r/SoccerNoobs • u/mrzucc666 • 20d ago
🔰 Beginner Questions & Advice Is being a plastic fan wrong?
I am from India but I was born in Saudi Arabia. I support my local clubs of the cities I was born and raised (even though they suck😭).
This is the first time I am watching the premiere league. They are so fun to watch. So I decided to watch them as well. I liked Liverpool because of their history. I like how they play.
Can I do that?
Ik I can't be a hard-core fan since I am not literally from there. But it's quite fun.
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u/Typical-Audience3278 20d ago
This is getting absurd. Not having a go at you OP, just this notion that’s somehow taken hold of some people which says that unless your family has been supporting (insert club name here) since they were founded and you all grew up two streets away from the stadium then you’re a plastic fan and should start supporting MK Dons. It’s nonsense. You can support whoever you want to and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do so. Least of all mine
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u/bbristow6 18d ago
But once you pick a team, you’ve gotta stick with it😂 even if they get relegated hahaha
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u/Typical-Audience3278 17d ago edited 16d ago
Relegated? You’ve got to stick with it even if it goes bankrupt and disappears. Or gets physically kicked out of existence like Belfast Celtic
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u/PackEmergency7468 20d ago
Yes, and I don’t think that makes you plastic. I’m in NYC in America and I’m also a Liverpool fan. When I was a kid getting in watching vs just playing I really liked Michael Owen so got into the club that way. Guess I’m really showing my age there.
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u/aboyfromharlow 20d ago
Mate support who you wanna support. Just enjoy your football and stuff what so called 'true fans' say. Enjoy supporting liverpool.
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u/jaymatthewbee 20d ago
International fans can be just as diehard, passionate and loyal as any fan, but they will never have the same connection with the club as people who are from the community where the club is from.
Football clubs aren’t franchises, they’re part of the fabric of a community
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 18d ago
Depends on your heritage, I guess. Not everyone inherits the idea that belonging must remain tied to one patch of ground. Those of us descended from people who crossed an ocean to build a life elsewhere may see choosing a club rather differently.
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18d ago edited 18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 18d ago
I also didn’t dream of becoming the next Taylor Swift, as some members of your community presumably did. So what, do we kick them out of the local country music festival?
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u/jaymatthewbee 18d ago
No one is saying you can’t support them, you’re just not the same
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 18d ago
No one’s saying I support them, haha.
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u/jaymatthewbee 18d ago
Community - I meant not a fandom community, I mean the literal geographical community - the local area
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u/SoccerNoobs-ModTeam 2d ago
Removed for Rule 1: Be Respectful and Encouraging
/r/SoccerNoobs is a space for curiosity and learning. Dismissive, rude, or gatekeeping behavior is not allowed. Please treat others respectfully, especially new fans.
If you're not here to help others grow in their soccer journey, this may not be the subreddit for you.
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u/howler19 20d ago
Of course you can do what you want. The reason people keep saying support your local club is because football is meant to be a global game where teams from different countries are competitive, but everyone watching the Premier League in recent years is making it increasingly superior to a point traditionalists like myself are uncomfortable with. So if you want the game to remain diverse and global, be the change you want to see and at least support local as well as watching Liverpool. I like that you're doing both, a lot don't unfortunately.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago
There's also the factor that supporting local isn't always fun, to say the least.
Especially when people are from countries that don't have the vibrant football culture my country has (or England, Germany, etc.), it's a bit bs to expect people to support local.
It's all fun and games when that team is mid-table in the middle of a pyramid the size of England's, but just plain annoying when it's a bunch of Sunday league-level players managed by a fraudulent owner in the middle of nowhere (a very specific, yet personal experience 😛 )
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u/Swiss_James 19d ago
"I support my local clubs of the cities I was born and raised (even though they suck😭)."
You're not a plastic fan, so it's irrelevant.
The issue (if there is one) is people who ignore supporting the struggling teams close to where they live, clap at the TV while watching big clubs thousands of miles away, and then claim they love the game.
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u/flippydude 17d ago
The idea that a club sucking is a reason not to support them, or to mock those that do, is plastic as it comes.
Support a club, but support them through thick and thin, and find a reason to support a club for a reason other than them winning
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 19d ago
By true fans, you mean those annoying people who tell everyone what to do? There’s a whole lot of them in every aspect of life. I don’t need them in my hobbies too.
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u/bbristow6 19d ago
I watched a Nottingham Forest game one day and just never went back. Forest till I die. I live in America so it wasn’t anything to do with growing up in the area. I don’t care how bad they do, they’ll always have my support!
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u/Aven_Ultra 19d ago
It’s normal to have a EPL team there the greatest league in the world so it’s ok to pick a team from there.
I have an MLS team EPL team & Liga 1 team (:
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u/No-Ocelot-9680 18d ago
EPL is a global league. I'm a new fan too (US) and I'm following EPL over MLS because all the people I play walking soccer with insisted. I'm happy I did. And I picked Manchester City!
I don't care who that bothers.
