29 replies to this topic

[BumsteadCFC]

Just a curious question of mine.  Ive noticed among some of our rivals (mostly Utd and Liverpool) a contingent of their foreign fanbases being anti English in nature, both toward the football team but the country in general.  

It makes no sense to me, why would someone who is anti English support a English football team?  I could understand apathy or disinterest toward England but I hope we dont have fans that support us with outright anti English attitudes.

Not a politics post at all just a curious one as Im intrigued as to this issue, cheers.  

[Scott]

I could be considered an Anglophile as I can trace my Father's family back to the early 1600's in or around Norwich/East Anglia  
In my experience most  UTD/Livpool supporters in the US are very friendly with England. I think you would be surprised at the amount of support in the USA for our "Mother" country.



And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountain's green....

[Andreas]

Not anti English at all, in fact I'd give me right hand to settle down in London sometime in the future just so I could watch Chelsea play every home game!

Only thing I dont like about England is the obsession with peas, lol

[kitierkatba]

I have no idea. Seems bizarre to me.

I'm an american and for me a lot of the fun of following the Premier League has been learning more about the geography of England, the differences in culture, that type of stuff.

[romansoldier1981]

Im Italian and ive lived in Glasgow for 10 years and about 6 years in Lancashire, i now feel more British than Italian in most aspects of life

[Connor chelsea Kavanagh]

Who couldn't be a chelsea fan x

[moi]

It is not necessarily as contradictory as it seems, Bumstead. They may well admire the English Premier football teams ( particularly if their own country is not a strong football-playing country) and especially so if the team they choose to support has players who hail from their own country.

But it may well be also that the English tourists whom they meet in their countries give them a less than favourable impression of the English as a whole.  Or it may be that there is an English expatriate community living in their area who likewise are not truly representative of the English as a whole.

Where I live for example, in France, there are whole groups of English expatriates who mingle very little with local people and have been here many years without ever bothering to learn French.  When they get together, the conversation invariably turns to how England has been spoiled by the number of "foreigners" living in it, by which they mean Polish, Croatians, Indians, Pakistanis, West Indians, Africans. (or of Indian etc origins) On the rare occasion that I have been present at these discussions, I have pointed out that THEY are foreigners living here. They look blankly at me "It's not the same," they say. "How so?" say I. "Well," they counter, a bit bemused, "We're English!"

So, I can quite understand that an yone who has people like that lilving in their county might well have a negative attitude to the English, while at the same time being Chelsea fans or other premier league fans.

[That Boy Brandinho]

Part of it is probably a reflection of the cultural composition of the Premiership's best players. If you're a relatively new fan, you're probably not well versed in the league's history. Right now, the vast majority of the best players in England are not English, ergo supporting an English team whilst being anti-English isn't as significant a contradiction as it might initially seem. As far as the English national team goes, I find that to be a separate issue entirely. Why would a foreign fan support England's national team? I wish the likes of Terry, Lampard and Sturridge all the individual international success in the world but there's no way I'm rooting for collective English success. That isn't to say that I dislike England as a country. In fact, I've got a significant amount of family in Coventry, but I'm German and I support Germany. Hell, most of my English friends from uni don't even support England. I'm not sure how widespread this is, but they were all either apathetic or outright hostile towards the national team.

[TrojanMan]

No anti-English feelings from this American.  The only time I really root against the England national team is when you're playing the US.  If you're playing France or Belgium it's tough too, as those are the two countries - primarily - of my heritage.  My mom was born in Antwerp, and my dad's family is French with a little Dutch....though they've been in the US for many generations.  But I like English people, love English pubs!, enjoyed London, etc., etc.

Edited by TrojanMan, 03 January 2012 - 03:02 AM.

[Spiller86]

Think it could be related to some residual anti-colonialism that is still present in the sub-continent in particular as well as parts of Africa.

We don't mind you guys, as long as you allow us to beat you at cricket and rugby. You haven't been doing that recently though

[youlots]

Spiller86, on 03 January 2012 - 03:34 AM, said:

We don't mind you guys, as long as you allow us to beat you at cricket and rugby.

Cricket and rugby only! Far too generous, Spiller.

[rahul]

I'm from India and although our grand parents fought your for decades (whose didn't?), I have nothing but respect for England. And like Andreas I'd like to stay in London too for a few years to have a taste of the life of a local fan.

Most of my friends who are smart enough to give cricket a miss and watch football follow English Premier League and are one of United, Pool, Arse or our fans but most of them have a favorite national team other than England. That might have something to do with the English team being quite sh*te pretty much ever since we started watching football.

