June 04, 2009
FOOTBALLING legend Eric Cantona swapped the red shirt of Manchester United for the red carpet as he returned to Manchester to see the UK premier of Looking For Eric – a film shot in and around south Manchester. And he told Susannah Wright that he could soon be back in the city wearing the shirt of the other United.
HE WON the hearts of a million (mainly Red) Mancunians during his five-year spell at Old Trafford – and now King Eric is back.
The man that many still call Le Dieu has long-since hung up his boots and shifted his focus to a different kind of performance, bringing the same kind of flair that once gripped the Theatre of Dreams to the silver screen.
Eric Cantona is the star of Looking For Eric, a new film shot at a number of locations in and around Chorlton; including South West Cricket Club on Ellesmere Road and a house on Keppel Road.
Cantona stars as an imaginary version of himself who becomes a guardian angel to a depressed postman called Eric Bishop, played by Steve Evets.
The film, produced by independent cinema legend Ken Loach, also starred a number of comedians who live in the suburb.
The film touches upon the story of FC United, the breakaway team founded by disillusioned Manchester United fans following the takeover by Malcolm Glazer in 2005.
FC United bosses were involved in the film from the beginning, discussing ideas with writer Paul Laverty and director Ken Loach. Many of the supporters also acted as extras in the film.
According to Loach, the film is about the joy of being a football supporter and the way that the commercialisation of the game has left many fans unable to afford Premier League tickets.
Cantona has been willing to show his support for FC, who are nicknamed the Red Rebels, and recently told a journalist: "They have a great idea. I hope they will become a great club and win the European Cup in 50 years." And when I cornered him on the red carpet at the UK premiere at Salford’s Vue cinema, he hinted he was willing to play a more active role in the club, even being prepared to play a match for the breakaway side.
Asked whether he would be prepared to play for the Unibond Premier League side, 43-year-old Cantona gave his famous Gallic shrug and said: "Yes, why not?"
It may be 12 years since Cantona brought the curtain down on his five year spell but it seems his love for Manchester – and especially its southern suburbs so dutifully served by your Reporter - remains undiminished.
He said: "It’s always nice to be back in Manchester. I love the people here. That never fades.
"I come sometimes to watch the games. The fans are great, there is a lot of humanity.
"And having the film’s premier here is very important, it is essential."
And while on the red carpet, Cantona revealed that he enjoyed his time filming in Chorlton, particularly at South West Manchester Cricket Club. He said: "It was great working at the cricket club, even when it was raining! People here have a lot of guts and a lot of heart. It is about teamwork. If you work hard as a team, you have confidence and you can enjoy it.
"That is all there in this movie. It’s unusual to capture that – they are nice people, nice, beautiful people, always a lot of solidarity, a lot of friendship.
"I was moved by their energy. I love this kind of thing because these days it’s unusual, solidarity, friendship. In the film, we can see that on the inside they are beautiful people."
The film was directed by an award-winning stalwart of British independent cinema, Ken Loach, whose credits include The Wind That Shakes The Barley, My Name Is Joe, Land And Freedom, Riff-Raff, and Kes.
The lead character, Eric Bishop, is a lonely dad struggling to cope with life and his two unruly teenage stepsons. He tries to make amends with Lily, the woman of his dreams that he once loved and walked out on many years ago.
And to help him deal with things, his postmen mates – played by a host of comedy actors including John Henshaw, Des Sharples, Justin Moorhouse – try to cheer him up and make him laugh.
But in desperate times, postman Eric smokes some cannabis and lets his mind wander for a bit of guidance from his hero, the footballing genius, Eric Cantona.
The notion of teamwork is integral to the film, with Eric Bishop’s mates all doing their bit to pull him out of the emotional mire he’s descended into.
The film gives Cantona the soon to be immortal line: "I am not a man, I am Cantona."
Director Ken Loach revealed why he chose the leafy south Manchester area to shoot some of the film. He said: "We picked Chorlton because it’s quite a mixed area.
"There are some lovely large houses and older properties and the cricket club was great. We ate there every day and it was really nice – how are they doing?"
