That Sense of Belonging
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If there’s one type of football fan I just don’t understand it’s the one who declares his undying love for the game in one breath and tells you he ‘wouldn’t support that league’ in the next. It’s sort of like saying you enjoy eating your favourite food - but only on a Tuesday. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m not a football snob and never have been. In the right company (and a warm enough jacket) I’d sit and watch pretty much any game. I follow a team in the League of Ireland in the same way I follow a team in the Premier League and the SPL. Just because they are ‘foreign’ teams doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching a game. Christ, if we’re going to get all OCD about supporting ‘foreign’ anything, your local football team is about as solid an argument as a piece of Swiss cheese. Local heroes are in very short supply and I think you’ll find that globally.
Of course not every football fan is going to see things the same way. More often than not, if you are a League of Ireland fan, you will have at least once experienced the sniggering that so often accompanies a comment from a fellow ‘Irish’ football fan who thinks our domestic league is something of a joke. ‘Sure they’re not even real players!’ is a comment I’ve heard more times than I care to remember. So what are they then, imaginary?
Only last week my brother mentioned he heard two radio DJ’s on air joking that supporting the League here was the equivalent of turning down a 5 star holiday in Dubai for a caravan in Wexford in the pissing rain. No hard feelings to Wexford - I spent plenty of summers there myself, I am a Dub – but you get the point. We’re all partial to a bit of banter but it isn’t really helpful for the national media to take to slagging what is in many ways a struggling league. Talk about a self-depreciation fail.
But for all the fans that ‘identify’ solely with foreign teams they are matched, by strength of opinion if not in number, by League of Ireland fans who will only support their local team. For them the level of football is irrelevant, it’s all about that sense of belonging and what your club means to you, your life and your community.
I love my Friday nights in Tallaght. I pick the same place to park in the Square, I meet the same people, we sit in the same spot in the stadium and there is always the familiar smell of vinegar and chips and fried onions. We know the other fans even if we haven’t met them before because we are Rovers. And when you look around the grounds the flags will come from near and far – not just the ‘local’ area – because you can’t put a perimeter on being a fan.
Likewise I love the trips I’ve made to football abroad, to the Stadium of Light or to White Hart Lane. I love the excitement of match day in the UK and being part of the never ending stream of fans all pouring forth to one place for one reason only – to see ‘their’ team play. Football in the UK is a supersized version of what we have at home – but that doesn’t make it better, just different. The match day experience is a phenomenon we have yet to do justice in our own land.
I’m not going to dictate to anyone what league or what team they should or shouldn’t support, last time I checked I was a Tully not a Gaddafi. But if you’re not willing to appreciate the standard of football outside your own domestic league for what it is then next time the World Cup is on (and if Ireland are out of it) be sure to switch stations. And likewise if you’re that much a snob to turn your nose up at anything other than the crème de la crème of British football, keep your fingers crossed your kids football coach has a better attitude than you.
I’m not a football snob and never have been. In the right company (and a warm enough jacket) I’d sit and watch pretty much any game. I follow a team in the League of Ireland in the same way I follow a team in the Premier League and the SPL. Just because they are ‘foreign’ teams doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching a game. Christ, if we’re going to get all OCD about supporting ‘foreign’ anything, your local football team is about as solid an argument as a piece of Swiss cheese. Local heroes are in very short supply and I think you’ll find that globally.
Of course not every football fan is going to see things the same way. More often than not, if you are a League of Ireland fan, you will have at least once experienced the sniggering that so often accompanies a comment from a fellow ‘Irish’ football fan who thinks our domestic league is something of a joke. ‘Sure they’re not even real players!’ is a comment I’ve heard more times than I care to remember. So what are they then, imaginary?
Only last week my brother mentioned he heard two radio DJ’s on air joking that supporting the League here was the equivalent of turning down a 5 star holiday in Dubai for a caravan in Wexford in the pissing rain. No hard feelings to Wexford - I spent plenty of summers there myself, I am a Dub – but you get the point. We’re all partial to a bit of banter but it isn’t really helpful for the national media to take to slagging what is in many ways a struggling league. Talk about a self-depreciation fail.
But for all the fans that ‘identify’ solely with foreign teams they are matched, by strength of opinion if not in number, by League of Ireland fans who will only support their local team. For them the level of football is irrelevant, it’s all about that sense of belonging and what your club means to you, your life and your community.
I love my Friday nights in Tallaght. I pick the same place to park in the Square, I meet the same people, we sit in the same spot in the stadium and there is always the familiar smell of vinegar and chips and fried onions. We know the other fans even if we haven’t met them before because we are Rovers. And when you look around the grounds the flags will come from near and far – not just the ‘local’ area – because you can’t put a perimeter on being a fan.
Likewise I love the trips I’ve made to football abroad, to the Stadium of Light or to White Hart Lane. I love the excitement of match day in the UK and being part of the never ending stream of fans all pouring forth to one place for one reason only – to see ‘their’ team play. Football in the UK is a supersized version of what we have at home – but that doesn’t make it better, just different. The match day experience is a phenomenon we have yet to do justice in our own land.
I’m not going to dictate to anyone what league or what team they should or shouldn’t support, last time I checked I was a Tully not a Gaddafi. But if you’re not willing to appreciate the standard of football outside your own domestic league for what it is then next time the World Cup is on (and if Ireland are out of it) be sure to switch stations. And likewise if you’re that much a snob to turn your nose up at anything other than the crème de la crème of British football, keep your fingers crossed your kids football coach has a better attitude than you.
