Liverpool FC Forum

by **dawson99** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:09 pm

ok, this thread doesn't need to be only for 'ooters', 'woolys' or whatever we are called, but is here to give examples of fans from outside liverpool, england, europe or wherever.
(also, i dont want an arguament, just thoughts of how it is for you to be a non scouse liverpool fan)

I'm from London, born and bred, and all i ever get is

'why support liverpool? support your local team!!'
Why don't I? And possibly more importantly...why should I?

My parents never liked football, and my family revolves around me, 2 sisters, mum and dad...and some scots...

So if my parents don't like football, and ive got no friendly uncle or older cousin to get me intofootball how do i find my local team? there is no way. So I get the tv... and I find a team that I like to watch play. I was 5 when i saw the 1981 european cup final. We won it, beat some team from madrid 1-0, and i was hooked. in the next two seasons we didnt do too badly either...

I dunno what it was like growing up in liverpool, but in north london up until i was like 12 no one really mentioned football, we played it in the park and all that but there was no real buzz. Maybe its the area im from. the nearest club is watford, and thats a fair old distance away, about 30 mins by car.

I got all the 'glory hunter' and all that support your local team as i became a teenager, and i didnt really have an answer. But then again, there were people supporting arsenal when watford was far far closer.

When I went to university I told some people that iw as born in liverpool and moved down when i was a wee'un. also when i was at university in hampshier i swear at my uni i was the only liverpool fan. It was bizarre, i dont rememebr a single other fan. There were however a shedload of newcastle fans... and they ran the uni bar. When we beat them 4-3 it was brilliant. i turned up in my top, and i gave as good as i got, one of the best nights ever had.

Anyway, im not from liverpool, so am i less of a fan? Possibly. I dont buy a season ticket, i dont follow liverpool around europe so im not hardcore.

Ive got every liverpool top since crown paints (given some away to ex's etc but who hasnt) and the amount ive spent on booze follwoing my team must run into the thousands so im not a nobody fan.

The Everton derby may mean not as much to me as it does to a 'real' scouser but the games when liverpool play london teams means more to me that you lot believe it or not. Us ooters take a lot of stick from all fans saying we are not loyal and we should follow another team but i really couldnt give two hoots. Supporting liverpool is hard for us, when we lose to all london teams i get immense stick, and when we win big i dont see any parade.

People from liverpool say they are bigger fans as they were born into it. i say im just as big a fan as i was not born into it. Its easy for you to support liverpool, much easier than it is for me. The stick we get from other fans and some of our own. Its hard work with little reward. Of course we do get to support the greatest team in the world...which is nice.

So next time someone from outside liverpool, england, europe or where ever is at anfield and you think maybe a teeny bit bad that a 'true scouser' isnt there. Think about what they have been through to support a team not the most liekd over the country. You have matthew street. thousands of like minded fans all togetehr living and breathing, bleeding liverpool. We have any one else we see in a liverpool top, a nod of appreciation...thats about it.

So, in conclusion, i may not have the accent or the right postcode, but im just as scouse in my own way as any other fan on here

(i really miss general chat)

by **Sabre** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:24 pm

That's a nice thread, I'd like to read some views. Mine:

I consider myself a Liverpool fan, not a Liverpool supporter, as those for me are the ones that go regularly to the stadium. It's a generic idea I apply to every club, there are supporters and the fans, in Spain we have a word for supporters, another for fans and all of them are "aficionados" as The Aronak rightly spells in his excellent mails.

I'm supporter of a local club, and I watch football of more even local club. I like football. And inevitably, England catched my attention as a fan since I was a child. Liverpool meant admiration first, awe I think it's the proper word.

Liverpool, to put it in numbers, came in San Sebastian and made a small old stadium of 16000, being crowded until 30000. They were some sort of a shóck when they came here in 1978. The kind of visit the old men still remember nowadays. Hard to explain.

When I was a children, simply I liked Liverpool. Then when John Aldridge came to my club, I started to know more about them because both Toshack and him always praised his former club when they had the chance. It turned out to happen that English games were given in the Basque TV, and you don't know how, you start progresively celebrating their victorias and moarning their defeats. I was about 13 years old and I was massively impressed by John Aldridge.