Comedian Des Sharples – who comperes Mirth On Monday at Chorlton’s Iguana bar – was chosen to play the character of Jack after being invited for a chat with Ken Loach.
Des said: "I’m a Man City fan and I did say I’d never play a Man Utd fan, but everything outweighed that, with Eric and Ken Loach." Meanwhile, John Henshaw – best known for playing landlord Ken in sitcom Early Doors – plays Meatballs in the film. He said: "The humour is very northern, it has a warmth to it, and a lot of banter but it’s not humour at the expense of other people.
"It was nice filming in Chorlton, in fact my daughter used to live on Corkland Road. The people were very accommodating."
And comedian – and Manchester Evening News columnist – Justin Moorhouse who plays Spleen, joked: "Eric’s lovely – he’s gorgeous, and I’m a straight man!"
He added: "I watched a preview at Parrs Wood cinema and I had Alex Ferguson behind me with his popcorn, and I thought ‘Oh no, we’ve got the gaffer here’, but he loved it!"
But what of Eric’s prospects of getting a spot in the FC team next season?
Andy Walsh, general manager of FC United, was thrilled at the prospect. He said: "To have two people of such status as Eric Cantona and Ken Loach understand the issues of ordinary football fans and support the club, is to be cherished.
"Eric Cantona was one of the best footballers ever to put on a football shirt, let alone a Man United one. It’s tremendous that he knows what FC United is all about and what we’re trying to do.
"If he ever wanted to play for us, that would be great!"
Showing posts with label South Manchester Reporter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Manchester Reporter. Show all posts
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Here's to FC going fourth
Ryan Davies
April 23, 2009
A MAN fast becoming a legend among some football fans is Karl Marginson, manager of the infamous FC United of Manchester .
The right result on Saturday would see them in the play offs battling for their fourth promotion in as many years since the breakaway team was founded in 2005.
I do not get the chance to go to as many FC games as I would like these days saddled as I am by the twin demands of a ten-month-old son and a season ticket at Manchester United.
So a visit to the little man’s grandparents in Derbyshire this week provided the perfect excuse to catch FC as they travelled to Ilkeston Town for a crucial Unibond league game.
Not only were the 900-odd FC fans who made the trip rewarded with a cracking atmosphere under the East Midlands sun, they were even treated to a last minute goal to keep FC’s promotion push alive.
This was football the way it used to be, on open terraces with fans changing places at half time and free to enjoy a few pints in the ground while watching the game.
The celebrations at the winner were a joy to behold, and there was no trouble in the FC end at the ground despite the best efforts of a small but neanderthal section of the home supporters.
A small group of United fans have previously tried to create divisions between United and the off-shoot founded by their supporter, but one fan is Eric Cantona, who recently said of FC: "They have a great idea. I hope they will become a great club and win the European Cup in 50 years time."
If they continue at the rate they are going, who knows, it may be even sooner than that.
April 23, 2009
A MAN fast becoming a legend among some football fans is Karl Marginson, manager of the infamous FC United of Manchester .
The right result on Saturday would see them in the play offs battling for their fourth promotion in as many years since the breakaway team was founded in 2005.
I do not get the chance to go to as many FC games as I would like these days saddled as I am by the twin demands of a ten-month-old son and a season ticket at Manchester United.
So a visit to the little man’s grandparents in Derbyshire this week provided the perfect excuse to catch FC as they travelled to Ilkeston Town for a crucial Unibond league game.
Not only were the 900-odd FC fans who made the trip rewarded with a cracking atmosphere under the East Midlands sun, they were even treated to a last minute goal to keep FC’s promotion push alive.
This was football the way it used to be, on open terraces with fans changing places at half time and free to enjoy a few pints in the ground while watching the game.
The celebrations at the winner were a joy to behold, and there was no trouble in the FC end at the ground despite the best efforts of a small but neanderthal section of the home supporters.
A small group of United fans have previously tried to create divisions between United and the off-shoot founded by their supporter, but one fan is Eric Cantona, who recently said of FC: "They have a great idea. I hope they will become a great club and win the European Cup in 50 years time."
