I’m British, but I’m not into football (or ‘soccer’) at all, which makes me something of a deviant over here. But then, I’m not really into spectator sports at all. Watching other people playing a game and then trying to bathe in the reflected glory of ‘your’ team winning never really appealed to me and I’ve never really understood why people care so much about this silly nonsense.
This Mitchell and Webb sketch sums it up really:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN1WN0YMWZU
That represents my sentiments exactly.
Once upon a time when I lived in Alabama, a farmer was talking to his friend in the local diner about how “we” (meaning University of Alabama) were going to win the championship. All I could think of is that this guy never graduated high school, let alone attended the U of A, let alone played on their football team. Sheesh, how lame do you have to be to feel pride in the feats of others?