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Why do Irish people support English teams?

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  • Registered Users Posts: 32,956 ✭✭✭✭Omackeral


    ToddyDoody wrote: »
    There's English fans of Irish soccer too you know.

    At my club we have plenty of foreigners. Brazilians, British, Germans who live in the locality and have made the local club their own because they love football and it's just in them to get a live fix of it. They also are attached to their own clubs at home. Good football people in my book.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,421 ✭✭✭ToddyDoody


    Omackeral wrote: »
    At my club we have plenty of foreigners. Brazilians, British, Germans who live in the locality and have made the local club their own because they love football and it's just in them to get a live fix of it. They also are attached to their own clubs at home. Good football people in my book.

    Where do you keep this book?


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,956 ✭✭✭✭Omackeral


    ToddyDoody wrote: »
    Where do you keep this book?

    Next to my Sky Sports contract.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭8-10


    Omackeral wrote: »
    If only that was the case.

    Why can't it be the case? Why can't we all support who we want to?


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,956 ✭✭✭✭Omackeral


    8-10 wrote: »
    Why can't it be the case?

    Maybe you're not picking me up correctly. You said ''To each their own''. I said if only that was the case, meaning each supported their own i.e. their own local teams. Our football would be in a much better position. That could be in addition to following other teams.
    8-10 wrote: »
    Why can't we all support who we want to?

    We can and do. Pity more football-mad people don't back teams from this country though. Did you know our country's club coefficient is below that of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. That's awful and so avoidable.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭8-10


    Omackeral wrote: »
    Maybe you're not picking me up correctly. You said ''To each their own''. I said if only that was the case, meaning each supported their own i.e. their own local teams. Our football would be in a much better position. That could be in addition to following other teams.



    We can and do. Pity more football-mad people don't back teams from this country though. Did you know our country's club coefficient is below that of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. That's awful and so avoidable.

    This football mad crowd who just love the game probably do already watch teams from this country. The majority of fans here I'd say are more football-casual and support one of the top English teams.

    This "own local team" thing though doesn't make sense to me. Do you switch teams every time you move house or country or what? Where I live isn't where I was born which is different to the different places where I grew up which is different to the countries I've lived in as a teenager and adult.

    Should I be on my 10th club or something or should I have picked one of those based on proximity at a point in time? At what age should it have been decided?


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,712 ✭✭✭Balmed Out


    8-10 wrote: »
    This football mad crowd who just love the game probably do already watch teams from this country. The majority of fans here I'd say are more football-casual and support one of the top English teams.

    This "own local team" thing though doesn't make sense to me. Do you switch teams every time you move house or country or what? Where I live isn't where I was born which is different to the different places where I grew up which is different to the countries I've lived in as a teenager and adult.

    Should I be on my 10th club or something or should I have picked one of those based on proximity at a point in time? At what age should it have been decided?

    I find it hard to believe you dont know what that means, as for someone who travels about I dont see why you cant support more than one team and follow your gut as to which you prefer if need be.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭8-10


    Balmed Out wrote: »
    I find it hard to believe you dont know what that means, as for someone who travels about I dont see why you cant support more than one team and follow your gut as to which you prefer if need be.

    I do support more than 1 team, but primarily Liverpool. Many people support more than 1 team and we had a thread about it in the soccer forum a while back. 10 would be a bit much though personally.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,956 ✭✭✭✭Omackeral


    8-10 wrote: »
    This "own local team" thing though doesn't make sense to me.

    Makes sense nearly everywhere else in the world. There's a reason that teams are named Dundee and Moscow etc. Also, who do people from Kerry support in GAA? Or Dublin? Or any other county?
    8-10 wrote: »
    Do you switch teams every time you move house or country or what?

    Sigh. Read this again maybe.
    Omackeral wrote: »
    At my club we have plenty of foreigners. Brazilians, British, Germans who live in the locality and have made the local club their own because they love football and it's just in them to get a live fix of it. They also are attached to their own clubs at home. Good football people in my book.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭8-10


    Omackeral wrote: »
    Makes sense nearly everywhere else in the world. There's a reason that teams are named Dundee and Moscow etc. Also, who do people from Kerry support in GAA? Or Dublin? Or any other county?



    Sigh. Read this again maybe.

    Got it sorry. As I say I think you're overestimating the amount of football mad people in the country. I think only a small % are like those people you describe.

    The vast majority of lads you see wearing United and Liverpool tops are football casual. They'll watch their team but nobody else apart from MOTD and Ireland games.

    They're in it only for their team, not the beauty of the sport as a whole


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  • Registered Users Posts: 32,956 ✭✭✭✭Omackeral


    8-10 wrote: »
    Got it sorry. As I say I think you're overestimating the amount of football mad people in the country. I think only a small % are like those people you describe.

    The vast majority of lads you see wearing United and Liverpool tops are football casual. They'll watch their team but nobody else apart from MOTD and Ireland games.

    They're in it only got their team, not the beauty of the sport as a whole

    I can't disagree with any of that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,638 ✭✭✭SHOVELLER


    8-10 wrote: »
    Given that the vast majority of Chelsea fans are foreign, with huge support in places like east Asia and the USA (gaining a lot more this season with Pulisic), I'd say it's comfortable that most don't know about those teams let alone follow them.

