The Rationale Behind 'Support'

[best_fullback]

Warning: Rant

The aim of this thread is purely to get a bit of discussion on what your take on ‘support’ is: why do you support your team and what you think about people supporting teams that they have no connection to? Although I may speak in context about football teams, the support principle equates equally to Rugby.

The reason I ask this question is because I yesterday got into a heated debate/discussion with my mates about the football teams they support. One of them attempted to attack me for only recently supporting my local football team (who are not very good, currently in relegation) while he has always supported Liverpool, but lives over 150 miles away, has never lived there or has any relatives from there. I argued my side that while my team may be performing badly I still have more credibility than he does by not just simply jumping on the Liverpool bandwagon â€" clearly the most successful English football club in history. (I might add this same person supports Wales in Rugby and England in Football but recently went to Twickenham for the England v Wales clash as a ‘neutral’ so after the game had finished he could decide who to support for the rest of the championship).

After this I was ganged upon by two other friends who are in a similar position to him who argued that 'you choose to support a team for many a reason, whether it be hometown, family, success, inspiration from an individual or team.' Now I didn't disagree with this at all, infact I completely agree there may be several reasons to support a team. But the core point I raised was 'why?'. Why support these teams and not your most local team? For me it goes completely against the principles of supporting a team. Of course the common denominator in this situation is success.

I personally don’t have any problem with someone supporting a successful team that isn’t located where they are from â€" it makes no difference to me â€" but I just can’t understand why people do it apart from the reason of ‘glory supporting’ (admittedly there are some exceptions such as family ties etc).

I boiled it down to them that I could not justify supporting with a team that:
(i) isn’t where I am from, and therefore has,
(ii) supporters/people I cannot relate to and,
(iii) I would only ever visit to see that team play.

Those are the reasons I would support a team. The relative success of that team is irrelevant. I must draw a parallel here with 'following' teams. I, like many, would say they have teams they always wish to do well and enjoy watching such as for me: Melbourne Rebels, Cardiff Blues, Swansea City, Llanelli Scarlets, Bristol City, Tottenham Hotspur, Any team playing against Manchester United, West Ham United, Gloucester Rugby, Clifton Rugby etc for a multitude of reasons. Critically though, I do not support these teams.

I personally love both Football and Rugby Union so I support my local teams. I don’t come from a sporty family so although I did grow up watching Match of the Day, 6 Nations and Guniness Premiership etc I never could really form a bond with the teams that were not from where I was from because I had no connection with them. Only recently have I began to support my local Football team as my interest in the sport grew, but I have always supported my local Rugby team. Support for me has always been about pride in you team representing your territory and defending it against the invading opposition. I could only have that pride for the place I am from.

I want to know what you think on this topic. Am I being totally obtuse? or do you agree that supporting a team nowhere near where you are from, or can relate to, purely based on success is 'support' for all the wrong reasons? I would like to hear your views on the principles of 'support', and not get into an intense mud-slinging match to do with who's team is the best etc.

P.S. This post is in no way meant to be insulting or argumentative. I have no problem with personal reasons for supporting teams but this topic is designed to probe at those reasons for supporting these teams and why.

 

[nickdnz]

Well, I can kind of see several sides of the argument. I support Wellington Lions, Hurricanes, Warriors and the All Blacks. What these teams have in common is that they are the teams closest where I live (Wellington). I sometimes do get a tad annoyed when someone who doesn't live in Canterbury is a dedicated Crusaders fan, when I suspects that's just because they are winning. With that in mind, my family comes from England. My fathers family are from Burmingham and Coventry and my mothers family are all from London. Now because of this, I half-heartedly supported Briminham in football and London Wasps in Rugby, but both teams I didn't really enjoy watching them as much. Then Zinzan Brooke and Andrew Mehrtens moved to play for Harlequins RFC, so I decided because I liked those two players, that I'd support the Quins in the English league. I then supported Portsmouth football, because I liked their team. I support Biarritz rugby because I enjoy their style of play and some of their players.

I guess in a round-about way, what I'm trying to say is, if your local team does not spark any level of interest, then it's better to pick a team that you enjoy watching, rather than just be turned off the sport all together. If any team was to play the Hurricanes/Lions/All Blacks, I would obviously want my home team to win, as I am represented by them. I think part of the key thing to being any fan, is it's fine to support a team that isn't your own, on the provision that you support them throught the bad times as well as through the good. The number of Munster fans in 2007-2009 was just annoying, as they seemed to spring up in bulk over night.

 

[Duckdee]

I was a fan of football when I was younger, but didn't support a team initially. I sort of ended up being pressured into it by my friends (fans of Man U, Arsenal, and the local Leicester), so a bizarre combination of liking Jurgen Klinsmann, and my dad (not a football fan) saying that the their shirt looked good on me, when I went to buy a shirt with the money I saved from selling cherries from our garden, led me to picking Tottenham.

