Local team / glory hunting, etc. and so on

[Academically Deficient 705]

4 hours ago, Ye Olde Hamiltonian said:

Growing up in Hamilton and seeing the packed trains/buses leaving for The Old Firm is enough to make one weep as our club would kill to have these people support us.

I went to one of the biggest schools in Scotland-Holy Cross and got in a few arguments with Teachers(this was 1979-83)about why I supported the Accies and not *the cause".There is a helluva lot of peer pressure on West of Scotland Catholics to support Celtic and those who don't have to have a thick skin to stand up to the abuse and ridicule.

Peer pressure and glory hunting added to "90 minute bigotry" for me are the main reasons why The Old Firm capture most of the football support up here.Your Dad being a Rangers man/a Celtic man less so but nonetheless a factor.

However,there are a helluva  lot of people who local clubs could attract-namely the folk who like football, but don't want to support The Old Firm and all our clubs have an untapped market here.

That European run by the wonderful Accies youth team of a few years ago witnessed twice the home support at these than SPL games and my club did nothing ...nada to encourage these people back.

Sadly it will never change and if anything,the more exposure these days for The Old Firm across all media will hoover up plenty who are ditherers.Easier to go with the  crowd   for guaranteed success than taking the hard option, which is why I have a lot of admiration for those fans-particularly in the poisonous West of Scotland- who go against the herd instinct.

Finally,G51 Red on here lives a Peter McCloy kick out from Ibrox Park and has brought his boys up to be great Accies men.I doff  my cap at him for his stubbornness lol.

 

 

 

 

I know theres a few Accies fans from a Catholic school background. Full credit to them all, the peer pressure on them must have been strong. 

At my non-dom school, there were a lot of Well fans, cos they had a great team and it was probably a sound choice for dads who didn't want to take their kids to the OF. 

[Dons_1988 12,345]

Anyone can support who they want, you could go round the houses on this for days and no one will ever agree.

The problem of 'glory hunting' has been exacerbated in the last 30 years with the rise of TV and the globalisation of football. The vast majority of clubs attract fans through having a 'catchment area' while a small number transcend that into being global 'brands'.

These global brands attract huge followings, however many of them are casual observers. The problem being football and the investment in football is directed at the masses and as such the casual observer.

So let's be 100% honest, every person in Scotland who subscribes to Sky Sports to watch Man United, or buys their kids Man U merchandise every birthday or even puts on social media how big a fan they are, further sends 'regional' clubs into the margins of world football. Of course, it attracts bitterness and anger from the match going Aberdeen, Partick, Motherwell or whoever fan.

Is it right? Maybe not, but these people will always be a barrier to progress of these clubs.

[GAD 2,213]

Old firm fans from anywhere in Scotland aren't as bad as those weirdos who come from places like Glasgow or Dundee and "support" Man United or Liverpool or whoever. They are the proper bottom of the food chain and are deservedly sneered at by everyone.

 

[The Other Foot 504]

Nope, 5 pages of back-and-forth drivel. The correct answer is that OF fans are glory hunters, and shouldn't be allowed outside of Glasgow.

 

Supporting the team your dad supports? Do you shag the same woman too?! 

Edited December 3, 2020 by The Other Foot

[Les Cabbage 284]

The amount of glory hunters in this thread defending their glory hunting is tremendous.

I’m also a glory hunter, growing up in Gorgie/Corstorphine nearby to some lower league team and supporting Premiership Hibernian all my life.

[Ralstonite 170]

31 minutes ago, The Other Foot said:

Nope, 5 pages of back-and-forth drivel. The correct answer is that OF fans are glory hunters, and shouldn't be allowed outside of Glasgow.

 

Supporting the team your dad supports? Do you shag the same woman too?! 

In many case they probably do! Have you seen the state of most Old Firm fans?

[AJF 761]

2 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

This post needs more "sinces" imho.

Thank you for pointing this out. I am always striving to improve my grammar 😄

[EpicMike 472]

1 hour ago, GAD said:

Old firm fans from anywhere in Scotland aren't as bad as those weirdos who come from places like Glasgow or Dundee and "support" Man United or Liverpool or whoever. They are the proper bottom of the food chain and are deservedly sneered at by everyone.

 

A Man United fan from Dundee is as equally not from Manchester as a Celtic fan in Dundee is not from Glasgow, so no, there is no distinction.

Also this thread is going about as well as I expected...

[alta-pete 1,759]

Impressively animated frothing from the diddies on here about a subject that, if you follow to the root of their argument, shouldn’t really be bothering them one iota. 

For my tuppenceworth, being brought up on the fringes of Paisley to Edinburgh born parents who didn’t follow football I suppose my choice was St Mirren or Rangers. Can’t remember exactly why - but given this was late 70s it certainly wasn’t for glory hunting - my team was Rangers. 

