Do you cheer on Premier League teams in Europe
By: Rob | March 9th, 2010
“Its nights like this, that we’re all just English”.
That’s how Richard Keys opened Sky’s coverage of last years Champions League final. He was talking to Graeme Souness (Scottish) and Ruud Guillit (Dutch), and it was a bit much for me, I turned over to watch the game on ITV.
The point I think he was trying to make, was that the whole country would be cheering on Manchester United against Barcelona in the CL final, as you know, we’d want an English winner and all.
Nevermind that Barcelona were the better team (over the season, and it turned out on the night) and that they were playing some of the most exciting football ever seen by mankind.
Anyway, the Champions League is back tonight, and my question is, do you cheer on Premier League teams, just because they’re from England?
It probably differs if you support one of the four sides (three now) in the Champions League, but is it really a case that you all become Man United/Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool/etc fans for a night in the hope that English clubs will continue to dominate in Europe?
There was probably a time when I did (Perhaps when England only had one or two entrants, if you can remember such innocent times), but its not really the case anymore.
The Premier League gets alot of stick because we’ve dominated Europe the last few seasons and made it all a bit boring, but to be honest, I don’t tune into the Champions League to watch Man United take on Arsenal. I can do that in the Premier League twice a season (and get excited about it)
No, I tune into the Champions League to watch the giants of European football clash, be they from Italy, Spain or anywhere else. A chance to see the players you might not get a chance to watch week in week out (most of us can only watch so much football after all), going up against each other. That’s what its supposed to be all about.
So this week I look forward to Milan in Manchester and Arsenal trying to fight back against Porto. But its not guaranteed that my loyalties will lie with the clubs from this country.
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Category: EPL Ramblings
Comments
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I’m an Arsenal supporter, who doesn’t live in England, so I guess predictably, I pretty much always root for whoever is playing against Chelsea and United.
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I’m not a supporter of a Premier League team. In general though, my biggest problem with the Champions League is simply the money. It’s difficult to support a team or teams you might not like in the league, when you know that their success in the CL will make them disproportionately rich or richer – allowing them to potentially ruin the league with their dominance.
In case of the Europa League though, I always support every – in my case – Bundesliga team, as there is little money to earn in the competition anyway.
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I know you’re not aiming this question at me, but as an Inter fan I still support all Serie A teams because it’s become crucial that Italian teams win so that Italy can retain its 4th CL spot…I guess it might be different for English [or Spanish] teams since the fans don’t face that problem, but lower ranked nations will probably tend to support all their teams…
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I’m with you Rob. I remember the days when English teams struggled to make an impact in Europe, and back then I supported them with all I’d got. But since they’ve been so successful recently, I more or less don’t care.
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I’m in a similar situation to Martin. Liverpool is my favorite side, so you better believe I wasn’t cheering for ManU last year… of course my favorite Spanish side is Real Madrid, so I wasn’t to thrilled with the alternative.
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epl chumps at their best
how the heck can a united or arsenal fan go on to support pool or chelsea or vice versa -
plus epl dominance is due to their stagnant league-they send the same top 4 team-no fing variety
and this is coming from a chelsea fan
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I’m with Jan on this one. As a supporter of a pretty small Scottish club that won’t be in Europe anytime soon, I support all Scottish clubs in Europe. I don’t have an EPL team really (but I tend to have sympathies for Everton and Villa) and so I tend to root against the English clubs, because selfishly I want to avoid ever having to watch an all-English CL final again.
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as a united fan, never liverpool or arsenal (and now chelsea)but i will admit guiltily, i had a soft spot for leeds a couple of years ago.
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I will never cheer for Manure Chealsea and liverpool in Europe. Can’t do it.
I would if Everton or Fulham or a dream team like that would make it to Europe though! -
No, unless it’s Arsenal, I cheer against them BECAUSE they’re English.
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Sure, EPL plays the most exciting games.. http://www.eplp2p.com , but I really want to see more matches between EPL team and teams from other league…SO please don’t meet too earlier!
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