If they continue at the rate they are going, who knows, it may be even sooner than that.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
When Final Score is the last word on who we think we are
Source: South Manchester Reporter
Ryan Davies
March 26, 2009
"HE IS a Welshman who calls himself the Mancunian Candidate. He supported United but then left to support a non-league team in Bury and now claims he is a United fan again, but once wore a Liverpool shirt. I can’t keep up."
I have some sympathy with Frank Kelly, who left the previous comment about me on the Reporter’s website.
I can get confused myself at times. But then whoever said that issues of allegiance and identitiy were supposed to be straight-forward?
I suspect Mr Kelly’s real intention was to take a cheap shot at me in response to the words of support I gave to the breakaway club FC United in an offering to these pages some time ago. He does have some form in this regard.
But his email does at least raise some interesting questions as to who we think we are.
Some might not agree, but I see no contradiction in calling myself a Mancunian even though my ancestry is almost exclusively Welsh.
Manchester may be in England, but it is inhabited by people from all corners of the globe.
Do these people not make a daily contribution to making the city what it is, and, in turn, have their lives shaped and moulded by the experience of living here?
Does that not entitle them, after a suitable period of assimilation, to call themselves a Manc? Or is that noble title purely a birthright, thus excluding figures who have showered as much prestige as on the city as Alan Turning, Sir Charles Halle or Sir Alex Ferguson?
Our loyalties in the sporting arena should be far more straight-forward.
After all, the thing with being a football fan is there are no application forms to fill in, no fit and proper person test or criminal record checking.
Should Adolf Hitler be reincarnated tomorrow, there would be nothing to stop him calling himself a United fan - although as a Red I suspect I prefer to think he would have rather supported Liverpool. After all, the Fuhrer is rumoured to have visited Merseyside in 1912 and, like the Scousers, he was rather partial to a moustache.
What with Bin Laden’s well-documented visits to Highbury in the early 1990s, all we need now is to find out that Pol Pot used to sit in the family stand at Stamford Bridge and my convenient picture of football villany would be complete, but I digress.
To become a fan of a team, you just pin whatever colours take your fancy to the mast and get on with it.
Given the ages at which most footballing fates are decided, I guess its fair to say that the decisive factors rarely anything other than fairly trivial.
Was it the way the wind rippled Gary Bailey’s blond flowing locks as he embellished routine saves with a succession of dramatic sideways rolls in the late 1970s, or the three white stripes that ran bouldy down the front of the yet-to-be-bettered Admiral shirt of the same era that hardened my impressionable young mind towards the Red side?
Looking back, the cruel manner of the last gasp defeat to Arsenal in the 1979 cup final may have swung it, but whatever the reason, the decision was taken and I’ve never looked back.
Of course, being a United of Welsh origin can attract accusations of being a glory hunter.
It’s a concept I’ve never really managed to fully comprehend.
I’m not sure how much pleasure can be gained from basking in the success of a cause that you don’t truly believe in.
For me it’s when you lose that you’re left in absolutely no doubt as to which side you’re on.
I have plenty of recent experience to draw in this regard as United have conspired to throw away a nailed-on opportunity to equal the record of 18 league titles held by their most bitter rivals at the other end of the East Lancs.
Even in a week when I discovered I face the very real prospect of redundancy, the defeat to Liverpool felt like a kick to the stomach.
It left me running scared of newspapers for a week, and I haven’t been brave enough to watch Match of the Day since.
It is not as if I’ve been able to take sanctuary in the Six Nations as a Welsh side, heralded as the best in Europe only a few weeks ago, slumped to a depressing fourth placed finish, each defeat leaving behind a increasing sense of bewilderment and frustration.
So Mr Kelly, if do ever start to wonder who I am, I’ve have a simple test to clear things up. I simply put on Final Score and wait the results.
And just for the record, I never ‘left’ United as Mr Kelly suggested.
I simply offered my support to the United fans who set up their own club in an effort to make football affordable again and rid the game of some of the more commercial aspects that have sucked the life out of the the Premier League match day experience.
Should things go badly for me, it might be the only football I’ll be able to afford to watch.
