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Supporting a team, no matter the sport, is a stress filled, passionate love affair between a person and a dream. Why do we follow a team with such passion?
It’s because we wish we were talented enough or lucky enough to actually be a part of it. We feel every win or loss with the same pain or joy as if we were actually out on that field ourselves.
That passion brings thousands of people together and creates intense rivalries. But do most supporters actually support their team?
The Oxford Dictionary defines a supporter as “a person who is actively interested in and wishes success for a particular sports team”. We all know about bandwagon fans who come along when a team is doing well, but let’s forget about these people and focus on those fans that are always there.
It appears to me that there are two distinct types of supporters – the realistic and unrealistic. A realistic supporter follows a team closely, is well informed in all the issues associated with that team and from this information they form strong, passionate views about the club and the associated issues. This doesn’t mean that they always agree with everything that is happening, but instead it means that they have a justified viewpoint.
An unrealistic supporter seems to be becoming almost the default type of modern day fan. What I mean by unrealistic supporter is, somebody that believes that no matter what, their team should be winning, buying every superstar player and spending money like it’s going out of fashion. They base their opinions on very little, if any information, and they strongly argue their opinions often to the detriment of the team they actually support.
To give an example of this let’s look at Liverpool FC, a team I have supported for many years. I often read club forums where fans get an opportunity to vent their anger and discuss important issues. However, it has become highly common for fans to simply abuse their own teams and have farfetched expectations. I often wonder whether these people actually support the club.
One of the biggest recent examples of this at Liverpool was the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona. I read countless posts by fans utterly abusing the club for selling him and then getting frustrated when we didn’t buy certain replacements with the money.
While I was obviously disappointed to see a world-class player leave the club, I’m also realistic. Suarez was a liability, he wanted to leave and Barcelona offered an amount of money that simply wouldn’t be offered again if there was another indescretion. So knowing those things, how could the club have come up with any other decision?
I use the example of Liverpool because it is a team I’m reasonally well informed about but I’m also sure that every club, in every single sporting category, has supporters just like this.
To me it’s very simple, if you can’t support a team through the good times and the bad, and you can’t be realistic about what your club can truly achieve, then you are not a true supporter. Maybe instead you should play your Playstation or Xbox, at least then you’ve only got yourself to blame.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.