Since I know you (newkit) I'm more hooked. Before joining this forum I managed to watch Liverpool games, but I missed Carling Cup games and many games I couldn't watch. Another factor to be more hooked is that now I'm able to watch every game of Liverpool thanks to the internet. I always watch the 90 minutes, even when I know the score is going to be 0-0 ! (I really like football).

So that's it. I'm not a supporter, but I'm a fan and I like this club big time, it has a real place in my heart. And I expect to keep learning about you and your football culture for a long time.

by **Dalglish** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:04 am

Hi Dawson,

Good post mate .

I am what you might consider (using your criteria) "hardcore" as I go to the majority of the games and have done for many years.

However I am live 11.2 miles from Anfield but neither share the postcode or the accent. The lack of a Scouse accent stands me in good stead when I visit Castle Greyskull in Manchester !

I don't share your fetish for Liverpool Shirts either

by **66-1112520797** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:24 pm

Good post Dawson.

I'll be honest here, as a kid I played football but didnt follow any team. I was young and didnt really know about the teams, but more so the sport itself.

When I first went to infant school I was the newboy in the class, as I had been just transfered in from another. Anyway I took a seat by this fella called Daniel who I eventually grew up with through junior and senior schools.

He said to me 'What football team do you support ?"

I replied " I dont"

Daniel, "Ah you've gotta support Liverpool they're the best"

Me, " Ah okay then "

We were little kids, 'Liverpool 'We're on their f.ucking perch' and like most kids we picked the best team, yes we were southern fairy gloryhunters.

From then on I watched Rush, Barnes, Dalglish and all the stars of the eighties, I was hooked big time. So after school when I get home, I'd change into my tracksuit bottoms, a jumper if need be and went out with a couple of mates to the park next to my house pretending I was Rush, Barnes or Grobbalaar. Out till all hours, coming in every night caked in mud, hell we even played in the dark, and used the streetlights as stadium light. Poor Mum, the amount of washing she'd have to do, Also while playing with my mates I'd be commentating away through the game.

For Christmas I got Liverpool sweet bands, tops, Pj's and a school bag. All of which I went to bed with, my Mum still laughs at me today as I'd sleep with the bag on my back and wouldnt take it off.

Anyway Daniel and Darren, Darren I didnt mention before was also a Liverpool fan. But by the time we'd got to secondary school, I hadnt spoken to either of them for a while as we were split up into different classes and all that. But I said to Daniel do you still watch Liverpool ? ' Nah not really' he he repiled, he still liked the sport but didnt support a team anymore

?? WTF I thought, 'Oh well each to their own. Darren also told me he now supported Tottenham, maybe when he grew up, supporting a closer team was imperative.

They dissapointed me slightly, the two boys who really got me into Liverpool all those years ago, didnt have the passion and desire like I had about the Reds. But from their on though I've been a supporter/fan of Liverpool ever since.

My Mum even likes them, after watching me grow up a playing football and watching my Love for the club she now feels she's a fan too, and will always watch them play. She knows all the players and TBH for a woman/Mum she talks a bit of sense, hell she prefers Alonso over Mashca

.

My Dad and my sister are Gooners and her fella's a Spurs fan, debate's always got heated amongts us, but it was easy to shut them down most times. Now I've left England the boy's (My Dad and Brother in law) think my mum's easy pickings when knocking Liverpool or saying something negative. But she stands her ground, she phones my sometimes, for help to counter and argument.

TBH perfectly honest I cannot remember watching my first Liverpool game, I dont know why. I do remember the Liverpool-Everton F.A cup final when we won 3-2. but one game I think that made my Love Liverpool, or how much they meant to me was the 89 season, home game televised at Anfiled. liverpool v Arsenal for the league title. It's weird, most people Love or have vivid memories of the good times, but this one has sat with me until now, me and my Mum sat a Meter infront of the T.V cheering the Reds on, until Michael Thomas put a knife straight through the middle of my heart and twisted it. Honestly me and my Mum were both in tears, I was unconsolable and couldnt stop crying, I flooded the gaff it was horrible. But after that moment I think it made my Love for Liverpool all the stronger.

