Why are Man Utd and Liverpool by far the most popular English clubs in Ireland ?

WesternZulu

niallo27 wrote: »

If the gaa didn't exist. I think we would have a hugely successful football league over here with clubs in every county.

It's not just Ireland that have other sports that are popular besides football and they seem to be able to have semi-decent leagues.

LuckyLloyd

Omackeral wrote: »

It boils down to a lack of proper footballing culture in this country. In nearly every other European nation, you grow up supporting your hometown team. That's not to shot at anyone, it's just generally the way it is. Some people are lucky enough to be brought to games as a youngster, others buck the general trend over here and get into week-in week-out supporting a team at a later date. I only got into it myself in my teens.

That's fine, but across Ireland the majority of areas don't have a 'hometown' team competing in the LOI. Then, when scale is considered, even in Dublin large areas wouldn't have a 'hometown' team. I know, more excuses.

keano25

The big thing for me I suppose was years back our whole family moved to Manchester. My father spent his summers in Manchester watching terrible United sides not win matches game after game. He passed United onto me and there's always been a massive connection with Irish playing for United.

munchkin_utd

A Primal Nut wrote: »

Most people choose a team when they are very young children and at that age all that matters is who is winning.
<snip>

nope - wrong

I started following utd along with a fair few friends and they were still 20 odd years without a title at that stage.
For me personally it was cos of the neighbours, but they also would never have seen united win anything either as they would have been born after they won their last title.

The man united thing in ireland goes back to the tradition and glamour of them from the 50s and 60s when they had best, law and charlton etc and despite a gigantic gap of NO SUCCESS - the fanbase remained.

ronjo

munchkin_utd wrote: »

nope - wrong

I started following utd along with a fair few friends and they were still 20 odd years without a title at that stage.
For me personally it was cos of the neighbours, but they also would never have seen united win anything either as they would have been born after they won their last title.

The man united thing in ireland goes back to the tradition and glamour of them from the 50s and 60s when they had best, law and charlton etc and despite a gigantic gap of NO SUCCESS - the fanbase remained.

Those FA Cup wins were surely regarded as success in the 70s and 80s.
Granted, not the same success as Fergie years but ye still won a few trophies.

CSF

I still love how with so many Irish United fans there are, pretty much none of them can say 'eh cause they were the best'.

RayCun

CSF wrote: »

I still love how with so many Irish United fans there are, pretty much none of them can say 'eh cause they were the best'.

Because they're the best. Happy?

Still waiting for a Liverpool fan to say "because when I/my dad started supporting them, they were the best" instead of this outsider underdog bollocks :rolleyes:

Will I Amnt

CSF wrote: »

I still love how with so many Irish United fans there are, pretty much none of them can say 'eh cause they were the best'.

There's 2 in the first 10 posts.

Iused2likebusts

keano25 wrote: »

The big thing for me I suppose was years back our whole family moved to Manchester. My father spent his summers in Manchester watching terrible United sides not win matches game after game. He passed United onto me and there's always been a massive connection with Irish playing for United.

They don't have summer soccer in the Pl.

RayCun

RayCun wrote: »

Because they're the best. Happy?

Still waiting for a Liverpool fan to say "because when I/my dad started supporting them, they were the best" instead of this outsider underdog bollocks :rolleyes:

The vast vast majority of Irish fans support Utd /liverpool because they are a glory hunter or their father /family member was a glory hunter and passed it on.

BMMachine

Will I Amnt wrote: »

There's 2 in the first 10 posts.

but theres not

Will I Amnt

BMMachine wrote: »

but theres not

Nuts102 and Rasta are United fans. They mightn't have said it word for word but as good as said it. You don't have to confront everything posted under my username by the way...

Gavlor

Yay, ANOTHER troll invested liverpool/man utd thread!! Just what this forum needs.


Glory hunting bastids the lot of ye

anncoates

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

That's fine, but across Ireland the majority of areas don't have a 'hometown' team competing in the LOI. Then, when scale is considered, even in Dublin large areas wouldn't have a 'hometown' team. I know, more excuses.

While your point has some validity, it's not the full story. If it was then you'd have the situation where towns/areas of cities with local clubs would therefore have large support.

Sligo - to their huge credit - are the only town I ca think of with that anomalous situation in LOI where such a huge percentage (10%?) the town regularly supports the local team.

To be honest as well, I think the GAA excuse is bullshit as well. I'd say it affects participation in junior football but the overwhelming majority of GAA supporters I know also support a football team, foreign or otherwise.

If a LOI club started cracking the group stages of European football on a regular basis, the GAA thing wouldn't mater a whit and you'd see loads of GAA supporters through the turnstiles.

