Glory hunting!

Harry Redknapp wrote:How can anyone argue with the OP ?

How come the number of fans of Arsenal/Milan/Juve/Real/Barca/Bayern etc in here are 10 times more than Newcastle/Parma/Sunderland then ?

Of course foreign fans picked to support the bigger clubs because they have more exposure due to rich history and chance of trophies.

You answered your own question, and now I'm confused why you would think that makes them glory hunters. If someone wants to follow top tier football, which they can't get in India/USA/god knows where else, they pick the teams they have more exposure to, which inherently are the more successful teams. That doesn't mean they picked them because they are successful. The fact is, Newcastle doesn't have name recognition overseas because they haven't been as successful, and if someone has no ties to the league (but still want to be a passionate fan), it's unlikely they'll pick someone they've never heard of. There's a difference between saying "ManU just won five straight titles, I want to follow them because they're winners" and saying "ManU is the only team that shows up on my television, I want to follow them because I can see their games." Not sure how the latter is glory hunting.

RG is the biggest glory hunter on GL, he lives in Leeds but supports Arsenal

Meanwhile I'm the most pure fan on GL because I support Norwich and live in East Anglia :I'munoriginal:

RealGunner wrote:

white_star wrote:

RealGunner wrote:

Who are you to judge if he is passionate or not ? Not going to the stadium every week doesn't make a person less passionate. That's a very stupid logic. Furthermore, It's easy to sit there and say you should get a job and then buy the tickets for a game. You don't live his life, It might be easy enough for you living in poland doing jack all and going to the match because the ticket is like 5 euros. It's nothing like that in England.

Don't be an Internet warrior and judge other people from a forum.

Really insults? *bleep* all in Poland? 5 euros? I am sorry but I just logged on to a website an can get a ticket for 78 pounds for the Wigan game. That is a lot of money? It might be idk its nothing to me. I work hard to support my family and my passion for the sport. If watching football from the couch is what you guys prefer I don't care I was just trying to have a discussion do what you will I have more ambitions!

It's not insulting, sorry if it came that way, it's just trying to show you that i don't know anything about Poland and you don't know anything about England.

I can afford 10 Arsenal tickets every week if i want, but i can't go to the games because i have responsibilities which i can't ignore. I go to away games, i do try to go to home games whenever i can but it doesn't make me less passionate if i am not going to the games as there are more important things in life. Also, i don't transform into a cheerleader when i go to the Emirates, I am as passionate as i am at home watching it from the couch as i am travelling away or watching at the Emirates.

Just my 2 cents

I know a lot about England I have family there and have been there many times. I did not mean every single game because I can't manage that myself but at least once experiencing watching the team you love play live? I can't imagine ever not seeing wisla play live! You don't cheer even when your team scores?

Some of you made me think about all this and I learned some people here are really passionate for their teams which is something I want to see!!!! All this is good conversation and point 17 kind of stupid but whatever I can't take it back now. I think we can turn this threa into a story of how you chose your teams and why you love the teams so much.

People supporting multiple clubs are still glory hunters and can't argue their sake because that's the way it is!

I should fan of FC Warrior instead of RM then .

What am I doing here?

white_star wrote: I think we can turn this threa into a story of how you chose your teams and why you love the teams so much.

People supporting multiple clubs are still glory hunters and can't argue their sake because that's the way it is!

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Pick one and stick with it, sports bigamy is a mortal sin.

Anyway, as the LFC section already knows, I follow Liverpool because the Red Sox ownership purchased the team. I've played footy for some time and have followed the USMNT for many years, and always wanted a club team to follow but could never get into one without a real reason to throw myself behind it. Then, my hometown club goes out and buys an EPL squad - I'm all in.

Ironically, I now hate John Henry due to his actions with BOTH clubs. Dude's a slimy businessman with no interest in the passions of the game, and I wish we had someone who cares about more than making money. I've definitely developed an attachment to Liverpool though, and will continue supporting them regardless of what happens on the business side of things.

I supported Arsenal back in 06 when i started following football on a regular basis. I didn't know who they were. I knew they were a big team in England though. I saw them play, and i liked their style, and i liked the players overtime. So then i started following Arsenal on and off the pitch, learned their history (not all of it, but i know stuff about Woolworths Arsenal and stuff like that). In 07 i found out you could stream matches live on the internet (i was 14 i didn't know ). So from then on in, i've watched as many Arsenal games as i could, Carling cup, CL, EPL, FA cup games, and friendlies. When Arsenal isn't playing i'm searching news about them.

But according to your list that would make me a glory hunter no? I mean, i live very far away from England and the Emirates stadium and i almost never travel overseas. I don't go to Arsenal games, and even if i did i probably wouldn't yell or scream (maybe chant) coz i'm the quite type.

