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Why do Irish people support English teams?

DEFTLEFTHAND

I was born and raised in Tipperary. My mother kept the home when Dad worked.

Dad worked in the merchant navy for yrs and loved soccer.

He lived in Inchicore when I was born. He was an officer on the Holyhead ferry.

We used to go to Richmond Park. Some of my earliest memomories in life are of him swearing and getting angry with me up on his lap.

He was a very emotive man, but very loving.

I just could never get why most of Dublin and the rest of the country supported the English league .

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lbc2019

Something to make small talk about in school/work

Avatar MIA

barney shamrock wrote: »

Would be devastated if it is, he was my hero.

Pfft he wasn't fit to tie Billy's Boots!

blade1

pawdee wrote: »

I support Melchester Rovers because my dad played for them back in the 70s.

And my dad played for Tynecaster Utd.

Gonad

We have a great product on our door step . It could be much much better if Irish people supoorted it better . I know it works both ways but if Irish people actually just went to a game every week at home we would be flying

https://youtu.be/acRQXajXnJw

Lefty Bicek

Omackeral wrote: »

Then why do the people of Middlesbrough follow Middlesbrough and why do the people of Bristol support Bristol Rovers or Bristol City?

And why do the people of Manchester follow City ?

OldMrBrennan83

Stadiums are too bad, clubs don't really bother trying to get new people to show up (probably Bohs aside), and the real cliquey attitude from long term attendees needs a big change, so you're left with watching either league on telly. At that stage I wouldn't blame people going English as the coverage of the LOI here is woeful anyway. I follow our domestic game and not the English one any more but it's not easy find coverage.

I still can't understand 'loving' an English club though, never did even when I followed it.

_

IAMAMORON

barney shamrock wrote: »

Wow, did he know Roy Race well? He was supposed to be a raving coke addled alcoholic cross dressing womaniser in real life.
Can you ask your dad if any of this is true?
Would be devastated if it is, he was my hero.

I never believed the cross dressing rumours myself, papers will print anything these days.

Kidchameleon

The Irish league is crap. Im not trying to be smart but that is the reason nobody watches it. Look at how a league in Ireland can be run (GAA) compared to how the FAI run the LOI and you will see the reason why

Patrick2010

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Irish league is crap. Im not trying to be smart but that is the reason nobody watches it. Look at how a league in Ireland can be run (GAA) compared to how the FAI run the LOI and you will see the reason why

Full houses in Richmond and Dalymount last night, someone is watching it

blade1

IAMAMORON wrote: »

I never believed the cross dressing rumours myself, papers will print anything these days.

I heard Blackie Gray was banging Penny Laine behind Roy's back :eek:

Drumpot

I can say with confidence that The best way to promote Irish soccer is not to take a quite petty stance conveyed here by some. I used to go to shelbourne games regularly but for numerous reasons don’t go and don’t follow them since the late 90s. I keep an eye on their results but Drogheda would be an easier team ,logistical for me to support.

Perhaps there is a marketing element to things. We see more of Liverpool and united on tv. We see more successful teams more, they appeal to children and people grow up with an affection to those teams. How can people in Ireland watch teams in the 3rd division of the English league?

Supporting the same team as your father or even because as a child you enjoyed watching a certain team or player is as good a reason as any to support a team. I’m a Dub and will only ever be a Dublin fan but as somebody who plays both codes I understand there are completely different cultures to the sport. In many regards international soccer is closer to GAA inter county football then club soccer.

If you don’t understand why people support English teams passionately, maybe you should just not bother getting upset about it. I don’t understand why people watch the Kardashian stuff and the likes but I try not to spend time putting these people down. I don’t understand the fascination so I don’t worry about it.

[Deleted User]

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Irish league is crap. Im not trying to be smart

That's obvious. The Irish League is what they up there play in.

OldMrBrennan83

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Irish league is crap. Im not trying to be smart but that is the reason nobody watches it. Look at how a league in Ireland can be run (GAA) compared to how the FAI run the LOI and you will see the reason why

It sure is. Not a patch on the League of Ireland.

