Why do Irish people support English teams?

D14Rugby wrote: »

And there exactly is the point, every single person that follows their local club has that feeling. Now imagine the feeling you have when your team play and multiplying it by that feeling of belonging as you call it. Supporting a foreign team doesn't even come close.

Or maybe lots of people already have that sense of belonging from the land, from their jobs, from their church... and approach football purely from a sporting perspective.

D14Rugby wrote: »

So what you're saying is you have a limit to how many things you feel you belong to and because of this you shouldn't get the full experience from following a football club?

No, a football club is a football club. To some people it is something more. To others, it is a sporting club and they connect with it on that level and are content with that and don't need it to mean any more than that.
It doesn't mean they are not fans of the sporting club.

D14Rugby wrote: »

A football club is a representation on the area its from. If you see it as just a football club I really feel for you.
If that were the case why not shut down every league in the world and just have one big super league and everyone can just pick a team in that and "support" them?
That's why MK Dons are so hated, the Kilcoynes are hated, so on so forth. If football clubs were purely sporting then ripping them out of their area would be no big deal.

Why do we have club football then instead of just having regional provincials and internationals like county cricket? Or NFL franchises that are for the whole of a city?
Arsenal was founded for workers at the Royal Arsenal. Presumably nobody else should have supported them, except workers and their families?
Sheffield Wednesday should still be playing on Wednesdays?

Why do clubs even sell TV rights? On your logic the only people who should be able to see a game are those in the ground.
We don't even need national leagues, local teams for local people, just have a city league for all the teams within the same city. Save on travel expenses.
On your logic you shouldn't even cheer for Man Utd if you are from Manchester, unless their ground is the exact closest to you as the crow flies over all the other teams in the pyramid that are based in Manchester?

Fanbases come in two sorts, the ones who go to the games and the sometimes larger sometimes smaller fanbase of fans who view on TV. Clubs want both and have valued both since the 1980s. If they moved they would lose one kind, if they cut off TV rights they would lose the other.

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Of course it is.
What do you expect when so many Irish people have such a lack of self esteem and faith in their own country? That applies across the board, not just football btw.
Quality is poor when things are not supported.
Ergo Irish football.

Realistically, we are never going be able to compete with US and UK. We're not going to be able to produce the output or offer the rewards a talented english speaker can get there. That's why Irish players play for English teams at soccer, Irish actors appear in American movies and English soaps.

When you throw the appeal of GAA into the mix as a spectator and participatory sport, the 'event' rugby games, well there is only so much support to go round...

How does a lack of self esteem and faith explain a sport, GAA, that is only really played in Ireland gathering higher attendances than global sports such as soccer, rugby, cricket? Are we hiding, afraid we can't compete, or is it a reflection of self-esteem? As is the confidence of irish players and actors into trying to make it in US & UK?

If we wanted to focus on quality we should have put all our eggs into the 'rugby' basket and became the New Zealand of the northern hemisphere. Instead we have support and quality and resources spread all around, reflecting the arbitrary twists and turns of history and culture.

D14Rugby wrote: »

No because there are different demographics in cities and clubs are there to cater for those demographics.
Clubs started like that because it was a time where everyone in a certain area did a certain job, as that changed they said let's just represent the area.
What does the day they play have to do with who supports them.

And now they have changed to represent the fans that support them all around the world, as well as the local area, even though they started out as merely playing outlets for the workers of Royal Arsenal, or those who had a halfday on a Wednesday in Sheffield, or for members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel, or the congregation of St Domingo Methodist New Connexion Chapel (that's Everton).

A club is a club, it's not a county it's not a city it's not a country. Their players come from England, sometimes from Ireland, sometimes from the four corners of the earth. As does their fans.
Why people have an issue with this I really don't know. I think the ones who have an issue with it are the ones with an issue. Get over it and live and let live.

For some people being there on the terraces is a deeper experience, fine, but I don't see why that has to turn into denigrating the experiences of the TV fan. Talk up that experience, don't talk down the other.

Strumms wrote: »

You need to see both leagues as a product first and foremost. As an entertainment product....

The facilities in terms of scope, size, atmosphere and comfort are again, vastly superior in the premiership making each game more of an occasion of gladiatorial stature, something the LOI can’t begin to match.

I've been to Premisership games that have been like a morgue. You see so-called out-of-towners with their gift bags taking pictures all match and taking selfies rather than making noise. People getting p*ssed off if someone stands up.

Omackeral wrote: »

I can't really comment on rugby but I'd have to laugh at someone who says watching on telly is better, especially when it comes to your own team, it absolutely cannot be. Imagine the sheer ecstasy of a 90th minute winner against your rivals or in a cup semi and you're surrounded by lunatics hopping all over you while the opposition stand there stunned. The players coming to you to share and revel in the moment. Can't get that from a tv screen. The highs are absolutely best enjoyed when actually there.

Been there, done that. Come back when you're my age and tell us if you get a thrill out of lunatics jumping all over you. My point is that rugby is better seen and understood on tv. I said nothing about atmosphere. If I tell you that Con Houlihan preferred to watch rugby from behind the goalposts you might get the gist of what I mean.

keithkk16 wrote: »

Last time I was at a Derry VS Finn Harps game ages ago I was in the harps away end and the amount of sectarian abuse harps fans were shouting at Derry players and their fans was shocking and so hateful. It was the last time I went to harps game and I'm from Donegal.

No abuse in English football though. That's an exclusively Irish thing.

keithkk16 wrote: »

Last time I was at a Derry VS Finn Harps game ages ago I was in the harps away end and the amount of sectarian abuse harps fans were shouting at Derry players and their fans was shocking and so hateful. It was the last time I went to harps game and I'm from Donegal.

Just typical of the ****e you hear from certain elements that congregate behind goalmouths.
I wouldn't be too concerned about them. They are in every club. The usual local dirtbirds imitating their heroes across the water

Bobblehats wrote: »

Leeeeinsterrrrr ..

Go the guys!

mikemac2 wrote:

People give the family reason about their uncle emigrating there but yes funny how it’s always the big successful teams

Edgware wrote:

Go the guys!

The guuys are in trouble - thankfully - wine is on ice.

greenspurs wrote: »

I think it is. In general.
There are a few (2-3) clubs that play good attaching football , with some skill.
The majority of teams, play hoof ball.
The facilities in most grounds are fairly grim,

Tell me why you think its not sh1te - im interested .

Tell me how you know all of this if you dont go.

8-10 wrote: »

My team, Liverpool, have every game televised including friendlies. Rarely stuck for a stream. It's win-win for me too, either I go to the game and get one of the best atmosphere's in any sport, or I get to watch at home.

If we weren't constantly on telly I'd likely follow someone more local more regularly, I have a local LOI Div 1 team I played for underage and go to the occasional game of, but nothing beats being able to watch every single game in a season home or away

On tv:rolleyes:

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Do the huge number of Scandinavians who obsess of the English league like the Irish also have post colonial psychology?

No because they support their own league.


People can do what they want but seeing and hearing Irish people bleating about "their" english team while ignoring their own league is pathetic. The very ones complain about the lack of success at international level but fail to see the laughable hypocrisy of spending huge sums funding our neighbour's league.

And its alwyas the same teams that are popular. Ask a barstooler why they dont "support" macclesfield or hereford and the answer speaks volumes.

There is simply no excuse for ignoring our league. The facilities have greatly improved. Look at Tallaght as an example. The standard has also got a lot better as our results in Europe show.