Well, what a few days? I know fans are rightly angry about what’s happened and I share those frustrations. It’s been a tough few days and for some the realisation has dawned that football fans are not at the forefront of the minds of CEOs and owners. There are many of us on Bluemoon who have seen much of this before (that doesn’t make it less painful) and so I just want to add a small amount of historical perspective to this. I’m not trying to say we should feel different or anything, I’m just trying to add a bit of our own history.
many of us lived through the Swales Out protests which started in 1979 (I previously wrote that they started in 82-83 but research for my Peter Barnes biography has found evidence of a demo in 1979 against Swales). In the 70s our own Secretary, Bernard Halford, called for fans to be birched if they invaded the pitch or demonstrated so - from my point of view - from that point on I’ve always seen a gap between us fans and those in temporary custodianship of our club.
We were treated abysmally for decades (not just by our directors but by wider football governance, the Govt & the media) with fences erected; over zealous control of our actions at grounds; lack of information; mysterious attendance figures (where did that money go?); stereotyping etc.
As a response we created fanzines; worked with other clubs’ fans (various campaigns against ID cards; all seater; fencing; Hillsborough response etc.); and tried to challenge our leaders. We held demonstrations, protests, sit ins, candle light protests and more but little changed.
I once interviewed Swales who admitted that he always knew protests would die down if a few games were won (he was wrong but it shows how we were viewed - ‘I’ll carry on regardless, they’ll get bored’ - and I think some of that thinking still persists at LFC and MUFC).
In 2007 the day after we’d been beaten by Blackburn in the FAC qtr final I was in a meeting at MCFC where a head of dept was complaining about fans saying ‘we need a whole set of new fans. These are too negative. They should be happy we reached the FAC Qtr final!’ Obviously, I and others challenged that view but it shows how fans were viewed then, before the money and the glory (that staff member had gone by the time of the takeover).
There have been lots of attempts at breakaways in the past, usually with MUFC, LFC, THFC at the centre of it but occasionally with EFC & others. In the late 80sand early 90s what became the Premier League was proposed and the debates rumbled on for years. We became part of it but it was Arsenal & Spurs who pushed more than most for it.
fans of most clubs were totally against it and it was initially suggested it would be a closed shop with no promotion etc. It was as a result of fans, and other clubs that it eventually had promotion/relegation.
There was widespread protest against the PL - we lost that one and our chairman loved taking us into this brave new era as he called it. Neither he nor City benefitted from it though (though we have since the money arrived of course).
in 1996 MUFC & Bayern Munich (yes the team we’re now all supposed to look up to!) met with other leading Euro clubs to create a closed shop Euro League. MCFC were not considered and so as fans we didn’t get too bothered by it, but it could’ve happened.
Anyway, I could go on but I guess what I’m trying to say is that the ESL is the latest in a long line of moves by football club leaders that have angered fans. We shouldn’t forget what’s happened but we shouldn’t let this kill off our love of MCFC. For years many of us would cheer City on in games then leg it round to the forecourt for our post match demo. It was a regular and fairly normal occurrence which many Blues on here will remember.
As fans we must always remember that we are the true custodians of our club. CEOs come and go. Occasionally we get one who understands us; often we don’t.