I should add that I don't really care that much these days who does or doesn't support domestic football. I'd love my team to do as well as they possibly can and grow as big as they can (and by extension the league) but it's not and never will be a prerequisite for enjoying it.

That's why those Fix Our League threads are well-meaning but pointless as it's basically a barstooler white paper/brainstorming session on the value of our league and of which the sum result seems to be give us a league as big as the EPL and maybe we'll go to it.

Dublin Spur

wouldn't it be nice if folk put more imagination into their club selection ?

the herd mentality prevails too often - I'd rather be a shepherd than the sheep

K-9

rarnes1 wrote: »

I know a few lads that use the scouse and manc thing too. Sounds a bit ridiculous coming from an Irish fan tbh

It is fecking pathetic, good filter though and good craic when you see it on here.

Me, Irish players, Irish roots etc. etc. winning the European Cup in 1984, the rest were just bonuses.

Harry Palmr

Dublin Spur wrote: »

wouldn't it be nice if folk put more imagination into their club selection ?

the herd mentality prevails too often - I'd rather be a shepherd than the sheep

Following Tottingham does not suggest a great leap of imagination on your part.

K-9

anncoates wrote: »

While your point has some validity, it's not the full story. If it was then you'd have the situation where towns/areas of cities with local clubs would therefore have large support.

Sligo - to their huge credit - are the only town I ca think of with that anomalous situation in LOI where such a huge percentage (10%?) the town regularly supports the local team.

To be honest as well, I think the GAA excuse is bullshit as well. I'd say it affects participation in junior football but the overwhelming majority of GAA supporters I know also support a football team, foreign or otherwise.

If a LOI club started cracking the group stages of European football on a regular basis, the GAA thing wouldn't mater a whit and you'd see loads of GAA supporters through the turnstiles.

I should add that I don't really care that much these days who does or doesn't support domestic football. I'd love my team to do as well as they possibly can and grow as big as they can (and by extension the league) but it's not and never will be a prerequisite for enjoying it.

That's why those Fix Our League threads are well-meaning but pointless as it's basically a barstooler white paper/brainstorming session on the value of our league and of which the sum result seems to be give us a league as big as the EPL and maybe we'll go to it.

You're seriously under estimating the grip and power of the GAA, especially in rural areas. I grew up in a GAA town, nearest junior soccer club was 5 miles away. Many parts of South Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Clare and other counties were like that. That's no sleight on soccer, just the way it was. In fairness soccer has sprung up in my old hometown area and other strong GAA counties too. GAA has also moved into soccer strongholds, Inishowen would be as soccer as you can get and now has 2/3 good GAA clubs, unheard of 20 years ago.

Derry city would have been like Sligo but GAA has made big inroads there, even in places like Limavady and Coleraine! Every sport is breaching boundaries, it just isn't as visible with soccer.

Success attracts crowds and underage players, it's as simple as that. Harps had good crowds when they were in the Premier Division, Donegal in GAA now but the county team naturally has a bigger hard core base.

RichFTW

Dublin Spur wrote: »

wouldn't it be nice if folk put more imagination into their club selection ?

the herd mentality prevails too often - I'd rather be a shepherd than the sheep

You don't get any extra credibility points for supporting a less successful team by the way. Fans of Spurs/Villa etc seem to think they automatically know more about football than United/Liverpool fans because they didn't 'follow the crowd'. An 8 year old kid liking a team generally isn't thinking philosophically about being a shepherd!

Dublin Spur

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Following Tottingham does not suggest a great leap of imagination on your part.

fair enough - but the decision wasn't influanced by success or winning - I just liked the name of the club, some of the players and the kit - to be honest it's been pretty much 30 years of pain underacheivement and disapointment ever since, but what can you do, you gotta stick to your guns

I always thought the Liverpool/Man Utd obsession in Ireland was very amusing, as was mentioned by someone earlier in this thread some of the antics you see in pubs when the 2 clubs play each other are unbelievable.

Harry Palmr

Its no mystery to me - when Irish televisions were pointed at British transmitters Man Utd were huge, then Liverpool started to rise and when cable took off Liverpool were huge and Utd in the doldrums but they already had their following which would be handed down just as the satellite era took off and Utd rose again while Liverpool fell back a bit but again it was in the family by that time. Sure the Irish contingent in both clubs helped back then, now no one gives a damn about that sort of thing!

CSF

Dublin Spur wrote: »

fair enough - but the decision wasn't influanced by success or winning - I just liked the name of the club, some of the players and the kit - to be honest it's been pretty much 30 years of pain underacheivement and disapointment ever since, but what can you do, you gotta stick to your guns

I always thought the Liverpool/Man Utd obsession in Ireland was very amusing, as was mentioned by someone earlier in this thread some of the antics you see in pubs when the 2 clubs play each other are unbelievable.

