Why do Irish people support English teams?

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

No they are not.
Because when a club involves locals it involves your friends family - community in a club.

Look at the Premier League clubs are followed world wide and the locals give out about the atmosphere because the crowd are there for a spectacle not a game.

If you are local and your team loses you have to rub shoulders with opposing rivals for the whole year. In Ireland the Premier League supporters try to ape that but it seems very forced.

But my family and friends all support English teams, nobody close to me follows LOI. Well those locals are just been ar**holes. It's not forced it's real, if Liverpool had of lost there would of been a lot of Dubs dreading work on tuesday

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

You will be missed

I think that's his actual point.

trashcan wrote: »

That's pretty sad if true, and it's your loss to be honest. If you are a Liverpool or Man U fan you really are just a number. If you support a team here you are genuinely making a difference to that club. I used to "support" Man City as a kid. Imagine the fun I could be having now as my team lords it over the rest in England. The reality is it means less than nothing to me. I realised many years ago that Manchester has nothing to do with me. When I started to go to Richmond Park regularly it all fell into place for me...

It's true and it's no loss to me, my club has definitely made my life better. Yeah I know I'm just a number but I get back more than I give. I actually do think I should be supporting a LOI team too though

Greyfox wrote: »

What's the harm if it gives them joy? If sport doesn't give you an emotional reaction you should watch something else. It's not just a game... and that's why it's amazing

As someone who plays football themselves 2-3 times a week I have seen fully grown men roar abuse at each other within the confines of a five a side game and Sunday league games.

There's enjoying a game and then there's that level of "passion" (men unable to find the same kind of release elsewhere in their lives) and that's when it gets weird.

I mean yeah, get into a game, it makes it enjoyable but to put so much stock in watching a team with literally one has no affiliation to the geographical location it's in smacks of just a wee bit pathetic. There are levels to it all and some people need a dose of reality to just understanding it's just a game.

chrissb8 wrote: »

I find modern football mind boggling really or at least its fans. The cringe on facebook of people living in Ireland and putting up status' like "come on Pool get in there!" or the "YNWA, 6! History made tonight!" Like what affiliation or real emotional investment is there from an Irish person. I used to be a big Utd supporter than I just had a realisation, I don't actually care. There is no real pull towards me supporting them like there might have been with Keane there. You would be better served to support your local team and have that collective feeling so many fans yearn for but delude themselves into thinking they are "part of the club" by supporting L.Pool or Utd.

All I like to do now is simply watch good football and will catch a game of better quality regardless of who Utd are playing. I realised I'm a fan of football, not any one team. You then get the absolute cringe lads down in the pub shouting at the TV or hands on their heads. Give it a rest and grow up. I'm sorry, but if you're gonna get all worked up like a fanny over a ball being kicked about a pitch for a team you don't even have a tangible connection to then you need to look at yourself and think what the hell am I doing.

Yeah, yeah I know. Let them be but fans like that are so annoying and so present you find them hard to ignore and become childlike in their tribalism. There's no core to football anymore it's just jerseys, hollow slapping the crest but leaving next transfer window players and over-analysis coupled with overt seriousness. Seriously, give it a rest. It's just a game of football.

My God you sound so elitist. If I am better then you because I support a local LOI team or I am a fan of football as if the rest of us are not. Get off that high horse.If you honestly believe to there owners it's not a business then you are wrong. Cork City maybe because it's a fans consortium.

How do you know those in the pub do not have a connection and what is a connection. They love the sport and they (genuine fans) love the teams. They are no less down the peg just because of you imaginary superiority because you support a LOI team

22 grown men kicking a ball around a field with a guy in the middle dressed in black blowing a whistle.
Give them all a ball.
Pure tribalism.

On a Monday morning in work you hear - Oh 'my' team lost or 'my' team won - then you ask the question - Oh so you have a team now, what is it and then they say something like 'spurs' and I say what's that - like horse spurs or something ?

It reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msN7HNncHik

65535 wrote: »

22 grown men kicking a ball around a field with a guy in the middle dressed in black blowing a whistle.
Give them all a ball.
Pure tribalism.

On a Monday morning in work you hear - Oh 'my' team lost or 'my' team won - then you ask the question - Oh so you have a team now, what is it and then they say something like 'spurs' and I say what's that - like horse spurs or something ?

It reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msN7HNncHik

Wow that’s really witty. I’d say you’re the office comedian are you?

Greyfox wrote: »

But my family and friends all support English teams, nobody close to me follows LOI. Well those locals are just been ar**holes. It's not forced it's real, if Liverpool had of lost there would of been a lot of Dubs dreading work on tuesday

It is forced it is a massive brand association on the basis of constant exposure. It is like people picking Pepsi or Coke. Some people went mad in the 80's when 'New Coke' was created.

I don't support any soccer team. I watch any soccer all the same. It is then assumed that you must 'support' a Premiership team! I get funny looks when I say I don't 'support' any of them.
From playing fantasy football I know all the intricacies of the all the teams in the league, from the whole league. Otherwise I would not really have reason to know that much detail.

I can see why people get sucked into 'supporting' a successful team at the age of 10 though. Youngsters want to be associated with famous glamorous winners.
How many 10 year olds pick the team that got relegated in the year they watch the premier league.
Many Fulham/Cardiff/Huddersfield fans this year?

Plus I always noticed Irish fans of Premier League teams feel the need to justify how long they are supporting thier team - it almost seems like a guilt thing.
They feel guilty for doing so a little bit dirty?

DeanAustin wrote: »

I picked them because my brother supported them and he did so because he loved Glenn Hoddle and didn’t want to support Liverpool or United like all his mates.

Even a kid who picks LOI over GAA has to force an emotional attachment by picking one sport over another by your logic.

I agree on the Manc/Scouse scum nonsense by the way. But there is an inherent pseudo intellectual condescension in your posts. Calling fans of English teams consumers and assuming they all have beer guts and watch games in pubs.

I took my little boy to Tottenham for the game yesterday. We both sat in the stadium afterwards devastated and about half a dozen Londoners, dealing with their own disappointment, went out of their way to cheer my little fella up. It was really amazing. One of them even thanked us for making the effort to go over. But every time I take my lad over, we share something wonderful that is far more than just a brand and we feel and are made to feel part of it by the locals.

Also, my favourite golfer growing up was Bernhard Langer. Loved him and still do given what he’s done into his 50s and 60s. Am I a consumer of brand Langer too?

Basically yeah you are a consumer of brands, super huge global brands. Like the way some people go mad worldwide over apple iphones






https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/iphone-8-latest-news-updates-apple-fan-10-days-queues-release-sydney-australia-mazen-kourouche-a7942826.html

Look at this emotion over a material good - a global brand - tears and everything. (The Key Ring did not get much reaction)



I can see why you got sucked into supporting Spurs your brother brought the jerseys, had the Hoddle posters on the wall.

But your brother started supporting Spurs not only because of Hoddle's silky passing skills but because they won things FA Cups, UEFA cups massive exposure for a young fella back then the FA cup was huge. And Spurs were a cup team.

Your brother was never going to pick the likes of Birmingham, Stoke, or Leicester.

When Irish people say they are fans of the Premier League and support a team from there 99% of them really only mean the top six/ maybe eight at a push.
They do not really have much interest in the other teams at all.

omega man wrote: »

That’s the reality, local fans think of the foreign fans as tourists or plastics. Most have chosen to support an English team on the basis of success, either themselves or through a family member.

There’s nothing wrong with that (I support one myself!) but it’s not comparable to supporting your local or home town team in whatever sport. You can follow English football and not LOI or both it doesn’t really matter but don’t tell me supporting a foreign team with no physical connection gives the same sense of pride as your local team.

