Most European Clubs were built upon community and bonding amongst supporters lines.
It could be religious / ethnic / economic/ geographical / political.
Booming economy of Great Britain during Victorian Times brought workers from places like Ireland (catholic) to Protestant England.
Big Cities were able to accomodate multiple clubs.
Glasgow - Catholic Celtics vs Protestant Rangers
Liverpool FC was Protestant while Everton was Catholic.
This led to fierce rivalry and clashes amonst supporters.
In smaller cities with only one club, clubs got aligned to professions like coal miners, textile workers, railway workers etc.
Americans wanted to end this system of ethnic bonding as they preferred complete corporate control of sports.
During First World war, they noticed that public took sides based on their ethnicity. There were Germans, Poles, Italian, Irish Americans studying in their native language schools, reading German / italian newspapers,supporting their community clubs etc They wanted to Americanise the entire population- so they dismantled the ethnicity based sports teams , American model promoted the idea of city based Franchise which could be sold to a Corporate. Problem in such a model is that few big people get a monopoly. No place for small clubs or ethnic bonding amongst supporters !!!
They could be from Uranus for all I care! I support only East Bengal club, no love for any other football club, Indian or foreign. Have special dislike for Mohan Bagan and MSC.
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