However, as the sport continues to grow and reach new audiences, we are seeing differing takes on what it is to be fan.
There are many who support a top-tier side and also a local team further down the footballing pyramid.
Many fans also keep a close eye on a chosen team from another major European league. Then there are those who prefer certain players to clubs and so might switch who they support based on a transfer. This could be compared to those who might follow a Formula 1 driver and so would focus on whichever team they were currently driving for.
Yet for those who consider themselves football purists there can only ever be space in their heart for one team.
But ironically for Manchester United fan Steve it is a full heart that is central to why he turned his back on the club he had supported for decades – Manchester United.
“My first game was in 1978, at home against Spurs. Most of my family are [Manchester] City fans but all my friends supported United, so I had to choose between being popular at home or at school,” he says.
“In the end I choose school because I didn’t want to be bullied.”
Steve eventually became a season ticket holder and says he did not miss a match for 47 years. All that changed on 24 May 2017 when Manchester United beat Ajax 2-0 in Stockholm.
“We were so lucky as United fans going through the [Sir Alex] Ferguson era, chasing titles and then building on that and trying to get to the next level of winning European trophies,” Steve says.
“I’d seen them win every single trophy, FA Cups in the 70s and 80s, the Cup Winners Cup in ’91, Premier League titles and, of course, the Champions League in 1999.
“I always said that if United won the Europa League – the only trophy I’d never seen them win – I’d pack it in. So when they did that night in Sweden, it felt like the last piece of the jigsaw had been completed.
“When you finish a jigsaw you can either look at it and enjoy, or you can smash it up and start again. I didn’t want to start again.”
