Why do you support your team?

[Matt]

Because i'm clearly fucking mental.

[EddieG]

For whatever reason, and this is presumably an indictment of my childhood psyche, I never thought "My dad supports QPR so that's our team". I immediately thought "My dad supports QPR, so who can I support against him?"

(This goes back to the first match he took me to where I was old enough to remember, which was QPR v Ipswich in October 1993, and I chose to support Ipswich without a second's thought. QPR won 3-0. I was quite upset.)

Chelsea follows logically from this criteria.

I was always gonna support Feyenoord, but my mum and stepdad supporting Ajax just added fuel to the fire.

[Colly]

Newcastle because my dad took me from 5 or 6, season ticket holder since I finished uni and actually had some money.

Got a bit of a soft spot for Bradford as my uncle's originally from Bingley and used to take me along while my dad worked away, but I wouldn't push it to the extent of a 'second team'.

Billingham Synthonia are my local non league lot, used to pop along a lot more before parenting took precedence.

[Blaze09]

Mario Balotelli

Without him, I doubt I ever get into domestic soccer, let alone Man City. The first non-international match I made it my business to watch was the 6-1 beauty at Old Trafford, and that was mainly because of the crazy shit he did.

[Cheeky Hughes]

Manchester City, because all of my dad's side of the family were City fans and I lived near Maine Road. Not to mention the club was created just down the road from where I've lived my whole life, in Gorton. My first game was a night match vs. Gillingham, back in Division Two. The place smelled like stale tobacco. I remember going to the first game at the Etihad Stadium which was a victory over Barcelona ( ) and missing that smell.

I'll probably also support New York City FC when they start up in the MLS too. And I've always had a fondness towards Bayern Munich, ever since they lost to United in 1999.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Football - I'm a Charlton fan because they are more or less my local team, certainly the biggest of the local teams, and I've been to a lot of games. Had a season ticket for about five years and still follow them to this day.

Hockey - sadly, I picked the Maple Leafs because I liked the team's colours on NHL 2004, the first hockey game I bought (as opposed to Blades of Steel, which was, however, the shit).

American football - I had a friend at school who was from Baltimore so, when the time came to take an interest in football, I immediately went to the Ravens and stuck there. Simples.

[Cymbols]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

[stokeriño]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

What season was this, out of curiosity?

[Starvinho]

When I started school when I was four, you either supported Liverpool or Man United. I lived in a town just off the East Lancs road pretty much halfway between Manchester and Liverpool. I chose United because everyone else seemed to support Liverpool (glory fans) at the time. I think by the time I'd left primary school and United had won a couple of league titles, the majority had switched to support United. My Dad is a Spurs fan but rugby league is his first love, he told me to support Wigan RL when I was a kid. If he'd done the same with football I could very well be a Spurs fan right now. Luckily he didn't impart that particular wisdom on me.

[Cymbols]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

What season was this, out of curiosity?

03/04 I think. Villa won 3-2 and I'm fairly sure Crespo scored for Chelsea.

[Gazz]

May 9th 1993

Newcastle 7-1 Leicester

Dad hates football so had no one to guide my hand.

[MDK]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

So do you support England?

[stokeriño]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

What season was this, out of curiosity?

03/04 I think. Villa won 3-2 and I'm fairly sure Crespo scored for Chelsea.

Ah yes.

That was one of those questions where none of the possible answers is less trivial than any other, so I'm not sure why I asked.

[Adam]

To add my American Football allegiance to what I posted earlier - I'm an Arizona Cardinals fan because the first time I decided to sit down and watch the Super Bowl, they were in it. I always love an underdog and that they were that day, plus just watching it I found myself getting excited and willing them on to win. Loved Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald in that game. I've built my knowledge of the sport up around that since then and wish I'd gotten into it a lot sooner. If I had though, I may not favour the same team so I'm kinda glad it worked out the way it did.

[Hobo]

Ian Rush's mustache.

[Cymbols]

I wanted to support Chelsea so I got tickets to see Chelsea play Aston Villa at Villa Park cause it's closer. But we ended up with tickets in the home section, Villa ended up winning and I decided to stick with supporting Villa to this day. Up until the last couple of seasons, Villa were my closest team anyways as it happens, or at least the only close team to be in the sticker albums!

So do you support England?

Wash your mouth out with soap!

[Berober]

Aston Villa are my local team, and my dad and grandad support them, so it's also very much a family thing. I think I first went to Villa Park when I was two years old, and I went to Wembley when I was 6.

I've been starting to Lineker a bit though and branch out with one or two teams this year. Leicester City, because I'm at Uni in Leicester and so I get cheap tickets to go see them often, and Notts County because I've become interested in the side through keeping tabs on Jack Grealish, the Villa kid who is on loan there.

American Football... When Randy Lerner purchased Villa, he already owned the Cleveland Browns, so they became my de facto NFL team, and even though he sold them, I definitely have a bit of orange and brown in me now.

I was watching ESPN America in 2010 when the last quarter of Boise State/Virginia Tech was on, and Kellen Moore (Sidenote for Plubby: ) led the Broncos back to win it, and I just remember being really engrossed in that game, so I started looking up more Boise State games, and I spotted the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and they've been my CFB team since.

For some reason, I am a Boston Red Sox fan, although I really do not remember why.

[9 to 5]

Blackburn, because where I live, you could have easily got on a bus and gone to many places offering league football but it was been taken to a match there by my sister that made Blackburn my team rather than before just liking the sport.

The New York Mets, because me and my mate (Port, for you GTA players) were next to broke and he said we can bet on it daily to make money and I had to pick a team. He said the Mets were like the Man City of the sport (this being 2004) and I liked the concept so went for them. If only they were like Man City in 2014.

[Kaney]

Celtic were my second closest team locally and the team virtually my whole family supported. My first ever memory of football was being at Parkhead, rather than watching on TV.

I got bored with Scottish football cos seriously, and started watching the premier league. Initially expected to follow Liverpool cos I have family from there but ended up preferring Arsenal instead. I just loved the style of their play and think they've had some amazing players throughout the years like RVP and so on.

I'd say at this point I have more interest in Arsenal than Celtic but I don't think it'd be fair to slag cos I'm a bajillion miles away. I have a few shirts, been to the Emirates, planning in going back this year if I can and watch as many games as I can.

I don't get where Myke thinks I support a million teams but that's it! Other than Scotland but that shouldn't count.

[Benjamin]

Football - Most of my family are Man Utd fans, so naturally I rebelled and supported, Chelsea, due to my love of Zola at the time. When they fired Ranieri, I switched allegiances in protest andI started supporting Liverpool. They won the Champions League that season, though, so I'm sure I was doing it right. Been a fan ever since.

Basketball - Obviously as a child of the 90's living in an Asian country, the Bulls were my number one team when I was 5 - 8. Then I forgot about it for a couple of years, then came back, fell in love with Duncan (and later on with Manu), chose the Spurs as my team forever and haven't looked back.

I also chose the Colorado Avalanche, the Boston Red Sox and the Tennessee Titans as my team by choosing them to play the Season mode for their respective EA games. Naturally they all went on to do awesomely (well, except for the Titans )