Is it ever okay to stop supporting your football club

[AFC NimbleThumb]

People sincerely switch spouses, professions, passports, religions and much more. And football should be the one exception? People change, life changes.

You’d have to be very narrow minded in my opinion to categorically rule out this possibility. Football shouldn’t be a cult, it’s a hobby.

Certainly not necessary to ask anyone for permission.

This hits lots of notes that are tough to disagree with.

For me personally United have formed much of my football watching identity & are intrinsically ingrained in me somewhere. If the day came where I couldn’t support this club [& the racism amongst the fanbase has brought me close recently] I wouldn’t switch allegiances I’d just give up on the game altogether.

As an aside. My son is 12, I’ve taken him to about 10 United games of which he has had little interest, his last game was a few years ago & I made the decision to not encourage him to follow the team/any team. He has no interest. The older I get the more illogical I find my own fandom, I also see more & more how little I have in common with other fans other than the team we support. Every other thread on here is a poster arguing with another over a thing they both claim to love. If I were young again I wouldn’t waste my time on this game to be honest.

In regards to the OP though, no.

 

[Gazautd18]

I know someone who was A Forest fan who then switched to Leeds then switched to Arsenal.
I haven't seen him for a good few years so he's most probably A City fan now.
His reasoning was that he felt it was like an abusive relationship which is why he needed to change.
I couldn't do it but I am a bit apathetic towards Utd now.
Don't get overly upset if we lose and generally don't like many of the players or club.
Think the Europa Final is the one that done me.
If footballs on I'll watch most matches, but it's more of entertainment value as to 'We need them to lose so we can go x points clear etc"
Can't be bothered to get my hopes up.

 

[Jibbs]

It’s just a football club. You can stop supporting your country, change you faith, do whatever you want to. It is a free world. Gone are the days of stupid nationalism, football fanaticism etc

 

[P0GBA]

Despite being a United fan and season ticket holder I have also supported individual players in certain teams. I used to always watch Rossi at Villareal and if he wasn't in the starting lineup I wouldn't watch the match. I do the same with Haaland at Dortmund and only watch if he is playing although I would not consider myself a supporter of those teams.

 

[Jippy]

I don't how you could begin to support another club in the prem. Some clubs I hate- eg Pool and City, or strongly dislike- Chelsea/Spurs and most I couldn't care less about, eg Norwich or Everton and others I actively avoid cos they're dreadful to watch, eg Burnley.
How on earth would you pick a new one to get behind out of that lot

I'd rather drift away and watch less, which I do now anyway due to time zone issues.

 

[Bebestation]

The football club is bigger and more important than the fan.

Do what you please.

 

[njred]

I could never switch because of where I was born and having my family brainwash me at an early age gave me no choice but to live the rest of my life watching and worrying about every match. I enjoy it although I envy people who can switch sides. It means that it’s not that important to them I suppose and that gives them time to pursue other things in life.

 

[babablue]

I disagree with the accepted wisdom that it is not ok to stop supporting your club. I'm not from the UK, I've been supporting us since 1994, which technically makes me a bandwagoner since we were on top then. I've stayed for the relatively lean years and have no desire to ever switch because I'm now invested. If someone lacks that investment that makes them open to stop supporting or switch over to a different team, why shouldn't they be able to do what they want without judgement?

I think it's also fair to ask, why does Manchester United (or any other club) deserve anyone's lifetime support? I'm speaking for myself here (and I suspect the majority of fans too), but what benefit do I as a supporter get? The club don't know I exist, I don't get to watch matches or visit OT for free. There is literally nothing I can do as a fan that any random person cannot do.

In conclusion, I think it's ok, but most fans won't countenance it.

 

[Piratesoup]

It's just a sport, nothing about this is important. Do what you want, don't do what makes you unhappy. Anyone who says"no" in earnest has the maturity level of a teenager.