    First time I've heard about any links with those clubs
    8-10 wrote: »
    Yeah I'd never heard of the links before and I know basically zero about Linfield and their fans


    Honestly your lack of knowledge of the game and its culture is staggering to the point of weariness.

    Anyway I really enjoyed our Europa win over SK Brann. In Norway at the game there were people from that town:rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,665 ✭✭✭Bonniedog


    Anyone living in Birmingham who supports Liverpool or Man U would be considered a bit of an oddball, unless they were actually from Liverpool or Manchester and moved there!

    Same applies in towns that have teams further down the pecking order.

    As someone else said, people follow their own county in GAA, not some team that happens to be more successful at the time.

    Same applies to LOI. People from Cork with interest in LOI do not follow Dundalk or Bohs. Would be considered very strange behaviour indeed as it is based on no connection to those places or teams.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,562 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Imagine being from Kerry but supporting dublin because me uncle used to work on the sites there in the 70s and brought me back programs nall, lol


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,133 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    People from all over the world follow football teams from the English Premiership . . . .fans feel a real affinity with their teams too, often passing on their club support from father to son.

    I think it's rather harmless and normal to support teams from (debatably) the best football premiership in the world.


  • Registered Users Posts: 27,381 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    Imagine being from Kerry but supporting dublin because me uncle used to work on the sites there in the 70s and brought me back programs nall, lol

    Lots of people from Kerry follow English soccer teams and cheer on Kerry in the All Ireland football.
    And they might cheer on Kilkenny or Tipperary or Galway in the All Ireland hurling.
    The soccer or hurling team they choose might be picked for fairly arbitrary reasons. No more arbitrary than where you happened to be born.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    People from all over the world follow football teams from the English Premiership . . . .fans feel a real affinity with their teams too, often passing on their club support from father to son.

    I think it's rather harmless and normal to support teams from (debatably) the best football premiership in the world.

    Actually the finances of many many football clubs say otherwise. Clubs all over the world are struggling financially despite record breaking amounts of money being involved in football these days because people would rather pay through the nose for Sky Sports than watch their local club. So it's anything but harmless and that's before you get onto the knock on effects.


  • Registered Users Posts: 27,381 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    D14Rugby wrote: »
    Actually the fiances of many many football clubs say otherwise. Clubs all over the world are struggling financially despite record breaking amounts of money being involved in football these days because people would rather pay through the nose for Sky Sports than watch their local club. So it's anything but harmless and that's before you get onto the knock on effects.

    If it's a global phenomenon, then the premise of this thread is false and there's nothing exceptional about Irish people's support for non domestic leagues, or nothing distinctly Oirish about it.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    odyssey06 wrote: »
    If it's a global phenomenon, then the premise of this thread is false and there's nothing exceptional about Irish people's support for non domestic leagues, or nothing distinctly Oirish about it.

    Irish people are the second biggest group of nationalities at EPL games (By a huge distance too), the biggest? British. At the same time we have one of the lowest attendance per capita for our own league in Europe. We may not be the only ones, but we are the worst perpetrators.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,714 ✭✭✭Greyfox


    D14Rugby wrote: »
    Actually the fiances of many many football clubs say otherwise. Clubs all over the world are struggling financially despite record breaking amounts of money being involved in football these days because people would rather pay through the nose for Sky Sports than watch their local club. So it's anything but harmless and that's before you get onto the knock on effects.

    Everyone should try live football as it can be a really brilliant experience but if you've grown up in a world where you just watched great football on tv every week your not going to see any harm as your not invested in local football. if people want to pay stupid money to sky it's there money to spend, it's not there fault everyone around them watches the EPL


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    Greyfox wrote: »
    Everyone should try live football as it can be a really brilliant experience but if you've grown up in a world where you just watched great football on tv every week your not going to see any harm as your not invested in local football. if people want to pay stupid money to sky it's there money to spend, it's not there fault everyone around them watches the EPL

    To quote many an Irish mammy throughout time "If everyone else was jumping off a cliff would you jump too"

    I'd say you're not invested in football if you just watch on tv.


  • Registered Users Posts: 38,247 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    I grew up in the 80's , touring the countrys grounds as my dad played LOI B. He didnt go to LOI games or follow it. He was born (literally, in the flats on Galtymore Road) and raised in Drimnagh, so a stones throw from Richmond. He was a Chelsea fan all his life.

    At some stage in the 80's on one of my yearly holidays to viist my mams side of the family in Germany (possibly while we were at Euro 88 when I was 7) my cousin (German, from Stuttgart, very close to the Neckar stadium at the time) gave me one of his Liverpool Jerseys (red Crown Paints). I've been a Liverpool fan since.


    Ireland is a very cheap hop to England. Theres still plenty of other foreigners at games though. Always plenty of Norwegians in Liverpool.


  • Registered Users Posts: 434 ✭✭Lady Spangles


    I really am from Liverpool and, if I must support a team, it'd be Liverpool.

