Premiership football support.....I just don't understand the point?

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

I'd be like the OP, The only two teams I support are Wexford GAA and the Irish soccer team. I follow football in general and watch premier league games every weekend but just found it impossible to build a bond with a team, connection just wasn't there.

To be honest a lot of the people that say they follow an english team are just following the crowd and deep down couldn't really care. It's a bit sad really. Even my friends who are Liverpool/Man U mad if either team lose a big game they're fine afterwards laughing and joking. They're not from these places so they just forget about it easily afterwards. Not saying all are like this but I see it often enough.

I've laughed and joked with Mayo and Kerry fans recently after All Ireland Finals, maybe people just react in different ways and don't let sport rule their life?

I think most people don't choose to support English teams, it just happens from a young age. A parent or older sibling supports them so you follow suit.

As a supporter of the team you may go to the city to watch a match, you may enjoy the city and return on a frequent basis. If someone has been to a city twenty times would you class that as having an affinity with a city?

Nokotan wrote: »

I've laughed and joked with Mayo and Kerry fans recently after All Ireland Finals, maybe people just react in different ways and don't let sport rule their life?

Yeah that's true, but even when they win their reactions are subdued. Point I was trying to make is that the majority of people who follow English football teams don't have anywhere near the same passion or connection with said team as people who follow teams from where they are from. With a few exceptions obviously.

weldoninhio wrote: »

Why do people watch US TV shows like The Wire or The Sopranos. Shows to me are an extension of primary identity. The only shows I watch are Ros Na Run and Fair City.

Different people like different things SHOCKER


Congrats on figuring that out OP.

i dont think the point was about watching it and enjoying it it was about following one particular team with a great passion.


i love watching the premiership as a product but i would not be able to passionately support a team from Liverpool any more than i could one from barcalona or new york, because i'm not from any of those places, i dont have any connection to them as such.


mind you good luck to them each to their own and all that.



i was once in the pub with a mate of mine who claims to be a big Liverpool fan ( never been to liverpool) he shouted at another fella in the pub that he was ''manc filth'' , the other chap was also from mayo, in turn called my friend a ''scouse ****''. they then started chanting at each other in bad put on english accents which were both more cockney then northern.
the chants were all grossly offensive.
this is the kind of carry on that i feel is taking it too far.

There's few things cringier than Irish people referring to themselves or others as scousers or mancs.

Irish Liverpool fans are an odd breed. If you slag off the city of London to an Arsenal/Spurs fan or the city of Manchester to a United fan they tend to just shrug their shoulders. Say anything negative about the city of Liverpool to an LFC fan and they're on the defensive straight away. A lot of them genuinely think that supporting Liverpool makes them different to other football fans and that they're part of some sort of special football family.

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Wow iv never heard of people in a pub acting like at*eholes before !!!

and if ever there is a thread about d''o people behave like assholes in pubs and should they be allowed '' then ill quote my story in it and we can debate if its a good thing or a bad thing.

the point i was making was about the strange phenomenon of people form Ireland supporting english clubs to a degree that might be considered by some (me), as excessive.

It’s an escapism.

Do you have an issue with folks who support a Formula 1 team or driver?

I think the undertone of OP’s post is…why an Irish person supports a British club.

I support Bohemians and Man Utd. Bohs because a relitive of ours played for them and our family grew up a stones throw from Dalymount. United because as a kid I’d just grown up watching them, liked how they played, the ethos of attacking, entertaining football. That said I began supporting them in an era where success wasn’t as prevalent as it has been recently and even just seeing them on tv was a big thrill before satellite/digital was a thing.

SoupyNorman wrote: »

It’s an escapism.

Do you have an issue with folks who support a Formula 1 team or driver?

I think the undertone of OP’s post is…why an Irish person supports a British club.

i would if it meant that a grown man dressed head to toe in Ferrari gear started calling another irish man dressed head to toe in Mcclaren gear a litany of abusive names, i would find it very silly juvenile and strange.

It's all about the hype and the atmosphere.

Take any football game and remove the hype, the build up, the impressive stadia, the passionate commentators, the 24/7 media coverage and the chants and cheers of thousands of spectators and you reduce it to it's essence. 22 players kicking a ball around a field. Without the smoke and mirrors it's equivalent to watching a sitcom without the laugh track. It will not have the same psychological impact. Imagine watching Seinfeld without a laugh track? Quality writing delivered by well honed comedians but while being incredibly funny it would just seem weird and off without the implied laughter cues that a laugh track/live audience reaction provides. Go and watch youtube videos of The Big Bang Theory without the canned laughter. It's an awful turgid watch. In football matches, the smoke and mirrors are football's laugh track.

If you took LOI level squads and had them play their matches with the same smoke and mirrors invested in and afforded to PL and Champions League games then the subjective quality of the players themselves become moot but the subjective quality of the football increases psychologically. You'd have a prim and proper host and endless talk with pundits beforehand conveying a sense of importance to the upcoming Cork City v Dundalk match, you'd have Martin Tyler delivering his slick commentary, you'd have dedicated TV channels to Cork City FC and you'd have thousands of fans generating an "event" like atmosphere in an Old Trafford type arena for what is in reality a bunch of full time footballers running around a pitch trying to win a match.

In essence, you would be making a silk purse of a sow's ear.