I'm not considered a "hardcore" fan neither Daws, but I AM hardcore in my heart, and thats all that matters to me.

by **account deleted by request** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 5:19 pm

I used to be fairly hardcore, I went to most of the home games, all the local away games, plus a few farther away for about 15 years. Times where different then though, very few games needed tickets you just needed patience to que or arrive early for games to get in. I never go now,and havent for donkeys years, and although I missed it like crazy for a while I have become accustomed to being a fan rather than a "real" supporter.

I still feel the same passions, maybe even more so than before, because I no longer get to release them at the game. I think its great that people who live far away can feel the same passions as I do, and while we are not "supporters" as we don't go to the matches or only go to a few, we are still passionate fans that suffer every down and celebrate every triumph just as much as the most hardcore supporter.

Maybe I should have fought harder to keep going to matches, but I made my choice and while I have regrets, I feel I made the right decision at the time.

by **Bad Bob** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:17 pm

Great thread, Dawson, because it gives some of us a chance to describe what a different (not better, different) experience it is for us to follow the lads.

For me, it requires an effort that many of my friends and loved ones cannot understand. "Soccer" is growing in popularity on these shores but, in terms of coverage, it is still marginal at best in the pantheon of N. American sports. In real world terms, that translates into only a handful of opportunities (fewer this season thanks to Setanta's meddling) to watch my beloved Red Men on telly over the course of the season. So, for almost everything to do with the club I have to rely on the internet which leads to scenes like yesterday...

There I was in my office, with my laptop in front and our desktop PC to one side, desperately trying to find a working stream to watch the match. It's a common enough scene in my household on Saturday mornings (which is when matches happen over here). On the laptop I'm perpetually refreshing the "Doctorfooty" and the other favourite P2P sites, desperately trying to coax them out of dormancy so that I can just click on the bl.oody match link and start buffering the stream (Sopcast having already been downloaded and installed ages ago in preparation). Meanwhile, because the match has started of course, I've got the Newkit match thread and the Soccernet game cast up on the PC, trying to follow how we're doing in between laptop futzing and cursing streaks.

Eventually, the page comes up and I click the magic button. Another ten minutes goes by as I wait for the blessed thing to buffer only to find--as was the case yesterday--that the dozy tw.ats have provided the wrong channel link and I'm stuck with Arsenal v. WHU. So, do I play the guess the channel game or try another downloading site? Meanwhile, the first half's 2/3s done.

Eventually, through sheer dumb luck or the help of a fellow Newkitter on the streams thread, I find a channel that's actually streaming our game and I sit back to enjoy...the half time ads because, by this time, the 45 minutes is up.

No worries, I've time for a bathroom stop and a grumble at the missus and then it's clear sailing for the second half, right? Well, no. The match kicks off again and within minutes the feed's gone and the fecking thing's buffering. If I'm lucky, this happens only 4-5 times a half. If not, it's every 2 minutes like yesterday. Eventually, the pictures return and I have the immense satisfaction of watching the little red, indistinct blobs chasing around after the little white blob. Keeping an eye on the match thread on here gives me fair warning that something will happen though--the internet feed is always slow--so I can lean in and squint real hard and maybe, just maybe, I'll see something that approximates the ball fly into something that may or may not be the net.

Roll on the end of the match and the inevitable highs or lows that result. I feel them too but I'm strangely insulated because, after the last kick of the ball, that's it. No post match interviews to watch, no back to the studio for analysis, no MOTD highlights later. Nothing. My options are post-match reports on the web (including the passionate reactions on here) and eventually a clip or two of interviews on Youtube if I hunt hard for it. You know, it took me a couple of seasons before I even heard Rafa's voice or understood the jokes about Carra's thick Scouse accent?

My (admittedly slow in arriving) point is that it takes a much different type of commitment to support the lads from outside the UK and especially from a place where footy is relegated to the margins of sport. But, if slowly going cross-eyed staring at a four inch square box of red blobs in the centre of my laptop screen is what it takes to follow the team then that's what I'll do. My wife thinks I'm mental but despite all the frustration, I still wouldn't want to spend my Saturday mornings (or Tuesday/Wednesday afternoons) any other way. :buttrock

by **lakes10** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:02 pm

First of all what a great thread.

