Good article..have a read throughsome good points..thoughts...? GUARDIAN BLOG - Kevin O'Donnell My football club made me miserable, so I started supporting another team We can change wives, jobs and religions, so why do we have to stay loyal to football clubs we started supporting as children? You don't have to go too far these days to meet someone who has gone through a divorce, or converted from one faith to another, or left their job for a new career in an entirely different profession. Yet you rarely hear of someone announcing they have split from the football team they grew up supporting. The true fan would never entertain such a thought. Admitting that you have left your team to follow another is more shameful than owning up to being a member of the Chris de Burgh fan club, or having the largest collection of pornography in western Europe. Or perhaps both. But why is it so rare for anyone above primary school age to change the team they support? After all players, managers and even chairmen (Peter Ridsdale being a case in point) can switch clubs regularly. A couple of seasons ago I ditched the club I had supported for over 30 years. I won't name them; suffice to say I didn't like the owners and I had grown increasingly tired of the manager attributing each and every defeat to clueless match officials (rather than, you know, giving a bit of credit to the opposition). The final straw came when an underperforming striker â whose sleazy behaviour just happened to be all over the tabloids â showed a disgraceful lack of respect for his colleagues and the club and was subsequently rewarded with a fat new contract extension. "Enough," I thought. "How can I cheer this man when he scores? How can I share in the success of a belligerent, confrontational manager who, for many reasons, I now find extremely annoying?" The short answer is that I couldn't. Despite all the fun I'd had, it was time to move on. I found another team to follow: the club I would have chosen all those years ago had a certain family member been more persuasive. It has worked out well. I love my new team, even if they don't ever look like winning any silverware. So, why was I able to walk away from my ex? Many thousands would never want to do the same. They attend matches; they're part of a community; it's in their blood. Some of them probably have weird tattoos of club legends on their chests. My devotion to the cause developed from a choice I made when I was about six or seven. I grew up in a town which, at the time, didn't have a League club (the nearest was about 100 miles away) and I wasn't brought up to attend matches every other weekend. Boys in my school typically supported teams their dads supported, or chose one of the big clubs from TV. Let's face it, when your nearest League side is over two hours away by car, everywhere is far away. You may as well choose Liverpool, Manchester United or table-topping Swansea City (yes, it was the early 1980s). I couldn't go to matches but I was a fan. I had the scarves, the replica kits and â at one point â a silly hat. I cheered, I cried, I went off in a huff when they lost. And so it went on, season after season, for better, for worse. The defeats I could just about handle but when I finally realised that the love had gone, when respect and admiration had been replaced by irritation and dislike, it had to end. Why should I, as a grown-up with a family of my own, be tied to a decision I made long ago when I still went to school in short trousers? It wasn't easy but then it wasn't like I'd just spent big money on a season ticket. Perhaps I knew nothing about that club was going to change (and, indeed, it hasn't). Maybe the reason fans don't switch clubs is because very little stays the same in football. The player you don't like with the bad attitude will eventually leave or lose his place. The grumpy, disagreeable manager will be fired (any day now, if you support a Championship club). The owners who don't care about the club anyway will move on. The crap away kit will be changed next season. The embarrassing shirt sponsor has to give up sooner or later. Hang on in there and whatever is annoying you will fade into history. No one is bigger than the club, after all. Or so they say. I decided to support another team, and I'm fine with that. ⢠This is an article from our Guardian Sport Network. To find out more about it click here ⢠This blog first appeared in When Saturday Comes http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/when-....t-another-team
I don't think this thread is worthy of our forum. I, of all people, am guilty of writing some crap on this forum, mainly for a light-heart view on things but there are some things we, as true QPR fans, should NOT entertain ............. and that is supporting another team, regardless of any situation. We all are entitled to our own view and you may think I'm being too serious about this but in truth, I'm a pretty easy going Aussie................ but, don't get me started on such a topic. I've liked other teams but I've only ever supported Queens Park Rangers ( since 1971 ) and that my friends, will never change.
where is this bloke coming from? literally. where is 200 miles away from a league team in the uk? bar some distant islands, just curious like!
what a stupid thread, i'm rangers till i die i'm rangers till i die you i know i am your sure am i, i'm rangers till i die, goes something like that.
I am definitely Rangers Til I Die. However, when we were in the lower leagues, I loosely supported LIverpool (never went to a match - just pleased when they won) and I suppose I may go back to that if we go down. I also enjoy supporting (ie watching from the comfort of my archair and cheering) any PL side in Europe. I'll be supporting the Swans in that context next year and I do the same with Chelsea - in a minority there I think! I think most of us on not606 are footie fans. Few would pass the chance to watch EL Classico if they had the chance and few just watch the QPR match on MOTD and not bother with the rest. However, to address the OP directly, I could not stop supporting QPR for another club any more than I could change my genes. To do so makes one an ultimate plastic fan IMHO.
