OPINION: There's more to football than supporting global super clubs

Why support your local team? Why bother when there's better teams out there? Why support non-league when you can support Barcelona or Real Madrid?, writes Ieuan Ivett.

The success of Champions League and Premier Division success are great, but success doesn’t always have to be widely noticed.

It doesn’t have to be the Champions League final to feel like one, it doesn’t have to be El Classico to feel like it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

How can any victory feel better when it’s against your local rivals, supporting your local side? It’s all about pride. Wearing the badge on your chest, proud to be.

There are plenty of advantages to supporting your local side, it’s a shame not enough people experience them.

With lower league sides, the player-fan relationships are much more common, which allows fans to feel closer to the club.

The closer any fan can get to their club they will, and I wish luck to all the Manchester United fans from around the globe, trying to get Paul Pogba to acknowledge them, whilst I’ll be having a drink in the clubhouse after the match chatting with my side’s striker.

Hide Ad

At local football, fans can get closer to the action. I personally haven’t seen non-league stadia holding 75,000 people with fans up in the skies.

Hide Ad

Standing pitchside, getting in the referees ear and encouraging your side’s full-back taking the throw-in is as close as a fan can get to the game, without lacing up and scoring the winner themselves.

Who’s not to say the next Dele Alli or Marcus Rashford isn’t living down the road playing for your local side? Local football will always provide hidden gems that may make the big stage - Jamie Vardy and Charlie Austin being prime examples.

Entertaining football isn’t always found in the country’s top league, great players can bring the game alive at any step of the football pyramid.

Hide Ad

There cannot be any better feeling than watching your local side storm up the divisions. Watching the club grow, gaining support, improving funding and signing new players is every football fans desire, and being a part of that is a special thing.

Nobody is forcing anyone to support a certain team, but there are more clubs in the country than the top four in the Premier league so why not show the rest some more attention and support, and where better to start than on your own doorstep.