I don’t live in Liverpool, in fact I live in Thurrock, Essex, not I not a chav.
My family are from the east end of London (yes real cockney's, my dad lived in the same street as the Krays when he was a kid).
My dad was a Arsenal man, so that is how I started out life, Its not till 1980 that I changed teams, I was 8 at the time, but I did not go to be a Liverpool fan then, no I turned to West Ham, a lot of my mats were Arsenal and it was fun to stand with the West Ham fans in the playground the week before the final.

Then come 1982, I was very much into football then, I would not miss match of the day, one day I turn to my dad and ask who do the Liverpool player pass a ball like that, they seem to know were the player is without looking, my dad just look at me and said, “ they are just good”, I also loved the Liverpool away kit, then come the milk cup final , before the game my mate ( a big Liverpool fan) sat on my head and told me I must say that I am a Liverpool fan before he would get off. So be it that day I put down my hammers and turned to Liverpool.

Did not get to many games as a kind and it was not till the last year at school I got to see a Liverpool game for real.

Then come College, and what was this? A grant! What should I do with it, I know I will go to as many Liverpool games as I can, and so I did,

So days I did not get to go to the games as the friend I was with was a west ham fan so we would take turns who to see. But I sort of took over and we spent most of the time going to Liverpool. We had some great times and see some great game, 9-0 say no more, We often got chased by other fans on the way home, one night Millwall had been stuffed by Man u, our train had stopped just outside Euston, a Millwall train full of about 400 fans pulled up next to us, we asked the what was the score…oops, our train moved off and the Millwall train was held back, the next thing we know there was 400 Millwall fans running down the train track to get us, not sure why but we found it funny, I had chosen that day to stock up on my collection for Liverpool stuff from the club shop , I stuck the 4 posters down my coat and started running, we got down to the tube just as the train pulled in, the doors shut and we was safe, a Millwall fan come to the doors banning on it with a knife, all of a sudden the doors opened , the Millwall fan looked just as shocked as we did, by the time he had taken in that the doors had opened they had shut and we got lucky, I looked and my mate, I was still laughing, he was as white as could be and I was sure he was going to be sick.

During this time I made many friends at west ham and Liverpool, One of the Liverpool friends that I would travel up to games with was a lovely young girl, she always had time to chat about the games, She was always on her own so me and my friend would meet her at the station and go to the games. Sadly then come along Hillsborough, I had my ticket but that week I had met a hot girl and she had asked to to go out on a date with her on the same night, To this day I do not know why I said I would go on that date instead of going to the game. I told my friend to let Marion know that I would not be going and I will not be at the station. Sadly that was to be the last time any of us was to speak to Marion Macabre again.

I found it very hard going to games after that and it took a few years, I still try to get to a few games each year but its much harder now I am married with a kid.

by **Sabre** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:46 pm

The bit about Marion touched my heart lakes20.

Bad Bob's post made me smile, I live in a country where football is religion and sometimes more important than that, but my Liverpool match days are similar.

Nice to read all this stories.

by **RUSHIE#9** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:46 pm

What a fantastic thread.

No matter whether you live on Breck Road, the Wirral, continental Europe, across the Atlantic or in the southern hemisphere if you're a Liverpool fan you're all as good a supporter as the next in my book.
I really do have to shake my head at some of the xenophobic attitudes on other LFC Forums if your postcode is from anywhere south of Speke boulevard. Just because I live twenty miles away from Anfield and hardly ever get to games (you try getting through to the fecking ticket office on the phone!) it doesn't make me any less of a Liverpool fan.

As for me I've been a Liverpool fan probably since the day I was born, purely down to me dad being a die hard fan (originating from wanting to p*ss off his old fella and brother - both blue noses) and passing his passion for the club on to me. My first real vivid memory of this great club is as a six year old sitting in me granddad's front room watching the '86 cup final. Firstly I was in awe of seeing the massive throngs of scouse fans filling the terraces of Wembley knowing that me dad was amongst them and secondly I was really excited at the thought that I was about to see Liverpool win the FA Cup. Then Lineker scored and that excitement was dashed, were my team really gonna disappoint me.