Trump Is Right

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I was born and raised in Tipperary. My mother kept the home when Dad worked.

Dad worked in the merchant navy for yrs and loved soccer.

He lived in Inchicore when I was born. He was an officer on the Holyhead ferry.

We used to go to Richmond Park. Some of my earliest memomories in life are of him swearing and getting angry with me up on his lap.

He was a very emotive man, but very loving.

I just could never get why most of Dublin and the rest of the country supported the English league .

1) The FAI - those bunch of clowns couldn't organise a fire in match factory.. :P.. as a result the LOI is one of the worst organised top leagues in Europe. Teams regularly get into financial trouble after being top of the league for several seasons. (I'd be expecting Dundalk to end up struggling against relegation in a few seasons time, and running out of money for wages soon after that)

2) Too many teams for such a small Island. This means what support we do have for domestic football, is too thinly spread... so there is very little scope for growth in fanbase. Look at the Rugby guys, they were smart enough to only divide our small rugby fanbase into 4 teams... this means even the weakest of the 4 provinces can still potentially get strong crowds if successful.

But it all really comes down to the FAI and Delaney. They are completely useless and really appear to answer to no-one. They have no strong vision for football on this Island, and as a result we are a ship without a captain... going nowhere fast!

We should have a football association that can be voted out of office when they f*ck things up. The Saipan incident is a great example... how in hell did that gobsh*te Delaney manage to keep his cushy job after that complete circus of calamity during the 2002 world cup??

That is the starting point... so long as we have clowns running the show from the top, with practically zero accountability to the fans, then there will be zero progress within domestic football on this Island.

blade1

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

It sure is. Not a patch on the League of Ireland.

How does the support compare?
Genuine question.

AllForIt

This reminds me of my childhood were every lad in my class if not the whole school had a British football team branded schoolbag.

In later years younger kids would ask me 'who do you support'. Just cause this would annoy me I'd pretend I didn't know what they meant as if football didn't even need to be mentioned as it was implied in the question.

Point is indoctrination to British foolball starts at a very young age. If you had no interest you'd be considered an odd-ball. I was always so clear that there were so many ppl who just played along with it and actually didn't give a fuk about football and I think this happens still to this day, national team sports included.

Ian OB

demanufactured wrote: »

Exackkkly

Gimme sum

Avatar MIA

Ian OB wrote: »

Gimme sum

Too far!

OldMrBrennan83

blade1 wrote: »

How does the support compare?
Genuine question.

From what I could find the average so far in the Irish league Premier is 1137 (lowest 282 Warrenpoint Town, highest 2467 Linfield).

In the League of Ireland last season the average was 2151 (lowest 688 Bray Wanderers, highest 4116 Cork City).

mjsc1970

Omackeral wrote: »

IAMAMORON wrote: »

I remember seeing a fight on a Saturday afternoon in a pub in Drimnagh between Liverpool and Man United fans, I will never ever get over the sight of Irish men fighting each other wearing British soccer jerseys.

I honest to god saw a fella squaring up to the ref (on the telly) before. Honest to god. Was a Man United match also as it happens. His mates telling him to leave it. Just mind boggling.

ðŸ€£

Maurice Yeltsin

I cringe when I think of my previous life as a diehard Liverpool fan. I completely lost interest when I got off my hole and started following my local LOI side. Are some matches muck? Yes. But the majority are an intense competition between two teams of reasonably similar quality. Yes, either one would get hockeyed against Man City but at its own level it's highly enjoyable, not to mention the prospect of European qualification and the very slim chance your team may meet a European heavyweight or two if they get far enough. I still enjoy the pints and the atmosphere at a poor match, which is more than I can say for when I nearly fell asleep on the couch watching the Merseyside derby last weekend, or Liverpool's limp attempt to put a 10 point gap at City when they played them in December, or the North West derby the other week. That right there is 270 minutes of awful, pedestrian,boring football that Martin O'Neill be ashamed to put out in his last months. 270 minutes of my weekends wasted, to think my brother pays 50 odd quid a month to buy this rubbish.

