Soccer 24-7 Blog

Why You Choose Your Club


By: Manic Loop

Recently trailing out of the City Ground after a home defeat to Blackpool, I found my self questioning myself and why at age 6 I decided to pluck Nottingham Forest as my team.

Admittedly back in 1987 we were somewhat more of an attractive proposition to support than say over the last few years.

We finished in the top 5 frequently in the top flight and had a number of internationals in the squad.

If I was 6 now would I decide to choose a side that have just spent 3 seasons in the 3^rd tier of the League and only just survived staying in the Championship last season? I’d guess I might still do.

Looking back at those old days, you’d never see a kid supporting Chelsea or Arsenal. It was Forest, Liverpool and Manchester United all the way at my school. There was occasionally a rogue Everton fan slipping through the net too.

Of course what made things easier for me was having an eldest brother who was completely obsessed by Forest. Back then I doubt my dad, who hails from Essex, would ever have claimed to be the Forest fan he says he is now, that has taken 20 years of being a season ticket holder to get to that point, in fact back then I’d hazard he’d still claim to be a Tottenham fan that he was as a boy.

I had toyed with joining those ranks of Liverpool fan as a boy; I owned a shirt from the Crown Paints sponsored era. In fact I think even at my very first football match (Forest 5 Oxford 3) that I was still a Liverpool fan. That changed having seen Forest. I got bitten by the bug.

Standing on a milk crate in the Colwick Road Stand was great days. It also makes me feel really old mentioning that, sounds like something out of a flat cap era.

Now If I dragged along as 6 year old, I really can’t see a change occurring. It always seemed, and still does judging by the numerous members of Soccer24-7, that people who support a big club that’s not in their locale that they also follow and have a certain “thing” for a local club at a lower level.

This was hit home to me at a game a couple of years ago when I noticed a kid wearing a Man Utd shirt in the Junior Reds. I thought have we really come to this, that perhaps there is a Man Utd fan that sees us as his little local club that he follows on the side when United aren’t on Sky?

After all there are a number of League 1 clubs who will get that kind of support. Makes me think of the days Tranmere used to play on Fridays so that they could get Liverpool and Everton fans to come along too.

So, what makes us make that vital life changing decision at that young age? After all anyone who changes their club affiliation later in life are always somewhat mocked. You can’t do it, it’s simply one of life's rules.

You cannot change your allegiance later in life. I chose because I had Forest essentially forced upon me. I am a fiercely proud person of where I am from, so chances are that change would have occurred had I not been taken to Forest. Most of my friends at the same time also were finding Forest and going to games for the first time. Of my immediate peer group to this day there are 8-9 of us Forest fans who go to games regularly.

So I think that decision would always have been made. I don’t understand a few of my friends who at that age went for Liverpool or Man Utd and have never been or maybe have been once or twice in 10-15 years.

But this is a different choice for me, than someone who doesn’t have any level of professional football to watch. Would I be a Liverpool fan had I grew up in somewhere like Cornwall? Or a little further in Ireland? Most Norwegians appear to be Liverpool fans…is this because the level there isn’t good enough to claim that as your first love?

This only going to change the fabric of our clubs support, as they target fans from countries who have no decent level of local League in Asia, Africa and North America.

I’d argue that if these places ever wanted their leagues to succeed is that you need to stop people primarily supporting a big European team, and not a team in their National league.

Rather than support some team of useless nobodies, they attach themselves to support and enjoy a team of superstars who play glittering football.

I can’t say I blame them.

After following the many ups and downs of a team in the lower half of the League structure there isn’t much there to inspire someone not already attached to a club.

When the possibility is to watch football like the brand Arsenal play, or to watch some clogger hoofing the ball the length of a ramshackle arena on a cold windy day, I think I can see why so many “glory hunt”.