I support Villa, my local team. I'm often jealous of my "Glory hunter" mates when their team gives us a beating. But then I get to see my team live, in the stadium more often than they do.
You should care about the local side - although there are exceptions to the rule here. Certain areas/cities have clubs/franchises in close proximity to one another. Sometimes one club does things that a potential fan finds abhorrent, and he therefore goes to support the "other" local side.
Unless you live in a country with a dictator, anyone is free to support whoever and whatever they want. It would be a little bit retarded when one supports 12 clubs from 10 countries, however.
My local teams is Petrolul Ploiesti ... at 10 km of my house! But, this is only local team .. and have a little affinity for them (just follow them and I'm just happy for their wins). But, my team is Steaua Bucharest, based in other city, other region, at 80 km of my house. ... yah, probably fans of Petrolul will want to kill me for this reason.... to be in a city against local team for a far team !! But now, I moved in Bucharest, and i'm in Steaua city Should you support your local team? no ... you must support the team which make your heart to tremble
Tough one this, so much so that I havent voted, I've always said follow you local team but I am a Villa fan and I wouldn't want to introduce them to Villa atm its enough to put them off football for life. Then there is the consideration that local teams arent on the tv very often and dont win many trophies :-/
If you support your team by actually showing up at games it doesn't matter who you support or where you're from. If you just say you're a supporter of a specific team and never show up you're not a real fan, and you could, with some justification, be accused of being a glory-hunting band wagon jumper. It's no surprise that the majority of these 'supporters' choose the most successful clubs.
I support my local team because I do not want to live in a city without a soccer team. It brings pride to the city, media, sponsors and provides a good entertainment. I am a Barca fan and buy their jerseys but I will support my local team no matter how bad they are. Too many people support clubs nowadays based on the names they are having on their roster.
Everton Fan?… you could, with some justification, be accused of hating football, hating yourself and hating life in general…some people just love being miserable and perpetually disappointed, and feel superior for it… J/K, I could give a rat's ass who you support, how or why….
I'll buy that. where I work fans split pretty evenly between OL and ASSE because lots of metalworkers come from there, but there are two OM fans right behind me. neither is from Marseille, they got on the bandwagon back when OM was a European powerhouse. but one of them goes down to the vélodrome 4-5 times a season (Marseille is about an hour away by train) so yeah, he's a fan. the other is just a turd.
I think you can be a fan without going to games. I rarely go to games in any sport. I would have to fly to get to Old Trafford, and I might not fly for the rest of my life. I haven't checked, but tickets must be expensive and hard to get. The point of being a fan is for a person's own enjoyment.
Hmm... I saw Everton playing against Real Madrid at Dodger Stadium a few years ago. They were flogging scarves and shirts to our locals. I can also see every single one of their games live on TV here if I like, which is more than Sky is allowed to do over there. And that's to say nothing of the glorified Man United Convention dressed up as a friendly against LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl. It seems your club is all too keen on welcoming fans from well outside Merseyside...