It is still engrained in me, somewhat, which is annoying.

I don't think this has much relevance to the topic, but I felt like sharing. Sorry.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I support Sale Sharks despite not being from that area,
Closest teams to me are Tigers and then Saints/Worcester are similar distances

However my Dads side of the family come from up north (Fylde) so I've always supported teams from up there (as a kid, during the bried 3-6month time period where football interested me I supported Manchester City, though I always kept an eye on Tottenham Hotspur due to my Moms cockney dad )

Supporting Sale is hardly being a glory hunter though :lol:

I do however support my local teams on the lower leagues (Birmingham Bees & Worcester Warriors in the RFU, and then my local town in their league)

When you think about it supporting a professional team from your area is odd - you support a local team because it has the local players and represents your area, but in these days of professional sports it doesn't necessarily represent that - not so much in Rugby where you do still get a lot of local lads coming through the academy and playing for the team, but in football especially, the teams have no real link to the local area other than their stadium being there

 

[best_fullback]

Well, I can kind of see several sides of the argument. I support Wellington Lions, Hurricanes, Warriors and the All Blacks. What these teams have in common is that they are the teams closest where I live (Wellington). I sometimes do get a tad annoyed when someone who doesn't live in Canterbury is a dedicated Crusaders fan, when I suspects that's just because they are winning. With that in mind, my family comes from England. My fathers family are from Burmingham and Coventry and my mothers family are all from London. Now because of this, I half-heartedly supported Briminham in football and London Wasps in Rugby, but both teams I didn't really enjoy watching them as much. Then Zinzan Brooke and Andrew Mehrtens moved to play for Harlequins RFC, so I decided because I liked those two players, that I'd support the Quins in the English league. I then supported Portsmouth football, because I liked their team. I support Biarritz rugby because I enjoy their style of play and some of their players.

Wow, some very broad reaching teams there! Would you say you 'support' these teams though, or simply 'follow' them? I know with the teams I follow that if they lose I might be slightly annoyed, but nothing compared to the team I support losing.

I guess in a round-about way, what I'm trying to say is, if your local team does not spark any level of interest, then it's better to pick a team that you enjoy watching, rather than just be turned off the sport all together.

Would you not say though that a love for the sport overall would not be enough to turn you off the sport in general? Both the teams I support are playing exceptionally bad at the moment so I think it is one of the key ideas in sport you have to learn in that your team will not always be in the ascendancy.

I think part of the key thing to being any fan, is it's fine to support a team that isn't your own, on the provision that you support them throught the bad times as well as through the good.

Cannot agree with this more. I have no qualms with people supporting a team in the way I described as long as they take the thick with the thin.

 

[Teh Mite]

I like rugby. I want to watch rugby. I support my local home-town side whom I grew up within a stones throw of the stadium.

However:

If my team I support make a permanent move 30 miles down the road as is rumoured if the stadium expansion doesn't go ahead (as opposed to a couple of one-off games), I shall no longer support them as they will no longer be my local team.

Simples.

 

[Logorrhea]

I support Leinster because I have an interest in the sport and I'm from there. Incidently I dont really follow AIL rugby but if I did I would support a team close to home.

I support Spurs in soccer. Started when I was about 10 but I'm from Dublin and had absolutely no link to them. None of my friends liked them either and my family hated sports so I have no idea where it came from. If I'm being honest, I think it was because I liked the white Jersey. Seriously.

Anyone wants to take issue with that well I suggest they sort out whatever issues they have and move on.

And by support I mean it bothers me when they lose, and cheers me up when they win.

If my team I support make a permanent move 30 miles down the road as is rumoured if the stadium expansion doesn't go ahead (as opposed to a couple of one-off games), I shall no longer support them as they will no longer be my local team.

Have to say I find that pretty extreme. Could you simple switch off supporting the Saints over a 30mile trip?

 

[best_fullback]

I support Sale Sharks despite not being from that area,
Closest teams to me are Tigers and then Saints/Worcester are similar distances

However my Dads side of the family come from up north (Fylde) so I've always supported teams from up there (as a kid, during the bried 3-6month time period where football interested me I supported Manchester City, though I always kept an eye on Tottenham Hotspur due to my Moms cockney dad )

Supporting Sale is hardly being a glory hunter though :lol:

It does sound like you do have some vested interest in the team being from the North though and Sale seems a fairly obvious choice given the scarcity of Northern Prem Union teams to pick from. Out of interest; why did you not choose to support either Leicester, Worcester or Northampton over Sale?

