Confession Box: Have you ever cheered for a rival club?
By: Rob | April 20th, 2009
So Sunday saw Everton beat Manchester United on penalties, and progressing to the FA Cup final. As Phil Jagielka struck his penalty, it struck me that it was an odd game for Liverpool fans to be watching – thier inter-city rivals with thier big historical rivals, did they just not care about the game, or did they fall on one side or the other.
So I called up a Liverpool supporting friend of mine, and asked. He admitted, somewhat sheepishly that he was really rooting for Everton. “I hate them” he explained, “but I hate Man United alot more”. I had wondered if it was just him – but it seems from the internet, most Liverpool fans would have preferred and Everton victory, and not only that, but some were really supporting The Toffees.
So my question to all you Offsiders is, have you ever cheered for a rival club? And why? Is it ever acceptable?
There was the problem that Arsenal fans had a few years ago, where Man United played Spurs on the last day – and if Spurs won, Arsenal would take the title. I’m sure a few Arsenal fans wished well of Spurs that day.
Is that the only time its allowed, when it directly helps your club?
I’m not sure where I stand. For those not in the know, I support Bristol Rovers, of League One, and so our direct rivals are Bristol City of the Championship. I haven’t ever directly cheered them on, but because they’re in a different league to us, I’m not too bothered if they do ok. Last season they reached the play off final, and if they had beaten Hull, they’d have been in the Premier League. I could see the benefits to them being there – we’re a big city not to have one top-flight club, and we’d have more chance of having a game at a World Cup if England ever held one and so on, so in that sense it’d be nice, but I couldn’t actually cheer them on, because well, I just don’t like them.
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Category: Confession Box
Comments
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I’m a Sporting Clube de Portugal fan (Sporting Lisbon)
Our direct rivals are Benfica & Porto (more so Benfica)
I definitely cheered for Porto in the Champions League against Man U just because it would be nice to see a Portuguese club progress in the competition
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Arsenal fan. I rooted for United over Spurs in the Carling Cup final, because (a) the thought of Spurs having won TWO trophies since we last won one made me a little nauseous, and (b) since Spurs didn’t make an effort in the UEFA Cup this season, I would rather see it go to a team that actually cares about it next season (although now it looks like they may pip the Hammers for 7th and get it again). And United prevailed, which didn’t exactly make me happy, but I guess was better than the alternative.
Afterwards, I felt so dirty I had to take a shower. Let us never speak of this again.
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i had my first chance to go to a man united match (my dream) in february against everton, as long as everton did not draw against liverpool in their fa cup. a fa cup rplay for them would have moved my match from the monday to the saturday and i got into manchester on sunday. as their match went on, i realized that my best chance for a non-draw was for liverpool to win. it hurt cheering them on, especially because the assholes couldn’t produce the goal.
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Maybe a more important question for Liverpool fans is was it better for them that Man United won or not? With such a youthful team only getting beaten by the luck of the penalties, I can’t see much of a confidence knock (except for Berbatov, of course). One less game is not that much of a fixture benefit, but now United lose that albatross around their necks of the quintuple. Then again, do you want to see your hated rival possibly win an FA Cup (at least)?
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I have to say that my utter dislike of seeing a team win everything will probably lead me to rooting for Arsenal against ManU in the CL. I don’t hate manchester united, i just really don’t like total dominance from one team as i feel it makes football boring to watch.
One of my best friends is an arsenal fan, so lets hope he doesn’t read this. Luckily for me the only teams he hates more than spurs are ManU and Chelsea.
I’ve also caught myself rooting for West Ham when it benefits Spurs in the league.
Whoops…
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As a Man Utd supporter myself, I was rooting for Spurs when they were in the Carling Cup final last year against Chelsea. Considering Chelsea being a direct rivals with my club to the league title, I was happy Spurs won in the end. I was actually jumping up and down in front of the television when Spurs won!
Somehow strangely from then on, Spurs became the next team I check their league results after my club. It was definitely mixed feelings when both clubs play in the Carling Cup final earlier this year.
But then, having Spurs as my ’second’ team also has an added incentive – my brother supports Arsenal.
Somehow everything fall into pieces together. -
Forgot to add in this earlier. It is going to be kind of strange after Everton beat my club to go to the FA Cup final. But then Everton deserves it though. Because I rather see them than Chelsea win in the final.
I will never ever forget how Drogba’s goal denied my club the FA Cup back in the 2007 final. At the new Wembley even. I just hope this time round with Everton facing Chelsea, I do not jinx the final result considering for some reason it always happen whenever I publicly back a team to win.
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I’ll never forget that Drogba goal either. Mainly because it bought to an end the most boring game of football I’ve ever seen!
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Hear, hear Rob!
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