I am from Europe and this looks almost surreal for me. It is unheard of here that team simply packs players and go to other city. Sport culture and sport business so different in USA.
And yes, both of those examples are of clubs moving from one place in London to another. But if you live in Woolwich, your club might as well move to the moon as Highbury.
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I mean, it's pretty necessary for the context of what the OP is saying. Americans say "As an American" less often because they just assume everyone is an American in the first place. I'm not sure that's better and, come on, it's not like Americans aren't capable of smugness now, is it?
Anyway, you guys have almost exactly the same behavior in UEFA teams
Do they? I'm certainly not aware of any, and the lack of franchising makes the whole situation different (a team will very, very rarely ever move city. It's basically unheard of).
And yes, I agree the original comment was flippant. But citing fan racism in soccer isn't exactly raising the tone either.