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Club or Country
Club 8 (72.7%)
Country 3 (27.3%)
Total Votes: 11
Club vs Country
Topic Started: Aug 6 2008, 04:16 PM (334 Views)
Kem
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Mrs Fabregas
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Okay, so the Olympics are bringing this up again, with players not being allowed to play in Beijing because their club wants them to stay.

To me its really hard to pick, because I really love my country (or even countries if you will) but I also love Arsenal basically as much. I know alot of like hardcore club fans dont support their country and alot of National team fans dont really support a club, so its hard to choose when you really like both a country and club. Alot also depends on how strong a league/national team a country has. I will say what I think after a few other people give their opinion.

So what to you comes first?
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Linda_Ridgewell
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Cesc's Teammate
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I'D i say it all depends on the player!
Whether he wants to play for his country or club should be totally up to him/her! :D
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Lep
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-
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For me it's always Club. Purely because your club is personal to you, you can't pick which nationality you are but you chose which team for a reason, for example a Brummie deciding between supporting Birmingham City or Aston Villa, a Manc with Manchester City or Manchester United, or a Cockney with Fulham or Chelsea. It's where they are from, and how they grew up.

Country still means a lot to me, but there are 4 million Irish and 60 million English people who will 'support' their country, but not have the passion as for example somebody who supports their City week in week out, which makes me personally feel more pride and we are as a 'club' and together than supporting my Country ever would.

With players I think Club first too, it's nice to represent your country because it's a real honour, but the Club is paying you and has you in contract which should mean something.
Edited by Lep, Aug 6 2008, 04:49 PM.
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Jenna
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Fàbregas
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For me, at the end of the day, the club is playing the players wages.

It's a tough one because going off on NT duty and winning things with their country can really help players and give them great experience but at the same time, there's nothing worse than a player coming back from the national team injured.

The olympics thing, its a farce imo, fifa says players u23 if chosen have to go, to beijing, but barca,schalke and werder get their knickers in a twist and don't want the players to go but if the players wanted it that badly they'll be pissed off at their clubs, so it will hurt the club.

It is tough but i think players need to remember who's paying them their huge salaries, so its club for me. International breaks piss me off too lol
Edited by Jenna, Aug 6 2008, 04:52 PM.
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sweet_dreamz32
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The Guv'nor
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Club. No question about it.

It's nice to see my countries doing well, but I become more elated when Arsenal win matches.
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OneUnited117
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yagga yagga yagga yow
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I am basing this solely on the player, but it's definitely got to be country...players can change clubs a million times in their career if they want, in which case if they leave a fan's favourite club, they become less of a favourite among those fans, etc. There are only a select few people who have stayed at the same club their whole career, however you will never be able to (legally) change your country...it's where you're from, it's where you play, it's who you represent your whole life.

The Olympics thing as well...what the HELL are the clubs thinking?! A player can always play for their club, year in, year out, or they can switch clubs and STILL play club football. A player, however, may only have one shot of playing in the Olympics. If a player like Lionel Messi is under 23 now, they probably won't be by the next Olympics and even though you're allowed three over-age players, there will be all these young stars of today in 2012 over the age of 23 and choosing only 3 of them will damage the chances of any of the other ones who originally had the chance to take part in these 2008 Olympics. So it's ridiculous to take away someone's maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to represent his country in the Olympics because the stupid football club is too engrossed in the monetary aspect (come on, it's really all about the money...injured star=lower income for the club, everyone knows that) to realise that, hey, maybe this 22 year old kid really wants to do this and maybe even win a medal for his country. Clubs should be ashamed.
Edited by OneUnited117, Aug 6 2008, 05:38 PM.
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Kem
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Mrs Fabregas
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For me its close, but I think country, basically because of what Nettie said, but also because of what events like the World Cup and Euro's do to the world. Now that football is so huge and people from all over the world support the same teams and you have players from all over playing for these clubs you get alot of fans who only support a team because they are winning and players only playing for a team because they can pay them more money. These fans and players change teams when the going gets tough, or when they feel like they can make a bigger buck somewhere else. But you can not change where you are from (most of the time), and for fans the people they are seeing are basically representing themselves on the world stage. It basically brings some countries together because they have one team to root for, and they are proud of that team and therefore their country even if they have no chance at winning, or even qualifying for, something like the World Cup.

I know its clubs that pay the wages, that makes it like their 'job' but it is very rare to see players anymore that actually love their club enough to stay with them if they are doing badly, or turn down an offer for more money at a bigger team. When you play for your country it is about pride and the honor of representing your country.

I think that most of the time you see people who support club more are from the actual city of their club, like Lep with Birmingham, or Roma fans from Rome, because then the players are still representing you by representing your city. However, it all depends on the person because I've met plenty of Roma fans who support Italy as much or even a little more than Roma.

For me I love Arsenal to death, I watch every match I feel it when we win and when we lose, but when I watch the USA and to a (much) lesser extent Italy I also feel a pride when they players line up singing the national anthem, and I sing along, because these players are fighting out there on the pitch for me. They represent my country, and thus they represent me. This isnt to say I dont have pride in Arsenal, because I do, but its just different when its your country at least to me.
Edited by Kem, Aug 6 2008, 06:34 PM.
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lilcookie
erk o.O
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that depends.
I actually prefer National teams. But in terms of Olympic situation I prefer Club over National team.
Club is more personal. But me, living in a country where Club football has less exposure, I'm more exposed to National Teams . Although I must say Olympic standard football looks less serious and its boring. I guess when it comes to Fifa matches the teams get more serious. Football is so not an Olympic sport.

But Lep has a point and so do others. I understand English football culture, while they are patriotic, clubs tend to dominate their heart more. Yes it might be seeing their club week in and week out, I've noticed something, and this comes from some Liverpool fans, that they don't really support players in the National team that come from rival clubs such as (obviously) Man utd, often the cases of David Beckham, and the Neville brothers back in Ma U days. Also, Manure fans hating Michael Owen back when he was in Liverpool.


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