    However, I feel compelled to point out this is not just an Ireland thing. My older brother travelled around Thailand back in the late 90s and when he got back he was moaning about kids over there all supporting Manchester United and banging on to him about David Beckham (playing for Man U at that time). I have a friend who was born and raised in Norway and her and her whole family are Liverpool supporters. I have no idea why, but there it is. I remember my Dad saying once that, back in the 70s, Nottingham Forest was the team non-English people always seemed to support. These teams are inexplicably huge.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,665 ✭✭✭Bonniedog


    There is very funny video on utube of Chinese West Ham supporters singing I'm forever Blowing Bubbles.


    It's funny, but rather pathetic when you think of it.


    Not making any associations of course!


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    I grew up in the 80's , touring the countrys grounds as my dad played LOI B. He didnt go to LOI games or follow it. He was born (literally, in the flats on Galtymore Road) and raised in Drimnagh, so a stones throw from Richmond. He was a Chelsea fan all his life.

    At some stage in the 80's on one of my yearly holidays to viist my mams side of the family in Germany (possibly while we were at Euro 88 when I was 7) my cousin (German, from Stuttgart, very close to the Neckar stadium at the time) gave me one of his Liverpool Jerseys (red Crown Paints). I've been a Liverpool fan since.


    Ireland is a very cheap hop to England. Theres still plenty of other foreigners at games though. Always plenty of Norwegians in Liverpool.

    Norwegians?
    Maybe it's because they both have whinging accents


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    I really am from Liverpool and, if I must support a team, it'd be Liverpool.

    However, I feel compelled to point out this is not just an Ireland thing. My older brother travelled around Thailand back in the late 90s and when he got back he was moaning about kids over there all supporting Manchester United and banging on to him about David Beckham (playing for Man U at that time). I have a friend who was born and raised in Norway and her and her whole family are Liverpool supporters. I have no idea why, but there it is. I remember my Dad saying once that, back in the 70s, Nottingham Forest was the team non-English people always seemed to support. These teams are inexplicably huge.

    Nobody is denying that it happens all over the world, the Irish are just the worst for it while simultaneously calling themselves the best fans in the world and moaning about Irish football going backwards (newsflash that's happening because domestic football here is completely ignored and laughed at when they raise these issues I.e. Delaney). 800,000 foreigners go to EPL games, 120,000+ of these are Irish, 90,000 Norwegian, next country is on 50,000. The difference is the Norwegians also get 50,000 a week on average at the domestic games though, we're lucky to get into the teens. Standard isn't a factor here as Rovers have shown the past week so what's the issue? Norway population is only a couple hundred thousand more than ours so that's not it either. Its a simple one, we're far from the best fans in the world, we're among the worst and that's the inconvenient truth


  • Registered Users Posts: 434 ✭✭Lady Spangles


    D14Rugby wrote: »
    Nobody is denying that it happens all over the world, the Irish are just the worst for it while simultaneously calling themselves the best fans in the world and moaning about Irish football going backwards (newsflash that's happening because domestic football here is completely ignored and laughed at when they raise these issues I.e. Delaney). 800,000 foreigners go to EPL games, 120,000+ of these are Irish, 90,000 Norwegian, next country is on 50,000. The difference is the Norwegians also get 50,000 a week on average at the domestic games though, we're lucky to get into the teens. Standard isn't a factor here as Rovers have shown the past week so what's the issue? Norway population is only a couple hundred thousand more than ours so that's not it either. Its a simple one, we're far from the best fans in the world, we're among the worst and that's the inconvenient truth


    I'll be honest and admit I find it difficult to care about football as a whole. But surely, if people are football fans, then it's okay for them to support both a local team and a large international team? I'm sorry if I sound naive here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    I'll be honest and admit I find it difficult to care about football as a whole. But surely, if people are football fans, then it's okay for them to support both a local team and a large international team? I'm sorry if I sound naive here.

    Yeah and it has been said many times by fans of LOI clubs by all means do that, the problem is Irish people completely ignore the local team part. By all means support Manchester United on the Sunday but also support Cork City on the Friday.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,714 ✭✭✭Greyfox


    D14Rugby wrote: »
    I'd say you're not invested in football if you just watch on tv.

    Nonsense, sky make a fortune from Irish football fans BECAUSE there very deeply invested in football on tv. Football on tv is one of the biggest things Irish men have in common with other men


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭D14Rugby


    Greyfox wrote: »
    Nonsense, sky make a fortune from Irish football fans BECAUSE there very deeply invested in football on tv. Football on tv is one of the biggest things Irish men have in common with other men

    Spending money and time on something doesn't make you invested, not in football especially, it's emotional investment, people that just watch on TV don't have that nervous wreck of a week building up to a derby where if you work with a fan of the other team you won't talk to each other or the fact that losing an important game doesn't just sting for a few hours or get annoying on twitter, it ruins your week at least. Spending stupid money on sky and a few hours in the pub each weekend and maybe liking a few tweets isn't investment. Remortgaging your house and taking out personal loans to save your club, organising bus's to away games, offering to help on match day, that's investment.


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