Changing your allegiance?

[weller54]

When at secondary school in the late 60's one of my friends was a WBA fan, another a Portsmouth supporter.... Later in life the Albion supporter changed allegiance to Arsenal and the Pompey fan to Tottenham!!!..

Today I still have them as friends but continue to mock their lack of loyalty to the clubs they supported fervently at school 😁..

I cannot understand this changing of support for a team that means so much to you in those teenage years!

To me, they'll always be Albion and Pompey fans but they get very upset when I pull them up on the subject 😂

 

[HybridFox]

It's usually the other way round if anything where most in school would support one of the "big" clubs but when you actually start going to games and have a vested interest in your local team, that loyalty shifts

 

 

[Jattdogg]

Would never change allegiance. It's city or nobody.

 

I do live in toronto area so while i might support TFC as its more local i dont feel anymore as attached at the stalker level like i do for city.

[MattFox]

Supported Chelsea as a kid, moved on to Man City after the takeover, started following Leicester in 2015 and will happily support Forest next season following the re emergence of the famous team under the handsome Steve Cooper

[Aus Fox]

I’ve always been Leicester through and through, but when I moved out to Aus I needed a team to follow as I really missed the going to games.

I initially started following Melbourne Victory, but after a season or two I really didn’t like aspects of the supporter groups associated with Melbourne Victory, so when Melbourne Heart joined I switched allegiances to them, but they soon were bought out by Man City which I didn’t agree with, so again switched, now I’m more Adelaide United as I enjoy the way they play football and the way they seem to run as a club.

The difference I suppose, is although I’ve enjoyed watching some live football at times, I’ve never felt a connection to these clubs in the way I do to Leicester. If I go to the game, win draw or lose, I head back to the pub have a beer and get on the train home. 
With Leicester, I’m pissed off when we lose, and it makes my week a better week when we win. I could never change this or feel this connected to any other teams results.

[urban.spaceman]

Never. It is biologically impossible. We're bonded for life.

[-sodapop]

Went to school in Belgrave and most of my classmates were fans of the big 6 growing up - Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United the most popular by some way. When we won the league, saw more than one of them posting about how "their team had done the impossible".

[Jon the Hat]

I wasn't really into Football at school, but as it was pretty much required to support someone, I would have said Liverpool.  Leicester under MON got promoted when I knew I was moving to Leicester for Uni, and I got hooked over the next few years.

[cruzFOX]

Also home grown from the Belgrave area grew up in the 70’s surrounded by Liverpool fandom as a kid. Went along with the tribe as that’s what you do. Took just one school trip to filbert street seeing the stands, the pitch and the changing room where lineker’s spot was and I became a believer. Hard to describe its a visceral thing on a deeply emotional level. Like a belonging and attachment to the roots of the city I lived in. Liverpool became a distant memory although I admired their immense success.

anyway have never looked back even when I studied in Newcastle for 4 years during the king Kevin years. 
moral of the story it’s always tempting and easy to support a team that’s successful but theres a hollow satisfaction to it unlike supporting a club that you truelly belong to.

[fox_favourite]

If I fell out of love for Leicester, it wouldn’t be anyone else. To be honest, it happened a little during covid lockdown. Well, the love for the game rather than city. Built it back up though but never dreamed of switching. But it’s a kid thing to do especially with peer pressure. The way we’re going at the moment, we could lose a few younger fans to the bigger teams, even Newcastle. That would be a shame as recently it’s been so nice to see so many youngsters wearing the city kit and not hiding it. Growing up, there definitely wasn’t as many as there is now. 

Edited 12 January 2023 by fox_favourite

[phoneticerror]

Always Leicester. Even when the kids in the 90s supported glory glory Man United, I suffered through the abuse. Bought up by my family that you support your home team, not whoever is the flavour of the week.

 

I did find it amusing in 2017 when I took my 2 year old lad to a footy class and saw one of the other dads was somebody I went school with. He was a Man U fan at school, but his kid was wearing an LCFC kit. I suppose that was nothing to do with the recent PL win 😂 Tosser

Edited 12 January 2023 by phoneticerror

[Daggers]

I’m thinking about supporting the Forests on the weekend tbh.

[phoneticerror]

11 minutes ago, Daggers said:

I’m thinking about supporting the Forests on the weekend tbh.