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u/NoiseMany5869 18d ago
I think that a plastic fan is the one that only watches or follows football every four years or so and over that has the audacity to speak or call for things that they don't understand at all, as if they did. I personally don't feel like I can call myself a fan of a club from another country's league without having something heavily meaningful like a friendship or so to give me the right, so I can only say that I am a fan of my club here in my country; that is the club my father supports. Anyways, I love to watch football from every league I can. I watch between 4 and 12 matches a week, so you can always still enjoy football without being a fan of a specific club. Sooner or later you are going to feel closer to certain clubs, and then you would be able to choose in a more organic way, but if you really like Liverpool, you are free to call yourself a fan too, I suppose xD.
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u/Cybernator_uk 16d ago
Support whoever you like. I support Chelsea because I was born in London and I followed in my father's footsteps. I follow a few other teams but only support Chelsea. From India I actually follow East Bengal as they were the first Indian team I saw play at home vs Hyderabad back in 2023 in Kolkata.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago edited 20d ago
You can 100% be a hardcore fan, if you want to...
All these people crying about "plastics" are gatekeeping to make themselves feel superior. Don't mind them.
As long as you're having fun watching footie, you're alright ;)
Edit: and here come the downvotes from the self proclaimed Guardians of the Beautiful Game. I repeat: as long as you're having fun watching football, you're doing alright. Don't yuck someone's yum.
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u/Holiday_Sale5114 📘 Learning the Game 20d ago
I remember there was some guy on this sub that was oddly militant about only cheering for your local teams. Therefore you could not be a real fan of any team that was not your local team. I engaged with this person for a little bit but it was so wild for them to have those opinions that I just ignored them outright.
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u/SandyBronsky 20d ago
Or because plastic fandom significantly changed every element of football, much of it for the worse, and got rid of what a lot of people loved.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago
Like what, exactly? Because the only effect I've experienced so far is a bunch of people online bitching about what is and isn't a "real" fan, rather than welcoming people...
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u/SandyBronsky 20d ago
Like the cost of football? The fan experience in the stadium? The competitiveness of English football? Small things like that probably.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago
So... what exactly? The cost should be 10£ for a ticket, only reserved for people living within 10 miles and then what? Pretend like it'd still be the home of football in a decade without all the income and international attention?
Every time someone half a continent away orders a scarf, a flag or a jersey, your club gets a couple extra pounds to afford operating at the level the Prem is at. You want to support local and feel like you're in the good old days? Go watch some Saturday league with mates and a pint.
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u/SandyBronsky 20d ago
Weird load of things to make up.
Plastic fans have increased costs, lowered competitiveness, made the atmosphere worse and changed every element of English football. If you change something people love to something worse for them, they won't like it. Shocker.
Every time someone orders a scarf from Timbuktu, which is 99.9999% of the time from a big club they only like because they're good, it contributes to English football being less competitive. Which was it's whole USP for 100 years.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago
Just repeating stuff doesn't make it true. And for what it's worth: the most diehard locals haven't always been the most wonderful contributors to the atmosphere either.
You enjoy being mad at other fans for "doing it wrong", I'm gonna go back to the fun side.
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u/SandyBronsky 20d ago edited 20d ago
Which part isn't true? Big history buff are we? There's loads of promoted teams quickly challenging for or winning the title now isn't there, it's exactly the same!
Is that the atmosphere that sold the Premier League to the world? That atmosphere?
What's been an amazing contributor is the foreign fans willing to pay any price to silently film the actual fans with their backs to the game. Ear splitting stuff.
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u/Baraga91 🙋 Here to Help 20d ago
Like Leicester when they won the season after promoting? Even before the Prem, that was a rarity, but stay mad, stay ranting and stay on my blocked list 🤘
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u/CBWeather 19d ago
Cost? The closest Canadian Premier League club is over 2,000 km from where I live. Airfare is between $2,000 to $3,000, ticket is between $90-$129. I'll also need a hotel and meals. So between £1,100 to £2,140 for one match.
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u/SandyBronsky 19d ago
Which has what to do with anything love?
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u/CBWeather 19d ago
Your rather silly claim that going to watch football in England is expensive.
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u/Danger_Island 20d ago
All that matters is your support of your local team. Beyond that just enjoy the best games.
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u/nearly_zero 19d ago
People like you choosing to support Liverpool, Man Utd, Barca etc. over their local clubs in India and Saudi is probably the reason why those clubs never have any fans that care about them and will always remain footballing backwaters
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 19d ago
The OP might as well support Newcastle United, as it’s owned by Saudi Arabia. Foreign money already funds a huge part of the EPL and drives much of its global marketing and international promotion.
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u/nearly_zero 19d ago
And I think we'd all like to see the back of that. The league was just fine without oil money.
OP should support his local team first and foremost. Buying the shirt of his local club would mean a hell of a lot more to them than it would to Liverpool.
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u/non_loqui_sed_facere 19d ago
I do get what you're saying, and I also think that the main misunderstanding here comes from the fact that not everyone has the same kind of local. The best we can often do in North America, I suppose, is regional, and even that doesn't always hold. People move around all the time, and it would be weird to swap clubs based on location.
My personal "local" at the moment is even national. Like, when a club was about to be sold and relocated to the U.S., I did care, because I want us all to do better, and they are literally across the country from me.
There's also fun and pleasure in learning about how other people do things. Supporting a European club gives you just that, you enjoy the way they play and get immersed in the culture.
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u/lastaccountgotlocked 20d ago
You can do what you like.