Having since grown up, I’ve moved to Central Scotland and married a girl who’s entire family are fully paid up season ticket holders at Parkhead. (Part of the New Town Glasgow diaspora referred to earlier). 

The diddies are correct in that there is a significant enough undesirable element to each side of the OF. In the interests of all sorts of reasons already laid out I therefore started taking a-p Jnr to Stirling Albion games on a regular basis hoping he’d develop that chip-on-the-shoulder nobility so clearly on display here. 

However that hasn’t really stuck and despite not seeing Rangers win anything of consequence since he’s been following football, he’s now decided Rangers is his team. 

tl;dr - father’s  influence seems the trump card. 

[AJF 761]

It's been an entertaining thread to read at least. Some excellent insights balanced by some extreme hyperbole and ignorance. Probably worked out as I expected it would, but at least we now have a place to discuss it rather than clog up the other threads every. single. day.

[TheScarf 9,976]

1 hour ago, The Other Foot said:

Nope, 5 pages of back-and-forth drivel. The correct answer is that OF fans are glory hunters, and shouldn't be allowed outside of Glasgow.

 

Supporting the team your dad supports? Do you shag the same woman too?! 

It's such a thin argument.  Do people not have minds of their own?  My dad is from Dundee and supported them as a boy but now supports The Caley as he's lived here since 1988. There's no chance in fuck I'd support Dundee, a club 140 miles away. He took me to The Caley games starting in our 2nd season in the SFL - 95-96 when I was 10, and that was it for me, the were my team.

There's so many Celtic and (mostly fat) Rangers fans I know in Inverness who hate The Caley and County, they go to 1 Rangers/Cetlic game at Ibrox or Parkhead a season, usually against Hamilton or Livi as that's the only games they can get tickets for, and of course sit in the away end at TCS or Viccy Park when they play up here.

All born and bred in Inverness, as were their fathers, as were their father's fathers.  Absolutely zero connection to Glasgow, aren't religious, and only support them because the win 9 times out of 10.  

They're usually mouthy wideos too, and not very intelligent,  with blue collar jobs.  I mentioned in another thread, I don't think I've ever had a boss/manager who was into football who supported one of them.  intelligent people don't just attach themselves to something that wins all the time, to give them joy in their lives.

[Dons_1988 12,345]

16 minutes ago, AJF said:

It's been an entertaining thread to read at least. Some excellent insights balanced by some extreme hyperbole and ignorance. Probably worked out as I expected it would, but at least we now have a place to discuss it rather than clog up the other threads every. single. day.

There's some over the top takes but there's something a bit tragic about grown men needing a pat on the head and approval from the diddies, in addition to supporting their successful teams and their right to laugh at the little clubs.

[Theatom 26]

4 hours ago, AmericanFan said:

The similarities between this and baseball circa 1995-2009 with the Yankees and Red Sox being the OF are pretty striking.

Which ones are the Kaflics and which the Proddies

[The Other Foot 504]

12 minutes ago, Theatom said:

Which ones are the Kaflics and which the Proddies

Well, considering one side wears immaculate white pinstripes and the others have red socks, which ones do you reckon have been up to their knees in ****** blood? 

[Ralstonite 170]

1 hour ago, alta-pete said:

Impressively animated frothing from the diddies on here about a subject that, if you follow to the root of their argument, shouldn’t really be bothering them one iota. 

For my tuppenceworth, being brought up on the fringes of Paisley to Edinburgh born parents who didn’t follow football I suppose my choice was St Mirren or Rangers. Can’t remember exactly why - but given this was late 70s it certainly wasn’t for glory hunting - my team was Rangers. 

Having since grown up, I’ve moved to Central Scotland and married a girl who’s entire family are fully paid up season ticket holders at Parkhead. (Part of the New Town Glasgow diaspora referred to earlier). 

The diddies are correct in that there is a significant enough undesirable element to each side of the OF. In the interests of all sorts of reasons already laid out I therefore started taking a-p Jnr to Stirling Albion games on a regular basis hoping he’d develop that chip-on-the-shoulder nobility so clearly on display here. 

However that hasn’t really stuck and despite not seeing Rangers win anything of consequence since he’s been following football, he’s now decided Rangers is his team. 

tl;dr - father’s  influence seems the trump card. 

By the 'fringes of Paisley' what do you actually mean? Ralston or Glasgow itself - Hillington, Penilee, Crookston?

As for your (laughable) claim that you weren't glory hunting, given that it was the late '70s:

In the 1970s Rangers won:

Four Scottish Cups: 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979.         - they were runners up in 1971, 1977.