I think gloryhunting is different. Right now, i know Arsenal isn't gonna win a trophy this year, and a good chance we wont win it next year, even year after that. If i was a gloryhunter, i'd jump ship to Yanited, or Barcelona, maybe Madrid or Man City. But i'd never do that, i will always support Arsenal. So i don't think that i could be labeled a gloryhunter, just because i live in Australia and can't watch the games at the stadium.

Atleast that's what i think

I've got no problem with people supporting, or following, multiple teams so long as those clubs are in different leagues and you don't just jump ship to another team when one of them isn't doing well. It's a good way to watch other leagues.

I'm probably alone in that opinion, though.

Well, with me it is usually that I sympathize with a team when I have a weak spot for their GK. The only constant is my hometown team, as dire as it is, though (currently 4th division and atm bound to get relegated to the 5th division ).

The fun thing is - if I'd follow the first team I set my eyes on, it would have to be Bayern München as the first GK I worshipped was Sepp Maier

But then, later I thought, everybody supports Bayern because they are so successful, and moreover, München is sort of at the other end of Germany from my place, so being a fan of Bayern appeared rather uncool to me and I decided my hometown team would be way more appropriate. On the other hand, I never let Bayern really out of my eyes as they had other cool GKs like Jean-Marie Pfaff, Oliver Kahn and now Manuel Neuer ^^

The marketing department and public relations department of every football team on the planet would likely disagree with that OP.

Why are Europe's top clubs constantly going to places like USA, Malaysia, China, Japan, Canada etc? Because it gives the fans (yes I said fans) of those clubs a chance to see their heroes in the flesh. It gives these clubs a chance to market not only themselves, but the league their club plays in as well as the sport of football itself. Without worldwide support, many of these clubs would be nowhere near as big as many of them are now and that's because they would not be able to afford the big stadiums they play in and the fantastic players that wear their shirts.

The Verminator wrote: I supported Arsenal back in 06 when i started following football on a regular basis. I didn't know who they were. I knew they were a big team in England though. I saw them play, and i liked their style, and i liked the players overtime. So then i started following Arsenal on and off the pitch, learned their history (not all of it, but i know stuff about Woolworths Arsenal and stuff like that). In 07 i found out you could stream matches live on the internet (i was 14 i didn't know ). So from then on in, i've watched as many Arsenal games as i could, Carling cup, CL, EPL, FA cup games, and friendlies. When Arsenal isn't playing i'm searching news about them.

But according to your list that would make me a glory hunter no? I mean, i live very far away from England and the Emirates stadium and i almost never travel overseas. I don't go to Arsenal games, and even if i did i probably wouldn't yell or scream (maybe chant) coz i'm the quite type.

I think gloryhunting is different. Right now, i know Arsenal isn't gonna win a trophy this year, and a good chance we wont win it next year, even year after that. If i was a gloryhunter, i'd jump ship to Yanited, or Barcelona, maybe Madrid or Man City. But i'd never do that, i will always support Arsenal. So i don't think that i could be labeled a gloryhunter, just because i live in Australia and can't watch the games at the stadium.

Atleast that's what i think

if i could label gloryhunting into 3 levels and no1 being the biggest form of gloryhunting
then i would place you in level 3
glory is winning, arsenal win games, maybe not trophies but still its a recognized and powerful club, had they been in 2nd division or a bottom PL club im not sure you would have started supporting them
though as i previously said its completely normal to be a ''gloryhunter'' nothing wrong with it

rwo power wrote:
But then, later I thought, everybody supports Bayern because they are so successful, and moreover, München is sort of at the other end of Germany from my place, so being a fan of Bayern appeared rather uncool to me

that i like, as a fan when you start supporting a club that isnt succesful yet becomes successful at some point you feel like you are one of the few that had the privelege watch the team's rise, one of the few that supported them not because they were succesful but because you actually liked them and when they take that big step to glory you feel part of it and joy cause of the recognition 'your' club will get.

thats why i would never imagine myself supporting barca after they started their domination ( like many did )
i support my local team yet i do follow mourinho though so thats some sort of gloryhunting right there xd

RedOranje wrote:So what MLS club do you support, White_star?

burned

I'm an American, and a life-long fan and sometime player of the game since I lived in Germany as a kid ... but there is no single, obvious MLS club for me to support as a home club. (I can come up with rational, "local," and non-glory-hunting reasons to "support" three different clubs ... but which is best?)

But because I wasn't enamored of MLS and wanted to seek a higher quality of play in the football that I watched, I probably glory hunted simply by switching my attention the English Premier League. Like the vast majority of American fans of English football, I gravitated to one of the big clubs. This wasn't because I wanted to pick a "winner" per se but instead looked for a team whose style & philosophy excited me. (And I'll admit, in hindsight, that the two often correlate so that's no easy excuse for me to hide behind.) But Arsenal played brilliantly when I started watching the league, and there were a number of Wenger-era players I really admired, so one day I just said, "Screw it, they're gonna be my team!"

