Which Club Do You Have an Irrational Dislike For?

Football fandom is built on passion, history, and, occasionally, pure irrationality. In a nod to Bavarian Football Works community member Markopolo—whose inexplicable disdain for Werder Bremen borders on legendary—the question has been posed to supporters everywhere: which club triggers an immediate eye-roll, despite the absence of any meaningful rivalry?

For Bayern Munich fans, the exercise is especially revealing. Accustomed to being cast as the villain by rival fan bases, Bayern supporters also nurse their own private grievances, many of them immune to logical explanation. Inside Germany, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig are the obvious targets, but those enmities are anchored in genuine sporting tension and philosophical debates about tradition, finance, and identity. The irritant being sought here lies elsewhere—clubs like Werder Bremen or VfL Wolfsburg, whose mere presence on the fixture list can spark disproportionate annoyance.

Venture beyond the Bundesliga and the list of irrational irritants grows longer. Real Madrid’s Champions League pedigree commands respect, yet their habit of eliminating Bayern in dramatic circumstances has left scars that refuse to fade. Chelsea’s stubborn resilience in European knockout ties evokes a similar shudder. Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, and even FC Barcelona all appear on the rogue’s gallery for reasons that range from playing style to social-media run-ins, from nouveau-riche aesthetics to memories of heartbreak that linger long after the final whistle.

What unites these dislikes is their refusal to conform to reason. They are born of accumulated micro-moments: a contentious refereeing call, an over-exuberant celebration, a pundit’s throwaway line. Over time these fragments coalesce into a low-grade antipathy that endures season after season. In the rarefied air where Bayern Munich operate, every European night leaves an emotional residue; every opponent becomes both a measuring stick and a potential source of future irritation.

Ultimately, the exercise underscores a simple truth: football is as much about emotion as it is about tactics or trophies. Supporting a superclub means accepting that irrational dislikes are part of the package, a reminder that even the most successful sides are not immune to the quirks of human sentiment. After all, if every reaction were governed by logic, the game would lose the very unpredictability that makes it irresistible.