Could You Support Another Team?

[doctordb]

Let's say the team that you have loved and obsessed over since you were a child goes out of business, maybe due to a dodgy russian, shifty Arab or crafty cockney.

Would you support another team? Who and why?

[Duncer]

As a Rangers fan I feel reasonably qualified to answer this. My first team was, is, and always will be Linfield, but living in Scotland makes it expensive to see them more than once a month. If Linfield went out of business I don't think I could support another Irish League club, but I would support grass roots football and flit from lower league ground to ground, as well as taking in the odd big game.

I had a season ticket for Ibrox for many years but, having become dillusioned with the pricing about five years ago, I drifted away and started watching local "junior" sides. I still go to Ibrox, albeit on an occasional basis, and I had the misfortune to be there yesterday, but I find myself enjoying non-league football much more. It is usually about £5 to get in, fans still swop ends at half time, so there is no over zealous stewarding, and I am trusted to behave like an adult and therefore allowed to have a beer with my friends. What's not to like. That doesn't mean I don't still look out for Rangers results as there are too many years of emotional investment involved, not to mention maxed out credit cards for European trips, but I am more than happy with my "casual" supporting thse days. If I ever did support another team it would someone local to here, probably East Stirling, although they play on one of those awful plastic pitches, so that puts me off a bit.

[rowanwitch]

I think you always have your fiirst love but a minor dalliance with a second string or two seems perfectly normal....

My main and first is Chelsea...
I also followed the old Wimbledon FC in the crazy gang years.. my favourite local team are the baggies as I live in the midlands and I love watching Barca play... just means you have a bit of a stake in more matches... Its not being unfaithful...more like a quick fumble in the football lift

[Mick-Talbot]

Well I know lots of Manchester united fans who used to support other clubs................so lots do switch clubs.

[Wharton]

I am giving my age away by saying that my 1st team was Third Lanark. I was very young and anyway we moved from the south side of Glasgow to the north-west and I discovered the famous Partick Thistle. I've aged a lot!!

[Stephen_G]

I follow two teams anyway - Middlesbrough and Yeovil Town (Which led to a crisis, when they met for the first time in the League Cup in 2008). Yeovil don't have any close (Geographical) rivals, bur I couldn't switch to Newcastle or Sunderland.

[Duncer]

"I am giving my age away by saying that my 1st team was Third Lanark. "

Boy would I love to sit and talk to you about the Hi-hi's some day?

[Arksided]

I have to say I've being a Man United supporter all my life(7. yr old) but even though I was so opposed to the Glazier take over, I couldn't turn my back and get behind 'FC United of Manchester' sidestep club.

If its a foreign club, I've always liked FC Porto (way before Jose') and Barcelona.

[joggerjayne]

I'd probably support another team if I moved.

Not that I'm planning to move.

[Duncer]

I don't really get the, "supporting a foreign", club thing. I like lots of other clubs, like Utrecht, mainly because they were the (very) local team when I lived in Holland, but surely support comes from an emotional attachment?

Too many modern fans jump on bandwagons to appear knowledgeable, but if you asked them questions about major European teams, like Red Star Belgrade or Ferencvaros, they would be baffled. It's almost Pol Pot like "Year Zero", as if football began when Sky appeared. They, (Sky), have pumped a tremendous amount of money into the game, that much is undeniable, but they didn write the history of football.

Too many fans have jumped on the Barca bandwagon for reasons I don't even want to explore, mainly because most of them are as facile as being a Justin Beiber fan. Yes, by all means admire them, they are a fantastic club, but that does not correlate with "support".

Europe has so many great clubs, but now I'm heading towards another rant; so does South America, and European fans are generally ignorant of most of them. Boca Juniors, River Plate, Santos, Independiente, Sao Paolo, Corinthians, Nacional, Colo Colo, and so many more, all clubs to rival Europes best, only without the TV deals.