Have a friend who is a lifelong Ipswich supporter because when he was about five or six his favourite colour was blue and he used to cut out all the team and player pics from Shoot featuring teams in blue into a scrap book. He picked up the book one day and one of the pictures fell out, that of the Ipswich team, so he chose them to follow. Any other obscure reasons people know about?
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
Because someone won a battle in 1690. Mad. -
Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
When I lived in Edinburgh I chose Hibs over Hearts because of my housemate from university in Sheffield. When we lived in Sheffield his girlfriend at the time was a big Hearts fan with her father and two brothers so my housemate - who was totally uninterested in football - used to look out for their results so he knew how they were getting on.
As a result, myself and our other housemate chose to support Hibs to simply annoy him as he originates from the green half of Edinburgh. That said, when I went to live in Edinburgh I felt I had no choice but to become a Hibee and duly bought a season ticket in the East Stand. We even all went to an Edinburgh derby at Easter Road together as a hommage to and celebration of our time living with each other in Sheffied.
I still follow Hibs and was very pleased for their proper supporters (I guess I don't qualify) when they won the Cup this weekend.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
We wandered into Robbie's Bar on Leith Walk one Saturday afternoon looking for a quiet bar with a bit of space. For about an hour we were practically the only people in there, then at five o'clock an enormous horde of Hibs fans descended on the place having just watched their team beat Hearts.
The party went on till the small hours, they've been my Scottish team ever since.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I've a soft spot for Brescia because Gheorghe Hagi played for them.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I know an American chap who supported Cardiff City from afar for decades because as a child he loved the film 'How Green Was My Valley' which led to a fondness for anything Welsh.
I think the first game he actually saw in the flesh was the FA Cup Final something like thirty years after choosing the club.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I know a gay lad who, in the ten years I've known him, has gone from supporting Colchester to Ipswich to Newcastle and finally to Manchester City.
Aside from the fact that this behaviour is nothing short of lamentable (he moved to Manchester from the south and actually said "When I first walked into the Etihad I felt I'd come home"), the reason he chose Newcastle is because he fancied Alan Shearer.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I've told the story many times before, but anyway...
When I was 9, the German Sportschau began showing highlights from the English First Division on Sunday nights (a short-lived experiment, I seem to recall). I felt that I needed to pick a team to support, and there was a team in red shirts playing attractive, fast-paced football who the commentator said had been newly promoted. So I settled for the team of those plucky underdogs Manchester United.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I might be a Chelsea fan because I found David Webb's cartoon-like features the easiest to copy from my football cards when I was a kid.
(The fact that their training ground was in my home town at that point and that half the kids in school supported them may also have played a role.)Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
An American acquaintance who was at my university for a semester was a Blackburn Rovers fan due to his chosen position as goalkeeper and Brad Friedel being between the sticks at the time.
Though his time in the UK was limited, he travelled from Edinburgh to Ewood Park to watch them - admirable commitment.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
My friend Alan chose to support Norwich because they played in yellow, his favourite colour. That's not the unusual bit. We decided to follow non-league teams, too, and he picked (the now defunct) Horwich RMI because Horwich was Norwich with one letter different. He carried it on into Leigh RMI but gave up when Genesis arrived because "it's not my club, anymore".Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
An old work colleague switched allegiances from Burnley to Spurs when Ralph Coates transferred between the two and has stuck with Spurs ever since.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
Are Alans much more common where you live than most places? That makes a Villa Alan, a Norwich Alan and a Newcastle Alan.Errorist Sympathiser wrote: My friend Alan chose to support Norwich because they played in yellow, his favourite colour.
When I met the latter at a Lakeside v Coventry meeting I had to explain him to someone as "my mate Speedway Alan's mate Alan".Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
One of the London Millers who was born and raised in south-east London decided back in the sixties that he didn't want to support anyone obvious, so he chose by putting all Shoot style ladder tags into a hat and pulling one out. He pulled out Rotherham United, and rather than just shoving it back in, he's stuck with us ever since...Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
In 1976 I was watching The Big Match and Plymouth Argyle were on (in the old D2 at the time). There was this young striker of theirs called Paul Mariner and they said he was about to sign for one of a couple of clubs for big cash. He had a good game and I decided to follow whoever he joined.