[wxwax]

Wait, what? Chelsea's in England? Oh hell, time for a rethink.

[Fido Dido]

Never had a problem with England to be honest. I am from New Delhi as well and most of the people who I know dont hate England as well. Really dont know the context of this thread , as somebody rightly pointed out there might have been personal experiences which made people anti-engllsh.

[evissy]

I've been in London twice and it is one of my favorite places in the world. It is like walking in a postcard. Planning to see England outside London next summer. Can't wait.

I'm not a big fan of team England though. Players from rival teams have pretty much made it for me not to like them, L*verpool and Ars*nal players mostly from the 90's. I always want our boys to do well in the national team of course but I'm never disappointed or anything if England fails in Euro's or World Cup. It is also one of the most over rated squads in the world IMO. Always much hype and everyone (outside from English fans, perhaps) can see they have nothing against many sides they face. Press giving them hard time as an excuse for not doing well is total bullsh*t. The hype is naturally created by the media anyway...

I have nothing against English people, why would I.

Not sure what you mean exactly Bumstead...

[BumsteadCFC]

evissy, its just a weird phenomenon ive seen from time to time.  I know of a Man U fan who posts on another messageboard I look at occassionally who always goes on about how he hates the England team, mostly negative about england and so forth.  

It just seems a weird position is all, imagine if I say "i hate germany.and germans" and then always slag them off and then you say who do you support and I say "Bayern Munich" you'd probably think Eh?????

Thanks to all replies, got some good insight on this.  As I say not a politics question more of a pschology one.

[P4L.Chelsea]

Well , I'm from India too , and to be honest i have nothing against english people , although many in my country do

But thats just because we had to fight for our freedom , and it was pretty ugly , but i say , let bygones be bygones

I've been to England about 3 times , and the last time ive went i actually got to watch a game at stoke on trent , which was the double winning season , where malouda scores the 90th min winner ( and my heartbeat rose ) , but even at a stage like that , the away fans dint really care , we just hugged each other , kept singing our hearts content , and it dint really matter if you had come from another planet or another galaxy , we were all just one HUGE family , sharing the same feelings when FloMo scored that winner

Outside the stadium however , we were scared for our lives , because the Potter fans were obviously pissed and many people engaged in banter , but we were giving them the naughty smiles that they deserved to see for being so loud through out the game!

After reading about this experience , i dont think anyone can even try to hate chelsea , mostly because we're a multinational club with an owner of a different nationality , and even before him , as far as i recall , we and arsenal were the only two teams that made the league global , as in , we had the first foreign manager in vialli , we basically made the league open to the world

Even if indians have hate for brits , and brits have hate for indians on a political scenario , it doesnt really matter , because we all just love chelsea :)

[P4L.Chelsea]

And ofcourse with Idol/Leader/Legend John Terry captaining the england national team

You really think i can support any other nation ?

[erskblue]

As a Scot I've no time for the 'anti English brigade;'. never have had.

My Uncle lived down near 'The Bridge' in the late 1950s-mid 1960s and so he and my old man used to go to Chelsea games back then.Okay,I admit they went to see other London teams too, but 'The Bridge' was their regular haunt

My old man always liked English Football, so I was brought up with a good appreciation /knowledge and used to listen to Radio Two from about 1976 when  Alan Parryand the late Peter Jones were commentating on English and European Matches.

I just like English Football.

[sizzler85]

I m from India and as a British ruled state , the connection to England would always remain. There is no anti english thing , atleast I have not seen it . People here have taken a liking to premier league and it is fast gaining recognition amongst the cricket loving public. It is not an easy thing to make an Indian love a sport other than Cricket or a love a sportsman other than Sachin Tendulkar. In that regard , Premier league has become a roaring success here, I would say.

  People here support the likes of chelsea , ManUtd , Arsenal etc.,  but their favourite team has always been either Brazil or Argentina since a few years back ( No need to reason that ) . Zidane made people love France and these days there are also many supporters for Spain. Because Football is not a huge sport here , People expect recognisable Superstars to follow a team in case they don't follow football much. David Beckham , Wayne Rooney , Michael Owen are the ones that are/were hugely popular here. Michael Ballack , Cristiano Ronaldo , Messi , Drogba are worldwide popular names and so are they popular here as well.

  My favourite internation team is Brazil,  But I personally follow the english team and their games a lot much to do with following the english league and reading english websites. Forget the support  , FA home wembley games are the only international football matches shown live on Indian television and that says about the poularity of english league and the familiarity of the players here.