1. What is your favorite team? 2. What is the closest team to you? 3. What was the first match you ever watched? 4. What was the first match you ever attended? 5. If the answer to (1) doesn't appear in (2), (3) or (4), well - how did you get here? Yes, I should be reported for spamming. But maybe you don't read "Soccer in the USA" or the front page. Why would you? The broadcast fanbase drives the sport where I am, so it's commonplace to support, and passionately support, teams hundreds of miles away or more and never see a live game. Be interesting to see if that's also happening in Europe. Also, no one supports Yugoslavia anymore. What's up with that?
1) Reading 2) Bracknell Town 3) I think it was a Norway v England match, but I only watched some of it. The first match I can actively remember watching was the Spurs v Man City FA Cup Final replay in 1981. My brother says I saw the first game too, but I have no memory at all of that, which would be odd. 4) technically it would be a Celebrity XI v Bracknell Select XI at Bracknell Sports Centre* but I can't really count that as proper game, so Spurs v Aston Villa, 18th April 1984 - 2-1 to Spurs, with Mark Walters heading in the first goal I saw, Mark Falco equalising, and Graeme Roberts winning the game with a penalty. When a mate of mine, the morning after that cup final replay, suggested we should support Spurs, I had no idea Reading, a few miles up the road, even had a football team. As I got into football on a week-to-week basis, I obviously noticed this club not too far away, but knew almost nothing about them. Back in the early 80s there was hardly any coverage of football at that level, at least not featuring Reading. the local TV network was based in Southampton, and was convinced the entire region shared their love of the Saints, Portsmouth and Brighton, and would cover one of their games each week, along with the syndicated national highlights. The were short highlights of a 6-2 win over Bognor Regis in the Cup in 1984, but that was it, but I had a curiosity about the club. Doing much about that curiosity wasn't easy. I didn't even know where the ground was. That may seem daft in the google streetview age, but back then all you had were road maps, which didn't go into that much detail, or town plans, which only covered town centres. My brother got selected for jury service in early 1986 though, and his instructions to report to the court on Tilehurst Road also showed the football ground, Elm Park, about half a mile further on. At 16, with a bit of pocket money saved up, I went to the next game, just to see what it was like, and found I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I went the following Saturday too, and to the game after that, which saw me purchase a fine Reading scarf (last seen drifting towards the central reservation of the M5 somewhere near Worcester - a bit of a sore point) declaring myself as a Reading fan. I was still a keen Spurs fan too, and the fixture list the following year handily had them playing at home on alternate weeks nearly all season, so, working now, I watched both. After a couple of years though, the "glamour" of watching Spurs paled, and I found I just didn't have the connection with them that I had with the club down the other end of the A329M, and Spurs were slowly but completely phased out of my life. Hmm, probably a fuller answer than you wanted. I have watched Bracknell about 10 times (I think it's 9 to be exact). I'm not their lucky charm. Not only have I never seen them win, I've only once seen them concede fewer than three goals. * an esteemed venue, "famous" for being the place where Kevin Keegan fell of his bike and injured himself during a race for the 70s tv show "Superstars", and also the venue (in a sports hall next to the track) of an infamous gig by The Specials, which got targeted by skinheads from the National Front, resulting in a small riot.
No, I put it here trying to catch fans who I would otherwise have missed. The question is whether fans are more likely to support from long distance these days, thanks to worldwide broadcasts. This is about as scientific as holistic astrological aura readings, but at least I'm getting cool stories out of it.
1. Probably Celtic. Tbh, I have a soft spot for a number of clubs from several Euro countries. Never had a super strong bond with any of them, just a soft spot. I like to watch them time to time, and I tend to follow scores, but I don't get upset. Super casual. Celtic, Manchester United, Newcastle, Fiorentina, Ajax, Bayern. 2. Known clubs, I guess it would be Bayern. I grew up next to a football stadium, and usually there was a club there, but it wasn't stable. At least one, maybe two clubs from that stadium got into and collapsed, one itteration was relocated 150 miles away, then another club from another town moved into the stadium. So I didn't develop a bond with any local club. 3. I don't remember. 4. I don't know, I guess it must've been one of the local clubs in the local stadium. 5. Probably because I liked their kits or some player when I was young. I remember really liking Batistuta, and I still care about Fiorentina. Celtic kits stand out. Manchester United, I don't know, probably because they were on TV more than others. I remember watching a lot of them that year when they won league, cup and Europe. Bayern, probably because my dad likes German football, and it's a big team that's closer than others. I'm from a Euro country that doesn't have deep football traditions, Lithuania. It's a hardcore basketball country. So I'm very nomadic as a football fan, I guess. I love football much more than I love any particular club. I have much deeper bonds to basketball teams, although I like football more as a game.