Ignoring your birth right
Why is it Manchester United fans that don’t come from Manchester feel they can support Manchester United? It is mainly because they are insecure in some way and gain reassurance from being able to tell their friends that “their team won”. In so doing they have ignored their birth right to support their local team. This is fundamentally bad for the grassroots of football - essentially the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
The individual misses out on going to games (99.9% of Man Utd fans have never been to Old Trafford) and the social benefits that go with it, preferring instead to sit and watch TV. Supporting your birth right team through thick and thin means that the emotional highs are higher than those of a Manchester United fan as they have no real association at an emotional level. For example, it would not be unreasonable to hear comments from a Man Utd fan along the lines of “We had a poor season, we only won the FA cup, came second in the league and lost in the semis of the Champions League”. Where as a supporter of a lower league team could gain more personal pleasure from winning in the 3rd round of the FA cup against Premier League opposition.
April 28th, 2008 at 03:46 pm
Why do fans have to come from the same City or place, i used to live in Manchester so i have every right to support United but i now live in the country and the closest football club is 2 hours away and that is Reading. If people want to support United then i dont see what the problem is and to be perfectly honest i dont see what it has to do with you. You can support what team you want and people can support what ever teams they want to. I bet you and the rest of the people (or most of the people) that read this rubbish are fans that started to support Chelsea when Abramovich came to Chelsea and spent all those million.
April 28th, 2008 at 06:31 pm
I agree there is a similarity with Chelsea and any other successful teams (like Liverpool in the late 70’s). However, it is the bad attitude and general air of superiority “plastic Mancs” try to convey that leads to the bad feeling generated in true football fans.
April 28th, 2008 at 08:41 pm
There are some extremly plastic United supporters which i hate, after the loss to Chelsea the fans who only support United when they win trophies were wanting Fergie to be fired which is absoutly ridicoulas. You should support a team through thick and thin no matter what. If United were relegated to the lower divisions then i would support them but i can pretty much guarntee that most supporters who say they are United supporters wouldnt support them anymore, so i can see where you are coming from
April 30th, 2008 at 07:29 am
I’m glad you can hate some of your own supporters! Thanks for the honesty :0)
May 1st, 2008 at 01:20 pm
As an Oldham fan living in the shadow of the Red Scum, I fully support this Blog Article. It makes me sick to see “their fans” walking around my town openly wearing their colours
May 3rd, 2008 at 08:57 pm
your town? I dont think it’s your town for starters. Secondly ever United fan should be proud to wear his/her shirt wherever they are