Football (Soccer) Thread

[Admiral Yi]

If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to support an English team I would pick Blackburn Rovers, because the name sounds cool.

[Admiral Yi]

Or possibly Tottenham, for the same reason.

[Gups]

Don't see what's cool about the name Blackburn Rovers (mayeb echos of the Beatles song in your mind?).

Tottenham Hotspur is a good name.

Others:

Aston Villa
Leyton Orient
Accrington Stanley
Nottingham Forest

[Admiral Yi]

Nottingham Forest is shmaltzy.

Blackburn Rovers sounds cool mostly because Blackburn sounds pretty cool.

[FunkMonk]

I always thought Crystal Palace was a cool name.

[Tamas]

fair point Gups, I never claimed otherwise. But I am also not feeling bad for claiming emotional attachment and declaring myself a fan, after years upon years of following a foreign team.

I wish I could use a local professional team as a channel for tribalism, but prof. football here deserves no support

[Josephus]

As a child I supported Sliema Wanderers 

http://www.sliemawfc.org/website/index.html

[Jacob]

Spurs has always been a very well supported club in London and the south-east, just not much abroad. They play decent, attractive football, are run very well and have some really decent players. Shame their fans are a bund of whining twats and the ground is such a pain in the arse to get to.

IMO there are only two good reasons for supporting a football club (1) your Dad makes you (2) they are your local professional team.

It's a lottery. And if, like me, you end up with a shitty club it's an early lesson in life that you will have to put up with misery, incompetence and mediocrity punctuated with moments of sheer joy and camaraderie. 

No problem with furriners liking English teams and enjoying them, but frankly none of you are supporters no matter how much you know about the club, how long you've been following them and how many comedy jester hats in club colours you've got. If you don't go to the games, you ain't a fan.

Fair enough. Nothing compares to following your team, going to the grounds week in and week out and experiencing the ups and downs right there. That's a given. I've been to enough FC Copenhagen games to know the difference.

But there's a whole other logic to what teams you pick in foreign leagues and why. Norgy was/is a big Nott's Forest fan for example. It's usually something you do quite young, and then you stick with it.

As for what makes a "real fan" or a "real supporter" I frankly don't care. I've liked the spurs for about 25 years, and I expect I'll continue to do so for a while. If you want to look down on the non-local customers of the various Man U/ Chelsea/ Barca/ Real Madrid/ etc marketing empires , or anyone else, that is your right; that's pretty much the point of being a football (or most other sport) supporter, isn't it? To be able to declare with loud confidence that you are the authentic fan of a real team, and everyone else is a wanker.

[Sheilbh]

I loath Man C and somewhat chelsea for their cash and what it did for actually BUILDING a team, and from over here Man C is seen as a bandwagon club because ppl. only noticed them when they started buying their way to hte top.

I dislike Man C less than Chelsea though.  They're buying their way to the top but they're doing it with some style at least - Silva and Aguero especially - or a sense of fun - Balotelli.  Chelsea, on the other hand, have John Terry.

What's behind all these new Spurs fans? Just that the club is placing better, or is there more to it?

I think that they've been quite a fun team to watch the last few years - my flatmate was a Spurs fan so I enjoyed their CL adventure.  They're less fun this season but, until recently, they've been performing better in the league.  I think it's started the bandwagon rolling.

[Barrister]

IMO there are only two good reasons for supporting a football club (1) your Dad makes you (2) they are your local professional team.

That's my philosophy.  I don't understand people who claim that their favourite team is thousands of kms away in a city they've never been to.  I mean I understand you're following the team, but it seems like you're missing an essential element of the whole experience.

[Josephus]

IMO there are only two good reasons for supporting a football club (1) your Dad makes you (2) they are your local professional team.

That's my philosophy.  I don't understand people who claim that their favourite team is thousands of kms away in a city they've never been to.  I mean I understand you're following the team, but it seems like you're missing an essential element of the whole experience.

Possibly. I support Toronto FC cause I live near here, but I've been following Serie A and the EPL since I was a kid and have developed a fondness for certain teams (Napoli and Liverpool). I don't think there's anything wrong in that. Those are, arguably, two of the top three leagues in the world and it's not unusual for people to support teams from there. How many CAnadians have favourite NFL teams for instance?

[Barrister]

IMO there are only two good reasons for supporting a football club (1) your Dad makes you (2) they are your local professional team.

That's my philosophy.  I don't understand people who claim that their favourite team is thousands of kms away in a city they've never been to.  I mean I understand you're following the team, but it seems like you're missing an essential element of the whole experience.

Possibly. I support Toronto FC cause I live near here, but I've been following Serie A and the EPL since I was a kid and have developed a fondness for certain teams (Napoli and Liverpool). I don't think there's anything wrong in that. Those are, arguably, two of the top three leagues in the world and it's not unusual for people to support teams from there. How many CAnadians have favourite NFL teams for instance?

Oh I certainly do.

By my fondness for, say, the Vikings is something of a pale imitation of my fondness for the Blue Bombers as a result of living within walking distance of the games, attending games, that kind of thing.

[The Larch]

IMO there are only two good reasons for supporting a football club (1) your Dad makes you (2) they are your local professional team.

That's my philosophy.  I don't understand people who claim that their favourite team is thousands of kms away in a city they've never been to.  I mean I understand you're following the team, but it seems like you're missing an essential element of the whole experience.

Possibly. I support Toronto FC cause I live near here, but I've been following Serie A and the EPL since I was a kid and have developed a fondness for certain teams (Napoli and Liverpool). I don't think there's anything wrong in that. Those are, arguably, two of the top three leagues in the world and it's not unusual for people to support teams from there. How many CAnadians have favourite NFL teams for instance?

Well, one thing is having a certain fondness for a team from another country and another different thing is actually supporting it actively.

[Josephus]

OK, yeah I agree. That's why despite it being a much smaller league I'm a huge Toronto FC fan, cause I go to the games and the like.

[Barrister]

OK, yeah I agree. That's why despite it being a much smaller league I'm a huge Toronto FC fan, cause I go to the games and the like.

Yeah - don't take me to say you can't follow sports from a different country.