Changing allegiances

Lawrence1895

bohsman wrote: »

It's different here because the majority support foreign teams and don't grow up going to games. (Not starting some LOI EPL thing here, more try starting this thread in the GAA forum and see the response)

Must be the influence of the GAA, isn't it?

I'm here for 8 years now, and I never fully understood, why 'foreign' teams are more important than a local team.

Maybe it's really different in Germany, usually, you are born into a team, like your Dad takes you to a match, shortly after you learn to walk...and in 99.9% of all cases, that works out well.

super_furry

Fenix wrote: »

Mate of mine supported Blackburn all through school (Early prem), lost interest around 2000, now sports a City top at least twice a week.

I know a similar lad went from Blackburn to United and likes to pretend he never supported Blackburn. Went nuts when there were old pictures of him in a Blackburn shirt stuck up on facebook.

bohsman

Lars1916 wrote: »

Must be the influence of the GAA, isn't it?

I don't think so, it's more that the massive marketing machine that is Sky Sports and the Premier League have been doing a great job gaining support since 1993.

If anything the GAA would get people more interested in all things Irish.

Lawrence1895

super_furry wrote: »

I know a similar lad went from Blackburn to United and likes to pretend he never supported Blackburn. Went nuts when there were old pictures of him in a Blackburn shirt stuck up on facebook.

Did he ever walk around Ewood Park in his United jersey?

Lawrence1895

bohsman wrote: »

I don't think so, it's more that the massive marketing machine that is Sky Sports and the Premier League have been doing a great job gaining support since 1993.

If anything the GAA would get people more interested in all things Irish.

I can understand the GAA part, it's some sort of tradition alright.

But why is the Airtricity League not supported in the same way? I guess, higher attendances at the matches would create more revenue...

magma69

I used to be a hard core fan of Liverpool and didn't care for LOI. The opposite is more accurate now.

The_Kew_Tour

The only one that sticks out for me is lad who supported Norwich, Aston Villa and now Blackburn when in school. Stuck with them since to be fair.

Kinda had soft spot for Spurs when they had Gazza and Lineker, but that faded soon enough.

Will I Amnt

Used to work with a fella that supported Manchester United,seemed like a die hard tbh.
Then Chelsea won their 2 in a row under Mourinho and he said "f**k this,think I'll support Chelsea next season"
Me thinking it a joke just laughed.

New season kicks off he arrives in sporting a full Chelsea tracksuit with jersey underneath :eek:
United winning the next few seasons was a source of great entertainment.

Just shows how fickle some fans can be,all he did was talk about United before that.

bohsman

Lars1916 wrote: »

I can understand the GAA part, it's some sort of tradition alright.

But why is the Airtricity League not supported in the same way? I guess, higher attendances at the matches would create more revenue...

There's an endless list of excuses but it basically is because parents didn't bring their kids to games so their first club became an English one, when exactly that started happening I'm not sure. When Match of the day started being shown here I would say.

The_Kew_Tour

bohsman wrote: »

There's an endless list of excuses but it basically is because parents didn't bring their kids to games so their first club became an English one, when exactly that started happening I'm not sure. When Match of the day started being shown here I would say.

Ya hard to believe that in places like Cork 2 teams would get 20-25,000 at games each week easy.

Now 2,000 is seen as decent crowd in LOI.

Pity.

sReq | uTeK

I remember being 8 or 10 and supporting liverpool even had a stan collymoore jersey that was bought for me however I did it as all my mates were pool supporters and I grew up on a rough enough estate where you didn't really have an opinion you just did what your mates did especially if you hung out with mates that were 2/3 years older than you.

Ironically when I started playing ball and watching ball properly around the age of 12 I realised quickly it was united who I liked and also cause dad supported them.

It's been united every day since and couldn't imagine ever changing even if we don't buy a CM for a few years.

Lawrence1895

bohsman wrote: »

There's an endless list of excuses but it basically is because parents didn't bring their kids to games so their first club became an English one, when exactly that started happening I'm not sure. When Match of the day started being shown here I would say.

Let's put it this way, I would bring my stepson to Tolka. But the kick off times are usually brutal. And there is no chance of matches to be played on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, because everybody wants to watch the EPL, I suppose?

bohsman

Lars1916 wrote: »

Let's put it this way, I would bring my stepson to Tolka. But the kick off times are usually brutal. And there is no chance of matches to be played on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, because everybody wants to watch the EPL, I suppose?

Correct, I really like games with a 6pm or so kickoff time on a Saturday but just doesnt work for most teams.

tok9

I remember my cousin/next door neighbour trying to get me and the brother to support Everton when we were between 4-6 but we were having none of it

Then the brother decided to support United so I said grand I will too. Never really properly followed them tbh, only if a big game was on but once I turned about 12 or 13 and really got into soccer I started to support Liverpool.

Now that I look back I'm not sure why I changed really as no one in the family other than the brother followed soccer massively and he was a bit of an avid United fan by that stage... so maybe it was just to compete.

I've gone from not caring about soccer too much to watching Liverpool reserve matches!

Lawrence1895

bohsman wrote: »

Correct, I really like games with a 6pm or so kickoff time on a Saturday but just doesnt work for most teams.

And then you have some brutal public transport in the evening, which makes it even harder for away supporters to attend a match.

I give it up...but just for the moment

LuckyLloyd

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

I remember being 8 or 10 and supporting liverpool even had a stan collymoore jersey that was bought for me however I did it as all my mates were pool supporters and I grew up on a rough enough estate where you didn't really have an opinion you just did what your mates did especially if you hung out with mates that were 2/3 years older than you.

Ironically when I started playing ball and watching ball properly around the age of 12 I realised quickly it was united who I liked Utd who won the league every year while Liverpool sucked and also cause dad supported them.

