Football....What team do you support ??

Dear George

It'll only be three games in the European championship this year and the third will be the so-called dead rubber game between the two team that cannot qualify so not worth watching. Listen to Elgar on Radio Three instead, it'll be much more worth the while and patriotic.  After all if the FA don't care about the England football team why should I? (I suppose their name is the give away).  

Paul Mariner for next England manager then I'll care and we'll win the World Cup. 

All the best, Guy 

I'm genuinely suprised by your form Guido, I'd have thought the Tractor Boys would have been there or there-abouts with Paul Jewel this season ....what happened? 

Colback is just about first choice centre mid for us now despite a recent injury - he is a deceptively good player isn't he? who rarely wastes a pass.  Connor W is yet to really settle with us as he's hardly been fit but there are obvious flashes of what he can do, surely O'Neil can get the best out of him?

The Canaries are at The SOL tomorrow night on Sky  - I guess you hope we'll carry on with our recent form ?  

Mista

What's you link with us Smoggies?  You seem to have referred to them a bit - but I can't tell whether it's affectionately or otherwise!

Gavin

(Midlands-based Smoggy)

Hello Gavin

Before i sold my business and retired one of my main suppliers was based in Jarrow and i would fly up their about once a month. Nearly all the guys in the factory were Sunderland supporters and they all used to refer to Middlesbro as the Costa del smoggy.

One thing that sticks in my mind some years ago when FFC were playing on the Costa 4 of us went up by train. We came out the station,got in a taxi and i asked the driver to take us to a descent hotel so that we could have a few drinks before the game. Taxi driver replied....aint nowt like that round here pal. So he drove us to a pub near the ground used by away supporters telling us it wasnt a bad boozer......What an A1 sh1t hole it was.  Large pub,i went to the loo,2 loos had no locks on the door and the 3rd had the door ripped off. Hate to think what his idea of a grotty boozer would be like.

Mista H

Presumably the taxi driver didn't finish his sentence..."it ain't a bad boozer....it's a terrible one".

Was that Ayresome Park or Riverside?  Not that it matters really, both are in pretty grotty areas!

Inverness cali thistle, or Wick academy. Passionate players.

Riverside...Yes a wonderful area is Middlesbro,i remember one year Chairman Mo chartered a huge jumbo to fly 500+ of us up their,and a fleet of coaches to ferry us to the ground. As all the coaches were leaving the stadium woman in their 50s were lining the pavements making hand gestures to us to say what bankers we were. Charming ladies they have in middlesbro.

Mista h

Friends

Today is Superbowl Sunday and from early in the morning until game time it is pre-game analysis and more pre-game analysis on the network broadcasting the game.  There's not much the other networks can program against it. 

However, Rupert Murdock's Fox Network  broadcast Chelsea vs. Manchester United mid-morning and I have to say, speaking as more or less a complete novice, if all soccer games were played that well and were as exciting the game might actually catch on over here. Not as a replacement for football but perhaps at a different time of year. Impressive game and you could actually see why you all talk up this guy Rooney.

Cheers

Lucky,lucky me.

Had a phone call last week from a pal who i do a lot of away games with if the old man isnt up to going,wanted me to go and watch the girls play Man city. i turned the trip down as i dont like the views for away fans.

He has just phoned me to say with the snow and several crashes on the motorway he got home at 05.30 this morning.

Mista h

With the way players move from club to club (and country to country) in some ways it seems illogical that anybody could still really have a firm allegiance to a single club. Following an individual player might be more sensible in some ways, yet the unpleasantness that  greets a former 'hero' when they move to a rival is usually pretty dreadful. Few players in higher leagues can now be identified as local to their team, and even those that are now will usually be living in a bubble of wealth that hardly makes them 'of their community'.

I'm not a footie fan, and certainly not a fan of any particular team. The intense tribalism (indeed sectarianism) is one of the things that puts me off; although the complete list of things I dislike about football is quite long.

I'll get me coat...

Bruce

The intense tribalism (indeed sectarianism) is one of the things that puts me off

Thats interesting Bruce because it's that very tribalism that attracts myself and which separates football from rugby, cricket, (and in this country anyway) basketball or ice hockey.  It is such fanaticism that ensures (despite so many problems) that the Premier League is so universally popular world wide ....it is by far the most watched soccer league in the world (possibly the most watched league in all of sport?)

Of course no sane person would condone hooliganism but it's the tribalism of following your team that gives a fan such a powerful high when you win (and an awful low if you lose!)

Football reaches the parts other sports cannot reach!

