some people do prefer to watch matches alone. They like to watch the match undisturbed by (often inebriated) people yelling nearby. They like the added benefit of television replays and professional (depends on who they have on) commentary.
    I'm not saying either option is the one true way to watch football. Given the choice (money not being an option) I'd take a live match over the same match on TV any day of the week. But to say the guys who watch the champions League final on TV arent watching 'real football' is plain ludicrous.

    Now i never said you are not a football fan if you watch a match on tv. But watching it on TV doesnt fill your senses like it does when you go to watch a live match, any live match! Is it real football? Well maybe the word real isnt the right word to describe it. Maybe diluted.

    What i was saying is that TV makes it much more accessable for anybody to watch a game and to follow a PL team when they wouldnt even dream of going down the road to follow an EL team.

    I suppose this form of entertainment attracts alot of event junkies who only watch 2 or 3 matches a year on tv. I couldnt even watch the game mid week in my usual local cause it was packed. Where were all these guys during the usual league game vs villa, man city, even bacra when the pub was generally empty. It just boggles the mind.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,700 ✭✭✭brayblue24


    ?????:confused:


    That does look a bit cryptic actually. I meant that this is the first time that supporting Bray is prefferable to supporting Shels (however long that lasts)....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,951 ✭✭✭DSB


    brayblue24 wrote: »
    That does look a bit cryptic actually. I meant that this is the first time that supporting Bray is prefferable to supporting Shels (however long that lasts)....

    Ah now. Lets not go too far.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    Honestly I don't see the point in just stopping supporting them even if there foreign, but I do attend the odd EL match.;)
    Nothing wrong with that. While I am one of these people who find it difficult to understand why people support (usually) successful teams from abroad, it only really pisses me off when they dismiss the EL as rubbish, even though most have never even been to a game. Or worse still, when they do go to a European game involving an EL team and shout for the opposition because they recognise one of their players, e.g. Henrik Larsson.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭SectionF


    Galvasean wrote: »
    BUT to say the stuff on TV isn't 'real football' is just plain silly. Some people do prefer to watch matches alone. They like to watch the match undisturbed by (often inebriated) people yelling nearby. They like the added benefit of television replays and professional (depends on who they have on) commentary.
    That's television! :D

    You're watching a production that purports to represent reality, but it can never be reality, and in fact you seem to want it to insulate you from reality. Yes, they are pointing their cameras at and talking about real football, but they can never deliver real football, because that doesn't happen in living rooms and in pubs.

    Cutting out crowd noise and adding replays, slo-mo, graphics, music, and rent-a-quote (RTE) or bland (BBC, Sky) pundits makes it even less football, and more a television show. Which is grand, so long as you are conscious of what you are viewing and don't try to kid yourself otherwise.

    PS: sometimes live football fans are inebriated, as are live GAA, rugby and cricket fans, and sometimes viewers of television football programmes are inebriated. They all also are prone to the odd outbreak of yelling, and sometimes they might even use rude words, like An Taoiseach. Imagine!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,951 ✭✭✭DSB


    SectionF wrote: »
    That's television! :D

    You're watching a production that purports to represent reality, but it can never be reality, and in fact you seem to want it to insulate you from reality. Yes, they are pointing their cameras at and talking about real football, but they can never deliver real football, because that doesn't happen in living rooms and in pubs.

    Cutting out crowd noise and adding replays, slo-mo, graphics, music, and rent-a-quote (RTE) or bland (BBC, Sky) pundits makes it even less football, and more a television show. Which is grand, so long as you are conscious of what you are viewing and don't try to kid yourself otherwise.

    Excellent post.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,103 ✭✭✭estebancambias


    In my eyes going to a match simply means you are not lazy. As I said before I go to Eircom League or Ireland matches to feel part of something, when I watch at home it requires much more concentration on the actual match.

    Football is a spectacle it makes no different if your looking from the side of the pitch or a million miles away.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,985 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    In my eyes going to a match simply means you are not lazy. As I said before I go to Eircom League or Ireland matches to feel part of something, when I watch at home it requires much more concentration on the actual match.

    Football is a spectacle it makes no different if your looking from the side of the pitch or a million miles away.

    There's a different though, League of Ireland needs money badly whereas FAI don't.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,166 ✭✭✭Cheeky_gal


    Hammerette born and bred!

    All began those sweet 17 years ago...

    Dads a hooligan...

    *Forever Blowing Bubbles*

    :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,985 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    Cheeky_gal wrote: »

    Dads a hooligan...


    Is he Irish?

    Just I know the likes of the Headhunters (Chelsea), Bushwackers (Millwall) despise the Irish, I'd guess the ICF would aswell.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,166 ✭✭✭Cheeky_gal


    Is he Irish?

    Just I know the likes of the Headhunters (Chelsea), Bushwackers (Millwall) despise the Irish, I'd guess the ICF would aswell.

    Oh yea, daddy aka "the major"...

    Yea he's Irish...

    *GSE


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