So by OP's definition I suppose I'd be a "glory hunter." I am definitely not one of the hard core of North London-based Arsenal supporters. (In fact I generally don't even refer to myself as a "supporter.") However, the sport is about entertainment and community, and the big leagues have gone global in ways that have highlighted both the positive and the negative aspects of this fact. So calling any non-local fans glory hunters ends up conflating way, way too many differences. (IMO a positive effect of this globalized game: huge supporter communities for clubs like Arsenal in places like Malaysia or USA. IMO negative: media sensationalism and kneejerk responses. ) I have never wavered, however, from getting my hungover self up early on the weekend mornings to watch Arsenal matches, year after year, despite all the club's near-misses and frustrations since 2005. A genuinely plastic or glory-hunting fan would have moved on long before this.

Plus, most of the English fans I've met IRL over the years support Arsenal, Manchester United, or Liverpool anyway too ... so the foreign aspect is kind of null & void. Even in a few cases, people who would might have secretly looked down at me for being a "plastic" American fan sheepishly tripped over themselves to explain that they supported Liverpool because their ancestral relatives were from there, even though they had little if any personal history in the city and just happened to grow up in the 1970s and 1980s during Liverpool's heyday.

Kind of similar to Chumlum's response, but anyway:

I consider a true glory hunter to be someone who jumps between teams just because the one they did support is not as successful. I will admit that I only ever started following Arsenal because I knew they were a big club, but put yourself in my position: you are in an area of the world where not many people care about the local team (which I do go to games for, by the way) and the only way to immerse yourself in the fanfare and passion that the sport you love enjoys worldwide is to support a team overseas as well. Will you religiously follow a team that has no aura or passion around it bar some splinter groups, and frankly is not as entertaining due to immense lack of talent, or will you seek a team you can talk about with people both locally and globally through the internet while being treated to the best football the world has to offer? At this stage of development in the worldwide coverage of the game, where a team is located does not matter as much as it used to - I don't love Arsenal because of the geographical area they come from, I love them because of what they represent. I don't consider that wrong because that is what the game is these days. Even the players on the teams aren't often from the area the teams are, so why should the fans be held up to different standards?

Of course I chose Arsenal over a random club like Wigan, and maybe that makes me a bit of a glory hunter, but say I chose Wigan: who the hell am I going to talk to anywhere other than online forums about Wigan? Everybody knows Arsenal. Also, if I'm going to pick a team with no factors clouding my judgement, why would I choose a crappy team on purpose? And for the record, even when I began following Arsenal they were not the biggest club even in England, and most of the time I have followed them we have not been winning trophies but I have stuck with them regardless and have watched every single game for years bar exams or the games not being aired. Considering most of the EPL fans I know just follow Man Utd, Chelsea, and even Man City all of a sudden mostly because they win trophies right now, I consider that a lot worse.

I have never been to an Arsenal game yeah because they never come to North America plus I have no affiliation to the club outside of myself. It would take an expensive solo journey that I could not afford without a bank loan in order to see them in England. I also come from a family that is not into sports at all, let alone football. I had to actually seek out the club to realize I loved supporting them so much. Let's use the loose comparison of religion: is someone who comes from a nonreligious family but loyally swears by a religion they found throughout their life less religious than someone who was forced from a young age to accept said religion? How does having family history making you to support a team make one a more loyal fan? I often think I will one day move to London though just so I can see Arsenal games on a regular basis

Don't have the time to go through 4 pages but my opinion is that most people became fans of the teams they now support because they were the team that had a favorite star or was winning the most when they watched them as a kid.

If anyone publicly admitted that they started supporting a team because at that point they were winning or they had a player they really liked it would be frowned upon and get called a gloryhunter or plastic fan. That is stupid.

No such thing as gloryhunting, that's only changing teams when one stops being successful.

i think there are a lot more categories of fans that are legit other than "gloryhunter" and "true fan".

I think the OP is trying to differentiate a lifelong fan from a casual fan. For example, i'm a lifelong fan of AS Cannes and OM. That's not going to change although Cannes is in the 5th division now lol. I am also a lifelong fan of French football and French players. I will watch games that involve the French players that i like and i tend to follow teams that have French players on them.

I am a very passionate fan of Real Madrid because of Zidane initially and then it just continued. Watching Flo Perez and Clownderon run the team is very painful, but never boring lol. I'm so into it that i watch Madrid Castilla games and Juvenile C.

Another childhood favorite of mine was Juventus. I actually travelled to Turin several times with my father when i was a kid to see games (they weren't on TV). But the scandal in the 2000s really turned me off. I'm still a casual fan though.

I'm also a casual fan of Arsenal because of Wenger.

