Should club vs. country even be an issue in Canada?
While many European football supporters profess stronger loyalty to club than country, isn’t it a bit silly for their counterparts in Toronto to do the same thing with a two-year old club whose league doesn’t even respect FIFA’s international dates?
I got to asking myself just this after stumbling across an article published in the Guardian prior to the 2006 World Cup. In it, writer Nicky Campbell asks the all important question: Would you rather your team won the Champions League or England won the greatest tournament of all?
He takes this question down through levels of England’s professional league.
Ben Dimech from Red Action, the Arsenal fanzine, points out that you’ll never spot Gooners On Tour flags… The “real” fans see the England followers as arrivistes – country bumpkins enjoying a fantasy night in the West End with a supermodel before sloping back out to their bearded wives in the sticks.
Charles Ross, editor of the excellent Wolves fanzine, A Load of Old Bull… “I would rather Wolves had finished sixth and made the play-offs than England win the World Cup… For proper football fans it is club every time.”
Alan Shepherd, the chairman of the Kidderminster Harriers Supporters Trust… “It’s Kidderminster first, the supporters trust XI second and England a poor third.”
Clubs in Europe have several decades worth of history on their side. If your Grandpa and your Dad supported a certain club, and if that club comes from a region of the country with deep historical animosity toward other regions of the country (which let’s face it, is a situation that exists all over Europe), then yes, I can see how your club could be more important than your nation. But Toronto FC before Canada?
Last October I watched Canada flame out of World Cup qualifying against Honduras while at a pub in Toronto called Duke of Gloucester. It was full of red-clad supporters. But most of them were tuned into televisions showing TFC grind out an away draw to Dallas. Those of us watching Canada were in the distinct minority.
Earlier in September, I sat in a pub in Montreal before the “home” match to Honduras and shrugged my shoulders in despair at two French guys across the table as Canada supporters sang TFC chants and watched their team on television. Nevermind everyone who stayed in Toronto to watch TFC instead of trekking up to Montreal.
Now, a disclosure here. I grew up in Winnipeg and despite residing in Toronto now, I have nothing but contempt for the Leafs or Argos, and that likely projects onto TFC. (Western Alienation anyone?)
I’m not stupid, I know Toronto is a city of immigrants, and a lot of newcomers who support TFC would never be able to support Canada because of loyalties to the countries in which they were born and raised. And while I grumble otherwise, I do believe that is fair enough.
The most obvious and depressing explanation is that Canada is simply not very good, they only play meaningful games every four years, and the national association does a horrible job of promoting the side.
Club before country will only be exacerbated if more Canadian clubs join MLS. Should the national supporters groups actively try to snuff out club chants at future gatherings?
Or would that be killing the Golden Goose?
Because complain as I might, I also know that for the TFC supporters groups buying up tickets there wouldn’t have been a sellout, pro-Canada crowd watching Jamaica play Canada at BMO Field last August.
January 13, 2009 at 8:38 am
Good piece Grant – For me it’s always been and always will be 1. Canada and 2. Man. United. I would much rather see Canada make the World Cup than United win a title, but that also could be because I am a United supporter living abroad. I don’t know what your thoughts are when it comes to Canada vs. Chelsea, but I think most Canadian Supporters agree with me.
January 13, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Yes, I’d still trade making the World Cup to wining the MLS Cup. But, it’s a lot closer a race than I ever would have imagined three years ago. I stand in 113 every week. I only stand with Vs once every four years.
Give it another four years and I honestly don’t know where my head will be on the issue. I’ll tell you this: I used to be dismissive of those that said they picked club over country. Now I get it and I respect it.
January 13, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Question…does your thinking extend to the Impact game in Feb.? Do you believe that all Canadians should be supporting Montreal regardless of the other 364 das a year?
January 13, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess I need to put my money where my mouth is.
Sam, you’ve really backed me into a corner here. I’d hoped to avoid ever going on record with this answer, and the Chelsea folks at Scallywags would likely ostracize me if they were to read what I’m about to write, but… given the choice, yes I’d rather have Canada qualify for the World Cup than Chelsea win the Champions League. There, I said it, and it was not pleasant.
If I’m allowed to redeem some of my club supporter credibility I will add that if we were in some imaginary world in which I was given the choice between Canada winning a gold in Olympic hockey and the Winnipeg Jets winning the Stanley Cup, I would, without even the slightest hesitation, choose the Jets. I can’t even call it a tough decision.
I think the difference is that I followed the Jets from the time I could read, they were my boyhood club, I grew up in Winnipeg and I eventually came to hate their Canadian rivals as much as I loved them.
Chelsea I adopted in my early twenties for no reason other than they weren’t in the Big Three at the time. I’m not from West London and I’ve never been to Stamford Bridge. I just can’t reconcile choosing them ahead of my country.
As for the Impact question Duane… Well, I suppose it’s ok for neutrals across the country to cheer on the Impact, but by all the logic I’ve employed up till now, the TFC hardcores should be hoping they lose.
January 14, 2009 at 9:13 am
country over club anyday.
January 23, 2009 at 1:31 am
Canada… although, for me, Canada making the World Cup is not good enough. I believe they did that before, didn’t score a goal and came home all too soon. I have no profound fondness for a club team in North America when it comes to soccer, so country it is… as long they did a little damage at the World Cup and get someone a run for their money. As you mentioned the Jets… if the Canucks were to win a Stanley Cup or Canada a Gold Medal… Canucks winning the cup it is, has to be… I’ve been waiting 38 years for that… and I think I may have to wait a little longer.
March 2, 2009 at 4:46 pm
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