My blog over at Enzo Giordani's In The Back Of The Net on emigrating to New Zealand and having to pick a side (Yellow Fever get a mention!)
Emigration brings a particular and very rare opportunity for the émigré, the chance to pick a team. When you’re young, you tend to be handed your team by your birthplace, or the team your parents supported. If you’re unlucky, you have to choose a side hurriedly when asked by another kid at school.
Being a football supporter has a few rather interesting cultural ties with it. In modern day top flight football, it means you’re relatively well off. Affording season tickets at most Premier League clubs puts the game well out of reach of most. Elsewhere, there’s always the looming spectre of the football casual and hooligan, particularly if you’re a noisy, visible group. Passionate support of a team doesn’t, and shouldn’t, automatically equate to violence or trouble...