I don't get why you think liking the jersey or name is a better or more commendable reason than a team being good.

Will I Amnt

Dublin Spur wrote: »

fair enough - but the decision wasn't influanced by success or winning - I just liked the name of the club, some of the players and the kit - to be honest it's been pretty much 30 years of pain underacheivement and disapointment ever since, but what can you do, you gotta stick to your guns

I always thought the Liverpool/Man Utd obsession in Ireland was very amusing, as was mentioned by someone earlier in this thread some of the antics you see in pubs when the 2 clubs play each other are unbelievable.

So you have absolutely zero tangible reason to support Spurs but are complaining about United/Liverpool fans for the same?

Dublin Spur

RichFTW wrote: »

You don't get any extra credibility points for supporting a less successful team by the way. Fans of Spurs/Villa etc seem to think they automatically know more about football than United/Liverpool fans because they didn't 'follow the crowd'. An 8 year old kid liking a team generally isn't thinking philosophically about being a shepherd!

totally agree on the football knowledge thing.

the only thing you might be able to say that that supporters of the other clubs are less influenced by the media hype & peer group pressure.

Spurs have won very little in my 30 odd years supporting them but it's been a great journey despite all the disapointment.

Harry Palmr

For me it was the shirt

*I want candy*

Dublin Spur

Will I Amnt wrote: »

So you have absolutely zero tangible reason to support Spurs but are complaining about United/Liverpool fans for the same?

what's your definition of a tangible reason ?

BTW, I'm not complaining about other peoples choices, just trying to understand them and how they compare to mine.

Dublin Spur

CSF wrote: »

I don't get why you think liking the jersey or name is a better or more commendable reason than a team being good.

I don't think it's better, it's just what happened to me

CSF

Dublin Spur wrote: »

wouldn't it be nice if folk put more imagination into their club selection ?

the herd mentality prevails too often - I'd rather be a shepherd than the sheep

Eh you kinda did.

K-9

RichFTW wrote: »

You don't get any extra credibility points for supporting a less successful team by the way. Fans of Spurs/Villa etc seem to think they automatically know more about football than United/Liverpool fans because they didn't 'follow the crowd'. An 8 year old kid liking a team generally isn't thinking philosophically about being a shepherd!

Spurs and Villa are pretty successful clubs, it's hardly Scunthorpe FFS.

Dublin Spur

K-9 wrote: »

Spurs and Villa are pretty successful clubs, it's hardly Scunthorpe FFS.

obsolutely - I wasn't trying to suggest that at all - Spurs are a great club even though we havn't won the league since 61.

But if there are so may other 'big' clubs like Spurs, Everton, Arsenal, Leeds, Villa, Forest, Chelsea, West-Ham, Man City etc.... do you not think its odd that the vast majority of Irish supporters end up picking either Man Utd or Liverpool ?

Omackeral

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

That's fine, but across Ireland the majority of areas don't have a 'hometown' team competing in the LOI. Then, when scale is considered, even in Dublin large areas wouldn't have a 'hometown' team. I know, more excuses.

No, I agree with you fully there Lloyd. Very valid point.

Iused2likebusts

Dublin Spur wrote: »

totally agree on the football knowledge thing.

the only thing you might be able to say that that supporters of the other clubs are less influenced by the media hype & peer group pressure.

Spurs have won very little in my 30 odd years supporting them but it's been a great journey despite all the disapointment.

When you picked spurs they were as as attractive a pick as Utd. A couple of fa cup wins in the 80s and a uefa cup win and top 3 finishes by spurs made them apart from Liverpool and Everton maybe the next best pick. The fact the 30 years after you picked them hasn't been successful is neither here nor there. You picked the 2nd or 3rd best option at the time.

Will I Amnt

Dublin Spur wrote: »

what's your definition of a tangible reason ?

BTW, I'm not complaining about other peoples choices, just trying to understand them and how they compare to mine.

Maybe complaining was the wrong choice of word but you're certainly giving off an air of superiority with your pontificating posts.

Dublin Spur

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

When you picked spurs they were as as attractive a pick as Utd. A couple of fa cup wins in the 80s and a uefa cup win and top 3 finishes by spurs made them apart from Liverpool and Everton maybe the next best pick. The fact the 30 years after you picked them hasn't been successful is neither here nor there. You picked the 2nd or 3rd best option at the time.

I was not aware of the cup wins until after I picked them. It was nice to find out about the cups and the overall history but they were not reasons for my pick.

Seeing Maradona playing for Spurs in Ossie's testimonial in 1986 was another massive reason I opted for Spurs.

