Why do you support the team that you do...

[Onket]

How are Harrogate getting on these days?

No idea. I only went to see them once.

 

[Fedayn]

The old fella is a bluenose. Supporting Liverpool was the only thing I could do to wind him up without getting a smack

Mate of mine from Drumcjhapel in Glasgow started supporting Celtic because he hated his dad-who was a wife beating wank-and he knew supporting Celtic would hurt him and it was his way of getting back at him. That was 40 years ago. These days he just is a Celtic fan.

 

[xslavearcx]

Partick thistle because out of my otherwise Celtic supporting family my grandDad picked the jags instead. I reckon he was having a sick joke on his descendants or something for that stunt.

Been going to the football in fits and bursts in varying degrees of regularity since 1988 - the year of the garden festival and Celtics centenary year. Highlight of that season was telling all my Classmates that we were gonna thrash Celtic when we drew against them in the scottish cup. How naive I was! We were first division and they were premier. 10 mins into the game I asked my dad why the Celtic players were running about double the speed of ours- that's when my dad explained to me the difference between part time players and full time players. 0-3 with great half volley by Tommy burns. That match and the subsequent slaggin by all my classmates was my initiation into the sometimes bitter subject position of 'diddy supporter' that operates here a lot. These days more interested in nfl but don't doubt that at some point in my life I'll be going to firhill fairly regularly again.

 

[xslavearcx]

One of the things I find hilarious about this is that in some kind of bureaucratic attempt to get rid of sectarian and bigotry, by ignoring the social roots of these two social problems, people end up stereotyping and writing off hundreds of thousands of people as de facto bigots. People end up making sweeping statements/assertions that simply by supporting either of these two clubs makes you a bigot and by definition that people who support other clubs are de facto not bigots. It is laughable frankly.

I've encountered instances of bigotry writhin the ptfc support -along sectarian lines a fair few times in my life which oftentimes appear to have a lot of the general antiIrish racism assumptions underpinning it that circulates in Scottish society. At least with rangers amongst the ones who embrace that discourse around the identity of being a rangers fan it's easy to identify and challenge - it's far harder to do so under the oftentime smugness that operates in other teams fanbases which seems to act as a cover for holding the same assumptions. I have never thought that sectarianism can be reduced to what football team one supports if only it was so easy!

 

[skyscraper101]

Manchester United, basically because my Grandad was a player signed by Busby in the fifties. He played on the wing in the United juniors and briefly also in the first team. Those were also the days where you still had to do national service even if you were a professional football player, and upon joining the navy he was quickly signed into the navy football team.

When the opposing sides got wind that a Manchester United player was in the navy squad, he was man marked to fuck and tackled so badly that he ended up in hospital. The team medics got him back to Old Trafford for more surgery but never fully recovered his pace and was eventually sold. First to Reading, and then Bournemouth and he finished his career at Aldershot before retiring.

Here's a photo of him in the juniors (top left). There's two or three Munich survivors in that shot. And one who died, Mark Jones. To think if my Grandad may had not got injured, he may have been one of the unlucky few who ended up killed in that air crash and I might never be.



He's 82 this year

 

[friedaweed]

Mate of mine from Drumcjhapel in Glasgow started supporting Celtic because he hated his dad-who was a wife beating wank-and he knew supporting Celtic would hurt him and it was his way of getting back at him. That was 40 years ago. These days he just is a Celtic fan.

I think I've told you before about my closet Blues watching in my youth. My old fella's a bit of a right funny cunt in an old skool scouse wind up merchant sort of way. As a teen I worked for him carrying the hod on site during school holidays (Or when he needed me to have a bout of illness) and weekends. The only way he would give me the afternoon off to go to Anfield was if I sat in the Bullens or on the Gwladys Street with our wee wingnut the following week

I take him to Goodison in the posh seats (He's 74 now) now and then for my penance and he's not to my knowledge beat me Ma yet. She'd fucking kill him

 

[Onket]

Still no excuses from JTG, I see.

 

[Mungy]

There is only one team to support and that is Everton. Anything else is delusional. Deep down, everyone knows this is true. Especially redshite supporters

 

[yield]

Wealdstone and Watford since I was a kid. For a few seasons at the same ground after Wealdstone were conned. There's a Tescos there now.

Lapsed fan now not been to a match for years. Good seeing John Barnes, Luther Blissett, Stuart Pearce and Vinnie Jones going on to bigger better things.

 

[chilango]

3rd or 4th generation Manchester United fan. Family thing. Never had the opportunity to choose a club to support. Had a season ticket to Old Trafford from the day I was born pretty much.