Four League Cups: 1971, 1976, 1978, 1979         

Three League Ttiles: 1975, 1976, 1978          - they were runners up in 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979

UEFA Cup Winner's Cup 1972

 

You might not be aware that St. Mirren have won the Scottish Cup three times since 1877, and have won the League Cup once.

Edited December 3, 2020 by Ralstonite

[AJF 761]

34 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

There's some over the top takes but there's something a bit tragic about grown men needing a pat on the head and approval from the diddies, in addition to supporting their successful teams and their right to laugh at the little clubs.

I don't think anyone is looking for or requires approval. Certainly in my case, the question has been asked and I've given my answer why I support Rangers. The approval from some strangers on an internet forum is not required to allow me to enjoy supporting Rangers. I will carry on regardless if someone believes I'm any less of a fan than they are for doing so. 

The real reason I suggested this was made into a thread of it's own was simply because I was growing very tired of seeing the same arguments brought up in the majority of threads across the board. The amount of discussions that have been hijacked to discuss this topic was ridiculous. So, having it's own thread will hopefully alleviate this issue.

Edited December 3, 2020 by AJF

[crazylegsjoe_mfc 166]

15 hours ago, Gus Setsniffer said:

Now we've got this ''local shite'' , what if you're a tim from Lanarkshire ? Motherwell has always been seen as ''**** wae nae bus fare'', so that rules that local pish out for the young man fae Wishaw with a Wolftones CD collection.

Hate to destroy your illusions, although I've not got a Wolfetones CD collection, I am probably just what you describe. A catholic from Wishaw, who has had a season ticket at Motherwell since I was seven.

Both my grandfathers were big Celtic men, but fortunately with my Dad being one of seven growing up in the 50s/60s, my Granda would hardly have been able to afford to take all of his kids to Celtic Park on a Saturday, so my dad, his brother and sister used their pocket money to go to Fir Park. My Dad and my Aunt now have their concession season tickets together still after all these years.

I knew from an early age that I was a Motherwell fan and despite going to both a primary and high school that was 99% supported by Celtic, I never even came close to bowing to peer pressure. I think the thing that was different from me and the rest of the people at school was that I actually went to the football with my Dad, whereas all the Celtic fans knew football only as a TV show. The first season I had a season ticket was 1997/98, so whilst most of my classmates were celebrating "stopping the ten" from their armchairs, I still got a bit of one-upmanship by the fact that I actually attended our games in the flesh.

Even at high school, Motherwell fans were rare exceptions. I think I can only count myself and two others from my year at school off the top of my head and there was only a scattering across the school as a whole. I was mascot for Motherwell when I was 8 with a guy a couple of years above me, who now claims to have always been a big Celtic man. I do take great joy in forwarding the photos to his mates when the periodic request comes in.

From those I know who went to school in Motherwell itself, rather than Wishaw, there appears to be more 'Well fans than in Wishaw, but still there's an overwhelming majority to the Old Firm. I think there are quite a few teams like Motherwell, Kilmarnock and St. Mirren who do really suffer from being a commutable distance from Celtic Park and Ibrox.

One thing I will say that I absolutely hate is when Celtic or Rangers fans say to me "I support Celtic/Rangers, but I do look out for Motherwell as they're the local team". Either support us, or f**k off mate.

[Dons_1988 12,345]

12 minutes ago, AJF said:

I've made several posts and insisted on a thread about it because I'm not bothered.

 

[G51 1,941]

59 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

It's such a thin argument.  Do people not have minds of their own?  My dad is from Dundee and supported them as a boy but now supports The Caley as he's lived here since 1988. There's no chance in f**k I'd support Dundee, a club 140 miles away. He took me to The Caley games starting in our 2nd season in the SFL - 95-96 when I was 10, and that was it for me, the were my team.

There's so many Celtic and (mostly fat) Rangers fans I know in Inverness who hate The Caley and County, they go to 1 Rangers/Cetlic game at Ibrox or Parkhead a season, usually against Hamilton or Livi as that's the only games they can get tickets for, and of course sit in the away end at TCS or Viccy Park when they play up here.

All born and bred in Inverness, as were their fathers, as were their father's fathers.  Absolutely zero connection to Glasgow, aren't religious, and only support them because the win 9 times out of 10.  

They're usually mouthy wideos too, and not very intelligent,  with blue collar jobs.  I mentioned in another thread, I don't think I've ever had a boss/manager who was into football who supported one of them.  intelligent people don't just attach themselves to something that wins all the time, to give them joy in their lives.

Yikes.

[AJF 761]

Just now, Dons_1988 said:

 

I never said it was a topic that doesn't interest me, I've not said I'm not bothered about it - you've just assumed that I require some sort of approval from a group of strangers about the team I follow.