Some fans would rather give up on football, and possibly life altogether, than follow another team. They are missing out
From the semi-scholarly ruminations of journal articles to the caps-locked rage of online message boards, the nature of the “proper” football supporter is regularly debated. An indisputably important feature of this proper supporter’s make-up – ranking in importance alongside the ownership of matching his ‘n’ hers training jackets – is loyalty to one club.
Reinforced by patronising adverts paid for by corporate sponsors, this one-eyed devotion to a single cause – beyond good sense and, sometimes, beyond even basic standards of decency – has acquired such weight as a measure of superior fandom that any deviation from its course represents something sinister. The true supporter would sooner give up his or her interest in football, and possibly life altogether, than follow another team.
As a consequence of this position, the fan who switches allegiance in the pursuit of something more satisfying lacks credibility. In football, the exercising of choice is fundamentally suspect; taking what you are given, however bad, and sticking with it through thin and thinner is crucial to the true fan’s identity. In this area of moral absolutes, the second team is a pleasingly raffish and ambiguous idea, enabling fans to experience the thrill of novelty while avoiding accusations of dilettantism.
Properly selected, the second team can be both a source of variety and a form of compensation for the failings of the club to which you have indefinitely, and possibly regrettably, shackled yourself. If your given team consists of lower-league journeymen, high on commitment and Bovril but low on technical quality, the sensible second-team choice is a high-flying Premier League outfit fizzing with slipper-shod creatives, all of whom are plunged into existential despair at the mere thought of pumping the ball down the channels for the forward to chase.
The second team is also an imaginative exercise, allowing us to try on new, and probably less dysfunctional, football identities. For example, the quotidian experience of supporting one of the less celebrated top-flight English clubs – ones of the type habitually managed by Mark Hughes – can be leavened with the imported glamour of a foreign second choice. However briefly, we are invited to try out a new personality; how would our lives be different, and what sort of person could we be, if circumstances had determined that the object of our support would take the form of the touch and impudence of Lionel Messi, rather than the hard-working, cloth-capped sincerity of Jonathan Walters?
In recent years, I have found solace from the daily grind of supporting Coventry City through an interest in Roma. Both clubs have a record of instability and uncertainty, but players such as Francesco Totti and Daniele de Rossi are capable of making this bearable in a way that journeyman centre-back Andy Webster can’t.
There are also worthy and practical reasons for following a second team that even the most dedicated one-club supporter should be able to understand. Often, a second team is necessitated by convenience; it can be a source of regular football for those geographically estranged from the primary focus of their support.
In the era of escalating ticket prices in the top divisions, casually following a team from the non-league can provide an affordable form of live football. Indeed, even a European second team may prove a more economical way of watching a game than attending top-division matches in the UK. We are constantly reminded that the cost of tickets and transport to a Bundesliga contest amounts to less than the price of a packet of Frazzles.
Generally, the second team is the preserve of the lower-league supporter, casting around for some association with glory and searching for a more meaningful engagement with the suffocating spectacle of the Premier League.
It is hard to imagine a Manchester United fan eagerly scouring the web for news of Alfreton Town’s result, mainly because there is insufficient coverage of the Conference Premier to make taking an interest worthwhile. Without the lure of a personal connection – geographical or familial – the big-club supporter has little need of the respite provided by a second team.
The experience of casually following another club will never match the emotions provoked by serious and monogamous support. But sometimes it’s nice to appreciate a game on its own merit, free of the lengthy pre-existing narrative of optimism, disappointment and financial exploitation you share with your team.
A second club can provide a less complicated form of enjoyment, without demanding huge chunks of your time or emotional energy. You can follow the results, or watch the high- lights, and the pressures of being a “proper” supporter are temporarily relieved. There is no need to dwell too deeply on failures and no obligation to buy a training jacket.
• This article first appeared on When Saturday Comes
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