When you think about it supporting a professional team from your area is odd - you support a local team because it has the local players and represents your area, but in these days of professional sports it doesn't necessarily represent that - not so much in Rugby where you do still get a lot of local lads coming through the academy and playing for the team, but in football especially, the teams have no real link to the local area other than their stadium being there

I think this is an excellent point well made. For me I would rebut this however by saying that eventhough the professional teams of the 21st century are not players from that area, they do still represent that team and what that team 'is' (if that makes sense). If I go to support Bristol I am cheering Bristol, and the thought of Bristol doing well, manifested in the team. Although ideally the players would all be Bristolians but even though they aren't, they still carry the badge and play for that badge to try and give success to the team, for the city.

 

[Teh Mite]

Yep. I support Northampton St. James RFC, not [strike]Bletchley[/strike] "Milton Keynes". A lot of people at FG have a similar opinion.

Same reason Wimbledon had loads of fans and MK Dons have none.

 

[best_fullback]

I like rugby. I want to watch rugby. I support my local home-town side whom I grew up within a stones throw of the stadium.

However:

If my team I support make a permanent move 30 miles down the road as is rumoured if the stadium expansion doesn't go ahead (as opposed to a couple of one-off games), I shall no longer support them as they will no longer be my local team.

Simples.

Seriously? Even though they are the same team and still represent where you are from, albeit in a different location.

EDIT: I've seen the post above! No need to answer!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

It does sound like you do have some vested interest in the team being from the North though and Sale seems a fairly obvious choice given the scarcity of Northern Prem Union teams to pick from. Out of interest; why did you not choose to support either Leicester, Worcester or Northampton over Sale?

Really, I have no idea.
My local club has ties with Leicester, and quite a few players have been in the academy at some point, and my cousin played for Worcester at a point as well - and everyone in my school was either a Tigers or Saints fan (if they were into rugby)

I think it's because when I played rugby during school I only played it - I had no real interest in the professional sport, so was only vaguely aware of Leicester Tigers as a pro side from seeing people wearing shirts around,
Then when I took an interest in it more I gravitated towards Sale for whatever reason and stuck with them for whatever reason - My Dad had a vague interest in them (he'd catch the results on the news etc. but not go and see them or own a shirt) so it will have come from that

 

[Donnie"TheDunesman"Lynch]

When your from Ireland and want to support a soccer team you find any reason to like a team. I chose Arsenal when I was younger becuase of Thierry Henry.........

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Oh the retrospective irony!

 

[lucky number 7]

I was raised supporting arsenal :/ the whole family did and so did I ..stemmed from liam brady in the 70's I believe ..for me bergkamp was the best thing about football

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Been an interesting think this for me.

Lets start off with the easiest for me which is Wales. My country of birth, the place where I live and the nation I love. For me its a simple choice, I do like following other nations but I only truly support one nation.

Moving on from there and looking at the clubs I follow. Cardiff Blues is my team. What was hard for me to think was why did I start supporting them. Cardiff is just over a 100 miles from where I live. Scarlets are 65 miles or so and technically the region I should follow because they are the closest and also the regional team that are linked with my county and surrounding area. Ospreys 72 miles away are the next club, but I don't really like them. So I had to think harder to why I really supported the Blues and not the Scarlets. When I was at school and playing junior rugby everything was geared to playing for the Scarlets or Llanelli RFC as it was known. All my friends at the time were Llanelli fans, but I did not want to be. For me being a Turk was simply not an option. Also in 1997 the Lions Tour was a major influence on my decision. Neil Jenkins was for that reason why I became a Cardiff fan. My aunty's work colleague went out to South Africa as part of Scottish Provident and she got me a Neil Jenkins warm up t-shirt, signed and smelt of his BO. I was over the moon and at the age of 7 this was an amazing gift. Later my aunty tracked the photographer of this photo and got it enlarged for me and framed. It was from this point that I became a Cardiff fan. I started watching games with the likes of Rob Howley, Jenkins, Jonathan Humphreys etc and really liked the style and play of Cardiff. From then on really I was hooked with them.

But then I also follow a few other clubs. London Welsh is a weird one. Not really sure how this came about but I can think it was a time I spent down in London with the brass band I was apart of and we got to practice in this massive London Welsh club (I cannot remember if it was the clubhouse, unlikely but it was certainly London Welsh something) and I remember seeing some of the greats of Welsh rugby photo's hanging up on the wall. I then did some digging and found that they were once a really handy side. Now I follow their results and hopefully going to get to a game at some point in the future and obtain their kit. Then more close to home I follow Llandovery RFC, again along the same lines as London Welsh as that I follow and don't support but the reason for following them was that my old man played in the front row for them and was first capped for them at the age of 16. I tend to follow their results and nothing more. Of course their is my local club which is Aberystwyth RFC to which I play and follow / support. But I am not really a die hard fan as such like with the Blues. But you have to follow your local club.