Dublin Spur

Will I Amnt wrote: »

Maybe complaining was the wrong choice of word but you're certainly giving off an air of superiority with your pontificating posts.

not my intention at all

RichFTW

Dublin Spur wrote: »

totally agree on the football knowledge thing.

the only thing you might be able to say that that supporters of the other clubs are less influenced by the media hype & peer group pressure.

Spurs have won very little in my 30 odd years supporting them but it's been a great journey despite all the disapointment.

I think supporters of other clubs might seem to be less influenced by the media as there isn't as much of a spot light on their club. Try having to read through mountains of crap from every hack journalist and twitter knob on a daily basis linking Spurs with every player under the sun and scrutinising every little detail of the club and I bet the hype will have got to you too.

I wouldn't say United fans are more susceptible to peer pressure either. Unfortunately though, people with little to no football knowledge do tend to follow the bigger teams like United and these people would fit that bill. But I wouldn't class these people as real United fans as they would be off supporting Chelsea if United had a run of bad seasons like last year.

Iused2likebusts

Dublin Spur wrote: »

I was not aware of the cup wins until after I picked them. It was nice to find out about the cups and the overall history but they were not reasons for my pick.

Seeing Maradona playing for Spurs in Ossie's testimonial in 1986 was another massive reason I opted for Spurs.

Spurs were part of what was called the big 5 back then . Liverpool, Everton, UTD, Arsenal and Spurs. They were still after liverpool and everton at the time a very attractive pick for a young kid. 1987 Cup Final and a 3rd place league finish in and around when you picked them. Your posts to me are saying you are slightly different to pool/utd supporters as you picked the underdog and have stayed loyal for 30 years but at the time you picked utd/spurs were at a similar level. Whats transpired in both clubs fortunes since then makes no difference.

RichFTW

K-9 wrote: »

Spurs and Villa are pretty successful clubs, it's hardly Scunthorpe FFS.

I don't know any Scunthorpe fans though so I can't well make a statement about their fans attitudes towards United.

CSF

Omackeral wrote: »

No, I agree with you fully there Lloyd. Very valid point.

I don't think it is a valid point. It's the same for GAA, you support your town and then you've the county that supports the locality.

Sligo Rovers would represent the guys county, and then there'd be a team in his town too.

Dublin Spur

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

Spurs were part of what was called the big 5 back then . Liverpool, Everton, UTD, Arsenal and Spurs. They were still after liverpool and everton at the time a very attractive pick for a young kid. 1987 Cup Final and a 3rd place league finish in and around when you picked them. Your posts to me are saying you are slightly different to pool/utd supporters as you picked the underdog and have stayed loyal for 30 years but at the time you picked utd/spurs were at a similar level. Whats transpired in both clubs fortunes since then makes no difference.

Spurs were big in the 80s, I'm not saying I picked the underdog, what I'm saying is I picked a club other than Man Utd and Liverpool and that this choice put me in the vast minority of Irish football fans. It's very odd that more didn't look beyond these two clubs as there are many more clubs out there with great traditions. Liverpool or Man Utd seems to be the default setting in Ireland which is a pity.

Omackeral

CSF wrote: »

I don't think it is a valid point. It's the same for GAA, you support your town and then you've the county that supports the locality.

Sligo Rovers would represent the guys county, and then there'd be a team in his town too.

But who's a Cavan man or Ennis man expected to follow? And without resulting to "you've no team in your county so you pick one from another nation". Strictly speaking on its own merits.

Sgt Pepper 64

lack of taste!

Hollister11

Me and my brother support liverpool only because my dad does. He didn't force us to we just copied him.
My other brother likes chelsea - he picked them when he was 6 because they had a blue kit

CSF

Omackeral wrote: »

But who's a Cavan man or Ennis man expected to follow? And without resulting to "you've no team in your county so you pick one from another nation". Strictly speaking on its own merits.

They do have football teams there, right?

RichFTW

Omackeral wrote: »

But who's a Cavan man or Ennis man expected to follow? And without resulting to "you've no team in your county so you pick one from another nation". Strictly speaking on its own merits.

Someone from Ennis would generally support the Galway team, maybe Limerick if they went to college in Limerick. People from the south east of the county would support Limerick. A lot of the rest of the county would be GAA only areas so I doubt they would support even a Clare based team.

The issue isn't the lack of locally based teams, it's the quality of the league compared to an easily accessible and far better English league. A lot of Ennis people would regularly travel to Munster matches in Limerick and so would have no issue doing the same if they supported Limerick FC.

The Showstopper

Had a lecturer in college giving out about an Irish person referring to Manchester United as 'we'.

Then he was talking about a Cork man who was been interviewed on the news after coming back from supporting Liverpool in the champions league final. Lecturer then said one of the funniest thing'd I've heard, "How could a good Cork man support a horrible unionist team like Liverpool? sure they're like Rangers"