 

[kouroux]

Switching clubs is out of the question. The worst for me would be to feel totally indifferent and care less about the club but more than that ? Nah, no way would I follow another club the way I have with Utd

 

[Random Task]

we just haven’t got that many likeable players at the minute. rashford is campaigning to stave children whilst lingard watches on whilst body popping and pleading with his twitch followers to buy his lastest drip. ronaldo is just preening himself in the mirror, occupying the same positions as cavani trying to comb his hair. maguire is standing in the corner trying to mark an indoor plant. bunch of cnuts imo.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

This hits lots of notes that are tough to disagree with.

For me personally United have formed much of my football watching identity & are intrinsically ingrained in me somewhere. If the day came where I couldn’t support this club [& the racism amongst the fanbase has brought me close recently] I wouldn’t switch allegiances I’d just give up on the game altogether.

As an aside. My son is 12, I’ve taken him to about 10 United games of which he has had little interest, his last game was a few years ago & I made the decision to not encourage him to follow the team/any team. He has no interest. The older I get the more illogical I find my own fandom, I also see more & more how little I have in common with other fans other than the team we support. Every other thread on here is a poster arguing with another over a thing they both claim to love. If I were young again I wouldn’t waste my time on this game to be honest.

In regards to the OP though, no.

I’ve a son the same age. Unfortunately for him, I indoctrinated him in all things Manchester United at a very young age. Something I now feel quite bad about. Although I comfort myself that it’s character building to not support a relentlessly successful team. Winning trophies will feel fairly meaningless to kids that grow up supporting teams who are constantly winning. And when United finally win the league (assuming that’s in my lifetime!) it will be an unbelievable high for for the two of us.

 

[Mart1974]

When Ronaldo Jr and Leo Messi the Third are our top scorers and Robo-Fergie guides my beloved Red Bull Manchester Devils to the quintuple in front of the New Stretford End at the KFC New Old Trafford I'll be able to enjoy the thrill knowing for sure that I wasn't a glory hunting wankstain.

End of thread, nothing else to say

 

[WeePat]

It's just a sport, nothing about this is important. Do what you want, don't do what makes you unhappy. Anyone who says"no" in earnest has the maturity level of a teenager.

No-one is suggesting club switchers should be sent to the gulag. Obviously people can do what they want

 

[SilentWitness]

I think yes, if it is natural. I think it's quite easy to fall out of love with a team due to politics/other issues and slowly fall in love with another (perhaps you've moved town and started supporting your local side etc.). I wouldn't say I just support Everton, they are my no.1 team but whenever I move city I try and build up a support of the local team and dip into games etc.

 

[Pronewbie]

Just like religion there’s no need for indoctrination especially at a young age. As one grows older, priorities and perspectives change too - so the values that attracted you to support Man Utd may no longer be the same, or it could be the club that has fundamentally changed.

Personally I’ve come to value Trust as the most valuable currency. The club may have deviated from many of its values but not trust. I don’t think they are lying wank-stains (mostly), just incompetent from top to bottom. I also tend to be a bit more loyal than most (sometimes to my detriment).

But I’m not going to waste my time after 10 years of mediocrity and loss of identity - so I’ve taken a hiatus and will not actively seek to follow-up on the news and matches.

 

[Judge Red]

Yes if the club you go off to support is FCUM in 2005 because you can see what the Glazers will have done to this club by 2022 and refuse to give them a single penny.

You don’t support football clubs at this level anymore. You support billionaires buying things.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I think yes, if it is natural. I think it's quite easy to fall out of love with a team due to politics/other issues and slowly fall in love with another (perhaps you've moved town and started supporting your local side etc.). I wouldn't say I just support Everton, they are my no.1 team but whenever I move city I try and build up a support of the local team and dip into games etc.

I think having second or third teams is fairly normal. It’s very common in Ireland, where a lot of PL fans will also support their local LoI club. I presume a lot of English fans of PL teams that don’t live in the area might also have a fondness for a local lower league team.

I would still find it very weird for a fully grown adult to suddenly stop supporting one club and support a different club in the same league because the club they supported all their life is no longe successful. That’s odd as feck IMHO. Textbook definition of a glory-hunting fan.