I suppose what I’ve been struggling to say over the last 900-odd words or so was neatly summed up by another correspondent on the Reporter’s website in just three: Grow up Frank.
Ryan Davies
March 26, 2009
"HE IS a Welshman who calls himself the Mancunian Candidate. He supported United but then left to support a non-league team in Bury and now claims he is a United fan again, but once wore a Liverpool shirt. I can’t keep up."
I have some sympathy with Frank Kelly, who left the previous comment about me on the Reporter’s website.
I can get confused myself at times. But then whoever said that issues of allegiance and identitiy were supposed to be straight-forward?
I suspect Mr Kelly’s real intention was to take a cheap shot at me in response to the words of support I gave to the breakaway club FC United in an offering to these pages some time ago. He does have some form in this regard.
But his email does at least raise some interesting questions as to who we think we are.
Some might not agree, but I see no contradiction in calling myself a Mancunian even though my ancestry is almost exclusively Welsh.
Manchester may be in England, but it is inhabited by people from all corners of the globe.
Do these people not make a daily contribution to making the city what it is, and, in turn, have their lives shaped and moulded by the experience of living here?
Does that not entitle them, after a suitable period of assimilation, to call themselves a Manc? Or is that noble title purely a birthright, thus excluding figures who have showered as much prestige as on the city as Alan Turning, Sir Charles Halle or Sir Alex Ferguson?
Our loyalties in the sporting arena should be far more straight-forward.
After all, the thing with being a football fan is there are no application forms to fill in, no fit and proper person test or criminal record checking.
Should Adolf Hitler be reincarnated tomorrow, there would be nothing to stop him calling himself a United fan - although as a Red I suspect I prefer to think he would have rather supported Liverpool. After all, the Fuhrer is rumoured to have visited Merseyside in 1912 and, like the Scousers, he was rather partial to a moustache.
What with Bin Laden’s well-documented visits to Highbury in the early 1990s, all we need now is to find out that Pol Pot used to sit in the family stand at Stamford Bridge and my convenient picture of football villany would be complete, but I digress.
To become a fan of a team, you just pin whatever colours take your fancy to the mast and get on with it.
Given the ages at which most footballing fates are decided, I guess its fair to say that the decisive factors rarely anything other than fairly trivial.
Was it the way the wind rippled Gary Bailey’s blond flowing locks as he embellished routine saves with a succession of dramatic sideways rolls in the late 1970s, or the three white stripes that ran bouldy down the front of the yet-to-be-bettered Admiral shirt of the same era that hardened my impressionable young mind towards the Red side?
Looking back, the cruel manner of the last gasp defeat to Arsenal in the 1979 cup final may have swung it, but whatever the reason, the decision was taken and I’ve never looked back.
Of course, being a United of Welsh origin can attract accusations of being a glory hunter.
It’s a concept I’ve never really managed to fully comprehend.
I’m not sure how much pleasure can be gained from basking in the success of a cause that you don’t truly believe in.
For me it’s when you lose that you’re left in absolutely no doubt as to which side you’re on.
I have plenty of recent experience to draw in this regard as United have conspired to throw away a nailed-on opportunity to equal the record of 18 league titles held by their most bitter rivals at the other end of the East Lancs.
Even in a week when I discovered I face the very real prospect of redundancy, the defeat to Liverpool felt like a kick to the stomach.
It left me running scared of newspapers for a week, and I haven’t been brave enough to watch Match of the Day since.
It is not as if I’ve been able to take sanctuary in the Six Nations as a Welsh side, heralded as the best in Europe only a few weeks ago, slumped to a depressing fourth placed finish, each defeat leaving behind a increasing sense of bewilderment and frustration.
So Mr Kelly, if do ever start to wonder who I am, I’ve have a simple test to clear things up. I simply put on Final Score and wait the results.
And just for the record, I never ‘left’ United as Mr Kelly suggested.
I simply offered my support to the United fans who set up their own club in an effort to make football affordable again and rid the game of some of the more commercial aspects that have sucked the life out of the the Premier League match day experience.
Should things go badly for me, it might be the only football I’ll be able to afford to watch.
