Why I support Arsenal/Germany at international football

June 27, 2012

At work, we have been getting together to watch some of the Euro 2012 games. We have supporters for all countries (Dutch/England being the most popular). Surprisingly, I am the only Germany supporter and I was asked for reasons supporting Germany even though they are known to be pretty boring team (yes - the attacking and fluid game that we see started with WC 2006).

This started up a discussion among us that as a citizen of neutral country (or when football is not so developed), why we choose our club/country to support. Couple of reasons that stood out prominently:

The first major tournament that you watch - My first big tournament that I followed with understanding was World Cup 1990 and West Germany won the cup. Without satellite/cable TV, the only games I could watch was WC. 1994 came and Germany didn’t really do any good. But come 1996, it won the Euro Cup with a dramatic final where Bieroff scored two goals late. Starting then, I have always supported Germany - not because they played great football but because they won the tournaments when I started watching football.
In and around 2000, they started showing the big European league games and soon enough all games from EPL and Champions League. It just so happened that all the friends who would watch the games supported Man U and I was looking for a different team to bring in the spice. Not knowing anything or anybody, I randomly chose (or maybe not so random) Arsenal and have been Gunners fan ever since. With time, as I learnt more about the team and Arsene - the more I started liking them. It also helped that during those years, the team mesmerized the whole world with their invincible run of 49 games.
As an expat, you tend to have a soft spot for the first major country you live. E.g. one of my colleague spent some time in Spain and thus is die-hard Spain supporter.
Your native language has a big effect on the country you follow. For me, English being almost first language, I tend to follow England league more then other. Thus I tend to support English clubs more often than not. A huge percentage of people I know in California support Barcelona/Real Madrid as Spanish being the most spoken language after English.
Last but not least, broadcasting rights of games that your national/satellite TV gets. I am pretty sure if they were Bundesliga instead of EPL in India, I would have probably picked up Stuttgart or Dortmund or Schalke as my favorite club.

What are your stories? Leave them in comments.

TL;DR: Your native language and first viewed big tournament shapes your supporting team/country.