Neutral Fans Adopt World Cup Nationalities
If you live in a country that isn’t necessarily rich in football tradition, how do you end up supporting a team from a country halfway around the world? I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I see comments on this blog from people living in countries all over the world that don’t have teams participating in this year’s World Cup. Their national teams may not be involved, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t excited about the weeks ahead.
Over on the Argentina board, people from more than 40 countries have chimed in telling where they are from and how they became Argentina fans. I think that is pretty darn neat.
There’s a story from Lebanon where people are snatching up flags of other countries so they can show their support during the World Cup. Some have reasons for the teams they have adopted and some don’t. In both cases they still get to take part in this global festival of fun.
I’ve told you about some people in Scotland who are throwing their weight behind Trinidad and Tobago in part because the Soca Warriors have a player named Jason Scotland. But did you know that there is an Irish Branch of the Togo Supporters Club?
There are thousands, if not millions, of more stories like this as people around the world get ready to be swept up by the World Cup. If you’d like to tell your own story about how you came to support the team that you are backing this World Cup, go ahead and leave a comment. I’d love to hear when, how and why you chose to back the team that you do.
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 31 comments.
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By rinaldo | May 30th, 2006 at 5:36 am 
Nice blog topic. I started supporting italy after Italia ‘90 and been supporting them ever since. Don’t know why, don’t know how, but when it comes to football, I’m Italian.
Posted from 
India
By rinaldo | May 30th, 2006 at 5:37 am And yeah, something wrong with the Irish Togo supporters link.
Posted from India
By jegen | May 30th, 2006 at 5:56 am it has been a dream come true for me this WC. i was longing for this for as long as i can remember…. the socceroos are finally in the finals… i can’t wait for them to bring back the cup to sydney. though i’m an indian by birth, when it comes to sports my heart goes out to those gold and green dazzlers. from cricket to rugby they have done it all, now football awaits its turn… come on australia. brazil is no match for us…!!!
Posted from India
By Ahmad | May 30th, 2006 at 7:09 am It was in 1994 when I first watched the world cup and I was 10. I remember I got a big poster that came with some yogurt I think I bought at the supermarket. It was the poster of Dennis Bergkamp. Since then I started supporting Holland and Dennis Bergkamp in Arsenal. But then as I grew up I realised that I have made the right decision and my love to Holland grew more and more. Yet this love is only based on football not on anything else about the country and that’s what astonishes me!
Posted from 
Lebanon
By Bill Sykes | May 30th, 2006 at 7:20 am Scottish people are just bitter - very, very bitter.
Posted from 
United Kingdom
By World Cup Blogger » Blog Archive » Which Team Will Dominate? - Group F | May 30th, 2006 at 8:45 am [...] It was obvious to find out that many peoples out there especially whom their nation don’t have teams participate in this year World Cup to get clueless about “Which team should I support?”. This issue also speculate in Natural Fan Adopted World Cup Nationalities. [...]
Posted from 
United States
By zé | May 30th, 2006 at 8:46 am I was going to totally root for Australia and Japan, but after they got dropped in Brazil’s group (and I still support Brazil as #1) I had to dismiss that idea.
Go Ghana!
PS. There’s no virus on the Irish Togo supporters website, let the link stay. It’s because of their free hosting website that’s probably a garbage can. They’re a subdomain of the website, so it’s warning you in advance, not because the site has something.
Posted from 
Brazil
By diego | May 30th, 2006 at 9:02 am I grew up in the 80s and my first memory of a world cup is 1982 (I was 5 then), which i could barely remember except for the shouts, “rossi!” - paolo rossi of italy was the top scorer then, i think. However my first memorable world cup was 1986, and the game against England was the unforgettable one. The Hand of God and the Halfway Dribble in one game… fantastic. I have been an Argentine ever since. Vamos!
Posted from 
Indonesia
By Jason | May 30th, 2006 at 9:26 am Put me in the camp of those in Canada with Dutch heritage…. Oranje!
Posted from 
Canada
By Homie | May 30th, 2006 at 9:47 am Cheering hierarchy:
1) USA
2) Holland
3) Mexico
4) T & T
5) Costa Rica
Yeah, I’ve got a bit of a North American bias.
Posted from United States
By Bart | May 30th, 2006 at 10:03 am 1)Poland
2)England
3)Holland
4)Czech Republic
Posted from Canada
By HurrikaneDIABLO | May 30th, 2006 at 11:07 am GO MEXICO!!..oh wait, my country is fielding a team.
By the way Razzle.. if I won the lottery and I was Bill Gates, I wouldn’t think it’d be lame. Why not be a fan of Brazil?? They are a fun and exciting team to watch. Even if you claim to despise them you cant help but watch, be amazed, and admire them. With that secret admiration you become a closet fan as well.
Posted from United States
By Akbar | May 30th, 2006 at 12:25 pm There’s Irish fans who are supporting Togo, and you’re wondering why?
Let’s look at Togo’s group:
France, Switzerland, Togo, South Koreaa
Now let’s look at Ireland’s World Cup qualifying group (from top to bottom):
-France
-Switzerland
-Israel
-Republic of Ireland
-Cyprus
-Faroe Islands
(Note that the first four teams were all on 10 points)
Finally lets take a line out of the Irish fans website:
“The Togo Supporters Club began as a drunken conversation soon after Ireland failed to quaify for the World Cup in Germany.”