It's been united every day since and couldn't imagine ever changing even if we don't buy a CM for a few years.

Fixed that for you.

sReq | uTeK

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Fixed that for you.

token101

Supported Utd for about a week until I realised I hated every single one of their fans from my school. So my cousin got me supporting City with Big Niall and the mighty Uwe Rosler up front. It was pretty grim until about 5 years ago and now you get the United clowns making their hilarious jokes about you being a glory hunter. Also keep an eye on Huddersfield as I used to live there for a little bit, again usually grim until last year.

Mint Sauce

Supported Chelsea for one season in the late 80's, then switched to Liverpool as most of the lads in class supported/followed them, supported them since.

Have followed AFC Wimbledon since their formation and have seen them a few times at Kingsmeadow, as used to go to Plough Lane as a kid to see Wimbledon FC, and followed them until they left Selhurst Park.

Skylinehead

token101 wrote: »

Supported Utd for about a week until I realised I hated every single one of their fans from my school. So my cousin got me supporting City with Big Niall and the mighty Uwe Rosler up front. It was pretty grim until about 5 years ago and now you get the United clowns making their hilarious jokes about you being a glory hunter. Also keep an eye on Huddersfield as I used to live there for a little bit, again usually grim until last year.

Funny, because a hell of a lot of United fans who grew up in the late 90s is a gloryhunter. My school had 20 people in our class, me (Arsenal fan), a mate (Celtic) and the rest United fans.

AgileMyth

Skylinehead wrote: »

Funny, because a hell of a lot of United fans who grew up in the late 90s is a gloryhunter. My school had 20 people in our class, me (Arsenal fan), a mate (Celtic) and the rest United fans.

I went to primary school in the 90's so most of my class were United fans, except the ones with older brothers, they were Liverpool fans. Irish people are idiots when it comes to football.

Gavin "shels"

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Actually going to matches makes a big difference.

This!

I can bet you that the likes of myself, CSF, and the other lads who have a strong connection with their clubs e.g. volunteering, selling programmes, etc... who travel home and away wouldn't switch allegiance. Could you imagine myself suddenly going to Shamrock Rovers matches? God no, most Shels fans even back in 2006/2007 when we though Shels were done had void to try getting a new team set up and follow them whatever League or just support the AFL side. I know a few lads who have season tickets at English clubs, granted there's not the same connection but they wouldn't suddenly switch clubs.

Someone who watches the odd Man Utd/Liverpool/Celtic, etc... game on TV when it's live on ESPN or Sky has little or no connection thus making it easy to swatch.

bohsman

One Shels fan briefly switched to Bohs a few years ago, think he stopped following the league shortly after though. Then there's jump jump, got beaten up by Rovers fans while supporting Rovers so started going to Bohs games, went back to Rovers when they won the league.

GLaDOS

bohsman wrote: »

One Shels fan briefly switched to Bohs a few years ago, think he stopped following the league shortly after though. Then there's jump jump, got beaten up by Rovers fans while supporting Rovers so started going to Bohs games, went back to Rovers when they won the league.

He's back at Bohs matches now, he isn't the full shilling in fairness though.

Flincher

Used to support Blackburn in primary school. I remember some of my friends were supporting Man U because they were top of the table. I said I didn't like them. I asked my dad who won the previous year and he said Blackburn, so I started supporting them.

It was more rugby took over, I started going to Munster games and playing rugby when I started secondary school that saw my interest in football drop. I'm back playing a bit of soccer now and I tend to follow it a bit more, but I don't have a real passion for any team now. I keep an eye on Blackburn and develop soft spots for teams depending on their style of play, who they have playing for them, etc. This season I've more of an interest in Liverpool than usual, mainly because I'm fascinated to see how Rodgers will get on. I always like to see the newly promoted teams doing well. I've a soft spot for Everton and Norwich at the moment.

I don't really miss following it like I did, I can get to 15-20 Munster games a year, and knowing a couple of the lads on the team makes it very personal, so I get my live sports fix from that.

The point about a lot of Liverpool fans having older brothers is a good one. Of the 3 good friends I know who support Liverpool, 2 have older brothers who supported them, and one lads' father was a Liverpool supporter. I suppose in the 90s there wasn't the same attraction to follow teams other than United. I know a good few Arsenal supporters as well, but they would be a couple of years younger than me.

Zebra3

-Ade- wrote: »

Actually, I know a couple people who switched allegiances from other clubs to Chelsea when Roman came along.

That clown that used to do Soccer AM being one.

Watford were no longer good enough for him. :rolleyes:

Paul Tergat

Cant imagine supporting anyone other than United. Nobody can ever tell someone what a club means to them and its retarded when people try to do so

Gavin "shels"

Paul Tergat wrote: »

Cant imagine supporting anyone other than United. Nobody can ever tell someone what a club means to them and its retarded when people try to do so

What do they mean to you?

And what would happen if Man Utd suddenly dropped down a few divisions for whatever reason and weren't on TV or anything anymore, how would you and the rest of their foreign support continue to "follow" them?

Owryan

Zebra3 wrote: »

-Ade- wrote: »

Actually, I know a couple people who switched allegiances from other clubs to Chelsea when Roman came along.

That clown that used to do Soccer AM being one.

Watford were no longer good enough for him. :rolleyes:

Elton John??

The_Kew_Tour

Gavin shels wrote: »

What do they mean to you?

And what would happen if Man Utd suddenly dropped down a few divisions for whatever reason and weren't on TV or anything anymore, how would you and the rest of their foreign support continue to "follow" them?

If you were as good as to tell your own Supporters to go to Tolka every week rather then showing up at Cup finals maybe you could have a decent crowd now and then