Two years later Ipswich won the cup, and another three years after that the UEFA. Once Bobby left, and never having been there in my life, I drifted away and had no team really until latching onto "local" club Reading since I've lived down here. Always keep an eye on Ipswich though.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I was a 5 year old glory hunter.
Only I had no idea what glory was and was one of those kids who was rubbish at football, so I went with the first red team I saw in a final.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I support Sevilla because (a) a couple of years before I went there, my parents brought me back a SFC scarf when they went there on holiday; and (b) the first school to ever employ me was across the road from the stadium.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I had a knitted doll of Ian Rush made for me by a friend of my nan when I was little.
The attention to detail - the big nose, moustache and spindly limbs are reasonably simple to render in wool, I suppose but the Liver bird and Crown Paints on the shirt, the adidas stripes - she'd obviously spent a long time on this.
That's why Liverpool are my "big" team as it were. That and they were the only team I knew about when I was 4. If you can work out what year I would have turned that age, you'll realise it was glory hunting by proxy.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
A friend's (deceased) Dad was from Sunderland, and not knowing that there was a team from and called Sunderland, has supported Arsenal because Alan Sunderland scored the winner in the 1979 Cup Final.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
My old man said "Be an Arsenal fan".
No, really!Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I first noticed Wimbledon on the '77-'78 league ladders.Gangster Octopus wrote: One of the London Millers who was born and raised in south-east London decided back in the sixties that he didn't want to support anyone obvious, so he chose by putting all Shoot style ladder tags into a hat and pulling one out. He pulled out Rotherham United, and rather than just shoving it back in, he's stuck with us ever since...Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
There's a Boro fan I know through the internet and have met once or twice, that although coming from Wolves stock, picked us as his uncle took him to Molineux when we were the visitors and supported us to piss off his cousin who he hated.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I was on holiday in Northern Scotland and went to see Forres Mechanics in an early season cup game. Kept an eye on their results for a few years.
A few years ago the Shrewsbury fanzine 'bought' the support of a jaded Arsenal fan who had put himself on eBay. Not sure if he still follows the Town but he did come to at least one game.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I've a permanent soft spot for Hibs because I had a daft little football book from the 70s with every English & Scottish league teams' kits on a poster, and I liked theirs best. I mentioned this to my dad, and by the next day he'd managed to turn me into a pre-pubescent full kit wanker. Fuck knows how he went about finding a full Hibs (away!) kit in one day in pre-internet Manchester, but he did.ingoldale wrote: I still follow Hibs and was very pleased for their proper supporters (I guess I don't qualify) when they won the Cup this weekend.Comment
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Most tenuous reasons for choosing a football team?
I find it hard to make these sorts of random attachments stick. But...
I originally chose Newcastle because I like the black and white stripes. But their away strips are often shit and they're choice of sponsors often messes up the perfect black and white look.
I've chosen Wimbledon because I saw them play Wycombe in Kingston and it's the only live match I've seen outside North America. And I really like they're whole set-up.
I'll follow any team that has a US player on them.
I like Toronto FC because I went with Alex and his brother to see them. First time I saw a match outside the USA. Mainly, I just feel bad for their fans.
I used to support DC United as my local team, but now I don't really care - see other thread.
I sort of follow Philadelphia Union, but can't bring myself to really care. I did see them at PPL Park once (or whatever it's called now) But they're the closest we have to a local team in MLS insofar as they're the only team whose local broadcasts (as opposed to ESPN, etc) are on cable here. Minor league teams in Pennsylvania include Harrisburg City Islanders, Pittsburgh Riverhounds and the new Bethlehem Steel, but I've never seen them live.
I like Tampa Bay Rowdies because they play near my brother's house and he has gone with my nephew a few times. He text's me questions about soccer since I know more about it.
I like Ipswich because my "lucky seat" in the room where I had a lot of classes in college had "IPSWICH TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB" carved into the desk part.
I like FCUM because they're EIM's team and he's a good guy who made me food, showed me Manchester, and let me play his playstation when I visited.
I like any team that plays in dark green.
I like St Pauli because they're "right on."
I like Freiburg because they have a connection to Ravensburg SV, which is where I have family. I'd follow Ravensburg but they're way down the ladder and hard to follow online.
I like Eintract Frankfurt because I had that dream about them and IMP goes there.
I like Lewes FC because my parents live in Lewes USA and they seem like a good outfit.Comment
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