Me too. Personally, I don't really get the idea of "supporting" a team. What sort of support do they need? I mean, who gives a $h!+ what these misogynistic, overpaid thugs really do, and what coloured jersey they're wearing this year? Kick a ball around better than other people and make millions? There is something about professional football (and most professional sports) that repulses me.

Bye now.

Winky

Manchester United since I was about 7 years old. I was a very rare species then surrounded by Spurs and Arsenal supporters.

Tim

"Violence at a soccer match triggered intensified political protests in Egypt raging now into their fifth day. A match on February 1, 2012 in Port Said, Egypt between rival clubs Al-Masry of Port Said and visiting Al-Ahly of Cairo ended with home supporters charging onto the pitch and chasing visiting fans. That confrontation turned bloody when the visiting fans were unable to get out of the stadium, and 74 died from attacks and from injuries sustained in a panicked stampede."

Football....F%$# YEAH! That's the game we love.

I understand the appeal, just don't feel part of it and at times find it either rather intimidating or just downright unpleasant. I follow my cricket team and get a kick from their success, but it does not make me scream invective at those who follow the opposition or become utterly blind to the failings of my own side.

As for the success of the Premiership abroad I wonder if that this is really about joing a 'club' in the way you do as a fan. I suspect it is much to do with branding/marketing of the whole glossy and 'successful' package, a package that people want to be associated with, indeed a soap opera thet people want to follow.

Bruce

They were glory days. I was there.....I live to far away now to make regular trips and I've lost interest largely but hope we can sustain our stay in the top flight.

Well, just to let you know there is one other forum member who is with you Clay, on the subject of football. We may have our divisional rivalries (Broncos fan), but hey, football is played on Sunday night, and on a pitch 100 yards long with 'in zones'.

As for what is called football over here in the UK, yet another great advert for the sport with that little bigoted ****er yesterday. If he tried that in the NFL he would find his wallet a lot thinner and stood down for games, and let go sooner rather than later by his team, and the sport.

Still he is not representative of the majority and for every one like him there are some fantastic ambassadors for the sport, and great contributors to charity and society (Jack Willshire comes to mind).

Mike

Please do give us the low down on Wrexham. I for one would like to know what goes on in the REAL football world. Whilst its nice seeing all the top players turn up at our little ground i am sick to death of spoilt brats like Tevez & Co spitting out their dummies.

Mista H

I'd be interested in hearing about Wrexham as well - please don't assume that all Premiership team's supporters don't have an understanding of the passion in the lower divisons or that being in the Prem stops you being passionate .....we Sunderland fans don't buy the Premiership hype even though we would admit to being very glad we are in it! .... we still buy the pies ...buy the fanzines ...buy the bovril ....drink the beer .... and howl industrial language at the refs (jeez how BAD are the current crop of refs) some things are the same at any level of football!

Jamie

Didn't see your post until just now. I had expected to read a lot more from you this year given the whole Broncos/Tebow thing. Glad you're still enjoying the games. I'm finding Sunday's a bit dull right no. Sad comment I think. Anyway, cheers and here's to the new season coming.

Clay

Drink the beer !!!....You must be a rich Sunderland supporter. We spend NOTHING,not a penny at home games now,Program £3.50(Chelsea its £3.00)  Beer £4.00 a pint and 500ml water YES WATER £2.00.

Mista H

....Actually I think only Ellis Short could be descibed as a  "rich" SAFC supporter! (and Quinny)...

...2 jumbo hot dogs + 2 pints of Fosters (bleaugh)  is £13.50 as a match day "meal deal" at the Stadium Of Light! 

We drink at the local WMC pre game (Working Mens Club to you softie southerners) where a bottle of Double Maxim Ale is £2.70p

I've always thought that having so many Working Men's Clubs in Sunderland was the ulitmate ironic statistic ...given how few men have found work in the towm!

.....Meanwhile we welcome the gunners again on saturday - should be another close game ....!

Aberdeen F.C. through thick and thin.....

From the highs of the 1970 Scottish Cup Final, through the 70's, to the Fergie years including being in Gothenburg to see us beat Real Madrid in Cup Winners Cup Final (the quarter final winat Pittodire over Bayern Munich was even better with the best atmosphere I have ever experienced at any sporting event and I have been at a few), to the successful Hans Gilhaus, Charlie Nicholas, Theo Snelders era of Alex Smith ....right up to the pitiful excuse of a team of the last 10 years or so (no money).

I even played in goal against them in '83 in a pre-season friendly before they went to beat Real and Bayern.....we lost too...although not embarrassingly!

To paraphrase Bruce S....Glory Days!

Cheers

Jim

I am a life-long Portsmouth fan and feel after today I can get my life back. Being located on the South Coast we are, by definition a non-club therefore looking for a team in the North West I can adopt.