You deserve a lifetime ban from FT and KP for such a comment 😂

[Sly]

I supported Barcelona as a kid. First ever games were at the Camp Nou and watching Lineker, when they had Venebals and scruff in charge. I think I was picking up most of the results on teletext or newspapers when we were on the UK. We didn’t have the wall to wall football coverage on our 4 TV channels, or the internet in the late 80s.
 

My father is a Leicester supporter, so I remember him taking me to watch an entirely different game of football at Filbert Street. 
 

This one:

 

 

The crowd was different.

The football was terrible.

 

However it was local and I could watch games. 

 

Then it sort of went from there. 

[Chelmofox]

At uni in the mid 90s I dated a girl who was a massive Man U fan. Would go on and on about everything to do with them. We recently became aquatinted on Facebook, and she is now a massive Man City supporter. Go figure. 

[taupe]

I have 2nd teams that change. I like football so can admire the way a certain team plays and I'll look out for them. But I was brought up where tribal rivalries (in football) didn't exist so tend to be less parochial in general (Forest were once my 2nd team!). Being Leicester born though, I've only ever supported them.

[Vlad the Fox]

One of my mates whose had a season ticket with us for a number of years was a liverpool fan as a kid but I’ve never brought it up with him as none of my other mates know. Also know a few who have changed from big 6 clubs to Leicester and also a couple of ex forest fans who are now season ticket holders for a number of years at the KP.

 

 

[Scotch]

I've done it. 

 

I was born in 86 and from about 91 I supported who everyone in my family supported, Rangers. Was taken to most games as a kid and teen years. Leicester where my 'Second team' from about 2000 onward due to having family in the City and going to games when I was down visiting. 

 

Somewhere in my 20's I realised what being a Rangers fan meant. Who the club where and who the people where that I was surrounded by at the club (including my family) and came to the conclusion that it wasn't who I was. I wasn't pro Brittish and I didn't buy in to a word of what I was singing in the songs that we sang every week. Your football team shouldn't dictate who you are or who you associate with. 

 

So eventually, I made the conscious decision to stop supporting them and my second team became my only team. Leicester have been my sole team since about 2010 and I don't regret my decision in the slightest, although I can tell you that changing your allegiance is not easy. 

[Strokes]

47 minutes ago, phoneticerror said:

You deserve a lifetime ban from FT and KP for such a comment 😂

Don’t reward him.

[weller54]

1 minute ago, Strokes said:

Don’t reward him.

I'm thinking of supporting Forest...and so is my wife!

[bovril]

I know some people who kind of naturally converted over time. My Dad grew up supporting Tottenham but started supporting Leicester because the rest of the family does and we always went to see LCFC not Spurs. He's probably more invested in it than anyone else now.

 

I may give up supporting Leicester if we're bought by Saudis or something but I doubt I'd fully switch. Probably cheer for a non league or league 2 team, but it wouldn't be the same of course.

[NasPb]

I live in sevilla so i like Sevilla, but i love leicester. There's a big difference. 

[westernpark]

I wouldn’t ever change the fact I support Leicester, because you can’t. However, if we were to be taken over by some of these alternatives suggested in other threads, I’d stop going and probably watch a local non-league team instead.

[SpacedX]

1 hour ago, Sly said:

 

My father is a Leicester supporter, so I remember him taking me to watch an entirely different game of football at Filbert Street. 
 

The crowd was different.

The football was terrible.

 

However it was local and I could watch games. 

 

Then it sort of went from there. 

Can someone please impress this on our current (and older generations) of incessant complainers. This is nothing new. 

[Steve Earle]

My first game at Filbo was in 65-66 and I've been ludicrously hooked ever since, despite leaving Leicester in 1967. But I'm losing it. Each year the PL becomes more about money and less (for me) about football. It's a proxy battlefield for sports-washing petro-states and gazillionaires.

 

The whole game reacted to our unbelievable title win with a collective 'well, that's not happening again'. And it won't. There remains the possibility to win a cup, but for The Other 13 (as it is now), that and the Europa Conference are your lot.

 

So increasingly I find myself asking 'what's the point', and wondering whether I'd enjoy watching my local team (DoF = Robbie Savage, first team coach = Neil Danns. Those are your clues.) more, where football is 'real' and unsullied by the Greedy 6/7 and the wealth behind them. 

 

But then of course Macclesfield are the Man City of non-league...

Edited 12 January 2023 by Steve Earle