[SALFORD RED]

They'll Only Miss Us Once We've Gone

What is it that Guinness advert proclaims? "All good things come to those who wait". Well the Footballing Authorities may not have to wait too much longer until their transition of the game is complete. To rid the game of the bad and populate it only with the good. No more rowdy behaviour, no more rebels of society daring to stand up and make their feelings known, no more problems.

Their ideals consist of fans turning up every week, queuing to gain entry in an orderly fashion, having booked their tickets 3 months in advance. Entering the stadium and taking their seats, rising only to applaud goals where they dance along to carefully selected music over the PA, before clearing up their litter and disappearing into the countryside until the following weekend. No hassle, no passion, no noise.

As the game I know and love becomes more diluted by the passing year, I often wonder just when the breaking point will come. When will those authorised with sanitising our game realise the error of their ways? Or can they not actually see that they are breaking the very foundations of what has made this sport a success? Pound signs blur their vision, seen all too often in every walk of life. Greed takes over, people want more. They've exhausted the Premier League "brand" and now have visions of taking it further afield; the infamous "Game 39". Translated to you and me, meaning they have milked pretty much every penny they can from the "consumers" in this country, and now want to tap into the pockets of those football hungry consumers overseas. All in the name of expanding the pockets of the shareholders, players and governing bodies of our sport. Our sport, not theirs.

If I rewind 7 or 8 years; I'm leaving the house on a matchday and making my way to Old Trafford. There was no need to ring around in the morning; I'd just turn up and walk into one of two or three pubs around the ground, and would bump into people I knew. You knew where everyone would drink, and had done for years. The same faces, the people that made this club what it is. I can pop my head into those same pubs now, and I wouldn't recognise a soul. Those long standing supporters have now all but disappeared, replaced by families from all over, decked out in official replica sportswear and taking pictures of anything that moves. There's a smaller crowd of us left and tend to keep out of the way. We don't conform. Those areas around the ground have now been taken over by the new brigade, while the old guard retreat to pastures further afield.

Year after year, more and more people are dropping away. There's still a hardcore of a few hundred that travel everywhere. There's still thousands that go to every home game just like they always have. But it's becoming harder and harder for these people to carry on. Supporters being replaced by consumers. Participants being replaced by spectators. Just how much higher can the bar be raised by the controlling bodies before they've pushed away everyone that gave the game it's appeal in the first place? What happens when the passion disappears for good? You can't manufacture passion, no matter how hard some clubs try.

They have mascots running up and down the touchline trying to encourage the fans. At Bolton they play "I feel good" when they score, with two young lads running the length of the pitch with big flags. Music played after goals is now commonplace, as if fans don't know how to celebrate a goal by themselves. Is it because they realise the passion is dead and are trying to hang onto a small semblence of it? Or is it aimed at manufacturing a friendly atmosphere to suit their agenda?

Manufactured support; I can't think of anything worse. Handing out those clappers seems to be the next step this season, with the whole of St.Andrews clapping along with them before their opening game. This in a ground that used to be known as one of the most passionate and hostile in football; now transformed into a childrens play ground with everybody doing as they are told. Sat down and singing what the club want them to sing, and clapping when they want them to clap. So sad. Ticket prices on the increase there every season, and a ground I now refuse to visit. £40 for an away ticket some 4 years ago. No thanks. It doesn't take a genius to work out why they barely fill half of that ground any more.

Newcastle had their lowest league attendance for nearly a decade at the weekend, with cash turnstiles in operation, entry for £10 if you bought a replica shirt and other such promotions, but still had thousands of empty seats. Manchester United have been contacting everybody on their mailing lists trying to push season ticket sales again this summer. Whereas Old Trafford used to be like Fort Knox when it came to getting in, they're now closer to resembling one of the happy hour bars in Benidorm, with teenagers stood outside handing out cards with promotional offers to encourage trade. What was once a closed shop, is now opening it's doors and trying to drag people in off the streets.

Is the football bubble about to burst? I hope so.

On Monday night, Portsmouth's most famous fan, the bell ringer with the blue hair, or less commonly known as "John", was approached by the ground staff at Fratton Park and asked to keep the noise down. I'm sure it's not only me that's absolutely staggered by that. Asked to stop ringing his bell and keep the noise down, in a football ground! The mind boggles. But it's another notch on the many that have been made previously, in slowly sanitising the way we support our teams.
We are told we're not allowed to stand up as it's unsafe; yet rugby sides play in exactly the same stadia and those rules don't apply. Apparently it's safe for rugby fans to stand in those same seated areas, but not football fans (the reasons for that I could write a book on, and will address again). It's madness. They're also allowed to drink in their seats while watching the game. I know of a fan that was facing a 3 year football banning after peering over the exits at White Hart Lane to catch a goal he'd missed when coming down early at half time. He'd walked down the steps, was handed a pint by a friend, and heard the roar from the stands. He went halfway back up the steps to see what had happened, when two officers arrested him for consuming alcohol in view of the playing surface. It defies belief. But I'm told we're different. As our friend from Portsmouth has pointed out this week; would this sort of discrimination be accepted anywhere else, or by anyone else, but football fans?

