England v USA, 12th June 2010

[Cena]

Listen, I'm not going to speak for Ghost. But as one of the other big fans of our national team on here, I don't think there is any reason why you should support the English team.

My problem is with the idea that somehow it's better not to. It's like when I buy a big issue or give some money to a busker and the lads at work always give me grief about it. I would never dream of saying 'look mates you're heartless dicks if you don't do this or that' but they feel like it's alright to call me an idiot for how I spend my money. And on here its all how people who support england are idiots and racists and nazis and dillusioned and bitter and what have you. You yourself go on about how we're hypocrites and fairweather patriots and so on.

And I have about as much desire to give reasons for why I support England as I do for why I support Everton. I do. Nobody else has to but I do.

And again the thing is that we're all evertonians. We come on here, we talk football, we disagree but we're all coming from the same place. We all feel gutted when we lose and love it when we win. And when I come on here to talk England, because this is the place I talk football online, I treat it in the same way.

And it isn't. Instead we get Chico baiting us all and people loving it when we do badly. And people demanding that we give credit to the americans and admit that we're awful not just unlucky and jdeezy telling us that we should do better and work harder and demanding that we give him reasons for why we haven't reached a final and how dare we be proud of our team when we haven't done that since 66.

It's like instead of being an Evertonian on an Everton forum I'm a one on a West Ham forum and theres a reason why I don't do that. I have a certain amount of sympathy for Ghost just going, 'yeah this isn't the best place for me to talk about England'. The temptation is to say 'I have my dad, I have the guys at work, talking on here as well is just annoying me. I'll be back once the world cup's done'.

Now none of that means that you're wrong for not supporting England. Fair play to you if you don't but you ain't right for not doing it, either.

AF, thank you for being the first person to actually give a sensible answer to this England vs Anti-England debate.

Quite early on in this thread i gave 7 reasons (and i could have gone on and on) why i don't support England, because Ghost said he found it weird why there was Anti-Englishness, i didn't make a point of it or raise it. I also said that i have no problem with people supporting England and being patriotic, but what i don't get, which no-one has given me a answer to yet, is why people who follow the national team get so wound up at people like me who say we don't, i don't know why it bothers people so much.

For instance, when Tim Henman was the only British hope at Wimbledon, everyone at the tournament goes nuts and flies the British flag - fine no problem with that. Now i didn't rate him at all as a tennis player, his personality did nothing for me and i wasn't really that interested in the tournament, but i still watched. Now when Ivanisevic played him in the semi that year, i wanted Ivanisevic to win so much - he was so passionate, he cared so much and he was the underdog and that really appealed to me. So there i was cheering on this Croatian - the looks and comments i got off people as if i was some sort of criminal, saying that i should support Henman. When i asked why, the best they could come up with was "Well he's British and so are you so support him"

Why should i? That is not a good enough reason for me to support someone just because i happend to be born in the same country as them. The same with the footy team, and i could go on with loads and loads of other reasons why i don't support England or Britain, but i won't bore you, if your interested feel free to PM me.

Great if you are patriotic and passionate, im all for it, but i don't think i should have to be and i provided many just reasons why i think i should'nt be.

Still though, great replying post to me mate!

*this post was sponsored by the BNP.

Sorry AF but i had to laugh, this made me howl

 

[ToffeeHeel]

I would love to go to a Michigan/OSU game one day to experience the 2nd biggest college sports rivalry in America.

 

[TX Bill]

I would love to go to a Michigan/OSU game one day to experience the 2nd biggest college sports rivalry in America.

Right, with Texas v Oklahoma being the biggest

 

[thebes20]

With all the college teams, like the Pac 12 and the big 10 and so on realigning, I heard something funny on one of the talk radio shows. I guess they were thinking that if two top rival like Oklahoma, and Nebraska were going to be in the same league, then they were calling the matchup "Farmaggeddon". For the Brits on here, those teams are powerhouses in football and are in the farm belt of the country.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

Listen, I'm not going to speak for Ghost. But as one of the other big fans of our national team on here, I don't think there is any reason why you should support the English team.