Football is a different kettle of fish. Welsh Premiership is a joke, the standard is poor and its really pathetic. I am not a fan. I used to follow Aberystwyth Town but that's before players were being paid and I had time on my hands and also before I started playing rugby. I follow Wolverhampton Wanderers. Being 108 miles away is not close, but around this area there are a few Welsh Wolves fans who always tell me when they started to follow Wolves they were the closest big team to the area. Despite there being Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham, Wolves was the biggest team around the area from the 50s-70s. Shrewsbury were also decent but not as good. The real tie lies with the old man on this one. He supports Wolves - and oddly enough has no links to the Midlands. He got into them when he was down in London and got offered to watch Tottenham - Wolves and from there he liked Wolves. For me it was similar, sacking off primary school work (on a Sunday) to go and watch Wolves vs. Norwich at the age of 7 was more appealing. Remember seeing glimpses of Steve Bull and then Robbie Keane and after that was hooked.

But over the years football has not really been my following. I tune in to watch it but I find it hard to sit down to watch a game. I have however been to the Molineux a few times and sat down and watched the games there and can watch an entire game without doing something else. I did follow Wales the national team but that changed when Mark Hughes left and since we have become an embarrassment to British football. But rugby is where my real interest is. I know I can define following and support of a club quite easy. For me following is just looking at their scores and taking an interest in what that clubs doing.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I myself don't see the difference between supporting and following teams, it's all just levels of support to me. People tend to have their first, second & maybe third favourites in many things. Some people only support one. Everyone's different.

I for example support Liverpool in the Premier League. I'm not from England, have no stake in Liverpool as an area or any other hugely significant reason. How it came about was that I liked the Premier League when I was very young. I watched it quite a lot and started to like Manchester United as a team, at one point I stopped watching it on telly when I was about 8 as I was often off with other sports or wasn't able to see it due to other family wanting to watch something else. When I was about 12-13, I started watching again and Manchester United were even better than when I was younger.

Almost everyone I knew that watched soccer had started to become Manchester United fans as they began their most successful era for some time. This became off-putting, I could sense an aura of following a team that had a bunch of hype and glory-seekers following it. So, I made my mind up to check out players that were trying hard but not delivering quite as well and started to think about what region of England had some sort of connection to my interests.

Of course after looking at Liverpool, seeing some talented players and hearing that they were once a great team but were now struggling a little made me take some notice. I thought about their rivalry with the other red team that I'd decided to shake. The idea registered that I'd be going against the groundswell of what I saw as phony support. I realised of course that one of my all time favourite bands The Beatles had come from there. It just added up as time to look at them.

Ever since then I've supported them as my team in the Premier League. Of course if they ever played the Wellington Phoenix, and somehow lost, I'd be more than happy to accept that one.

 

[best_fullback]

Really, I have no idea.
My local club has ties with Leicester, and quite a few players have been in the academy at some point, and my cousin played for Worcester at a point as well - and everyone in my school was either a Tigers or Saints fan (if they were into rugby)

I think it's because when I played rugby during school I only played it - I had no real interest in the professional sport, so was only vaguely aware of Leicester Tigers as a pro side from seeing people wearing shirts around,
Then when I took an interest in it more I gravitated towards Sale for whatever reason and stuck with them for whatever reason - My Dad had a vague interest in them (he'd catch the results on the news etc. but not go and see them or own a shirt) so it will have come from that

Very interesting point about playing the sport vs supporting the sport. That may be a real catalyst for the reasons people support teams where they are not from. It was quite clear during his employment and Manchester United that Cristiano Ronaldo helped gather a lot of supporters for the club due to his flair and ability. I can imagine a lot of young people who enjoyed playing football casually with their friends would then have discovered him would be drawn to supporting United because of him. Similarly I remember after the RWC 2003 a lot of my friends became very interested in Newcastle Falcons because of you-know-who. Sport you could say is very much like that; if you have no real direction from family or friends, and simply play the sport because you enjoy it, then you may be drawn to supporting a team which you enjoy watching.

 

[Donnie"TheDunesman"Lynch]

In regards to provinces in Ireland when your from Munster you su[pport Munster, when your from Connacht you support Connacht, when your from Ulster you suport Ulster and when your from Dublin you support Lienster.

Simple

 

[lucky number 7]

If you're from Kilkenny you probably support munster....turncoats

 

[Logorrhea]

If you're from Kilkenny you probably support munster....turncoats

Is Kilkenny not in Munster though?