Why do people who like sports feel the need to choose a particular team?

[Zetta_x]

In light of the world cup;

My facebook is full of sad people. Many many many posts from many different people about the recent world cup match because of Mexico's game.

I'm curious to why the majority of people who like sports have the need to affiliate to a particular team. It feels like a lot of people affiliate with a team because (and this is going to be overdramatic for a point) their neighbor had a grandparent that was twice removed from a family but had ancestors who went to Mexico.

There is a bandwagon that people feel the need to support teams without much relationship to the team itself. My preference is to just enjoy the game regardless of the teams playing. I like looking at them as they are, ants battling out in a field for my entertainment - very rich ants.

Any thoughts?

 

[DinohScene]

I care so much for football that it really doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Arras]

Probably because it's more fun to cheer on a team and be happy if they win.

 

[Zetta_x]

I care so much for football that it really doesn't bother me at all.

That's true, people who don't have an interest in the sport itself will not have interest in picking a favorite team. But how about people who do have interest in a sport, I feel that there is a sociological pressure that if you like a sport, you have to have a favorite team. I am just interested in the speculation as to why this may or may not be the case.

 

[emigre]

I don't.

Being a football supporter is actually pretty fucking stressful. Supporting Swansea in the early 2000s is surely a factor in me being a miserable shit.

 

[DinohScene]

That's true, people who don't have an interest in the sport itself will not have interest in picking a favorite team. But how about people who do have interest in a sport, I feel that there is a sociological pressure that if you like a sport, you have to have a favorite team. I am just interested in the speculation as to why this may or may not be the case.

Prolly place you grew up in.
Or.... what yer mates liked in early childhood or mummy n daddy etc.

 

[Zetta_x]

Probably because it's more fun to cheer on a team and be happy if they win.

This is the type of discussion I like. This is the perspective I don't see. I find it hard to be attached to any team. So I don't have the natural emotion of happiness to celebrate if any one team won.

However, I do find specific plays interesting. I find a lot of entertainment of watching people play. But I just can't connect to a group of people I have little to no direct affiliation with.

Prolly place you grew up in.
Or.... what yer mates liked in early childhood or mummy n daddy etc.

This is a good discussion. I guess there is a line that needs to be crossed.

If my entire family made up the Mexico team, then I can see why I would have attachment to Team Mexico.
If my family liked it for random reasons, my brain can't process why I would have attachment to whatever team.

So there is a line between these two extremes. I feel my line is very high (for example, I don't feel the need to affiliate with USA even though I'm from USA - I don't see that being a good enough connection).

To me, I think it's more logical to not affiliate any one particular team and just enjoy the game regardless of who is playing because I don't have any emotionally invested reasons why I should prefer one team over the other.

But the people I see on my facebook wall are different. It's like someone is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to pick their favorite team. So people pick "Mexico" (even when they aren't even remotely Mexican)

 

[DinohScene]

Main reason why people would pick a particular team is cause of their surroundings.
Example, people from Swansea and surroundings are quicker to support Swansea instead of Arsenal.
Another would be what yer mates would support in yer childhood, people are much likely to join their side as well (sheep behavior?)
And ofcourse the mum n dad, some parents literally force their support of teams onto their kids whilst others are loose about it.
As well as what you said, being from one country is likely to support that country when it comes to global matches etc.

I, personally don't care about football at all.
I can't care who loses and can't care who wins.
I dun join up with the stupid outfit and theming of ones house or whatever cause of the event.
Well.. I dun care much about any sport at all, scrap that, I care about none xd

Anyway, I think it's general sheep behavior.
The majority likes something and the surroundings are basically drawn to it.
Ofcourse, like the saying of the black sheep, there are some that set themselves apart from it and there's some (like me) that dun care about it at all.

Same can be said for Facebook for example.
If all of yer mates got it, you're likely to get it as well.
But if you've got Myspace, and none of yer mates got it, you're likely to abandon it.

Same with platforms.
Majority of mates got a PS?, you're likely to get a PS, majority got Xbox?, you'll prolly get an Xbox as well.
Same with phones, and other things.

 

[Zetta_x]

Main reason why people would pick a particular team is cause of their surroundings.
Example, people from Swansea and surroundings are quicker to support Swansea instead of Arsenal.
Another would be what yer mates would support in yer childhood, people are much likely to join their side as well (sheep behavior?)
And ofcourse the mum n dad, some parents literally force their support of teams onto their kids whilst others are loose about it.
As well as what you said, being from one country is likely to support that country when it comes to global matches etc.

I, personally don't care about football at all.
I can't care who loses and can't care who wins.
I dun join up with the stupid outfit and theming of ones house or whatever cause of the event.
Well.. I dun care much about any sport at all, scrap that, I care about none xd

Anyway, I think it's general sheep behavior.
The majority likes something and the surroundings are basically drawn to it.
Ofcourse, like the saying of the black sheep, there are some that set themselves apart from it and there's some (like me) that dun care about it at all.