My problem is with the idea that somehow it's better not to. It's like when I buy a big issue or give some money to a busker and the lads at work always give me grief about it. I would never dream of saying 'look mates you're heartless dicks if you don't do this or that' but they feel like it's alright to call me an idiot for how I spend my money. And on here its all how people who support england are idiots and racists and nazis and dillusioned and bitter and what have you. You yourself go on about how we're hypocrites and fairweather patriots and so on.

And I have about as much desire to give reasons for why I support England as I do for why I support Everton. I do. Nobody else has to but I do.

And again the thing is that we're all evertonians. We come on here, we talk football, we disagree but we're all coming from the same place. We all feel gutted when we lose and love it when we win. And when I come on here to talk England, because this is the place I talk football online, I treat it in the same way.

And it isn't. Instead we get Chico baiting us all and people loving it when we do badly. And people demanding that we give credit to the americans and admit that we're awful not just unlucky and jdeezy telling us that we should do better and work harder and demanding that we give him reasons for why we haven't reached a final and how dare we be proud of our team when we haven't done that since 66.

It's like instead of being an Evertonian on an Everton forum I'm a one on a West Ham forum and theres a reason why I don't do that. I have a certain amount of sympathy for Ghost just going, 'yeah this isn't the best place for me to talk about England'. The temptation is to say 'I have my dad, I have the guys at work, talking on here as well is just annoying me. I'll be back once the world cup's done'.

Now none of that means that you're wrong for not supporting England. Fair play to you if you don't but you ain't right for not doing it, either.

AF, thank you for being the first person to actually give a sensible answer to this England vs Anti-England debate.

Quite early on in this thread i gave 7 reasons (and i could have gone on and on) why i don't support England, because Ghost said he found it weird why there was Anti-Englishness, i didn't make a point of it or raise it. I also said that i have no problem with people supporting England and being patriotic, but what i don't get, which no-one has given me a answer to yet, is why people who follow the national team get so wound up at people like me who say we don't, i don't know why it bothers people so much.

For instance, when Tim Henman was the only British hope at Wimbledon, everyone at the tournament goes nuts and flies the British flag - fine no problem with that. Now i didn't rate him at all as a tennis player, his personality did nothing for me and i wasn't really that interested in the tournament, but i still watched. Now when Ivanisevic played him in the semi that year, i wanted Ivanisevic to win so much - he was so passionate, he cared so much and he was the underdog and that really appealed to me. So there i was cheering on this Croatian - the looks and comments i got off people as if i was some sort of criminal, saying that i should support Henman. When i asked why, the best they could come up with was "Well he's British and so are you so support him"

Why should i? That is not a good enough reason for me to support someone just because i happend to be born in the same country as them. The same with the footy team, and i could go on with loads and loads of other reasons why i don't support England or Britain, but i won't bore you, if your interested feel free to PM me.

Great if you are patriotic and passionate, im all for it, but i don't think i should have to be and i provided many just reasons why i think i should'nt be.

Still though, great replying post to me mate!



Sorry AF but i had to laugh, this made me howl

I'd just like to say well done to these two posts, 2 reasonable well thought out opposing points of view.

 

[Muggins]

someone just bleedin say it....

the reason everyone says the English should support England is because of the war, empire, etc, etc.

"Are you with us or them?" mentality...

Lots of people see the world cup as England fighting a war. admit it you blerts....!!!

 

[Allezfan]

Lots of people see the world cup as England fighting a war. admit it you blerts....!!!

Nah, we're actually quite good at fighting wars.

If I didn't say it, Chico would have.

 

[chicoazul]

Nah, we're actually quite good at fighting wars.

If I didn't say it, Chico would have.

I agree. When you have the Americans to bail you out it's a good thing indeed.
Good bait there lid, impressive stuff. There's a good chance Ghost will go loco at this.

 

[Muggins]

I agree. When they have the Money to bail you out it's a good thing indeed.
Good bait there lid, impressive stuff. There's a good chance Ghost will go loco at this.

I think you mean Americans Chico...