Hacked off with the premiership

[hutchings (48)]

Hacked off with the premiership #1

I really fed up with the way the premiership dominates any general discussion about football. If you support a premiership club your view in some way holds more weight, and that if you support an "inferior" team and take an interest in other "inferior" teams its as if you that doesn't know anything about football.

I play 5 a side every week and a few of us (who I should point out are actually good blokes) go for a few warm-down beers afterwards. In our number as well as yours truly (resplendent in the stripes every week) we have one Leeds fan, one Exeter fan, one Bolton fan, one Reading fan and an Arsenal fan. Add to that the barman who supports Man U.

Talk inevitably turns to football, and each week you'd think there was only two teams in the whole country (guess which two). I always study the papers to find out where how all my mates teams do so I can have an informed discussion with them. None of them ever ask about Brighton and I get the impression they are just a footnote in the league table to most of them. To me, the race for the conference play off spots is as interesting than the premiership of the champions league, but not seemingly to those who support the big clubs.Personally I'm starting to find the rivally between Man U and Arsenal more than a little tedious.


The really annoying thing is that between us me and the Exeter fan go to more games than the rest of them put together.


Hacked off with the premiership #2

It seems as though it is sufficient and indeed the norm to support your team solely from the armchair.

This came home to me last week when I started a secondment in Reading. There is the usual collection of Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal fans and a notable absence of anyone prepared to admit they support Reading.

Anyway, mentioned to the female boss, whose not particulary interested in footbal (save for the world cup etc.) that I support Brighton and she couldn't believe it!!!!. "Why on earth do you support them ?", she said. "Err..... thats where I come from!" I said.

And then came the killer, "You can't get to see them on Telly much ?". Errrr no...... I have to make do with getting off my backside and go and watch them all over the country in the flesh!!!!!"

What sort of homogenised society are we creating ?

Grrrrrrrrr.

 

[Curious Orange]

It always makes me laugh that people genuinely seem suprised when I tell them that I support Brighton, and then further still at the befuddlement that is shown when I'm forced to explain that the reason that I support Brighton is because "I'm a good Sussex boy."

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

i love supporting a non-premiership club- the football league is far more exciting, it generates more conversation with strangers- im far more inclined to sit and chat with someone on a bus or train etc wearing, say, a plymouth top than someone in a man u or arsenal top. Quite frankly, the premiership is shyte and so utterly predictable thesedays.. the championships where its at!

Proud to say i support Brighton whereever i go, and proud to support my local club! (the way it should be)

 

[adrian29uk]

Its like when you are behind cars, you see they have a chelsea, man utd or arsenal thing hanging off the back window, that is so annoying.
Arm chair supporters thats all they are, too scared to go up there incase they are accused of not being a true supporter.

I hate the one where they say

"I have been supporting them since I was a child "

And I say where were you born?

"They say Brighton"

Then I say well you should support Brighton

And then I get some stupid answer like

"They are rubbish"

and

"My relatives live in Manchester which entitles me to support them"

grrrrrrrrrrr so fing annoying support your local you traiters.

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

"My relatives live in Manchester which entitles me to support them"

grrrrrrrrrrr so fing annoying support your local you traiters. [/B][/QUOTE]



that is so funny, i know so many people like that

My five a side team sports a very old collection of teams supported too

We have a stoke fan ( from stoke) a rochdale fan (from Rochdale) a Manure fan (from er burgess hill) a liverpool fan from brighton grrrr and rest brighton so not too bad

 

[Chesney Christ]

To me, the race for the conference play off spots is as interesting than the premiership of the champions league.

Its really not though is it?

I'm not a massive fan of the Premiership but the Champions League is regularly enthralling. Surely the sheer quality of football on show would make you want to watch that ahead of a Conference game.

And yes, I am an Albion fan.