Same can be said for Facebook for example.
If all of yer mates got it, you're likely to get it as well.
But if you've got Myspace, and none of yer mates got it, you're likely to abandon it.

Same with platforms.
Majority of mates got a PS?, you're likely to get a PS, majority got Xbox?, you'll prolly get an Xbox as well.
Same with phones, and other things.

You've actually brought up a really good point, are you a philosopher?! =D

You have made me realize a huge distinction. Imagine if I were to flip a coin and tried to guess whether it was heads or tails (it may or may not be a fair coin).

If I guessed correctly and didn't bet anything on it; I wouldn't be happy because I would realize it was just the off chance of being correct.
If I guessed correctly and I bet a lot of money on it; I would be happy because I won a lot of money regardless if it is by random chance.
If I did research and was able to get evidence that the coin was slightly biased towards heads, and I guessed correctly; I would be happy because it suggests I correctly predicted it based on research.

I feel the sheep you mention follow case 1; people who don't bet on anything or do any research, but they are happy when the team they pick wins.
I feel people who show a lot of interest will be more like case 3 where they feel they know the players (whereas I don't know anyone even though I am interested in soccer).
Case 2 is for the gamblers.

I have a feeling that if I were to ask people before the game begins, who their favorite player is on the team, they wouldn't be able to answer. Not because everyone is their favorite because their connections with the team is low.

The only time I think I would be happy in case 1 is if the entire world participated in watching the coin flip and everyone got to share the moment that I got the coin correct. But I feel like this is still sheep behavior.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Transitive property..... They like algebra they just don't know it.

 

[Clydefrosch]

typical ingroup-outgroup behavior.

 

[DinohScene]

Ahah nah, just someone that logically thinks ;p

Toss a coin as much as you like, the outcome is always 50% (on a fair coin that is).
Using a coin which is heavier on the heads side is cheating and would throw off the "random" outcome, not much fair on it.
You're more in luck when you'll guess an outcome chosen by fair dice roll.

Now that you mention coin tossing, The Rosalinds in BS Infinite also did a coin toss early on in the game, outcome was always heads.
Even Booker throws heads.

Anyway, the majority of people would just pick what would satisfy others (parents, mates, surroundings etc)
Call it fear to be judged? it happens with a lot of things.

If I would delve into the world of football and get to know the players of the participating teams then I'd prolly not support me own country.
I'd prolly pick the team which has the most dedicated players, best defense strategies and less likeliness to "cheat" penalty kicks etc.
Of course, every team does their very best to win, but sportsmanship in football, hard to find these days.
Then again, is football even a sport anymore?

Outside of football, when a team looses, the supporters are going to riot and break millions in property value.
Cars on fire, looting, vandalism etc.
Football it self, well... players get bought for millions and millions (okay everyone should deserve a chance at a better life even when it comes to football but millions?)
Players it self get 100's of thousands each year in salary (not bad but really...)
A whole lot of the national matches are bribed, FIFA itself is one big bribe, the hosting country has to invest millions upon millions into a stupid football stadium which would end up getting destroyed later on anyway.
Not to mention the controversy of Brazil supposedly murdering street kids and clearing poor shack neighbor hoods (dunno if it's true but I heard from various people that they claim it's true, dun quote me on it)
In fact, I'm not surprised if the whole World cup itself is being bribed so that a team would win.
Think about the last World cup, a fucking octopus which predicts the outcome and gets it right every fucking time.
Can't be coincidence can it? (also fuck you Opera for crashing!)

Football a sport!?
It's a multi billion dollar business.
Again, good for the people of poor countries who are stars at football but the entire spirit of it in the real world has just vanished.

Nay, like I said, I can't be bothered with football.
If people want to be sheep and blindly support their team/country or knowingly want to support their team/country then it's up to them.
As long as they don't force it upon me.

Edit: didn't thought I'd write this much ._.
Ofcourse, people shouldn't take this seriously, it's just me viewpoint on it.

 

[Flame]

its some complex shit.

its animal instinct... its like a wolf pack. you are either with us or against us.

*back to the world cup match for me*

 

[FAST6191]

You would be far from the first to wonder this
http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny09-06-E.html

I HAVE spent these several days past among my papers with the most pleasing tranquillity imaginable. You will ask how that can possibly be in the midst of Rome? Why, the Circensian Games were taking place; a kind of entertainment for which I have not the least taste. They have no novelty, no variety, nothing, in short, one would wish to see twice. I am the more astonished that so many thousands of grown men should be possessed again and again with a childish passion to look at galloping horses, and men standing upright in their chariots. If, indeed, they were attracted by the swiftness of the horses or the skill of the men, one could account for this enthusiasm. But in fact it is a bit of cloth they favour, a bit of cloth that captivates them. And if during the running the racers were to exchange colours, their partisans would change sides, and instantly forsake the very drivers and horses whom they were just before recognizing from afar, and clamorously saluting by name.

