I guess it's obvious I'm no football fan but sometimes I do muse about a couple of aspects of the game. One thing is about team names. I mean, how many players in Manchester United actually come from the Manchester area? How can this team (for instance) call themselves 'Manchester', when players might be bought in from anywhere in the world? Is there any rule that says that a percentage of any team has to be drawn from the local area? If not, league football matches can't really be called a town against town contest. It's more like: our collection of players drawn from anywhere ...against your collection of players drawn from anywhere.

It can't always have been that way I suppose. Otherwise football clubs wouldn't have town or city names. There must have been a time when players were drawn from the local area. I suppose back then, one town's football team might truly have been able to say that they were better than the town they beat. Team names are just names now aren't they? Could they equally be called Club 33 or Club 21 United for the actual relationship they bear to the town or city they supposedly represent? Anyway, all in all, it just seems a funny way for the game to have gone.

The other thing I wonder about is why would someone become a Manchester United supporter if they don't live anywhere near Manchester? I'm only mentioning Manchester United because it's always in the news but that seems to apply to lots of other premier clubs too. For instance, how can someone living in the West Country be a Man U fan? Is just because that club does well in the football league?

I suppose if they did have the percentage ruling, Man United would be in good shape. Gary & Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Wes Brown are all from the Manchester area, and Ryan Giggs might as well be, as he's lived there since a kid. The previous 4 are England internationals, while Giggs is the Wales captain.

I go back to my childhood, playing football on the field with friends. Everyone went through a fantasy phase where they 'wanted to be' a famous player, such as Kenny Dalglish, Bryan Robson, Trevor Brooking, et al. I think it probably stems from there for some, but others are just gloryhunters. When I started supporting United, they were nowhere, winning nothing. Liverpool & Aston Villa were the teams to follow in my day, and I can guarantee not a one of them supports Villa nowadays.

A lot of them have moved on and supported their local team (Blackburn Rovers), while every time teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and United play live on Sky, you can tell the gloryhunters from the true supporters. The gloryhunters are those that will walk in and not buy a thing, sit there in silence throughout, then leave immediately after the game.

One thing I don't want to do is start supporting Indiana Whoevertheyare, just because I'm moving there!

Have you noticed a lot of the "best" football teams come from up here in the north of the England? ho hum

TW, I believe this is a phenomenon that is common to all professional sports teams nowadays. Are the San Antonio Spurs really from San Antonio? Are the New York Jets really from New York? Are the St Kilda Saints really from St Kilda? Well, you get the picture..

What I find a lot worse is if the majority of the players are from another country. Don't get me wrong! I think international players add quality and variety to the game.
But take for example the German football league (That's the one I follow most closely)
There have been games when a team played with not one German player on their team. (Well they had quite a few sitting on the bench.. )

There is a rule that at any point of the game each team may only have 3 players (think it is 3, I'm having a mental blank right now, so please feel free to correct me) from non-EU countries on the field, but there is no limitation as to how many players from EU countries can play.

From what I see in the English Premier League I think that the majority of players still English (or British), so maybe this international player topic is not such a big issue for you guys, but it creates a bit of a problem in Germany.
Obviously the coaches rather let experienced internationals play than young unexperienced Germans. But then how should the Germans get practise? And when it comes to choosing the German national team, they only have the same old players to pick from. I have to admit though that there has been improvement in the last couple of years and the national team has some fairly good young players at the moment.

As far as the supporters are concerned:
Many people actually choose "their" team by how successful it is. And if that team has a few bad years they just pick another team.

I would not consider these people fans though. I support a small team from Southern Germany (1.FC Nuremberg). I grew up close to Nuremberg, so there was no doubt for me as to which team I would support. Unfortunately they are not too successful. They change between 1. and 2. Bundesliga pretty much every year. But I never considered "changing" teams.

In my opinion you cannot just decide one morning: "Okay from now on I'm a fan of xxx". I've been living in Australia for two years and I love watching Aussie Rules Football. There are a couple of teams that I like, but I haven't decided on one favourite team yet. Maybe if I I'm in the stadium for an extremely good game or something like that, I might grow into really becoming a fan of one team.
Does anybody have any idea what I'm trying to say?

lol, I do. I'm a Man U far partly out of principle (the rest of my entire family are Man City fans) partly beacuse I'm from Manchester and partly beacuse I think they have some interesting to say the least games, especically in the older days with players like Cantona, and more recently Beckham, with their tempers and great talant. But I also wouldn't say I wasn't a fan of my good old home team, Stockport County, if anybody's even heard of them!.
However all in all I wouldn't really class myself as a football fan. It's too political nowadays.