When ‘who do you support?’ is a proxy for ‘who are you?’, the debate can be especially personal for football fans during the World Cup
Clad in an American national team jersey on the eve of the first US-less World Cup since 1986, Karla Cantu pondered who to follow this summer. So did other members of the Laredo chapter of the American Outlaws supporters’ group. They decided to allocate temporary loyalty via lottery. “We can’t come to a consensus. We’re going to do a draw,” she said.
Broadcasters have a commercial incentive to urge bereft Americans to watch Mexico in Russia and the demographic, cultural and geographic ties are obvious. But when “who do you support?” is a proxy for “who are you?”, the debate can be especially personal and complex – especially on a frontier that has become a playing field for nationalistic political games.
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