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Table Wine Drinker  Posts: 556
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I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.
They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool, Villa and Spurs.
Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.
While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fan has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can it?
The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.
Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.
But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have no local connection to is both souless and sterile.
As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.
I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League side in the cup or escaping the abyss of non league football.
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 Les Brechin |
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Totally agree. Grimsby Town are part of me and who I am.
I think Frank Skinner called it right when he said that you should put your finger on a map where you were born, and make ever increasing circles until you find your nearest football club, and that's your team.
I didn't choose to support Grimsby Town, Grimsby Town chose me!
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| wigworld |
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 Whiskey Drinker  Posts: 3,126
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Would you feel the same about them if they supported a lower league team they have no connection to?
I feel roughly the same. I think supporting the team is kind of a modern-day 'belong to a tribe'.Some people might have a stronger legitimate connection to a tribe,others less so.
My son was born in Kingston-on-Thames, but we moved back North when he was two years old, and he's lived in Beverley for most of his life. He supports Town (rather than the mud-rats) because his Dad does. Would that be a legitimate tribal connection?
What about his friend, who supports Man Utd because his Dad (who has no connection to Manchester) does? (They share a season ticket with another family, so do go to games regularly, if that makes a difference). Does he have a legitimate tribal connection? Would you say no, because his Dad doesn't?
I must admit, I tend to be sanctimonious about it, but it gets tricky when you start to unpick individual cases. Tricky, isn't it!
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| Withnail |
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Table Wine Drinker Posts: 556
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Would you feel the same about them if they supported a lower league team they have no connection to?
I feel roughly the same. I think supporting the team is kind of a modern-day 'belong to a tribe'.Some people might have a stronger legitimate connection to a tribe,others less so.
My son was born in Kingston-on-Thames, but we moved back North when he was two years old, and he's lived in Beverley for most of his life. He supports Town (rather than the mud-rats) because his Dad does. Would that be a legitimate tribal connection?
What about his friend, who supports Man Utd because his Dad (who has no connection to Manchester) does? (They share a season ticket with another family, so do go to games regularly, if that makes a difference). Does he have a legitimate tribal connection? Would you say no, because his Dad doesn't?
I must admit, I tend to be sanctimonious about it, but it gets tricky when you start to unpick individual cases. Tricky, isn't it!
Yep, completely agree with your valid points, it's not black and white, if you'll pardon the pun. My cousin who was born and grew up in North London yet has always been die hard Town as our grandpa used to take us to games as kids, which I always thought (and still do) was class. |
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| TwoLeftFeet |
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All I'm pretty sure about is that no plastic supporter could feel the high we felt Wembley 98 or 16, or the low of the Burton game etc that for me is what football is all about the passion.
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| IlkleyMariner |
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I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.
They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool,. Villa and Spurs.
Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.
While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fans has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can
The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional cost of a trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.
Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.
But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have non local connection to is both souless and sterile.
As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.
I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League giant in the league or escaping the abyss of non league football.
Sign of the times We will all be following Barca or Madrid instead of local small clubs in next 20 years. |
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| The Yard Dog |
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Cocktail Drinker  Posts: 1,920
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Sign of the times
We will all be following Barca or Madrid instead of local small clubs in next 20 years.
Not me, it's Grimsby or no football. |
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| moosey_club |
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Barley Wine Drinker  Posts: 16,199
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I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.
They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool,. Villa and Spurs.
Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.
While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fans has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can it?
The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.
Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.
But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have non local connection to is both souless and sterile.
As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.
I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League giant in the cup or escaping the abyss of non league football.
But the extreme opposite is people choosing a non league team like Dulwich Hamlet as they are "Hip". I dont mind anyone having an affinity to a team as long as they are loyal to it, doesnt really matter how that started, although there are large generational swings, in my lifetime Leeds and Chelsea from the 70's picked up glory support, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea again, Man City, Liverpool again....so there is always a swing to success but some people pick names, colours, maybe a player at a club .....they maybe shouldn't criticized for a choice of club...even though every Town supporter would say you should support your home town team. Growing up a mate of mine was a Derby fan, they were well past their best by then and not an obvious choice....but his dad was a Derby fan so it was passed down. |
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| golfer |
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Vodka Drinker  Posts: 6,932
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If Town go down I'll still support them even if they're playing Ragarse Rovers
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| louth_in_the_south |
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I really think we’ve got more important things to be debating at the minute. We’re facing non league again and the plastics won’t give a fook about us .
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| Lower F5 |
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