Really good topic this I think we our ourselves into our tribes and to change could rip the soul but it does happen ... Look at a few posts on here following or somehow backing a English team full of other European and World nationals ... That to me is weird and must have brain washing involved somewhere ... I can honestly say that I watch football as a game and only wish the best team to win on TV ... QPR, Norwich , Swansea we have a connection with them as we have been on a journey at the same time regardless of success or failure At for being QPR we still enjoy I feel a reasonable sense of neutral good will The very thing I have been ranting on about us losing ... Yet most mates I know want us there at the top table ... Again weird ? We do have a great generation of producing very good players ... Possibly the reason we are all QPR at QPR who knows Once a club has settled in the soul it's there for life and respect to all fans for having that ... Shame the game is turning to **** IMO
Interesting and original article. Not sure why people are getting offended, just voicing his opinion with a logical reason. Just cos Im interested in this theory/idea, doesn't mean I would buy into it before you all shoot me down. An important point to remember: why would you spend your hard earned cash on something you no longer believe in?!
I can see his point, chairman, players and other fans attitudes can really change the way you feel about a club. If our board and fans supported and chanted for a convicted sex offender or racist, then I would want none of that. When the moron threw the coin at the linesman in last years win over arsenal, i hoped we lost the game such was my outrage and it ruined supporting the club for me for that day, i was embarrassed. I would say right now i would never stop supporting QPR and i've had plenty of chances over the last 30 years, but who knows, look at blackburn right now, what if that was us and Venkeys said they were going to be here for the next 15 years. I think a lot of us would walk away as it isn't really Blackburn any more. Im not saying we would leave forever and buy a West Ham shirt, but i think we would take a break from it as its not really a club any more. I can see the point in people following other teams too. I really like Spurs (brother supports them) and while we were out of the top flight and i was unable to watch rangers' games on tv they became my surrogate lets say 'media club' who i could follow in the popular news and keep my day to day need for football alive while i scoured the column centimeters in search of anything QPR. Of course, a lot of this came before the forums and internet made it easier to stay in touch with our smaller clubs, the last two years in the championship were probably those i followed the club the most as i have been away from the UK and forums like this make it so easy to keep connected.
No offence taken here, Newbury. For me personally, like the writer of the article, I/ we, just wanted to voice my/ our thoughts on the matter. The only thing that chaffs my butt cheeks are when times are tough, sh_it stirrers and fair-weathered supporters tend to come forward with such talk and it shouldn't really be mentioned at all. You are either a fan .......... or not. Nothing in the middle, really. Rant over ............ let's play football!
He makes some good rational points of value, however I am more interested in who he is walking away from and my money is on Leeds
Thats what I thought Flanners. There is certainly nowhere in this country 100 miles from a league club though. I love live football, and have always sought it out - meant that (in the pre internet and Sky age) I did follow other teams while living abroad, and still harbour a soft spot for them. Its easy to forget that, until relatively recently, it was bloody difficult to get any info, even press match reports, about your club in 'real time' if you were overseas. Think we have gone overkill in the other direction now though. Even in the 70s as a ST holder at LR I would often go and see non league stuff (Wealdstone) when Rs were playing away. But the Rs have always been the bedrock.
so we've had both sides of the coin here so far... personally, in my younger years, when i couldnt make QPR because they were in Manchester or something. I used to go to Fulham -div 3; Arsenal div 1- harrow borough - ryams; southall Brentford and others.. i love watching football and although QPR will always be my facination; i did not turn down a CL ticket to Arsenal v Villareal a few years ago, Ive been to El Clasico, Old Firm derby, Sunderland v Newcastle, Hartlypool v that other team, Chelsea v Man Utd..anyone else go to Hayes v Northampton a few years ago?...... In short i love football and love watching good football played as it should be played...ie..on the floor with skill..the QPR way.. Fact is, we aint good enough right now, so why would any new supporter follow us?..god i wish i hadnt had that f-ing tattoo!! not read 1 decent argument put across to kill this debate. Like the man says...you can change jobs, wives and your life..why not your team...? but the most important thing is that he orig blogger has not swapped a crap eam for a "glamour" team. he has gone somewhere he feels happy with the team. he says that they will prob never win a cup but supports the team, for me, this is why we follow QPR, just would mind being a Manc next year till we come back up...just for fun..