 

[HAMPSHIRE DAVE]

The attitude to the local team around here(Southampton) is pathetic.
All people do is slag them off even when they are doing well.
I see more MU,Chelsea fans in one day around here than all the eight years I lived in the North East.
Go around somewhere like Newcastle and see how many people where shirts of teams from other area's.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

It seems as though it is sufficient and indeed the norm to support your team solely from the armchair


or is it that tickets are to much?

I try to get to Spurs 3 times a year but its not cheap

 

[Gully]

It isn't so bad where I work, there are fans from Cardiff and Leeds in the same building, both are pretty passionate and knowledgeable about their footy and the rivalry is friendly. Most people aren't originally from Gloucester which does make a difference, there are quite a few who support Premiership teams (if you take support as meaning that they watch the games on the telly), but they don't really count.

The best bit is that my line manager is originally from Portslade and is a somewhat lapsed Albion fan, she was around for the glory years and watched the team on a regular basis, I think having me in the office has re-ignited her interest in the club, at least it means we outnumber supporters of all other clubs...

 

[Turkey]

i love supporting a non-premiership club- the football league is far more exciting, it generates more conversation with strangers- im far more inclined to sit and chat with someone on a bus or train etc wearing, say, a plymouth top than someone in a man u or arsenal top.

Intresting point. I hadn't thought about it before but if I see someone in a non-Premiership shirt I'll usually speak to them. I'd very rarely speak to someone in a Premiership shirt - unless they were Norwich/West Brom. I guess you just know that if someone supports a football league team they aren't an armchair fan - not that thats always the case - Berkshire Seagull mmmmmmm.

 

[Turkey]

The attitude to the local team around here(Southampton) is pathetic.
All people do is slag them off even when they are doing well.
I see more MU,Chelsea fans in one day around here than all the eight years I lived in the North East.
Go around somewhere like Newcastle and see how many people where shirts of teams from other area's.

Soo true. Every saints fan I speak to or over hear are complaining - saying they don't support them anymore!

One thing about fandom that intrests me and has come up in this thread though. The difference between a supporter and a fan has been made. Yet when the issue of tickets arises people say anyone, no matter how little they watch the club, is worthy of a ticket? Or is the difference that Premiership club fans wouldn't apply even if tickets were going.. Chelsea/West Brom tickets were on general sale and my Chelsea fan mate didn't wanna go..

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

My brother / sister in law "support" Chelski and ManUre respectively but live in Finchhampstead. They have been to Reading more times in the last two seasons than they have EVER seen Chelsea or Man Utd (which is approximately zero times each I do believe) yet they talk incessently about their "teams" whenever we meet up.

 

[Bluejuice]

I used to live with a guy who was a Man U nut. He had the MU curtains, MU bedspread, Ryan Giggs poster on the wall but was born and raised in Hampshire.

So when questioned on his allegiance to the Northern scum he would reel off that it was in the family as his dad supported them too. So was he from Manchester? No, he was similarly Hampshire born and raised. So where did his passion for the reds come from? And this is the excuse...

"Oh well it's ever since the Munich plane crash"

?

What has that got to do with anything?

Aeons ago the team was unfortunately involved in a plane crash and lost many players leaving the club in deep trouble and I understand that and I'm sure they would have had my sympathy at the time were I alive. But I don't understand how that translates into religiously supporting them now.

If you support a team out of pity then why not Brighton for their perilous no ground status, or AFC Wimbledon for the fact that they were shat upon by their owners? In fact there are many clubs today involved in various battles for survival as well we know and yet these clubs don't generate support outside of their regions. I have never met a Brighton fan who's not from Sussex or a Wrexham fan who's not Welsh. I'm not saying they don't exist but generally speaking it is very rare to find a fan of a football league team who has no connection to that area.

It does sadden me that fans of non Premiership teams are so often shunned, not just by the general public but by the media also. It's as if we don't generate enough income so therefore are less worthwhile.

