Why do Irish people support English teams?

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 7:06pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Why should I engage with someone who lies, makes up stories and won't answer simple basic questions? Also, I've posted many times already on this outlining my thoughts on the matter. Feel free to read back. The caveat, however, is that my experiences aren't fictitious ones.

You think people are morally wrong for choosing what entertainment they like?ðŸ€£ðŸ€£

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 7:08pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

You think people are morally wrong for choosing what entertainment they like?&#55356;&#56355;&#55356;&#56355;

Nope. Quote anywhere where I've said that. More made up gick from you.

namloc1980 · 09-03-2019 7:12pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

- They made it obvious by roaring into snapchat stories about being ‘proper football fans’

- As I said already I don’t want to name the location. 10 years ago.

- They seemed to know right off the bat. I am mixed race and got comments all night that could be summed up as ‘you’re not from round ‘ere.

Why are you lying? That whole post is compete fantasy and never happened.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 7:16pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

- They made it obvious by roaring into snapchat stories about being ‘proper football fans’

- As I said already I don’t want to name the location. 10 years ago.

- They seemed to know right off the bat. I am mixed race and got comments all night that could be summed up as ‘you’re not from round ‘ere.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 7:18pm

namloc1980 wrote: »

Why are you lying? That whole post is compete fantasy and never happened.

I know you are LOI supporters so may not comprehend much but do try and keep up.

It’s like saying to Tolkein that all his themes and messages are worth nothing because orcs don’t exist.

pjohnson · 09-03-2019 7:20pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I know you are LOI supporters so may not comprehend much but do try and keep up.

It’s like saying to Tolkein that all his themes and messages are worth nothing because orcs don’t exist.

Maybe it was the orcs on snapchat 10 years ago.

namloc1980 · 09-03-2019 7:23pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I know you are LOI supporters so may not comprehend much but do try and keep up.

It’s like saying to Tolkein that all his themes and messages are worth nothing because orcs don’t exist.

You claimed fans at a match we posting videos to Snapchat 10 years ago. Utter lies.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 7:25pm

I shouldn’t be surprised that LOI fans don’t understand symbolism.

That’s okay guys, go back to watching Glen Crowe try and play something resembling soccer.

8-10 · 09-03-2019 7:32pm

Why would you be afraid to say where something happened a decade ago? What’s the big secret? What would the reprecussions be?

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 7:33pm

8-10 wrote: »

Why would you be afraid to say where something happened a decade ago? What’s the big secret? What would the reprecussions be?

I take it you haven’t met LOI fans. They will stop at no length to get their own back.

namloc1980 · 09-03-2019 7:40pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I take it you haven’t met LOI fans. They will stop at no length to get their own back.

:pac:

Necro · 09-03-2019 7:41pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I take it you haven’t met LOI fans. They will stop at no length to get their own back.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 7:44pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I take it you haven’t met LOI fans. They will stop at no length to get their own back.

Just admit you were talking bollox and then we can have a proper and honest discussion?

Necro · 09-03-2019 7:46pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Just admit you were talking bollox and then we can have a proper and honest discussion?

I wouldn't bother tbh, there's much more logical people on thread to discuss the issue with tbf.

The last few pages read like this:

cjragoo · 09-03-2019 7:53pm

OP Why are you only going after the fans? What about all the players who leave their boyhood Irish clubs to play in England? Traitors the lot of them. Keane should have played for Cobh Ramblers his entire career.

Achasanai · 09-03-2019 8:07pm

Yamanoto wrote: »

Club like Everton had considerable support in Dublin from the 1920's onwards. Support for other English teams would also have long preceded MOTD.

Yeah, I should have qualified what I said. I think MOTD kicked it off to a new level. Most of the older fans of football (who predated MOTD and live English football) would have been regular or semi-regulars to LOI grounds, at least in my experience. They would also have supported an English team, at least to a degree. Live football or highlights allowed a greater degree of association that somebody could feel for a team.

Avatar MIA · 09-03-2019 8:44pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

That’s okay guys, go back to watching Glen Crowe try and play something resembling soccer.

There's finally! a soccer thread outside an access request forum and the AH mods are allowing it (probably at the cinema watching Captain Marvel). Can we play nice so we can have nice things?

Billy Mays · 09-03-2019 9:12pm

Having a bit of an interest in how an English team does is grand I suppose, I don't get the whole "die hard" fans thing though. I just don't see how you can claim to be as big a fan of a team in another country as someone who follows their local team and goes every week. Irish people referring to themselves and others as scousers and mancs is weird aswell.

