American learns to be careful what you wear to Premier League match

The most popular sports item in Britain’s biggest newspaper this weekend wasn’t about Liverpool’s surrendering three late goals or Andy Murray’s rise to world No. 1 or the England rugby team’s destruction of Australia.

It was an American student who wore the wrong — or depending how you look at it, right — choice of clothing to an English Premier League game.

Emily Rogawski, a New Yorker currently studying sports psychology at John Moores University in Liverpool, turned up at Sunday’s Everton-Manchester United match wearing a jacket with the crest of her favorite team, Chelsea.

While it might be perfectly acceptable to wear a neutral team’s gear at sporting event in the U.S. it is not in the U.K.

When Rogawski’s face appeared on the television broadcast it sparked a flurry of online chatter and a chain of events that saw her featured all across the British media, including top seller The Sun, and become the subject of news stories in at least 25 countries and nine languages.

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“It's definitely a bit bizarre seeing my pictures everywhere in languages I don't understand,” she told USA TODAY Sports in an email conversation on Monday. “And I just have a laugh at any comments made that I don't know my football.”

Rogawski plays for the John Moores women’s team and hopes for a career in the sports field. While some fans outside Everton’s Goodison Park stadium wondered “Is she lost?” and the expected wave of social media unpleasantness swiftly erupted, she said the reaction had been predominantly positive.

“I was just there as a fan of the beautiful game who wanted to see a good football match and some extraordinary players,” she said. “I love studying the game and I think you learn more from attending matches in person. I didn't realize it was so uncommon for people to attend games as a neutral fan just enjoying the sport. I think the fans there understood that I meant no disrespect and that I was there to enjoy a good match.”

Rogawski’s move to England was prompted by a wish for a change of scenery after being involved in a car accident as a freshman at St. John’s University in New York. She has been a devout fan of Chelsea, as well as the U.S. women’s and Germany men’s national teams since childhood. She was drawn to Chelsea when the London-based club signed German superstar Michael Ballack in 2006.

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While she has attended several games in England, this weekend provided a useful cultural lesson. English soccer is ferociously tribal — it is rare, though not unheard of for rival fans to attend other games, but wearing the colors when your team is not involved is definitely frowned upon.

“(Soccer) is most definitely an overwhelming part of the culture here,” Rogawski added. “People are so passionate about their clubs, unlike anything I've ever seen. I think compared to the U.S., usually if you're a soccer fan it’s because you grew up playing … then you supported a team. In the U.K. supporting a club usually comes first. That's why it was so difficult for people to grasp the concept of a Chelsea fan coming out to watch a match that Chelsea was not playing in.”