 

[Rojofiam]

When I was 10 years old Ronaldo left for Madrid and for a couple days I thought I'd become both a United and RM fan...09/10 season started and couldn't be arsed to watch any other team than United. Would never switch allegiances but I've somewhat fallen out of love with United (the current players, mostly) and with football altogether...

Around 2012/13 I almost bullied a City supporter friend into switching teams

 

[Deery]

I think yes, if it is natural. I think it's quite easy to fall out of love with a team due to politics/other issues and slowly fall in love with another (perhaps you've moved town and started supporting your local side etc.). I wouldn't say I just support Everton, they are my no.1 team but whenever I move city I try and build up a support of the local team and dip into games etc.

That’s just keeping a causal interest in football, I follow my home team (as do most my family), Celtic as it’s kind of a birth right where I’m from and Villa because it was my Granda’s team, but I follow these teams, don’t support or be a fan like I am with United. What people in here are implying is to totally change allegiances one day be wearing your Ronaldo shirt the next dripped head to toe in a Liverpool tracksuit, because the going got a little tough. It’s unthinkable..

 

[moses]

No-one is suggesting club switchers should be sent to the gulag. Obviously people can do what they want

Let me just suggest that club switchers should be sent to the gulag.

 

[Spoony]

Let me just suggest that club switchers should be sent to the gulag.

The guillotine, even better!

 

[duffer]

Let me just suggest that club switchers should be sent to the gulag.

Agreed.

People who support multiple teams should maybe not get gulaged but there needs to be some sort of punishment for footballing bigamy.

 

[moses]

Agreed.

People who support multiple teams should maybe not get gulaged but there needs to be some sort of punishment for footballing bigamy.

We could make a gulag with one slightly less punitive wing.

 

[duffer]

We could make a gulag with one slightly less punitive wing.

It's a strange one for me, I know a lot of multi team people in real life who have (what I would consider) reasonable reasons for supporting multiple teams but it still feels off to a monogomist like myself.


I think being told at a young age as a Chelsea fan by my mates dad that I had to also support Glasgow Rangers because "there's a connection" put me off. Being a belligerent little shit I said i preferred Celtic just to annoy him (and that was way before I knew what the "connection" between a lot of Chelsea and Rangers fans was).

 

[Spoony]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds this a crime against humanity. Sure we should be free to do what we want but sod that...burn the traitors!

 

[moses]

It's a strange one for me, I know a lot of multi team people in real life who have (what I would consider) reasonable reasons for supporting multiple teams but it still feels off to a monogomist like myself.


I think being told at a young age as a Chelsea fan by my mates dad that I had to also support Glasgow Rangers because "there's a connection" put me off. Being a belligerent little shit I said i preferred Celtic just to annoy him (and that was way before I knew what the "connection" between a lot of Chelsea and Rangers fans was).

Yeah lots of Irish lads my age supported Celtic as well as an English team. Always annoyed me because it was just the acceptable face of sectarianism to me.

Like yourself, a contrarian, I had a brief flirtation with Hibs when I was about 11.

 

[moses]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds this a crime against humanity. Sure we should be free to do what we want but sod that...burn the traitors!

This could be a good place to start cleaning up the football Forums.

 

[Mike Smalling]

Is it ok to stop supporting your club? Absolutely. It is ok to switch clubs, because things are going poorly? No way.

 

[Moby]

I genuinely love the current Leeds outfit. They have a massive identity about them and they seem to care about their fans unlike the mercenary whores trotting about at OT.

To people saying fans are spoilt because united are losing now are partly right but in a lot of cases it isn't that. There have been constant actions over the years that have distanced fans away from the club and most of them have been around the club just whoring itself out for money all the time. The superleague shite was the tipping point for many. Something like that just shows just how away the club has gone from the culture and the roots due to which most of us fell in love with the club.

 

[Spoony]

We should be free to support Liverpool and United. Also City every other fortnight. Come on it's a free world.