I was on a final warning in my old season ticket seat for foul and abusive language. I was reported by fellow fans for swearing, and risked losing my season ticket. Now in that seat, I was reserved, very reserved. It was on the halfway line and not a noise was made all season by anyone. They were spectators, I'm a participant, or like to be. I want to go to the game and let off some steam. I go to work to pay the bills, put a roof over the family heads, and to enjoy myself during my time off. I choose to do that at the football, something I've grown up with. It's always been a part of who I am. But in that seat, I had to control myself and just sit and watch the game, conforming to those around me for over 7 years. I must have sworn a handful of times in that entire period, when telling the referee where to go or some other trivial slip of the tongue. Yet I faced losing my season ticket and not being able to support my side over it. I was one swear word away from walking away from the game for good. If this was in a family enclosure I'd understand. I know when swearing is unacceptable, and in my view, a football ground is one of those places where it fits.

When I go to the match, I want to stand with fellow fans, my friends. I want to participate in the game, I want to support the side. I want to shout and I want to sing. I want to do the things that made me fall in love with the game and going to the match. But one by one, the authorities are trying to take all those things out of our game. To have us sat in silence, only singing when they want us to sing, and singing the songs they want us to sing. Blaring music over the PA system we are supposed to dance along to. We're unable to create an atmosphere ourselves it seems. For the future, see American sports for how it will go. Club issue foam hands can already be seen, dancing girls have been tried, the list goes on.
Keep sanitising; you'll soon be wondering where it all went wrong, when the very people that made this game what it is, have all long since disappeared. There's not many of us left. Soon there will be none.

Enjoy modern football. Enjoy scratching your heads in some plush office arguing with each other about who's to blame when the crowds start to stay away. I'll be long past the caring stage. You'll have brought it upon yourselves and destroyed a game loved by millions in the process. I hope it's worth it.

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[SALFORD RED]

FC take a United front
Stuart Brennan


CHRISTMAS comes every Saturday afternoon for supporters of rebel club FC United.

Three years ago, the club was in its infancy, surrounded by enemies and cynics. One of the snipers, was former Manchester United player Alan Gowling who declared on Radio Manchester that the whole thing would be "over by Christmas".

Three promotions, two league titles and two cups later, the phrase has become a rallying point and a catchphrase among FC fans, many of whom wear T-shirts bearing those ill-informed words.

Over 1,000 supporters headed to Buxton at the weekend to bask in the sun and bathe in the achievement of reaching the Unibond League Premier Division - and the players responded by racking up the club's first win at the higher level.

The club was born out of many things - disillusionment with the whining and preening of superstar players who care little for the empty pockets of their fans; anger at the cynical exploitation of fan loyalty by the men in grey suits; and sorrow at the sterilisation of a rich Old Trafford culture, with old, established fans forced out to make way for those with more money to spend but less Red in their hearts.

The Glazer takeover was the last straw for many, but the inception of FC United has ensured that out of the heartache and turmoil of the battle against the takeover, something worthwhile and inspirational has emerged.

The fans at Buxton at the weekend were unrepentant at their decision, despite the fact that "big" United have won two league titles and the Champions League in the intervening period.

The spectre of debt, made more worrying by the global credit crunch, added to ticket price hikes, automatic cup schemes and other commercial decisions, has - FC fans believe - fully vindicated their decision to withdraw their financial support for the Glazers.

The message is often misunderstood. FC United supporters are, largely, still United fans, and cheer every win and every trophy that rolls into Old Trafford, but choose not to be a part of the financial game.

The shifting of kick-off times for the needs of TV means that they rarely miss watching a Manchester United game through going to FC, often in a Bury pub, before or after FC's 3pm kick off.

"I was becoming disillusioned at Old Trafford before the takeover," says Andy Brennan of Stockport. "I was fed up with the attitude of fans around me, who felt United had a given right to be winning every game within 20 minutes of kick off.

"I moved my seat to the Stretford End, but I remember clapping the players off after a game against Middlesbrough and nearly ended up in a fight with a guy who took exception because he was frustrated at how we had played. He was a day tripper and had no idea.

"FC is much more on my level. I love the fact that all the money that comes into the club stays in the club. I began by going to both United and FC, but gradually drifted away from Old Trafford because I enjoyed FC so much.

"The Champions League final was a weird experience. I watched it with lads who love United, and still go. I celebrated, but still felt a bit removed from it all."

Frank Dormer from Harpurhey says FC "is the best thing since the days of Tommy Doc in the 70s".

"It has all the good things about those days - the support, the fun, the banter, but without the violence.


"In those days, all the kids I knew from Moston, Harpurhey, Collyhurst and Miles Platting used to go to Old Trafford, but you just don't see it any more.

"FC reminds me of those days when we had a community at United, people who got on together and knew what it was all about. Going to the match is about being part of that community, as much as it is about the football."

Ross McDougal is a Scot who used to follow United home and away from Edinburgh. Now he follows FC, and has moved to Victoria Park to be closer to the club and the friends he has made through it.

"I have no regrets at all," he says. "Sometimes I miss the standard of football, but I can always watch United in the pub anyway, and the atmosphere is usually better anyway. If people think we have turned our backs on United, that is their problem. We haven't walked away from United, but from the greed at Old Trafford and in top-flight football in general.

"Someone had to make that stand. But there are people who just can't see what is happening, and will just keep on paying whatever they are asked to pay.

"I was overjoyed when we won the Champions League. I watched it in the Palace Hotel, and we celebrated big time."

Chris Stamp from Heaton Moor, says his kids were a driving factor in his decision to follow FC: "I used to take them to open days at Old Trafford, but that was all I could afford.

"And when I went, I was being told to sit down and shut up - it was a waste of time.

"Now I pay £2 to take my ten-year-old lad to Gigg Lane and he loves it. It reminds me of being 12 and going to United for the first time."

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