From about the closest 50 friends and family I know in Manchester, most of them are football fans of either City or United, and about 41 of them don’t go to the Etihad or Old Trafford.
It feels like the culture of going to the game has changed massively in this city, almost disappeared.
I know 6 City ST holders and 3 United ST holders out of around 50 of my closest f&fs. Two decades ago, of that group, more than half of that 50 of us were ST holders at City. Many were die-hard home+away, when we were shit, Blues.
For both the 2011 FA Cup semi and final, we filled a coach with just mates without having to advertise it anywhere. We even had to let some know we were full and they’d have to find another way down, such was the demand.
In recent years, there have been semis where I’ve gone down on my own on National Express because nobody else I knew was going. There have been finals where we’ve not been able to book a minibus because we couldn’t get the numbers and a handful of us have been able to go in one car.
This is probably similar for many groups of friends+family across Manchester. We have become a conurbation of arcmchair supporters, with most football fans in this city watching at home because going to the ground isn’t on the cards for people.
How has this been allowed to happen? How can the club have done this to our support?
We were known as the most loyal supporters in the country. Anywhere you went, up and down the country, holidays abroad, as soon as we said we were City fans we got immediate respect because of the way we were viewed as a set of fans. Now we are ridiculed for being shit fans, it’s almost embarrassing to admit you’re a City fan due to the lack of respect we have as a fanbase these days.
Our fanbase should have been sacrosanct to the club, it should have been the #1 thing the club should have looked after and cherished because it was a bigger asset to the club than anything else.
Mansour’s early doors Mission Statement to fans made me feel like we wouldn’t go down the United route of having a fanbase with no identity, just a worldwide bunch of nobodies. I thought that we were going to keep our identity and we’d be looked after.
A few things Mansour said (if it was really him who wrote it and not just some publicist):
‘My request to [Al Mubarak] has been to put together a board and executive team that is worthy of the heritage and potential of Manchester City’.
‘…we will absolutely spend time listening to you the fans about what you think about the future of the club. We are very aware that without you there would not be a club to buy, and your voice will be heard by the organisation at the highest level’.
‘We are aware also that the club has a significant role in the community going back years. As newcomers, we don’t pretend to understand all of this yet, but we will make sincere efforts to back these initiatives and ensure that Manchester City loses none of its role in Manchester beyond football and we want the club to continue to contribute to the community it represents’.
‘I am a football fan, and I hope that you will soon see that I am now also a Manchester City fan. But I am also a long-term investor and that is probably more important to the club and to you because it means we are here for the long haul and that we will act always in the best interests of the club and all of its stakeholders, but especially you the fans’.
Ha!
You’re having a fucking laugh, pretty much none of that has happened!
The latchers-on to City’s success were inevitable, of course. However, the total lack of remembering the ‘heritage’ of City, spending time listening to fans, being aware that without us there’d be no club, being active in all parts of our conurbation, having ticketing initiatives for local fans to enhance the importance of Manchester and Mancunians… was not inevitable. It was the opposite of what the Mission Statement said.
Entering the European Super League, releasing statements by Joel Glazer, not saying anything to back up City fans after Istanbul (not even to the fans, never mind UEFA), and, of course, pricing out fans whether by constantly putting season ticket prices up or having unrealistic matchticket prices for a predominantly working class Manchester fanbase… is not showing that they will act ‘always in the best interests of…especially you the fans’.
They haven’t done anything differently than United. We’ve just become ‘Man U’ in Blue. United’s match going fanbase of a load of latchers-on while the locals are priced out and forgotten about but with sky blue branding.
The German clubs have highlighted that the way Premier League clubs operate is not needed. Bayern have recently smashed their record revenue figures, and they didn’t do it by pricing out their core support and making their worldwide fanbase a priority.
Even Liverpool have ticketing initiatives for people with an ‘L’ post code and their child Premier League matchday tickets are £9 in all stands other than the new Anfield Road tier.
Mansour’s words there have been proven to mean absolutely fuck all. Mancunian City fans are not important to this club. The Manchester name means nothing anymore. We might as well be called Moon City FC and play our games around the world like Forumla 1 takes each race around the world.
They’ve run this club with only the interests of creating a faceless passionless worldwide fanbase. You see it with the trophy tours they put on whenever we win anything; these trophies are never seen in Wythenshawe, Altrincham, Stockport… if we’re lucky we’ve had one afternoon with them in the city centre store before they go on trips around the world for months on end. I’ve not seen a City presence in Wythenshawe in any way shape or form for fucking ages! You wouldn’t know City existed in Wythenshawe if you didn’t have a smartphone, tablet or laptop… and I bet that’s the case for many areas around our conurbation.
This strive for worldwide fans has lead to what’s going on in the stands and incidents like this yesterday. The constant increasing of ticket tout partners and number of tickets around the stadium where any Tom, Dick or Harry can purchase tickets in the City home ends (despite City’s own Ts&Cs stating that away fans cannot purchase tickets in the home stands… I know this because I’ve read them to the club over the phone when complaining about away fans in the home stands!) whether they’re City fans, daytrippers, neutrals or rabid supporters of the away team have seen many incidents flare up over recent years: Arsenal fans getting a pasting the other year because they goaded Blues in our own seats when Califiori scored, our biggest rivals United and Liverpool fans openly supporting their team even wearing colours without a care in the world, Liverpool fan getting a twatted in the South Stand last season…
A City fan got a pasting yesterday, but I’m telling you now something serious is going to happen soon. Someone is going to get seriously hurt in our ground, or worse! All the ingredients are there and all it takes is a bad fall after a scuffle and someone has permanent damage or could die. And it is all on the club and their ticketing initiatives. There are far too many away fans buying tickets in the home stands and hospitality sections. There should be none! as per their own Ts&Cs. The club will blame fans, ban fans, even out out a statement condemning fans’ behaviour… but it’ll be their fault!
And all this will just alienate even more proper core Blues who will get to a point of having enough of it all and will stop going to games.
