Support.

Sport As a fair weather friend of sport, I'm always grasping around for who to support whenever there are athletes or teams which aren't British or English or otherwise reveal my nationalistic tendencies. After many years of study, I've finally decided on the following policy. Essentially, it's supporting the closest land mass.

(1) City. So Liverpool or if it's football Everton. Liverpudlian athletes if there's a group of people from the national team.

(2) County. Merseyside.

(3) Region. North-West for me. Unless it's Manchester United in which case you support whichever team is playing them.

(4) Country. England.

(5) Sovereign Nation - so during these Commonwealth Games, if it's Wales versus someone else, support Wales. Though I'll support Scotland over Wales because of my surname. Such things are very complicated.

(6) Continent. Europe.

(7) Hemisphere. Which is the Western Hemisphere or Northern Hemisphere for me, depending, which makes it ok to support the Americans.

(8) Planet. Just in case.

Which is fine. Except I was cheering Scotland's Hannah Miley earlier against the English swimmer. Also it becomes trickier if both nations are from the same continent at which point the whole thing becomes a nonsense as I choose France over Germany or Japan over China for arbitrary reasons. Sometimes I'll invoke a "commonwealth" rule.  Oh and underdogs.  Always support the underdogs.