Do Expats support Australia?

[Arabmariner]

There seems to be a number of people on this forum who like myself came here from other countries.With the World Cup qualifiers underway I was wondering how expats felt when it came to supporting Australia.It,s easy to say we live here so we should support them and I,m sure most of us do to some extent....but how passionate do we get when it comes to supporting our adopted country?

Personally I,ve been here over 18 years and now support Australia as passionately as I do Scotland.It,s not manufactured support it,s how I genuinely feel.My support for Scotland hasn,t declined at all....I just have an extra team to support now!In fact my dream is to go to a World Cup when both countries have qualified with both sets of colours in the luggage!!The nightmare is they get drawn against each other....I couldn,t handle that...unless it was to play out a nudge,nudge,wink,wink draw so we both qualified for the next round!!

I know a few expats who support Australia to a point but they are obviously not as passionate about it as myself.When asking who was interested in going to the China game I got responses like "I suppose we should go and support the game" and "I dunno it,s the World Cup but it,s not England is it?".

I don,t hold that against anyone as I believe you just go with your feelings.

How do you other expats out there feel?

 

[FFC Mariner]

100% support Australia but reserve the right to vary that if England are involved.

Interesting to see the Iraqi fans at BT wearing both colours and I suspect most of us expats feel the same??

 

[Omni]

I imagine it took time for those of you who are ex-pats to warm to supporting Australia?

 

[Arabmariner]

I imagine it took time for those of you who are ex-pats to warm to supporting Australia?

It took very little time for me to warm to the Australian football team.Probably through sympathy for the way the game was treated by the mainstream media and the frustration of not having a club team to follow as I had been used to in Scotland.

I remember going to the World Cup qualifier against Argentina in '93 I think and shouting and singing passionately for Australia. verhead: Likewise at the under 17(I think) world cup held in Australia a year or two before that.....'91 I think.

Olympic games and other sports I always want the Aussies to do well but not nearly as full on as the football but thats just cos footballs my game.

One abnormality to all of this..........I can,t stand the f#%kin Wallabies.......never have and never will.I hate them so much I even wanted England ??? to beat them at the last world cup.Wierd eh?They just come across as elitist stuck up f%@kin prats who deserve to be smashed by any team that comes along.

 

[RADINHO]

i support australia and i do have passion for them but i have even more for some teams.

 

[Atomic]

I don't have a problem with ex pats supporting their home country over Australia. I remember thinking about this at the Iraq U/23 game. I was amazed at the support they got. Initially I had a mild xenophobic thought or two but I put myself in their shoes. If, for instance, I relocated to England there is no way on earth I would support England over Oz... that's just crazy talk. So to all you ex-pats, a big thumbs up for cheering for the locals but by all means support your country of origin above all others.

 

[Arabmariner]

I don't have a problem with ex pats supporting their home country over Australia. I remember thinking about this at the Iraq U/23 game. I was amazed at the support they got. Initially I had a mild xenophobic thought or two but I put myself in their shoes. If, for instance, I relocated to England there is no way on earth I would support England over Oz... that's just crazy talk. So to all you ex-pats, a big thumbs up for cheering for the locals but by all means support your country of origin above all others.

I know I would never support the opposition against Scotland.I just don,t want to ever be in that situation.......wanting Scotland to win but not wanting the opposition to get beat!!!??? ???

After 18 years in another country......and not having been back to the old one for 14 years.....I feel Scottish but I also feel Australian.

Another thought to all of this.....expats kids...who do they support?Some people born here to parents from another country seem to support that country before Australia. ???  ???My kids were born here(both parents Scottish) and are Aussie through and through as they should be.They will probably grow up with a soft spot for Scotland (and DUFC ) but will always be Aussie. verhead:

 

[tintin1989]

One abnormality to all of this..........I can,t stand the f#%kin Wallabies.......never have and never will.I hate them so much I even wanted England ??? to beat them at the last world cup.Wierd eh?They just come across as elitist stuck up f%@kin prats who deserve to be smashed by any team that comes along.

haha, I've lived here all my life and I still don't like the Australian Union (go South Africa + Ireland!) or Cricket (go India + West Indies!) teams- much too arrogant.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Absolutely, I hate the Wallabies with a passion - elitist wankers who thought that "they" were Australia's international football side.

My kids are 100% Aussies and have no split loyalties at all

 

[Atomic]

I love the Wallabies with a passion. Why? One reason is that those guys would crawl over broken glass to pull on the jersey to play against the Solomon Islands (for example). The same can't be said of all football codes in Australia 

Sorry for going off topic - whether you like the game or hate it, I felt i had to defend a team that puts the jersey first.

 

[MrCelery]

I came to Oz from UK in '68, and remember hugging the radio and jumping for joy when the Socceroos qualified in '74. So it didn't take me too long to switch allegiances.

Being half English and half Dutch I also still have a soft spot for the Three Lions and the Oranje too, but that's about all.

I loved it when we beat the Poms 3-1 in London some time ago, and scored against The Netherlands in the WC warm up!