I know people who'd rather see the English team they support win a premier league or a champions league than see Ireland win a world cup or a European championship. That to me is just bizarre.

trashcan · 09-03-2019 9:22pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I shouldn’t be surprised that LOI fans don’t understand symbolism.

That’s okay guys, go back to watching Glen Crowe try and play something resembling soccer.

Bad example there. Glen Crowe scored probably the best goal I've ever seen live (and I'm not a Bohs fan - Pats fan and he scored it against us at Dalymount, circa 2001. Maybe someone more tech savvy than me could post up the video from YouTube (I'm sure Omackeral remembers the goal I'm talking about). Crowe also made the Ireland squad, so he can't have been that bad.

By the way, was your Tolkien analogy an admission that you made your story up ?

Balanadan · 09-03-2019 9:26pm

You can’t beat going to live matches, or any live event for that matter. The anticipation and excitement. The passion, the camaraderie, the banter. The interaction with the players that you never get to experience if you just watch football on tv. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been creased over with laughter at some of the things that go on. It’s a great feeling after a hard week at work to get into the ground and just look out at the green field. When your team scores a goal, for 30 seconds you lose the run of yourself, shouting, celebrating, you forget everything else going on in your life, it’s pure elation. Of course you experience lows as well following a football club, but once you’ve experienced the lows, you truly appreciate the highs.

Woke Hogan · 09-03-2019 9:49pm

I enjoy watching football so I brought my son to a few League of Ireland games when he was a young boy. The language out of the Ultras was foul, their faces contorted and twisted beyond recognition with hate, lads in their mid forties chanting vile rhymes in English accents about the other side. Feral children running around like packs of wild animals. Letting off flares.

When we were walking out of the park after one match, I bent down to my son and told him that the behaviour we had witnessed from the "fans" that evening was bilious and I urged him to never consider engaging in it himself. When righting wrongs his voice must be heard. But at a football game, silence can be even more devastating than jeering. We both swore that we would never go to a League of Ireland game again. The quality's better in the Premier League anyway, and the Spanish League is better still.

Perifect · 09-03-2019 9:51pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Because if someone has spent years watching a team, then they are more likely to continue following that team but also watching other teams.

Surely people cop on when they grow up?

Perifect · 09-03-2019 9:55pm

Woke Hogan wrote: »

I enjoy watching football so I brought my son to a few League of Ireland games when he was a young boy. The language out of the Ultras was foul, their faces contorted and twisted beyond recognition with hate, lads in their mid forties chanting vile rhymes in English accents about the other side. Feral children running around like packs of wild animals. Letting off flares.

When we were walking out of the park after one match, I bent down to my son and told him that the behaviour we had witnessed from the "fans" that evening was bilious and I urged him to never consider engaging in it himself. When righting wrongs his voice must be heard. But at a football game, silence can be even more devastating than jeering. We both swore that we would never go to a League of Ireland game again. The quality's better in the Premier League anyway, and the Spanish League is better still.

You'd never hear swearing in English soccer! Hooligans, racism, sexism, the list is endless.

Monokne · 09-03-2019 9:59pm

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 .

My Dad was a Liverpool fan, and named me after Kenny Dalglish as I was born on the day LFC won the European cup in 1984 so it was only natural for me to follow in his footsteps.

I think that the accessibility of English football is why it's more popular here. Until relatively recently, it was much easier to view English football on TV than Irish.

There's also just the quality factor. I am a big MLS fan but in the US it's watched by about 20% as many people as watch the EPL there for that reason. People would rather watch the very top level of football abroad than lower quality football at home.

Monokne · 09-03-2019 10:17pm

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Hoards of plastics in England too, not just Ireland.

I was born in South Oxfordshire (left after my 1st birthday) moved London (left at 6) moved to Ipswich (left at 14), Moved to Omagh.

I'm a Man Utd fan. I have no connection to Manchester or to the north of England.

Not sure why Irish people are giving themselves a hard time over non local support? Loads of English people don't even support their local team.

For full disclosure, I am a Liverpool fan and this post by a United fan is perhaps the most logical thing I've read in the past 26 pages.

You aren't noble or superior to anyone if you're supporting a league of Ireland team.

You aren't bad, wrong or worse than anyone if you follow an English team. Or a Spanish team. Or an Italian team. Or an Armenian team. I could go on but I think my point is made.

Trying to impose rules or boundaries to ones desire to support a given team in a given sport is missing the point altogether. I support the teams that I do in the leagues & sports that I do because I have a genuine affection for them. If you feel the need to explain to me why that's incorrect, you're living inside a box. I'm happy enough out here in the free world where I don't need to impose my opinions & beliefs on others and expect the same courtesy.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:22pm

Monokne wrote: »

For full disclosure, I am a Liverpool fan and this post by a United fan is perhaps the most logical thing I've read in the past 26 pages.