 

[Deery]

Yeah lots of Irish lads my age supported Celtic as well as an English team. Always annoyed me because it was just the acceptable face of sectarianism to me.

Like yourself, a contrarian, I had a brief flirtation with Hibs when I was about 11.

That is very true to an extent, but I suppose that’s just what you grew up with.

I don’t follow Celtic as much anymore, couldn’t really name you a first 11, but it’s still nice to see them do well sometimes.

 

[moses]

People sincerely switch spouses, professions, passports, religions and much more. And football should be the one exception? People change, life changes.

You’d have to be very narrow minded in my opinion to categorically rule out this possibility. Football shouldn’t be a cult, it’s a hobby.

Certainly not necessary to ask anyone for permission.

It's to do with the origins of the clubs in working class communities. The idea of representation through union and pride in who you are. So it was originally who you are, not who you choose. That has stayed through the constant metamorphosis from local working class sports clubs to global behemoths. Yes it makes no sense now, but it's one of the decreasing threads that connects us to the origins of the game.

 

[moses]

That is very true to an extent, but I suppose that’s just what you grew up with.

I don’t follow Celtic as much anymore, couldn’t really name you a first 11, but it’s still nice to see them do well sometimes.

I surely did, I played for a club called Rangers AFC in Dublin, (as did Kevin Moran) and boy did we attract the worst of that element. Teams we knew wore red or white for example would turn up in green and white hoops.

 

[Nickelodeon]

As a default answer to such questions, doing anything is okay as long as you’re not hurting anyone else.

 

[moses]

As a default answer to such questions, doing anything is okay as long as you’re not hurting anyone else.

But it would make Eric sad. So you can't do it.

 

[golden_blunder]

You have probably never seen your team finish lower than 7th in your lifetime

Edit: I might have misunderstood the initial post but to be fair, even though this is a fantastic forum (probably the best football forum on the internet), there is a huge amount of ridiculous posts in the vein of this by United fans on this forum when you are in your bad spells. Stuff like "this is rock bottom", "I can't take this anymore", "Fallen out of love with the game" etc etc. The lack of perspective is absolutely ridiculous

You absolutely dominated for 20 years. I get that for a lot of people that kind of make the whole adjustment process of seeing other teams be better than you for a sustained amount of time much harder, but that is the name of the game and thankfully so. On the flipside most of these posters also want football to go back to what it were before, when money and suggar daddies were less significant and a larger amount of different clubs had opportunities to win. Really? You are at rock bottom and falling out of love with your club because you have gone a couple of years without silverware and you sometimes finish 6th or 7th, how low would you be if football were even more ruthless?

Not having a go at you OP because after reading it twice I think you were asking a rhetorical question, but I have seen loads of posts like these the last couple of years on here.

To answer what you actually asked; People can do whatever they want. But if anyone ever changes the team they chose early in life they don't understand football culture and should never be taken seriously again

Agree 100%. It’s pathetic

 

[Deery]

I surely did, I played for a club called Rangers AFC in Dublin, (as did Kevin Moran) and boy did we attract the worst of that element. Teams we knew wore red or white for example would turn up in green and white hoops.

I’d very well believe it, especially in Dublin.

My original home team are green and white hoops and their fiercest rivals are red, white and blue. It’s just ingrained in you from a young age, but in recent years I’ve noticed it’s more really Republican people that big up Celtic as compared to people in general.

 

[moses]

I’d very well believe it, especially in Dublin.

My original home team are green and white hoops and their fiercest rivals are red, white and blue. It’s just ingrained in you from a young age, but in recent years I’ve noticed it’s more really Republican people that big up Celtic as compared to people in general.

For sure. It's a default for hundreds.

 

[golden_blunder]

Some level of perspective is needed; United's struggles right now would be snatched at by 99.9% of the football pyramid

One can walk away from supporting a football club if it's causing them some level of distress I guess... It's becoming a Real Madrid or Chelsea fan afterward that is just scummy and glory hunterish

And this is an Irish forum? I've been on here for over a decade and I don't know a lick of Irish

Yes it is begorra