Sadly as my would be refuge is IRC I am not having a similar such break. Such logic seems to extend to betting as well, I once was highly amused as some people that had just become old enough to bet spend a lunching going over 30 years of stats (wins and losses) to try to figure out the bet they were to place.

What I am more here to say though is there seems to be another group, disparagingly referred to as "glory hunters" which probably brings us to the discussion of the use of the word "we".

However I want to read a nice book and fall asleep so I will instead link up

 

[Satangel]

It's much more fun if you side with a team, the emotions and intensity is so much better.
Next to my own country I have a few other countries I support, this is mainly due to having good memories of those countries (I like the way they play, I like some of their players a lot) and a few countries I dislike.

Your own country, you don't really have any choice. If you're lucky enough to qualify for the World Cup, you have to root for them, you have to support them. Unless you don't care about football, but even then, you have to root for them and hope they win. It's just logic to me...
Why wouldn't you want your country to do good, to earn some fame?

 

[FAST6191]

Your own country, you don't really have any choice. If you're lucky enough to qualify for the World Cup, you have to root for them, you have to support them. Unless you don't care about football, but even then, you have to root for them and hope they win. It's just logic to me...
Why wouldn't you want your country to do good, to earn some fame?

It started out where everybody was out for themselves, basic evolution saw that extend to family and then tribe, said tribe later became town, town became country (though this can get slightly tricky to define and occasionally falls back to tribe), country became continent and that just leaves one more leap... that said fuck those Mars colonists and their silly space suits.

In a more practical sense it would seem to lead to higher chances of having to host one and that just looks like bad news all around.

As or emotions it is not something I had any tangible hand in (someone once said something about 12th man being the crowd, turns out I have an auto derisive snort feature, though I could at least see that) and there is nothing happening there to trigger the "that really must suck for those people" thing -- not even the football injuries seem at all interesting/bad. With that being the case then such things would seem to be false.

 

[Taleweaver]

In Belgium, only two things define our identity. Beer and our soccer team. And I really wish I was joking.

Your own country, you don't really have any choice.

Tell me about it. Saying out loud that you don't like our team or even football/soccer in general in Belgium is like going to Israel and saying that that Hitler guy wasn't so bad. It's just asking for trouble.

It's probably going to take yet another year before we have a federal government and nobody's going to care. But you better believe every other twat in this country is going to have an opinion of each (near-)goal goal of our team.


It's sad, really. Even at the deepest part of our national/political crisis, hardly anyone showed their support of the country by hanging out a flag. But now some sports players are on the other end of the world kicking a ball around, every other house suddenly has those things waving around.


EDIT: more on topic...not sure if it's mentioned already, but as for a reason to support a particular team: gambling.
I'd go into detail, but I've had enough cynicism for one post.

 

[FAST6191]

Is there not also the chocolate?

As previously mentioned when the last time this came up my cultural knowledge of Belgium consists of having once watched Rundskop/Bullhead and the following internet video


That would then seem to be an odd mix, though one repeated all over the world at various levels.

Flags seem to be a different thing once you are outside the US and sports, or tat sold to tourists, are about the only times it comes up.

As for gambling I was under the impression gambling tended to work best, when dealing with forces you can not control anyway, when you are nice and detached and looking at probabilities.

 

[kristianity77]

Supporting a particular football team as some others have said can be a very stressful thing to do. Depending of course how much you are into it I suppose. I also think it depends what country you live in and how much influence football has where you come from. Seeing as the OP comes from America then you can instantly see why they don't "get it". It's just not that "big" over there yet. But that's just not how it is in other countries.

What annoys me more than anything is fooking glory hunters. They are the worst of the worst. Where I come from in Leicester you walk round the city now and you will see people in Man City shirts etc. Where the hell were you guys 3 or 4 years ago? There is nothing worse than choosing a side to support purely based on the fact they are successful in that moment in time.

Me, I live near Leicester so chose them. And we are the biggest YoYo team of them all in terms of going up and down leagues. Last season we won the championship by a country mile playing some truly exceptional football and this coming season we will be in the premiership for the first time in ten years. But just over a year ago, we were mere seconds from a trip to Wembley, a 100 million pound game and this happened....



So yeah.....its stressful!

 

[FAST6191]

What annoys me more than anything is fooking glory hunters. They are the worst of the worst. <snip> There is nothing worse than choosing a side to support purely based on the fact they are successful in that moment in time.

I never quite got why that is a bad thing, granted I can not see it being a positive thing (unless you are betting), but it is nothing I can see being especially riled up about.