Why I will never support the English soccer team.

[imported_Déise]

,,

[Derrida]

"Two world wars and one world cup" - that's enough to put anyone off.....

(In germany the retort is "Three world cups and that's what counts"

[iartaoiseach]

In fairness we are just as guilty of jingoism here- ray houghtons goal 20 yrs ago anyone?
packie and o leary in italia 90, Jimmy mcGee at any olympic boxing match.
I could go on but you get the drift. anyway deise I'd be worried if an irishman supported (as opposed to tolerating it if they win) any team apart from ireland. I do sympathise with you on the amount of british jingoism we get to share here - thats the downside of having the UK channels I suppose. I would have the same attitude to the dubs winning an all ireland - can you imagine it?

[Dillinger]

Thank god Mayo never won the world cup, they are arrogant enough as it is.

[Gimpanzee]

Originally Posted by imported_Déise

Why do they still go on about their 1966 World Cup? Is it a lack of sporting self confidence?

Of course it is. Outside of the more jingo-istic red tops and their half-witted 'readers' they know they have been very unsuccessful. They are suckers for punishment. They focus on what they haven't won. Wimbledon, Football World Cup, and the Ashes. When they did win the Ashes they went ballistic. There wasn't half the hype for the Rugby World Cup in 2003, because well, they don't have a long and illustrious history of underperforming in it in it... yet. Nobody looks back the guts of half a century since their high water mark and thinks that they are kings of the sporting world.

We have a different attitude here. We tell ourselves are a great little sporting nation. We're not, we're sh!te - just the same as them.

[zakalwe1]

ha ha...and murray hates english football too, so i guess you have one thing in common with him Imported Deise!!!!

he was quoted as saying he'd support "anyone but England" in the 2006 world cup!

[kells-man_really]

Originally Posted by iartaoiseach

In fairness we are just as guilty of jingoism here- ray houghtons goal 20 yrs ago anyone?
packie and o leary in italia 90, Jimmy mcGee at any olympic boxing match.
I could go on but you get the drift. anyway deise I'd be worried if an irishman supported (as opposed to tolerating it if they win) any team apart from ireland. I do sympathise with you on the amount of british jingoism we get to share here - thats the downside of having the UK channels I suppose. I would have the same attitude to the dubs winning an all ireland - can you imagine it?

I think the only one that goes on about Ray houghton's goal anymore is Ray houghton...but i agree with you were cursed with english channels and we have to expect this.....the thing that annoy's me is how quickly the turn from supporting a English Man in Henman to supporting a British Man in Murray..when it suit's to be english and when it suit's to be british are two different things!!!

[White Horse]

We would never go on for years about such a thing.

*cough* Houghton *cough* Stuttgart *cough* 1988

And that was only one game.

[Munion]

Shouldn't the fact that they've only won two major global sporting events in 50 years or so not be a source of shame for a country the size of England?

[Mr Boxing]

Well lads i have been a life long supporter of Ireland and England international teams. First of all i am Irish and support the Irish international team 100%. The reason i also support the English national team like so many other people is because of the club i support. I have followed Liverpool and any Liverpool player playing for England for as long as i can remember and even these days i watch the Spanish side because it has so many Liverpool players playing in it. I know a lot of people who support premier league clubs that shout abuse at there very own players when playing for England. Its this kind of narrow mindedness has the world the way it is today.