View Full Version : Football Teams & Religious/Cultural Roots


themagicwand
09-02-2006, 15:05
OK, so following on from another thread we know this much:
Rangers - protestant/unionist
Celtic - catholic
Hibs - catholic
Hearts - protestant
Liverpool - doesn't matter anymore but once upon a time catholic
Everton - doesn't matter anymore but once upon a time protestant
Manchester United - doesn't matter etc. but catholic
Manchester City - doesn't matter etc but protestant

I also know:

Arsenal - Irish/Afro-caribbean
Tottenham Hotspur - Jewish

Anyone got any more???

floyd77
09-02-2006, 15:39
I would say about the protestant / catholic issue - when it comes to english teams they dont so much have links to either proddy or tim, but seem to be lumbered with what the Rangers or Celtic fans label them as.

eg. Most ManU or City fans couldnt give a toss about Rangers or Celtic, nor would most of them consider that by being a certain religion they should support one or the other. Mentalist Rangers or Celtic fans will however find some tenious connection with their respective team or religion, and it is thus labelled as a Catholic or Protestant team.
I would argue that Rangers and Celtic are the only teams where this is an issue - not even hearts and hibs, as I think they just suffer from having two teams in the same city (which is close to Glasgow) and therfore get the fallout that one must be proddy, one must be catholic - to a certain degree this may be true, but nowhere near the levels of the old firm.

daverity
09-02-2006, 15:51
Regarding Liverpool and Everton, the story about Catholic and Protestant is a highly suspect one. I don't know whether you know how the two teams came into being but the story goes like this;

Everton (formerly St Domingo's) were formed first in the shape of a church team for St Domingo's Methodist chapel. After playing at various locations for several years, they went on to play their home games at Anfield. This continued until sometime in the 1890's (I'd have to check the date but think 1892) when a dispute over the amount of rent paid on Anfield caused them to leave and move to the site they are still at today, Goodison Park.

This left the owner of Anfield and a few others remaining from the original Everton FC to decide to form a rival club and continue to use Anfield; this club we now know as Liverpool FC. Support, as I mentioned in an earlier post, has never been really on sectarian lines, more on which district of the city you live in etc.

As far as any other clubs with religious beginnings, the only one I can think of is QPR which originally was called St. Judes but I haven't a clue what religion it was.

Hopman
09-02-2006, 15:54
What about St Mirren?

timo
09-02-2006, 20:29
She's a good actress, very attractive for her age. I have 'Prime Suspect' on DVD.