I come from a very small country that is remarkably shit at football. In order to have a good football career the players can't stay in this league. So everyone kinda pulls together for the national team as there are no rival players to hate or any good club football but of course people aren't overly interested as the team sucks. There's just so long you can tolerate another 0-0 against some other minnow and losing 5-0 to any half decent team. The stadium is only full when a big international team visits.
I support City more as there is no real hope of international team achieveing anything but if my country produced some remarkable golden generation I think it would become top. Even getting to a world cup for my country would be nothing short of a miracle and I'm sure people can understand the kind of emotion that would bring.