ABE?

A contrived football related image on the day of England's big match in the World Cup against Germany. Been thinking about the ABE phenomenon (Anyone But England) that seems to exercise the media's minds so much, north and south of the border. The thing is I think I'm like many football supporters in having a hierarchy of allegiance that comes into play in watching any football match. For me, top of the tree is 'my team', Dundee United, who I'd support against anyone. Next down are Leeds United, my 'English team' going way back to when I was a kid growing up in Dundee, when you had to have an English team as well as a Scottish one. (The fact that my English team came first and was only later superceded by my Scottish one is a story for another day, tied up with my own personal shifting identity.) In a game between the two Uniteds, it wouldn't be a case of not caring who won, as I would be rooting for the Arabs. And for me, that choice between one side or the other works it way through any football match I ever watch. Having been watching football for forty plus years there's a personal history with many teams. A history that will tip the balance one way or another. A prolonged rivalry or a single incident of perceived injustice can influence who I want to win. not to mention additional elements of self-interest when victory for a particular team will help a team higher up my personal table of favourites. And so a team I might want to win one week is the team I want to lose the next, all the way down to the teams I really like to lose. It's frequently not rational, and can bear no relation to the quality of football being played (although playing good football might contribute to a team rising up my personal rankings). In Scotland, as a supporter of a team outwith the Old Firm, I'm probably not alone in wanting them to lose as often as possible, although it's complicated in European competition as success there does have some small positive benefit for Dundee United. In England, again not surprisingly with an allegiance to Leeds, it's Man U and Chelsea I like to see beaten. But not Arsenal, as during my time as a student in London I was a frequent visitor to the terraces of the North Bank at Highbury. Elsewhere, i prefer Barca over Real, Feyenoord over Ajax, AC over Inter, Fenerbache over Besiktas or Galatasaray and most teams over Bayern Munich (Paris 1975, if you must know. Long memory.)
Which brings me to international football. Same principle. Scotland's my team and top of the list. Quite probably the Netherlands would be next - a childhood growing up seeing glimpses of the total football of Cruyff, Neeskens et al, topped up by Van Basten, Gullit, Bergkamp and the rest in the years since. And so down the list, all the way to England. Near-neighbour rivals, imposer of many painful defeats in the past and the unfortunate recipients of barrow-loads of bad-vibes by association through years of patronising or just plain wrong media coverage by a supposedly British sporting media that is all too often simply English.
When it comes to it, weighing up the two sides, I end up supporting the other team.
England are just the team I like least - there has to be one.
Which is why I want Germany to win.
Just the way it is.