I still think it would be nice to see Liverpool win the league, but their Irish fans have become as insufferable as the United lads used to be before they went to pot. I truly couldn't give a fiddlers any more. The worst about them being the ones who are somewhat under the illusion they are actually from Liverpool, that things like Hillsborough are/ were a personal assault on them.

And I know an Everton fan even more convinced hes actually from the region, an irrational hatred of the redmen, harps on every now and then about how Heysel got them banned from Europe (he would've been about four when Heysel happened). He's from bleedin Dundalk.

I don't understand how Irish people can't mix it up in their support. Plenty of, for example, Scottish fans have love for an English club while still putting money and support into their local side. Ditto Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch as well I think.

I would somewhat buy into the argument for country folk who have no local team. The GAA makes county rivalries more heated than, say, a man from Wocestershire supporting Aston Villa a few miles away in the nearest town. Given the rivalry they've grown up with you can half understand a man from Kells not supporting Bohs or Drogheda/ Dundalk (in saying that I do know of lads from Kildare and Wicklow who follow Rovers. And plenty of country lads living in Dublin have no qualms about adopting Bohs/ Shels/ Pats seeing as they've no local team to be tied to) But people from the main towns and cities have no excuse. When Manchester United go to the darkest corners of Eastern Europe in the group stages the stadium isn't 10 percent home fans, 10 percent travelling fans and 80 percent Belarussians wearing Man Utd jerseys, yet if they ended up coming here for a European tie (which would likely be played as the Aviva as per regs) that's exactly the crowd you would be getting.

YFlyer

Yamanoto wrote: »

Coddle by the Poddle
vs.
Hoddle & Waddle.

COYS

YFlyer

Omackeral wrote: »

This will then be followed up with "ah clubs are different to national teams". Then why do the people of Middlesbrough follow Middlesbrough and why do the people of Bristol support Bristol Rovers or Bristol City?

People from London support Manchester United.

EmmetSpiceland

Went to a few LoI games during my college years. The UCD home games were fine, although very poorly attended. I found going to some of the bigger games between more established Dublin rivals a different story altogether. The crowd on the terrace, or shed, seemed to care more about the fighting with rival supporters than the game itself.

I would hope that things have changed in the intervening years but I’m not so sure. The LoI need to do more to stamp out that sort of nonsense as it is still viewed by and large as a throwback to the hooliganism of English football in the 80’s with the rival firms and the Stanley blade carrying ultras.

orourkeda1977

Omackeral wrote: »

Ah that old chestnut. Gas how it's never Luton Town or Birmingham City even though the Irish flooded those places.

Now that you mention it, I have family in the Birmingham Area. A number of them lived in Small Heath for years and are all Birmingham City supporters.

It does happen.

orourkeda1977

YFlyer wrote: »

People from London support Manchester United.

Well, we call them people

OldMrBrennan83

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Went to a few LoI games during my college years. The UCD home games were fine, although very poorly attended. I found going to some of the bigger games between more established Dublin rivals a different story altogether. The crowd on the terrace, or shed, seemed to care more about the fighting with rival supporters than the game itself.

I would hope that things have changed in the intervening years but I’m not so sure. The LoI need to do more to stamp out that sort of nonsense as it is still viewed by and large as a throwback to the hooliganism of English football in the 80’s with the rival firms and the Stanley blade carrying ultras.

I'd say anyone new who was around, or read about, the Pats Cork game at the start of the season wouldn't be back anyway.

Edenmoar

I dread the day Dundalk or Bohs or Cark draw Yenira or Celtic or one of those teams in Europa group stage and the crowd is 90% for the British team. Cringe.

Edenmoar

My ma grew up in Burnley near Turf Moor I suppose I could support that lot but I see enough of Jeff Hendrick watching Ireland. Or don’t see him more like.

limnam

Why does a guy from ballinhassig follow cork city fc and not ballinhassig afc?

Why should you be restricted to the most _local_ team?

In a globally connected world, working in American companies, presses full of foreign foods, buying from forigen supermarkets watching foreign/British television drinking foreign beverages.

But it;s odd to follow a team an hour away?

People follow teams like united all over the world. It's not just "irish" people