You aren't noble or superior to anyone if you're supporting a league of Ireland team.

By the same token, the fact you feel the need to say you're a Liverpool fan just because he's a United fan is daft. As if that makes any semblance of difference. You're both just blokes in Ireland that like two of the biggest teams in England. United and Liverpool fans over here are the exact same as each other, no difference at all.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 10:23pm

Omackeral wrote: »

By the same token, the fact you feel the need to say you're a Liverpool fan just because he's a United fan is daft. As if that makes any semblance of difference. You're both just blokes in Ireland that like two of the biggest teams in England. United and Liverpool fans over here are the exact same as each other, no difference at all.

It’s like saying I’m a plastic just because I support The All Blacks in rugby even though I am from Ireland.

SEPT 23 1989 · 09-03-2019 10:30pm

Supported city my whole life but I won't hear of people knocking the LOI

Was brought to matches from a stupidly young age by my father in my innocence standing on terraces I thought Rovers were Ireland

Always the stories on the way home about when he was a kid in the 50's when 30 or 40 thousand watched Dublin derbies

TV killed it

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:30pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

It’s like saying I’m a plastic just because I support The All Blacks in rugby even though I am from Ireland.

Well you have the ability to go on Snapchat Stories 5 years before anyone else so you have my undying admiration.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 10:32pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Well you have the ability to go on Snapchat Stories 5 years before anyone else so you have my undying admiration.

You LOI fans are the ultimate hipsters. Everything non-popular, mainstream or unavailable to the general population draws your admiration.

Monokne · 09-03-2019 10:33pm

Omackeral wrote: »

By the same token, the fact you feel the need to say you're a Liverpool fan just because he's a United fan is daft. As if that makes any semblance of difference. You're both just blokes in Ireland that like two of the biggest teams in England. United and Liverpool fans over here are the exact same as each other, no difference at all.

The same how? What does that mean?

Also, did you literally read my entire post and ignore everything just so you could say this, which adds nothing and has no context, rather than take on the actual rational, logical and considered points I made?

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:34pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

You LOI fans are the ultimate hipsters. Everything non-popular, mainstream or unavailable to the general population draws your admiration.

You're on Snapchat 5 years before everyone else and I'm the hipster!?!?

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 10:35pm

Omackeral wrote: »

You're on Snapchat 5 years before everyone else and I'm the hipster!?!?

I didn’t say I was on snapchat.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:36pm

Monokne wrote: »

The same how? What does that mean?

Also, did you literally read my entire post and ignore everything just so you could say this, which adds nothing and has no context, rather than take on the actual rational, logical and considered points I made?

The same in that you're no different. Why did you feel the need to say ''full disclosure, I'm a Liverpool fan'' as if it makes a difference at all to anything? The rest of your points were middling to valid and unremarkable to me personally.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:37pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

I didn’t say I was on snapchat.

You seem to be in some timeline that has access to it half a decade before anyone else at the very least so obviously you're ripping around in a DeLorean. Now who's the hipster?

Monokne · 09-03-2019 10:38pm

It was a tongue in cheek reference to the rivalry between the two clubs which, even someone who's not into English football, I assumed would be aware of.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:39pm

Monokne wrote: »

It was a tongue in cheek reference to the rivalry between the two clubs which, even someone who's not into English football, I assumed would be aware of.

Ah it's tongue in cheek. Must've missed the subtlety.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 10:40pm

Monokne wrote: »

It was a tongue in cheek reference to the rivalry between the two clubs which, even someone who's not into English football, I assumed would be aware of.

Don’t mind him. He has been twisted an embittered by years of watching LOI hoof ball.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:41pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

Don’t mind him. He has been twisted an embittered by years of watching LOI hoof ball.

Did you miss where I say I watch the Premiership every week. I've been to the Euros. I've been to games in Cyprus, Germany, Scotland and even evil Old Trafford.

The Rape of Lucretia · 09-03-2019 10:42pm

It has become the accepted way for Irish people to express their deep bond with England through the disguise of it being a sporting motivation.
Fundamentally, it expresses the deep Englishness of most Irish people, and despite a century of trying to repel everything English, has survived to become a hiding in plain sight way of waving the Union Jack, and, code for the fact that the Irish retain a deep affiliation and love for England.
Picking a team, generally completely arbitrarily, and rising and falling with their performances in the leagues, allows us to feel as one with the rest of England following the same teams.

wobatkicker23 · 09-03-2019 10:42pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Did you miss where I say I watch the Premiership every week. I've been to the Euros. I've been to games in Cyprus, Germany, Scotland and even evil Old Trafford.