The second half started and my dream was soon rekindled as my now all time hero Ian Rush struck to bring us back level (or was Craig Johnston?

). Then before I knew it Johnston put us 2-1 up and then Rushie struck that goal (knocking that camera in the back of the net over) to secure the cup for us.

Ever since then if not before I was hooked and I will be for as long as I live. I've shared the joy and I've shared the sorrow down the years and so have millions of other Liverpool fans and thats what makes this the special club it is and that means a lot to me to be able to say that I too am a Kopite just like them.

by **66-1112520797** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:46 am

During this time I made many friends at west ham and Liverpool, One of the Liverpool friends that I would travel up to games with was a lovely young girl, she always had time to chat about the games, She was always on her own so me and my friend would meet her at the station and go to the games. Sadly then come along Hillsborough, I had my ticket but that week I had met a hot girl and she had asked to to go out on a date with her on the same night, To this day I do not know why I said I would go on that date instead of going to the game. I told my friend to let Marion know that I would not be going and I will not be at the station. Sadly that was to be the last time any of us was to speak to Marion Macabre again.

Nice post Lakes

by **zarababe** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:33 pm

Dawsonio - what r the odds that we'll need visas to be liverpool supporters - after these admissions

Well as most of you know - I'm of Asian heritage (i'm no Argie Bamaga Man

).. born and bread in London. Football was the luv of my maternal side of the family - staunch Brasil supporters (mum could tell you grt tales of the pele Garincha teams) and all me uncles were Manc supporters - yea living in leafy woodford - Londonish.

In the 70s ( I was in single figures agewise then), me girl cousins were Liverpool supporters) when the reds were of course dominant and well that's how it started for me .. from the age of 7 - and from that day to this Liverpool FC has been my one sporting obsession - and me ol Diego Maradonna

.

In my uni days I was part of the London LFC supporters club; became editor of the club mag and used to travel up to see the reds, courtesy of the supporters club's 5 season tickets. Always watched the games in London.

I stopped travelling in 1994 - after the sudden death of my beloved father - that was the one time ( a year) in my life when football and LFC meant nowt to me. But time is a leveler and today I go on loving Liverpool FC - my heart and soul !

by **Big Niall** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:23 pm

Ireland has no professional football league so people follow the closest one to us. Traditionally Irish emmigration was to Liverpool and Manchester and so the two major clubs in those cities are followed by most in ireland. Nobody follows Arsenal or Chelsea (Chelsea appear a bit bigoted to be honest). Its all LFC or Manure. My best mate as a kid followed Manure so I chose LFC (thats the way it is when you are a combative 7 year old)

Everybody here keeps an eye on Celtic but I have never really followed the scottish league as it is cr*p.

by **JC_81** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:42 pm

Like the thread Dawson.

I came to support Liverpool because as a kid growing up in Belfast, my dad was desperate for me not to get sucked into being a Celtic fan with all the sectarianism that surrounds it. Celtic and Rangers fans have to be very careful where they wear their colours in Northern Ireland and my dad wisely told me 'support Liverpool son, they're the best'. And I never looked back.

There are no professional clubs in N. Ireland and our standard of football is very poor unfortunately. I have gone to Irish league games but to be honest I have no interest in it, it's awful to watch.

I wouldn't describe myself as as big a fan as a born and bred scouser who attends all the games home and away, far from it, and I have a lot of respect for those people. But the club does mean a lot to me and probably the best 2 days of my life have been the first time I went to anfield and heard YNWA live and the day we won the champions league in 2005. Still get a shiver down the spine thinking about both of those days.

It is frustrating to hear some local fans criticise out of towners on matchday and even on internet forums, but they are a minority, and the majority of local LFC fans realise that it is a compliment and it is benefitting the club overall.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:49 am

Manhattan has never been to a LFC game, and isn't Scouse, but is still a LFC fan.

I consider myself a space buff, despite never actually visiting space.

From 1992-2001 we won nothing but a Milk Cup.

If Manhattan was a glory hunter, he would have abandoned LFC then and became a Manure fan. But he didn't.

by **Toffeehater** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:19 am

top read lakes , the touching moment is really abt marion , don't beat urself up , u did not know that this was going to happen

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