It’s inviting to support a big team. You can get vicarious enjoyment from some team on the other side of the world. Their kits are a load better then the Datsun-League’s homogeneous offerings, their fans are more vocal and colourful and their players are world clarsh (© Fozzie). Plus the teams can string more than a couple of passes together before finding either the sideline or an opposition midfielder. But what connection do they have to a fan in Brisbane?

Why would a proclaimed Chelsea/ManU/Liverpool/Barca/Inter/et al fan living in Brisbane want to support Queensland Roar Pty Ltd over these far more glamourous and more skilled foreign teams? Who wants to support a franchise, buy crappy Reebok merchandise in fluro orange and join in supporting a team with a stupid name and a home end that resembles a star trek convention?

Quite simply you should support Brisbane Queensland Roar because they are your local team. It’s time to ditch your Liverpools, Manchester Uniteds and Milans from far flung places you have most likely never visited and get with your local team; if only because you have one.

And if you think some European team are your local team because you were born there then good for you; but don’t call yourself a football fan if you have not once been to cheer on your current local club. The excuses that are often given by these misplaced European migrants often are along the lines of ‘Shit team – no fans’. I don’t buy the shit team thing for a second. The quality of the football in Europe is not always all that it’s cracked up to be, just watch a game involving teams outside the top four for proof of that. As for the lack of atmosphere at the Datsun-League games compared to Yoorup; isn’t that up to us fans to generate? Or are these fans the ones who’d rather eat prawn sandwiches while soaking up the Old Trafford atmosphere created by others?

If you have decided to make Brisbane your home, stop dreaming about what you once had and start living in the present. Come to the games, stand up and sing loud.

The orange clad team with a stupid moniker are not meant to replace your original love, and at the beginning attendance might not be as more than an interested observer – it’s hard to become a ‘right proper’ fan with a club less than four years old overnight. But your Liverpool or Milan were once only a toddler club of four years of age. Just like the affection for the team grew on your great grandfathers; your affections will grow for the quaint little franchise from colonial Brisbane. Football is more than the 22 men kicking the ball. It’s the shared experiences and the bonding with your fellow football tragics. At some point in the future, with some effort on your behalf they will become your team.

We in Brisbane have a blank canvas on which to paint our football culture and traditions. No one has come before to paint it for us. We are here, and now. Not in Europe in the past. It’s not possible to get the bus to Anfield and stand on the Kop; but it is possible to buy your ticket to the Southern End of Lang Park and still physically yell and sing as loudly as you could in Liverpool.

In three seasons the derogatory banter with Sydney and the pre-match watering holes on the Caxton Street have been established. Sure our team is still shit when compared to those big, glamourous clubs in Yoorup – but so what? Since when has being shit stopped fans from supporting their team; true fans that is. The ones there for the bad times to tell the tales of 3rd Division survival to those bandwagoners who join in just for the cup finals. Do you, sitting on your lounge chair really feel the joy of winning the European Cup? Does that club really represent you, where you live?

How can someone who’s never been to Barcelona (or Manchester or London) really call themselves a Barcelona supporter? Would you be embarrassed to tell a scouser that you are a Liverpool supporter if you had absolutely no connection to the city of Liverpool at all? The Mancs probably feel the same too and get completely fucked off with blow-ins who aren’t from Manchester taking their tickets.

There is no reason not to adopt sympathy for a foreign club. Many Aussies have becomes fans of Leeds, Aston Villa, Liverpool and other clubs because of Australian players who have earnt their wages at these clubs. There’s no shame in wanting to see Barcelona win because you enjoy watching Messi play, but the fact remains football is far better experienced in person than on the telly. Why not get your arse down to Lang Park to watch the local lads run about in the hope of one day getting a proper job in Europe?

If you can drag yourself out of bed at some god-forsaken time of the morning to watch one of the ‘Big Four’ play in the BarclayCard Premier League ™ and buy the overpriced new strip made in a Chinese sweat shop, why can’t you get on a bus and support your local Datsun-League club?

Go to watch some football, yell and scream, have a drink with mates and cause some shenanigans in the process. Your great-grand kids will thank you for creating the football culture and traditions that they will adopt.

Someone has to create the time honoured traditions of those football clubs so envied they are supported by those from the other side of the world. That someone is you. See you at the Southern End, or even better on Caxton Street before the game. Drink up!

Stormin_Norman is a writer for the Northern Element. The Northern Element are a group of football supporters in Brisbane who follow the Queensland Roar, and are more interested in the drinking and singing aspects of the football culture than the commercial form of the game on offer.

This article originally appeared on the Northern Element website and has provoked much discussion throughout the land.

Photo credit: Maj… ick on Flickr via the84thminute photo pool.