Being a British sport fan

Fido

Fido

Joined
Wednesday August 26, 2009
Location
New Forest, England.
Looking at some of the remarks in this section of the forum has got me thinking.

I am English and British. Or could equally be happy with being British and English.

When an English team are competing, I support them. If England are eliminated I support Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. And I'm delighted if any of them win.

When a GB(UK) team enters an event like the Olympics, I support all members of the team. It doesn't bother me where they come from in the UK. I loved watching Chris Hoy and wanted him to beat Jason Kenny in their head to heads.

In sports like tennis and golf I again don't distinguish between the UK nations. I was a great fan of Colin Montgomerie as well as Nick Faldo. And I have been rooting for Murray since he was a teeenager.

My attitude to being a British sports fan has given me a great deal of pleasure during my sporting life.

I think it will be a bit sad today if any British fans are not sharing the joy of seeing a Scot win Wimbledon. But c'est la vie. Their loss.
 
If everyone shared your views Peter the world would be a better place!

Unfortunately, news footage of other home nations rooting vociferously for England's opponents would suggest otherwise. Although this does seem to mainly relate to football.

Apart from football I agree with the rest of your points. It would seem very odd not to celebrate Murray's fantastic achievement just because he's Scottish.
 
That's a nice thought Peter, but in all honesty I think you will find English football supporters will probably never ever cheer a Scottish Irish or Welsh team on to victory, and those three nations and almost everyone else living in the UK know it, so why wouldn't you want to return the favour with a little interest if you were Welsh Scottish or Irish, but as I'm 100 per cent Celtic I will always support my Scottish and Irish cousins. PS but the same does not apply to English rugby fans a completely different animal to the football brigade more than a friendly welcome in Wales for the supporters of the red rose when they visit.
 
We are clearly not in the same mindset. If Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland are competing in the Euros or World Cup, as long as they are not playing England, I watch and want them to win. Same with rugby. I'd love to see any home nation thrashing the other international teams. Perhaps I'm a rare breed. As a Pompey supporter what good does it do me to wish ill of the Saints. It's only when they compete against Pompey that I don't want the Saints to win.

There's a lot of absurdities about football fans. Like booing a player whose left them for their rivals.

And I remember well seeing Celtic win the European Cup and feeling proud that they did.

As a sports fan I love to witness excellence wherever it comes from. So I also adopt a few of the great international stars and teams too.
 
Didn't Murray respond in the past with "anyone but England" when asked who he wanted to win in another sporting event?
 
Likewise I will support England 1st, but if they are out I will route for the other home nations with Wales being my 1st preference, and ultimately if there are no home nation sides then I would tend to support a European one.

While there are some who would do as Jamie suggests I reckon its more of a reaction to the anti English attitudes of the Scots and Welsh than anything else.
 
'Tis a lovely English attitude, regarding one's English self being equally British to the point of the two being virtually synonomous. Only the English can forget what was done by the English to the other home nations down the years and fail to understand why we are so widely despised.

Yes - Andy is British - but he's a Scot first, rightly and proudly so! I'm English and proudly so- and very pleased not to be Scottish or Welsh, though I half fancy being Irish despite the disadvantages.
 
SAINT12661 said:
Didn't Murray respond in the past with "anyone but England" when asked who he wanted to win in another sporting event?
Click to expand...

When asked many years ago, "are you supporting Scotland in the world cup finals? Hahaha!" He replied, "No, whoever is playing England, haha!" Tim Henman was there at the time and says it was all good natured but was blown out of all proportion by the English press trying to rally the nation! The cudgel has now been bandied by any Englishman looking for an excuse to dislike him.

As a Scot Murray admits ambivalence when England play. If you wish to reciprocate then at best you can say you don't care if he wins or loses. Being completely fair, except in the Olympics, Murray does not represent Great Britain or Scotland; just Andy Murray.

Xenophobia is an ugly trait in any ANYONE. Thankfully Andy Murray does not suffer from it.
 
I'm English and British. I'm proud to be both and proud that being British encompasses the Scottish, the Welsh and the Northern Irish. They are all fine countries full of fine people.

Also, well done Murray. He played well and deserved to win.
 
johnboy615 said:
SAINT12661 said:
Didn't Murray respond in the past with "anyone but England" when asked who he wanted to win in another sporting event?
Click to expand...

When asked many years ago, "are you supporting Scotland in the world cup finals? Hahaha!" He replied, "No, whoever is playing England, haha!" Tim Henman was there at the time and says it was all good natured but was blown out of all proportion by the English press trying to rally the nation! The cudgel has now been bandied by any Englishman looking for an excuse to dislike him.

As a Scot Murray admits ambivalence when England play. If you wish to reciprocate then at best you can say you don't care if he wins or loses. Being completely fair, except in the Olympics, Murray does not represent Great Britain or Scotland; just Andy Murray.

Xenophobia is an ugly trait in any ANYONE. Thankfully Andy Murray does not suffer from it.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your final paragraph just about sums up where we find ourselves at the present time in that we find it difficult to discuss certain issues without running the risk of having a "phobic" tagged on to our opinion.

Have a negative view on same sex partnerships; you must be homophobic, dare discuss certain issues of race, you must be a racist or heaven forbid run the risk of questioning our current, or should I say lack of, immigration policy and you are generally termed as both xenophobic and racist.

I neither like nor dislike Andy Murray as a person or the way in which he performs in his sport, I just wish that in our desparation to seek out "winners" we could keep things in perspective; perhaps as Alec Salmond was attempting in his frantic bid to unravel his subtle flag at the end of the match!
 
I think I'll fall back on my English gentlemanliness now and not rise to the bait. But I did cast the line and knew what to expect. It's a rest day in Le Tour, no tennis so it's back to the garden.
 
I enjoy the banter between the home nations but like them all to do well too. What Murray said was a joke and now he gets criticised for being boring and never having a joke.

In rugby I have teams I prefer over others, partly from my dad's views, but I'd like to see any northern hemisphere team to win the world coup and redress the balance. In football I'd like any British or Irish team to win something but think the gloating afterwards might be annoying if it weren't England. I can understand why as the press go way over the top even when England only have an average team and it annoys me. I am becoming more and more distanced from the England set-up as it focuses too much on London and a few big teams. For example, Daren Bent was told to leave Sunderland if he wanted to improve his chances of playing for England. Luckily we are all rubbish at the moment so it is unlikely anyone will having bragging rights any time soon.
 
I support any British team (except England national football team)
I cheer them on in every sport i watch. I am Scottish and proud of it so i will support home teams first.
The reason i will not support the England football team is the commentary from the media, before, during and after any games. I used to cheer them on and even had a replica shirt at one point ( i have welsh and both halves of ireland as well) but i stopped purely becuase the media south of the border seemed to think that England had a god given right to win every match in every competition. It disgusted me so much i could not bear to watch or listen to their games any longer. I am afraid English rugby is starting to go the same way and i dont know how long it will be before.i give up watching their game as well
 
The responses to Peter's original post are truly dispiriting. What started out as a celebratory post has been pissed on (to use a favoured expression of one of the pissers). You should be ashamed of yourselves.
 
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