I

It gives me way more pride. I feel less of a connection with my local team to be honest.

Each to their own

Strumms wrote: »

People enjoy the Premiership, La Liga etc simply because it’s a much much better, much much more entertaining product than has been on offer here.

Better players
Better teams
Better facilities
Better atmospheres
Better competition
Better entertainment
Better excitement
Better occasions....

BETTER.

In addition there will have beeen in many cases the likes of family loyalty etc..

If you want some invisible credit like pat on the back for preferring to be down Tolka Park on a pissy cold and wet evening in April, in a quarter full ‘stadium’ with little atmosphere, debatable interest, players doing there upmost more power to you, I say why not try both and ENJOY both were possible but the idea that people should be questioned or criticized for liking Premiership football is just fûcking daft and some.

This post reads like you feel guilty to me.
And you are trying to justify it to yourself
In your heart you know your motivations are purely superficial, materialistic and vacuous.
It is the 'event' you are after not the actual team and pride of place etc.
Places were created out of boundries and difference to the crowd up the road.

The kind of following you are talking about, is just like people going to see the Rolling Stones from all around the world.

omega man wrote: »

I don’t doubt that but just don’t understand it I guess.

I’ve supported arsenal since the 80s but the sense of pride I get from Dublin GAA for example is on another level. I didn’t pick Dublin like I did arsenal and we're stuck at the hip no matter what. You can’t change your county.

I’m not having a dig, just my own feelings on the subject. What enjoyment people get in life is their business and if it’s a positive influence then all the better.

I agree with this I even went to games where Dublin were not playing because I knew it would be tense etc.
Louth were not even playing Dublin but it was in Parnell park.
It really meant something to them, it is where they are from. With thier thick accents.
Club GAA games have the same thing particularly down the country.

I just feel that there is this strange void in soccer in Ireland.
The LOI is viewed as inferior and people jump to the massive exposure premier league.

In England what people do is they support a few teams around thier local area from a few different divisions. They could have a non-league team and a championship team for example.
There is no stigma of supporting an 'inferior product' like there is with Irish soccer fans.

I think it stems from colonialism, where over 100's of years it was drummed into the Irish people.
All things English = good glamorous progressive
All things Irish = backwards inferior.

It started with language and Irish was phased out because of this.
Now it is the same mentality with football teams.

Plus the marketing and exposure has only heightened the gap.

If a person really liked sport for the sake of sport, they would have no problem going to see two teams of a low but similar level compete with each other.
There may not be the glamour and razzmatazz there but there is that competitive spirit.
When it is local and you are a local it is really magnified and is something special.
You did not chose the team, the team chose you.
It is where you are from.

Yet Irish supporters of premier league teams do another strange thing.
They go on about mercenaries at thier club (normally non UK )!
But they do not see the irony, that they are supporter versions of mercenaries!
That always amuses me.
Plus I have learnt it is a no-no to call Celtic a British club (But that is another story)

Because I wanna be a brit



Britain: Expectation: Downton Abbey Reality: This

8-10 wrote: »

You did pick them though. I’m from Dublin but don’t think I’ve seen them play a full game of GAA. I don’t enjoy it as a sport. I didn’t pick being from Dublin, but supporting their team in a particular sport is absolutely a choice

He not pick them.
By being interested in the sport - the team chose him!
If he was from Leitrim, Louth, Wicklow he would be following them around the place. And mad into his local GAA club, and giving out about how there should be more of them on the County panel.

I don't really follow rugby.
But if I did I would start going to Leinster games, as that is the area I am from.
It is the same thing.

Football in Ireland is for Dublin people, let's be realistic here. I'm from Clare and I would love if we had an all Ireland system with 32 counties but it will never happen because of how badly it is run. Of course people will turn to England because Irish people love football.

On a side note I was in Ennis yesterday and the amount of people that abused their own players was a ****en disgrace, **** gaa fans. Most fickle supporters around.