supermario
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 18 Aug 2010
- Messages
- 601
shaiomarali said:well I can vouch for Brunei, and maybe South east asia as i used to travel alot.
around 15 years ago I am positive i was the only person in Brunei, or even more so in the island of Borneo to wear City colours and for that matter support City. i played a lot of friendly football and kickabouts and there'll be rag shirts worn by almost everyone. my team had the Japanese Kashima Antlers kit as our team kit. but as a goalkeeper I had our eidos or brother kits on and to be honest not many knew of Manchester City. leeds, newcastle and blackburn had bigger supporters back then and everyone was a glory hunter.
fast forward now, I see an equal number of sky blues being worn in the streets. some if not most are knockoffs which is a common issue in the region.
and when City did the Asian tour, it definitely drew new followers.
but i have a sense that some tend to support whoever is the current top team. i doubt they have kept their allegiance in the dark until after when we won the league. so yes we are picking up our fair share of glory hunters too, me included if being non-local is a gauge of one's support. But i believe the angle of our direction, which is on longterm community club playing attractive football and our overall grand plan, as opposed to exploiting consumerism, is the right way in making followers eventual die-hard supporters.
City is becoming quite big in south east asia though I have been out of the region for a while now.
Yes definitely agree with you I was out there for a year and as you say the club have been marketing themselves very well. The market is huge and only going to expand.
Taking over NY and Melbourne will only increase the stature and I assume there will be more acquisitions.