——————————–
Posted from 
Switzerland
By Mcthingy2 | May 30th, 2006 at 12:45 pm I’m a Scot living in California. I will be supporting England and USA. So the little Englander who said we’re all just bitter can go an stick that up his arse.
Posted from United States
By Trapper | May 30th, 2006 at 2:03 pm jegen
Thanks for the Socceroos support! I’ll be thinking of you when they run out.
Unless they’re playing Australia (unlikely to happen) I’ll be backing Holland. Used to watch Cruyff play for the Washington Diplomats many moons ago. And I love their style of play.
Posted from 
Australia
By Nicolas | May 30th, 2006 at 6:33 pm I and the rest of my family are french but my mother is Australian….and i’m currently attending university in Australia (they’re really geting caught up in the hype)…. so for me its got to be Australia (after France)
but if that doesn’t pay off i’m happy to suport South Korea, Trinadad and Tobago, Iran, Japan etc…. I just want to see one under dog progress to the 2nd round….
Posted from Australia
By Daniel | May 30th, 2006 at 8:19 pm I live in Southern California and I’m Mexican/American so I root for Mexico. It gave me chills hearing all the Mexican fans singing “Cielito Lindo” at the WC. In ‘98 I also really enjoyed watching the Oranje…may they beat the crap out of Argentina.
Posted from United States
By Martin | May 30th, 2006 at 10:54 pm Jegen and Nicolas, thanks for the support. Jegen, this is the one sport we are not recognised in that we dearly would love to be.
I’m the same as Trapper, if not the Aussies, then the Dutch. A long time fan of their football. Oh, yeah, and we have to support the bloody Poms.
By Neil | May 31st, 2006 at 1:28 am I’ll name one country for every group I’m supporting.
Group A: Ecuador
Group B: England
Group C: Holland
Group D: Mexico
Group E: Ghana
Group F: Australia
Group G: South Korea
Group H: Spain
Posted from 
Netherlands
By Sameet | June 1st, 2006 at 8:21 am I still remember my father waking m up at dead of the night to watch the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.I adored Maradona from then on and Argentina has always been one of the teams i support!My other personal favs are Germany, Italy and Spain (Real Madrid is my fav club). I also support the less faniced teams when they play the star teams, but not if the teams are England or Brazil. I have a very strong love-hate relationship with England, because being Indian, we are flooded with the Premiership every weekend, and as they say, familiarity breeds contempt!I hated David Beckham when he was playing for ManU but the moment he joined Real Madrid he was allright lol!!!
Posted from India
By swthrhs | June 1st, 2006 at 5:43 pm Here’s how I chose my team:
I come from a left-wing family, and so I started supporting all the teams with left wing governments, or rather with what a 10 year old in 1977 considered to be left wing governments. In my eyes USSR were the top. Growing up, I also started to like the Czechs, because they often played good football to boot. Needless to say, I absolutely loathed teams from right wing countries. First world cup I watched was Argentina 78, so the country I used to hate the most when they were playing was Argentina, what with Vidella and the dictatorship and the scandalous way they won it and all. Nor did I particularly like the junta of Brazil at the time, I hasten to add.
Now I’m stuck with the successor states, so since Russia is not going, I support the Czechs, and to some extent the Ukrainians (for the sake of the divine Dynamo Kiev of the 80s), the Serbs and the Poles. For old times sake. Oh, but if I had to pick up another reason it would be because my favourite novelist was Czech (Jaroslv Hasek, in case anybody’s wondering)
Posted from 
Greece
By Sameet | June 2nd, 2006 at 12:37 am Going by the world cup buildup coverage in the newspapers and TV channels in India, one would be forgiven to think India is a soccer crazy nation rather than a cricket crazy one!!and i think 99% of Indians support Brazil, with yellow ronaldo and ronaldinho tshirts all over Bombay atleast!!!I hope there are some Indians who support Argentina, Italy or Spain!!
Posted from India
By aidan | June 5th, 2006 at 10:34 pm I just came across this article today. I wrot esomething very similar on May 18th…..
http://www.writingup.com/malteser/foreign_supporters
Posted from Canada
By Arrigo | June 6th, 2006 at 1:52 am Well, how many guys in India are rooting for Italy? Italy’s gonna win the cup this time for sure….
Posted from India
By matilda | June 6th, 2006 at 2:41 am I wasn’t even born the last time Australia played in the World Cup so I’m going all out for the Socceroos. Finally I can cheer for my own country.
Apparently Belgium has “officially adopted” Australia in the WC. I have no idea why they chose us but it’s a nice gesture.
Eventually I’ll have to move on to my second favourite team and that’s Holland - for their style of play, the fantastic supporters, my Dutch friend and for our manager Hiddink.
And if that fails then…go Togo go!
I used to support the Azzurri (back in the Baggio days) because I was born in Italy (an accident of fate) but the shocking corruption in their domestic game puts me off. I don’t want them to win until someone sorts out that insulting Serie A mess.
Why do many neutrals support Brazil? OK it’s partly for their talent but it’s also because we love winners. It reminds me of all those people who wore Chicago Bulls tops in the 90’s when Jordan was playing. As the saying goes - “success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.” 
Posted from Australia
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