mikesiva wrote:Interesting thoughts, yorker, and one that also tends to reflect on the global nature of the Premiership now....
The Premiership is a world-wide phenomenon. A few years ago, I went to SE Asia and I was surprised to see how seriously Prem football is taken there. The back page article on one of Malaysia's leading newspapers was about Arsene Wenger's buying plans for Arsenal, and one of their leading ads on telly was about a Chelsea fan buying tickets and accommodation to watch his team play in the Prem. Now, how does that fan support a 'local' team? Is that Malaysian fan a 'glory hunter'? When I moved on to Indonesia, I was wearing a Man Utd shirt, and the waiter in the hotel was ribbing me about how 'his' team, Real Madrid, were going to lure Cristiano Ronaldo away from Old Trafford, a claim I scoffed. Well, we all know who won that argument....But is that waiter right to call Read Madrid 'his' team? He lives in Jakarta, not Madrid....
Dilbert wrote:My opinion is not footie related, but I felt I can contribute my 2 cents here...
I support the Mumbai Indians in IPL, although my hometown is Pune. Reason? Sachin Tendulkar. So maybe some far away fans support a particular club because they like particular players in a side?
Cant really call me a "Plastic fan" now... Mumbai has not won the IPL even once...
mikesiva wrote:I think this discussion about plastic fans and glory hunters is made redundant by the present make-up of the teams themselves. For example, how many players in the two Manchester teams actually come from Manchester? Danny Welbeck is from Moss Side, and Scholes is from Salford, but anyone else? Arsenal may have a lot of French players, but at least Walcott is English. Yesterday, Fulham fielded a side without a single English player in it, new Villa manager Paul Lambert is bringing in Dutch players, and new Swansea manager Michael Laudrup is bringing in Spanish players.
So, if the players no longer represent the community they claim to, then why should the supporters?
yorker_129-7 wrote:Something which has been mulling over in my head for a while which I thought I would put out there to see if anyone agrees with me.
The accusation is often levelled at fans of big teams that they're one of the things mentioned in the title of the thread, especially if they were unlucky enough to have been born more recently than the last time the team they support was particularly bad. Mostly the accusation is that people should "support their local club" or the like. This might well have been a tenement which held true up to the mid-1990s, but I'm not sure it really holds water anymore.
Let me explain why I'm thinking this. In this multi-media, 24/7 football on TV world is it any wonder people support the clubs they hear mentioned a lot on the TV? Since the dawn of the Premier League era the top teams who are ever-present are undoubtedly some of the most famous sporting brands on the planet, and yes there can be no doubt some people support them for the reflected glory supporting a club which wins things brings. However, one thing this attitude does not breed is loyalty. Which is why the Manchester City rise is an interesting development, as, personally, an awful lot of Manchester City fans seem to be slowly emerging from the woodwork. Where were these people 15 years ago when they were in the 3rd Division I wonder? Well in at least three of the people I know who now profess to be City fans, supporting Liverpool actually.
With the smaller world we now undoubtedly live in (after all, I can now follow a cricket match in Australia as it happens on several different media types while conversing with people in India and South Africa about it) is the concept of "the local team" still a particularly valid one? Of course many people will still support the local club (especially if the local club is reasonably big), but where does this influence end. Should someone in Havant be supporting Havant & Waterlooville or could they legitimately claim to be a Portsmouth fan? And do you have to get a tape measure out in London to ensure you support the correct local club?
Cards on the table, I am a Manchester United fan living in Sussex. I support Manchester United because they were the team my mother (the sports fan in the family) supports (she grew up in the wake of the Munich air crash and as was rather swept along on the emotion of that), and so (like many others throughout history) I support the same team as my parent(s). The abuse I have received for this has been at times almost biblical from fans of other teams. It's made me wonder why, and the only reason I can conclude is that, on a subconscious level, they feel the need to get one over on the fans who end up supporting a team which is more successful than theirs. They might not win trophies, they might not play in a particularly high quality league, they might be an absolutely terrible team, but none of this matters because they think of themselves as somehow "purer" than the others. It's your badge to wear, while other fans are celebrating winning something or beating them, their success means less than your lack of it because they're all lesser fans than yourself.
There's a good reason why I feel this is the case. Let me put it this way. If someone lives and has always lived in Exeter, but they support York City, are they a "glory hunter"? If someone lives in London and, despite having no connection to Spain, supports Rayo Valladolid, are they? It's funny how the accusation only ever seems to be levelled at people who support successful teams (and I limit this not just to United but also to Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham or any of the other teams which are Premier League regulars).
I believe, though, for the reasons mentioned above that the key to being what many of these people refer to as a "true fan" is not how near the ground is to where you live / were born but the club to which you feel the most loyalty. I'm proud of being a Manchester United fan for many reasons which do not cover winning things. I'm continuing the family line. They were the first team I ever watched play live. That they win things is merely a (very pleasant) sideshow.
Which brings me back to the Manchester City reference earlier. The ex-Liverpool fans who now proclaim themselves as City fans are the real "plastics" in this, in my opinion. So seeing people like me who have only ever supported the one team being put in this category can be quite galling.
Anyway, that's my point for debate, it'll be interesting to hear what any of you have to think about it (and with a long old gap with not much beyond the play-offs and Champions League final for a month or so God we need something to talk about).
Dilbert wrote:My opinion is not footie related, but I felt I can contribute my 2 cents here...
I support the Mumbai Indians in IPL, although my hometown is Pune. Reason? Sachin Tendulkar. So maybe some far away fans support a particular club because they like particular players in a side?
Cant really call me a "Plastic fan" now... Mumbai has not won the IPL even once...
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