If you need to compartmentalize things, that's how i'd do it.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:my opinion is that most people became fans of the teams they now support because they were the team that had a favorite star or was winning the most when they watched them as a kid. .

Winner here, something that has been said before, and I 100% agree with it. I remember saying in a different thread that I know die-hard Barcelona fans who only got into Barcelona because of Ronaldinho- there is nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong is jumping ship when that team stops being successful. At that point you can be labelled a gloryhunter.

To be honest one of the main marks of a glory hunter is when they change teams at an age where they know what they're doing. Not like a 3 year old with a Barca top growing up to love Real Madrid but a 20 year old man who's fed up with his club losing and makes a dart for the exit.

Most of the rest is just opinion.

RedOranje wrote:So what MLS club do you support, White_star?

Fire lol

I don't support them but I go to some of the games when I am in Chicago. I was born in Poland and lived in krakow went to school their. Worked their for a while before they moved me to Chicago. I have to travel to Polan 4 times a year and at least 4 times to other countries. I have seen lots of games and teams but wisla is still the only one in my heart!

I grew up supporting Chivas considering they were my cities team, when I was 10, my favorite player (Rafael Marquez) moved to Barcelona and thus I supported them in any way I could, sorry I personally do not like watching games live, although sometimes it is great just to see the environment but I much rather watch them on the television as I can appreciate the game play much more seeing every single movement and being able to rewind etc. I support both teams, follow them every week and study how they play.
Also sorry I personally do not yell or get into bar fights over a football club, I must not be retarded enough to be a real fan
I supported both teams for almost 10 years +, follow them every week and study how they play, buy the merchandise etc. If that is not enough to be considered a fan then idk how chanting very loudly is, any moron can do that.

so.... white_star is glory hunting wilsa?

vanDEEZ wrote:so.... white_star is glory hunting wilsa?

yes on his logic.

white_star wrote:

1. will often choose a big club which is guaranteed of years at the top bracket of clubs
people choose big clubs cuz big clubs usually play nice footy and/or have good players etc. BTW i started supporting Barca at the time when RM was whooping our asses. But of course i really fell in love with Barca when Dinho came to the club

2. have no connection to the club
like wireless connection?

3. foreign to the country and city of the club
Dude what planet do you live on? Not all countries are the same, some of us lived in places we were not allowed to have clubs, or our clubs could never make it in the first place cuz we had x nationality or y religion. Other countries have shitty leagues and people choose additional clubs from foreign countries.

4. will overuse club mottos (which makes it more evident)
¡Visca Barça! Més que un club! Do i qualify for glorryhunter in your book yet?

5. never been to many games (if not any)
By sheer chance, i've been to one game. I could not afford it until recently. Not all people have the money duuuhhh

6. will never go many games ever
Still can't afford many, perhaps one in 5 years. I got a job, life, wife, kid is coming on the way, km appart etc... Do I qualify yet?

7. will use the excuse of geography to not go to games
Not just geography. It is more about money (again).

8. have limited merchandise before the successful years (most likely none)
Living in the post war country most of my life, where average salaries are 200 - 400 euros (depending on time period) is not really advisable to buy 80-100 euros club kit. I had fake ones though.

9. does not know the history, chants or culture of the club
Not everyone is interested in that. Some just like the type of game the club plays. Especially in the beginning. Personally, i think i know enough of Barca and Catalan history.

10. always in the armchair during matchdays
What does this mean anyway? people express joy, stress and other emotional states differently! Not everyone is like you! Thank God for that!

11. uses the talk of tactics and transfers to compensate for the lack of all round knowledge of the club (history and culture of the clubs, attendance of games, lack of knowledge or care factor about the direction of the club off field etc.)
Again, some people care just about footy and not trivia.

12. will not be effected by football tragedies as much as locals
I wonder how would you compute this?

13. will often be the most biased towards to compensate for the glory hunter status
Do you know people cope differently to different situation and have different characters? Some are more honest then the others?

14. will show more hate for other clubs to compensate for their glory hunter status
Do you know people cope differently to different situation and have different characters? Some are more honest then the others?

15. have a club in their own country, don't have the guts to support them
I do not think this really exists. Most people will support one local club and if the club/leagues is too weak they will support one of the bigger clubs because they play good footy (or they played in the time a person started watching the game, that is if a person was not influenced by familly/friends)

16. will never talk about the years before the club started to become successful
Do you know people cope differently to different situation and have different characters? Some are more honest then the others?

17. at games (if attended) will be the quiet ones who never chant or make a noise
Do you know people cope differently to different situation and have different characters? Some are more noisy then the others?

Dude most of your points make no sense at all. I just answered for the lols

vanDEEZ wrote:so.... white_star is glory hunting wilsa?

How ? What are you talking about you can't read?

I started following Arsenal in 99' 'cos of the sexy home kit

What's Gago doing in that picture?