Why I support Spain over Brazil or Argentina in the World Cup
As the prospect of a Bangladeshi football team making it to the world cup remains a distant dream, our football fans have taken this opportunity to support national teams that they identify with most in either footballing or cultural sense. That's why Bangladeshi football fan base consists almost exclusively of Argentina and Brazil fans thanks to their successes and fan following over the years. But on the other hand, the extremely biased views and frequent negativity have made many football fans to choose other teams to support, just like I have chosen to support Spain, and not Brazil or Argentina.
My support for Spain started from around 2018, when they had been passing a rather bad time. They crashed out of the world cup of 2018 rather meekly and the whole team seemed in shambles. From then on, I started following the team closely and could identify with them the way they came back from years of slumber and are becoming a force to be reckoned with, reaching the semi-final of Euro 2020 and the final of nation's league, and making a strong case for this year's World cup.
I would like to say that all fandoms have their positive and negative aspects. I have family and friends who are big fans of both Argentina and Brazil and know fans that are always fair with their views regarding their favourite teams. So, I have the ultimate respect for the real fans, whether they watch their teams regularly or seasonally.
But it's the attitude from the toxic set of fans, those who claim to be the biggest fans once in every four years in times of world cup, and then fade into the background and go into a slumber for the next four years, their constant negative attitudes like trolling the other fan base with abuse, insults when they lose and then become violent themselves if they are on the receiving end, doesn't paint a nice picture of the football fans.
Alongside my journey, one thing that I had to face a lot from these set of toxic fans, is why I don't support either of them! Also hearing things like "why would you watch any other team play? Football means Brazil/Argentina!" or getting called a 'glory hunter' for supporting Spain because of their success from 2008 to 2012, which I find ironic given the fact how many would be actually supporting either team without the world cup trophies!
It's disappointing to see people who barely knows the name of any other player besides Messi and Neymar, be more interested in trolling each other with the '7 Up' debacle of Brazil Germany or how that same team defeated them too, expresses their disappoint in me for not following either Brazil or Argentina!
It's because of these reasons that I just can't get myself to even be invested about these two teams' matches anymore, which is a shame as undoubtedly these two are the pinnacle of world class footballing talents and culture.
Football is a great tool for uniting people, as during times of world cup, we see how the whole world comes together. That's why this culture of entitled toxicity needs to be stopped, and I appeal to the toxic 'fans' of these two teams; learn from the best supporters of your own team. Only then you can earn respect from the whole football community.