Pluralisation of sports teams in British and American English [duplicate]

Why do British and American English differ in this respect:

British

Southampton are eyeing up a ready-made replacement for Luke Shaw

American

Southampton is eyeing up a ready-made replacement for Luke Shaw

American sports journalism differs in their reference to teams. The American style is to treat the team as singular, whereas the British use plurals.

What are the rules in other variants of English (Aus, NZ etc.)?

Solution 1:

There is the common difference around collective nouns between American and British usage, but there is something interesting about this case in particular. American team names often (with very few exceptions) have a plural nick name which people refer to using plurals. So, Americans will say

The Yankees win

but

New York wins

Even though "Yankees" and "New York" refer to the same club. So, Americans distinguish between the team and the members on the team and change pluralization accordingly.