Boasting on the internet. Well done pal.

Alf Veedersane · 09-03-2019 10:43pm

Perifect wrote: »

Surely people cop on when they grow up?

You're still missing the point but lean ar aghaidh.

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:43pm

wobatkicker23 wrote: »

Boasting on the internet. Well done pal.

You inferred I only watch LOI. I told you nah I don't. Are you actually broken?

Avatar MIA · 09-03-2019 10:43pm

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

It has become the accepted way for Irish people to express their deep bond with England through the disguise of it being a sporting motivation.
Fundamentally, it expresses the deep Englishness of most Irish people, and despite a century of trying to repel everything English, has survived to become a hiding in plain sight way of waving the Union Jack, and, code for the fact that the Irish retain a deep affiliation and love for England.
Picking a team, generally completely arbitrarily, and rising and falling with their performances in the leagues, allows us to feel as one with the rest of England following the same teams.

Oh great, the TRoL has found us :rolleyes:

Omackeral · 09-03-2019 10:45pm

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Oh great, the TRoL has found us :rolleyes:

There's a bigger one on here before his arrival in fairness Avatar :P

RederthanRed · 09-03-2019 10:47pm

Mostly its Father to Son stuff. These days girls take more interest and that's great and as the game evolves the whole local aspect of football kicks in too.
I think the traditional way involved Dad passing on Rovers and United as a way of life. It wasn't one or the other, it was the pair.
So then the kid dreams of playing for one or the other, it's obvious which he'd be dreaming of more though.
My Dad brought me to Athlone Town games from infant age. But I always knew he was a Liverpool fan too.
All my memories of live games were Athlone but gradually from watching games on TV it became all Liverpool.
He brought me over to Anfield to see Liverpool beat Luton Town and that was it. It was a drug to me after that, I've been in love with Liverpool ever since.
At the height of it I would be going over to "home" games 12 times in a year easily.
I wouldn't have a clue how Athlone were doing.

But yeah there was a game where I was chatting to Norwegian fella and he was saying how often he went over and I was saying but you're from Norway FFS and he said you do realise you're Irish.
Sounds daft but you dont think of yourself as a "tourist" until you hear it.

These days I have 2 kids and I'd definitely stop short of encouraging them to support Liverpool, just leave it up to them really.

But no regrets on my part.

Avatar MIA · 09-03-2019 10:47pm

Omackeral wrote: »

There's a bigger one on here before his arrival in fairness Avatar :P

Fwiends!

Alf Veedersane · 09-03-2019 10:50pm

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

It has become the accepted way for Irish people to express their deep bond with England through the disguise of it being a sporting motivation.
Fundamentally, it expresses the deep Englishness of most Irish people, and despite a century of trying to repel everything English, has survived to become a hiding in plain sight way of waving the Union Jack, and, code for the fact that the Irish retain a deep affiliation and love for England.
Picking a team, generally completely arbitrarily, and rising and falling with their performances in the leagues, allows us to feel as one with the rest of England following the same teams.

The accepted way I display my deep-seated love for all things England is to hop on the rowing machine in the gym wearing either the Oxford garb or that of Cambridge. I alternate.

Afterwards, I go home and eat Eton Mess, because Eton. And maybe subconsciously I know I'm a mess.

Monokne · 09-03-2019 10:52pm

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

It has become the accepted way for Irish people to express their deep bond with England through the disguise of it being a sporting motivation.
Fundamentally, it expresses the deep Englishness of most Irish people, and despite a century of trying to repel everything English, has survived to become a hiding in plain sight way of waving the Union Jack, and, code for the fact that the Irish retain a deep affiliation and love for England.
Picking a team, generally completely arbitrarily, and rising and falling with their performances in the leagues, allows us to feel as one with the rest of England following the same teams.

I express my connection with my English brethren by supporting the English team in tournaments Ireland don't make it to, or by going to matches or gigs in England, or chatting to my English friends or one of my many English colleagues in the UK office of the company I work for. My deep Englishness is soothed in this manner.

It feels so good to admit it. Thank God for your post. You inspired me.

Avatar MIA · 09-03-2019 10:53pm

RederthanRed wrote: »

These days I have 2 kids and I'd definitely stop short of encouraging them to support Liverpool, just leave it up to them really.

A bit risky no ? :eek:

Why do Irish people support English teams?

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