why do you support the team you do?

[Adam Wrong]

So we all support various teams but why do you support yours and have you got any anecdotes of supporting your team?

I have supported Fulham my entire life as I used to live just down the road when I was growing up so my dad was bred on Fulham and therefore I was as well.

I remember going along to a Northampton town game when I was younger with my dad and his mate and remember the match almost got abandoned due to a fight starting between several players in our goal area. I then remember 2 terrace heroes at the time Barry Hayles and Geoff Horsfield both surging down the pitch to simply get involved at which point Geoff knocked a Northampton sub spark out. He got sent off and a warning from the football league putting him on a final warning for violent conduct.

I also remember the match against Gillingham in the 90's where there was a lot of crowd trouble. I was still young and terrified and it turned out afterwards where me and my dad were penned in by police horses moments afterwards was the location where a Gillingham fan was stabbed to death. To say I was terrified was an understatement.

I would call me and my dad super fans because at a time when we were the bottom of the lowest tier of football, we were 2 of the season ticket holders when there was barely 500 of them. Every home game, every resonably close away game we were there rain shine or family illness, we were there.

I got to about 16 when Fulham were in the league below the premiership and I asked my dad if I could get a tattoo. My dad told me I could only get one if Fulham got promoted to the premiership in the full belief it would be several years before we got to that status. We fell just short in our first season in the league but in our second season in division one, we got promoted as champions almost 20 points clear of the rest of the pack. Dad gave me his permission and now I have Fulham tattooed across my back.

I bleed black and white and will be a Fulham faithful until the day I die. I can't go to as many games now due to the fact I live a lot further away and the tickets are that much more expensive but I still try to go to at least a couple every season. 2 years ago I wanted to see Spurs Fulham so much, me and my dad sat in the Spurs end in full Fulham kit and had one of the biggest giggles you can imagine as the banter was amazing.

What about you guys?

[Leese]

My grandad on my dad's side was from Liverpool, so he was a scouser born and bred. Growing up, my cousin and I weren't really massive football supporters. We started off at Man United, since we're from Manchester (when we were about 5 and 7) lol and then I got a crush on Alan Shearer for some strange reason, so I became a Newcastle fan...and my cousin copied me (like he always did).

Like I said, we weren't massive supporters. We loved the game, but we were pretty neutral fans for the most part and enjoyed playing it more than watching it. The only reason we even supported a team was so we could wind my grandad up and tell him how much Liverpool sucked.

Come 1997...everything changed.

I was 9, my cousin was 6. My grandad passed away on September 9th. A week or two later, we were playing football in the park and I just stopped suddenly and told him I wanted to support Liverpool, in memory of my grandad because he was such a massive fan ("You'll Never Walk Alone" was his funeral song) and I wanted to keep his memory alive. Again, he copied me...and from then on we were Liverpool fans.

At first, it was in his memory...as we grew up, it became so much more than that and I live for that club. It's not exactly the most faithful or loyal story, we swapped and changed as kids but after my grandad passed and we got older, it just escalated and now we're both diehard Liverpool fans (kinda dangerous, living in Manchester haha).

On September 8th 2007, I went for my first tattoo. It was the closest I could get to the 10th anniversary of my grandad's death (9th was a Sunday, I believe). I went and got "You'll Never Walk Alone" tattooed across the bottom of my back. It has a double meaning to me; it's both for my grandad, and for the club.

I'm sad that it took his death for me to find a passion in football, but now I couldn't even imagine supporting any other team. I've made a deal with my cousin that if Liverpool win the league this season, we're getting the crest tattooed...he's now crapping himself because it's actually possible, and he's never had a tattoo before.

[Cory]

Well, living in Canada, I didn't grow into a club. We now have Toronto FC in the MLS, so I support them, but as far as England I have always been an Arsenal fan because they play an exciting form of football, but they have pissed me off dearly, after letting Henry and Viera go because of their 'age' contracts, I almost gave up and went for another team, but they did get Arshavin and hes panning out....so I dont know.

I just think Wenger needs to be canned and they need someone fresh to do something different with that team. Wegner and Adbebeyor need to go.

[Kenfucius]

Because, in the schoolyard fights, the Celtic fans were all the better scrappers, and I'm a sneaky bastard that way.

Eh, family thing as much as anything else, my entire family have been Celtic fans, my dad was in Lisbon in '67 (and yes, I realise every Celtic fan over a certain age was in Lisbon in '67, but you know what, I've seen the authenticated ticket stub, so HAH), and he took me to a lot of games as a kid. We haven't been able to go much for a long time since he stopped being able to work, and, more recently, due to the fact that I work a lot of weekends, but every now and then I have the spare money to treat him to a game.

Big moments I've personally had include being at Celtic's 6-2 win over Rangers in O'Neill's first year, going to Parkhead with my dad in '98 the day we stopped 10 in a row, and I was there for a few big home games during the '03 UEFA Cup run (Celta Vigo, Stuttgart, and Liverpool... what a night THAT was, nothing quite like it when the away fans join in during the pre-match singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone")

So, yeah, pretty much been born and bred with it.

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

Born in Manchester
First game was United
First kit was United

Enough said

[Duckman]

Got into football just as Graham Souness was taking Rangers to new heights and my Mum bought me a video of Ally McCoist when I was really young and that hooked me.

My brother supported Celtic for a while to annoy me, but changed to Man Utd the season before the first Premiership.

Most of my mates were Celtic fans growing up but because we live outside of Glasgow and the main religion is 'don't give a fuck' we never really had any fights or problems.

I just loved the style of football Rangers played and once you've made the decision to support a club, you stick with it, unless you're a little bitch like my brother!

Top moments were the run Rangers made in the European Cup the season before it became the Champions League.  Nine titles in a row.  Plus getting to see guys like Brian Laudrup and Gazza strut their stuff in the mid to late 90s.

Peace

Duckman

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

I would have thought the man that was Marco Negri should be a top moment. That season where he just went mental for Rangers scoring wise. Didnt he score more goals than games he played in?

[Duckman]

Yeah but he went uber gay after it.  Got hit in the eye with a squash ball, got the shits or something and fucked off never to be heard of again.

Amazing for about 10 minutes, but he wasn't around long enough to become a true Rangers legend in my eyes.

EDIT - From his wikipedia page, he was at Rangers from 1997-2001.

He easily topped the goal charts in that first campaign, with 32 League strikes. His scoring run was brought to an end on suffering a serious eye injury while playing squash.

After that first season Negri only played three more first team games; he sat out the whole of one campaign. Rangers then loaned him to Vicenza and the striker returned to Ibrox injured. Eventually he was sold to Bologna, in February 2001.

Peace

Duckman

[Laura]

If I don't support Liverpool, too many people I know will lynch me.

[chunkylover]

Born in Bradford, so born on Rugby, still support Bulls.
As for football, I only got into West Ham cos it's something to do on a Saturday and my mates are fans, I'm pretty neutral as it goes, although I have punched a Millwall supporter before.