And I totally agree that I am infinitely more likely to strike up a conversation with someone wearing a Bristol City or a Scunthorpe shirt because you instantly know that they are genuinely interested in football and are likely to be knowledgeable not just about their own club but in most cases mine as well. And it works both ways as I quite often have people come up to me in pubs or even on the street when I'm in my Albion shirt offering comiserations or enquiring as to how the Falmer situation is developing. It is instantly a talking point and breaks down barriers between strangers which I enjoy immensely.

If I'm out with my Man U mate however, the only strangers he gets talking to him are drunk Chelsea fans telling him his team are shit. Man U doesn't break down any barriers, it is a boring symbol of conformism.

I love the Albion even when we are shit. I love them even when we let Plymouth piss 5 past us. I loved them even when they were at the very bottom of the entire football league and moments away from non-league status and what's more I always will regardless of the pain it invariably brings me.

I don't think you can 'decide' who you support, I think you know or you don't care

 

[Curious Orange]

I have never met a Brighton fan who's not from Sussex...

... I don't think you can 'decide' who you support, I think you know or you don't care

I met a bloke from Bolton at Elland Road who started following the Albion having seen us play at Burnden Park. Not from Sussex, yet still a good example of a bloke who knew which team was for him.

 

[Hiney]

"Oh well it's ever since the Munich plane crash"

Don't underestimate the massive amount of public sympathy generated by the Munich Air Crash.

From reading books and talking to my Dad, the whole country went into mourning and spawned a huge number of United fans who then went on to brainwash their children into the notion that the (football) world revolved around Old Trafford.

It saddens me to see Man Utd and Chelsea shirts in Brighton and it just makes me angry that until Falmer is built there is a very real danger that a whole generation of supporters could be lost to our club.

Without the opportunity to go and watch their local club in a decent stadium, it is no wonder that kids attach themselves to the Premiership clubs

..................................................and relax

 

[Gully]

I have met a couple of people who were Albion fans but not from Sussex. The first was from Edinburgh and he had watched Brighton play during visits to family in Sussex as a kid, he had never managed to kick the habit and went to most of our games in the north of England. The second was last summer, a lad from High Wycombe, he supported the Albion because his parents did.

 

[Kukev31]

I was born in Brighton but moved away up north when I was 5. However I still support them as this is where I was born. I go to all the away games in the north and some in the south.

And I have to agree with supporters of lowere league clubs being better. Living where I do most of the people support Man Utd or Liverpool and dont go to matches. The only peple I know that go to matches regularly are a Burnley fan, a few Carlisle fans, a wolves fan and a premiership fan, blackburn.

I hate it when all the glory supporter fans will always go on about how good there team are and how I should support a "decent" team, when they have never been to a game in their life.

A real football supporter doesnt choose their club, their club chooses them.

 

[Strike]

I was born in Crawley, but was educated and raised at Burgess Hill between 1993 and 2002. I have no family from the Brighton area (though younger brother Dan was born at Cuckfield). I started supporting Albion a few years ago, as I was proud to have been brought up in a lovely friendly county in Sussex, they are the most local team for me.

I agree with supporters of lower leagues being better, where I live most people support Arsenal or Chelsea and other Big London teams, also have never been to a game in their life. The only people I personally know that go to games regularly that are Crawley residents, 2 Spurs fans, 2 Fulham fans 1 Millwall, a few Brighton (one or two post here), and 1 West Ham.

 

[Bwian]

We've got one supporter from Yorkshire (adult) who I see regularly at away games and sometimes at Withdean. There's also Emily's Mum's Emily who isn't Brighton born and bred. This type of Brighton fan is rare (and welcome)...And there's Cheshire Seagull!

I never hide the fact that I'm a Brighton SUPPORTER and if some premiershite following dipshit tries taking the piss I merely ask how often they attend matches to watch 'their team'. I rarely have to say another word

 

[Cian]

Mentioning supporters who aren't from the area....