I'm now 2000% Green & Gold and rate the '06 qualfication and the Final 16 qualification over Croatia as the best football moments of my life.

The only Aussie team I look forward to losing are the Rugby League team. And that's because it's so boring seeing them win all the time in a nonsense World Cup and internationals. I like the underdog.

I suppose hating Thuggery League is also a factor!

 

[voice of reason]

Socceroos in Football even against England!
Anyone who is playing Australia in any other code (especially All Blacks) or in cricket, for reasons already voiced in other threads.
Other sports, usually Australia (hockey, swimming, etc)

I don't see why we should suddenly shed our other identities because we live here.  There's nothing in the citizenship rules about not supporting our home countries!  The best thing is that we can pick and choose where our loyalties lie.

 

[Pete]

Sorry, dinky di Aussie. Born here.

But it is interesting to see the contrasts of support for folks who came from other countries.

A lot of the Iraqi supporters who live here only do so when their team is here, or doing better than Australia. And like the Lebanese & Iranian supporters here, there's probably a fair number of them who haven't spent one minute within 'their' countries' borders.

I can appreciate the expats following their country of birthplace or where they spent a lot of time growing up, but I don't like folks who just follow their parents' heritage, or even their grandparents! If that was the case, I'd be following either England or Scotland and that is a thought that disgusts me! ;D

Oh, and Arabmariner, don't worry about Scotland and Australia ever being drawn against each other in a WC Finals series. Judging by the frequency that the two countries qualify for the World Cup that is at very long odds. ;D ;D

 

[BrisRecky]

hmmmm.....I have been known to support the KNVB on occasion...BUT....after what Spud just said about the scots and the aussies...i think I can go for the Socceroos and the Dutch without fear of conflict....EVER

 

[marinersman]

Recky, how did you feel watching the Socceroos-Holland Friendly prior to the WC?

 

[BrisRecky]

would ya believe i did a half each??...NO...would you believe 20 minute rotations...NO....
OK enought of agent 86 cliches...mate I took the game for what it was and cheered for both teams....

 

[Teddy Bear]

The thing I can't understand is the kids of expats that support their parents country of birth over Australia. Whenever the socceroos play against say one of the arab countries at the Asia cup or say against Italy at the world cup you always see teenagers who were obviously born here supporting the other team.  :

 

[loyalist]

The thing I can't understand is the kids of expats that support their parents country of birth over Australia. Whenever the socceroos play against say one of the arab countries at the Asia cup or say against Italy at the world cup you always see teenagers who were obviously born here supporting the other team.  :

Who are you to judge whether or not they have more passion for their heritage or the country that they grew up in?

 

[Pete]

The thing I can't understand is the kids of expats that support their parents country of birth over Australia. Whenever the socceroos play against say one of the arab countries at the Asia cup or say against Italy at the world cup you always see teenagers who were obviously born here supporting the other team.  :

Who are you to judge whether or not they have more passion for their heritage or the country that they grew up in?

I don't think Teddy was judging anybody Forza. He was saying he couldn't understand how they do that.

My heritage is British (English and Scottish) and I have no passion for those countries as far as my patriotism is concerned.

That is the way it is with many descendants of other countries.

But there seems to be a lingering affection of some cultures to hold onto their heritage with a passion, and to even support their heritage country over their home - birth country in major sporting events, even though they may never had set foot in their heritage country.

Mind you, expats from Australia tend to have their moments of sticking their Aussie roots up someone's nose whenever there's an international competition (America's Cup 1983, Ashes Test wins in England, Socceroos World Cup games - remember the Aussie expats in Japan?), so we're not immune to jingoism either. I'd like to think though, that these Aussie expats' kids were more closer to their country of birth than their heritage.

 

[Teddy Bear]

The thing I can't understand is the kids of expats that support their parents country of birth over Australia. Whenever the socceroos play against say one of the arab countries at the Asia cup or say against Italy at the world cup you always see teenagers who were obviously born here supporting the other team.   :

Who are you to judge whether or not they have more passion for their heritage or the country that they grew up in?

I don't think Teddy was judging anybody Forza. He was saying he couldn't understand how they do that.

My heritage is British (English and Scottish) and I have no passion for those countries as far as my patriotism is concerned.

That is the way it is with many descendants of other countries.

But there seems to be a lingering affection of some cultures to hold onto their heritage with a passion, and to even support their heritage country over their home - birth country in major sporting events, even though they may never had set foot in their heritage country.

Mind you, expats from Australia tend to have their moments of sticking their Aussie roots up someone's nose whenever there's an international competition (America's Cup 1983, Ashes Test wins in England, Socceroos World Cup games - remember the Aussie expats in Japan?), so we're not immune to jingoism either. I'd like to think though, that these Aussie expats' kids were more closer to their country of birth than their heritage.

That is what i can't understand. When Australia played Italy in the last world cup, Norton street was awash with kids who were obviously born and raised in Australia waving the Italian flag???

I was born in Scotland and it would be the greatest nightmare for me to see Scotland play Australia in football. I would probably just sit in silence or not watch it. I don't expect my kids to support Scotland over Australia.