Interesting radio topic I was listening today. Are you not a ‘real supporter’ if you choose to put your feet up and watch the game on your 70 inch 4k tv?.
Couldn’t fit it into my front room mate !!
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This may mean I need my hard hat on, but I don’t think it makes you a lesser fan but your view and therefore option blinkered as you don’t see what happens and what players are doing out of camera shot.
And yes I’m on holiday and watching Wimbledon game on iFollow lol
Cambridge Dictionary….
Support :-
to agree with and give encouragement to someone or something because you want him, her, or it to succeed
Not sure where you do that from matters…
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I’d agree. Don’t think it makes you any less of a fan to be honest. It’s personal choice
Well if people who watch on tv weren’t fans,why would they want to watch the game on tv ?
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If its someone who has been to games but no longer can that often like myself then i think in this day and age its fine as long as we arent the classic armchair fans like Man United etc which is very unlikely being a league 2 club like Walsall.
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Support and being a fan are two completely different things. I go to the games home and away albeit not every away game therefore I am a supporter. If you choose that watching the games on your Arsenal at home is what you want to do your a fan. Nothing like being in the stands for me
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I watch most football on tv but it doesn’t make me a fan of said club. I support walsall because it’s the first game I ever went to live and it’ll be the last game I ever attend before I pass. Anyone can watch anybody on tv and claim to support them but real fans actually hit the stadium. If somebody can only make 3/4 games a season and watch the rest at home then fair enough but if you never went only watched them on tv then you ain’t a fan in my eyes. Plenty of those about who support Liverpool , Chelsea and man United.
You can watch a game just to enjoy/appreciate the skill and spectacle. That’s true of most games I watch on tv.
This debate is exactly why tv coverage has totally wrecked the game. Take away tv and people would make more effort to go more often and people wouldn’t be sitting in their lounge with their manu tops on claiming to be proper fans. they would actually be on the train to London I mean Manchester to watch the game
Don’t be silly. The games are sold out.
Yeah with daft tourists
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Nothing wrong though is there in sitting in front of the TV with a Walsall top on and a couple of beers?
So what your saying is… apart from when we might draw Leicester in the FA Cup, this is your way of “supporting” the club?
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We are all Supporters of Walsall fc just that there are different types from your hard core to your causuals. it could be that those who no longer attend has many games used to be hard core and those who are hard core now may not be later in life due to circumstances or through personal choice. Its not like we are Man utd and people claim to be Walsall fans based on how good we are or how many trophies we have won.
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Room for all of us. There are phases of life where you have to step away from your ST and youll catch the odd game and theres times your full on.
My kids are 4 and 3mo so ive got my ST and my 4yo comes. But i think from next year, maybe even 25/26 ill stop my ST and ill put time into them and get the odd game.
A large part of my decision would be are we on our way up or still a mid table L2 team.
Been supporting WFC for 30 years.
Used to have a season ticket but Now I only go to a few away games and a home game at Xmas.
Why do I support the team less now?
Bescot is crap and the team has been so poor for so long.
Supporting WFC has almost made me stop enjoying football as I get jealous of all the other teams (who we used to compete with) having some success or a playing in a decent stadium with an atmosphere.
I will always watch us on TV.
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That’s exactly my take on it too. A fan (short for fanatic) has an affinity with a club - which can range from complete obsession to just listening out for their scores more than others. A supporter puts something back in the other way to the benefit of the club by way of e.g. financial or vocal support.
You can of course be both - and the vast majority of supporters will also be fans too (there are a handful of people who support a club in some way but who don’t have any emotional connection to it), but not all fans put their money where their mouth is and give it support directly.
If you draw it up as a Venn diagram, fans would be a larger set than supporters, and the majority of both sets would be included in the intersection. Or at least that is what it would be like for a club like Walsall - for Man Utd, Liverpool, and the like, the unsupporting fan set is way way bigger. It’s that set which is the natural home of the “armchair fan” (although if you are paying to watch, and at least part of that money goes direct to your club, then that makes you a supporter - i.e. iFollow rather than Sky in the pub).
BTW That’s just my take on the distinction between the 2 terms - I’m not suggesting that it means there is any sort of hierarchy re whose views on any aspect of the club count more.
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I haven’t been to many games this season and have watched some on the firestick. I’ll be going again from next month home and away but for this period have I been a supporter? Not in my opinion. A fan yes, but I haven’t been supporting them.
If you watch on tv you’re a fan, if you’re at the game then you’re supporting them, whether that be encouraging the players or putting money into the club and you can’t do that through the tv, that’s how I see it anyway.
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