In the world of football, a fans allegiance to a team can be an extremely personal and passionate affair, that can separate families and friendships for brief spells.
Traditionally, football clubs are built on their communities and week-in-week out the locals go out to support their team. However, in the modern age, with more-and-more coverage of football and huge online communities forming, the traditional nature of football support is changing.
This begs the question, should fans support their local team?
This article plans to understand the phenomena and get first hand experiences from international fans and what connects them to their teams.
After a troublesome couple of decades in the 70s and 80s, the top tier English football was drastically falling behind its European counterparts.
In an attempt to rival and create more revenue, the then First Division in the English Football League decided to controversially break away from the current league format and create the Premier League.
The Premier League was set to maximise the economic potential of English football, with clubs signing lucrative broadcast and sponsorship deals. In just over 30 years, the Premier League’s growth has been unprecedented, becoming the richest and most watched league in the world, attracting millions to their televisions every week.
One key audience this change has tapped into is the American audience, with 'footballing-fever' (or soccer) taking over the country. With top level former/current professionals representing the country at the European top level like Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie plus many more, American's have become more and more involved with the beautiful game.
Statistics from the Premier League’s main US broadcaster, NBC, showcase the consistent rise in average viewership in American audiences. Despite the outlier of the 15/16 season, which can be downplayed to the underdog, fairy-tale story of Leicester City winning the Premier League. This shows the rise in fans tuning into the Premier League and becoming more-and-more involved in the English game.
Following the completion of the current 23/24 season, the Premier League released further statistics showcasing how the viewership has elevated once again. The title-deciding grudge match between Manchester City and Arsenal broke the record for the most watched PL game, managing 2.12 million viewers across NBC’s platforms. Not only that, but five of the top six most-watched Premier League matches ever occurred within the most recent season.
Increased American viewership brings a plethora of benefits, boosting clubs revenue through lucrative broadcast deals, merchandise sales and sponsorships. Not only that, but clubs also receive an increased brand image, higher digital engagement and boosts the tourism for that specific region.
We spoke to Gyorgi, who is an American Everton fan who went semi-viral across social media after documenting his journey from Los Angeles to Goodison Park, asking him what he feels about the common mantra of 'support your local'.
He said “I understand it - but it’s difficult to really believe in considering the EPL is a global brand. Our owner isn’t even from Liverpool, imagine telling Moshiri to support his local.
“I think that people want quality football and the EPL provides that. People connect with certain aspects of clubs. And for me, I never chose Everton. Everton chose me. Nobody can take that away from me.”
Within this, he issued a great point about the ownership details of numerous Premier League Clubs. Currently, nine teams in the top-flight have either full ownership or majority ownership by American's, which has the potential to rise to ten if Everton get sold to the 777 group.
This refers back to our title 'Define Local', as despite clubs origins being down to their community, within the modern day, clubs are owned by international owners and field predominantly non-local players. It is these players who ignite the interests of international fans, who want to see their 'local' players compete at the top level of football.
With how expensive football teams are to purchase and run, 'local' owners at the top level are a rare commodity and it's rare you see more than one local player in a first team line-up. The only club who have managed to do this, and are the exception that prove the rule, is Athletic Bilbao, who are frequently praised and spoken about for their rule of only fielding players from the Basque region and still being successful.
Gyorgi spoke on how American's playing for Everton ignited his passion for the club, saying: "I started following Everton when Tim Howard was loaned to the club from United. I slowly started finding myself getting into the matches and really rallying behind him. A few seasons later, Landon Donovan, who’s a local Los Angeles player went there on loan and I was all in.
"It just sort of fell into my lap. There were too many connections for me. Also, learning about the club’s history and getting to meet fans online, I became obsessed with being a part of this club."
Ryley Barber is a lifelong Tranmere fan and season ticket holder and has spoke to us about his worries for the future of his club if the current trend of international fans to top teams increases.
He said: "We've already been competing with Everton and Liverpool to get Tranmere locals to support us, they're already receiving the massive benefits from that.
"I'm worried that with all these extra fans that they're making so much money that us lower league sides won't be able to even compete, i'm not talking about just Tranmere but even Championship teams.
"It's great that more people are getting into this sport, i'd prefer them to support their own local sides though. Our top teams are already too strong as it is, it's ruining the competition and swaying the power dynamics ridiculously."
Following Barber's quotes, I went to X to ask my followers on whether they believe fans should support their local side.
The results where overwhelmingly in favour of fans picking their local sides, indicating a sense of judgement towards non-local fans.
Further polls showcased that 83.3% of voting fans supported their local side with 81.5% stating it was through family and friends.
However this has not affected Gyorgi's relationship with Everton fans online, with him stating "I’ve never once felt hostility from local Everton fans. On the contrary, local Evertonians have taken me in as though im family. And my own family felt the same way. The amount of pints I was bought for being an Evertonian from Los Angeles in pretty funny.
"Whether online or in person, Evertonians don’t care where you’re from. As long as you’re a Toffee, you’re family."
Altogether, international fans, and especially Americans, bring a lot of positives to the modern game. Undoubtedly, in the past clubs were more reliant on their surrounding communities to push them forwards but as they evolved and through managers and players, that locality is beginning to disperse.
With huge, passionate online communities forming and teams featuring predominantly international players, it's hard to argue against non-local fans taking an interest in 'the best league in the world'.
With the many forms of media avaliable today, the world is slowly beginning to become a more open place. Is it now time to finally accept non-local fans into your footballing communities?
*This was submitted as a part of my NCTJ coursework*
Define Local Podcast Episode One: Interview with Ryan Williams, host of the American Toffees podcast
In our first installment of the 'Define Local Podcast', we interviewed another American fan who has created a huge platform for himself, and became a staple in the Everton online community. He gives his thoughts on the 'support your local' mantra and then explains his amazing journey to becoming an Everton fan and how football has evolved in America.
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