I suppose what I’ve been struggling to say over the last 900-odd words or so was neatly summed up by another correspondent on the Reporter’s website in just three: Grow up Frank.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Tributes paid to FC founder Fred
Marie Burchill 1/ 5/2008
A DAD has paid an emotional tribute to the ‘football-mad’ son he used to do everything with.
Kevin Garner of Regan Avenue in Chorlton spoke of his sadness following the death of his 29-year-old son Fred Garner – who was a founding member of the breakaway football club, FC United.
Fred was found with a serious head injury at the foot of a fire escape outside the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay just after 5am on Sunday, April 20.
The football fanatic had made the trip to the north east with his dad Kevin to watch FC United beat opponents Newcastle Blue Star 4-0.
Now Mr Garner, 53, has spoken of the close bond he shared with his son Fred who was ‘loved by everyone he knew’.
Mr Garner said: "Fred was such a happy-go-lucky lad, he just wanted to have fun. He was really popular and was loved by everyone who knew him.
"We used to do everything together, we worked together, went to the football together and watched horse-racing.
"We both had season tickets at Manchester United for 15 years before Glazer’s take-over, that’s when Fred helped to set up FC United.
"I am really into horse-racing and used to go by myself before Fred was old enough.
"I would come back and tell him all about it and he couldn’t wait to get there with me. We went all over to the races, including Ireland and Paris.
"We both followed FC United everywhere too. The team was very important to Fred, he was really passionate about them."
It is thought that Fred – who worked with his dad in the gas industry – may have fallen on the fire escape at the Rex Hotel, suffering a bang to the back of his head.
Earlier he had been watching a Manchester United match in the bar of the hotel with his dad.
Mr Garner decided to go to bed at midnight while Fred made his way to the hotel’s nightclub, which was open until 3am.
Fred was operated on for six hours at Newcastle General Hospital following the incident to remove blood clots from his brain, but to no avail.
The 29-year-old had lived in Chorlton for all of his life.
He was born in Withington Hospital and went to Chorlton C of E primary School and then Oakwood High School.
He lived with his mum, Carol, and dad Kevin on Regan Avenue up until a year ago, when he bought his own flat just off Edge Lane.
Footballers and more than 1,500 FC United fans paid tribute to Fred by holding a minute’s silence at their match against Woodley Sports last week.
Mr Garner said: "It was a really touching moment, everybody observed the silence and about 40 members of our family turned up too.
"Fred had so many friends. He used to go out to The Lounge in Chorlton, but after buying his flat he started staying in more so he could pay for his mortgage."
Northumbria Police said Fred’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
A DAD has paid an emotional tribute to the ‘football-mad’ son he used to do everything with.
Kevin Garner of Regan Avenue in Chorlton spoke of his sadness following the death of his 29-year-old son Fred Garner – who was a founding member of the breakaway football club, FC United.
Fred was found with a serious head injury at the foot of a fire escape outside the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay just after 5am on Sunday, April 20.
The football fanatic had made the trip to the north east with his dad Kevin to watch FC United beat opponents Newcastle Blue Star 4-0.
Now Mr Garner, 53, has spoken of the close bond he shared with his son Fred who was ‘loved by everyone he knew’.
Mr Garner said: "Fred was such a happy-go-lucky lad, he just wanted to have fun. He was really popular and was loved by everyone who knew him.
"We used to do everything together, we worked together, went to the football together and watched horse-racing.
"We both had season tickets at Manchester United for 15 years before Glazer’s take-over, that’s when Fred helped to set up FC United.
"I am really into horse-racing and used to go by myself before Fred was old enough.
"I would come back and tell him all about it and he couldn’t wait to get there with me. We went all over to the races, including Ireland and Paris.
"We both followed FC United everywhere too. The team was very important to Fred, he was really passionate about them."
It is thought that Fred – who worked with his dad in the gas industry – may have fallen on the fire escape at the Rex Hotel, suffering a bang to the back of his head.
Earlier he had been watching a Manchester United match in the bar of the hotel with his dad.
Mr Garner decided to go to bed at midnight while Fred made his way to the hotel’s nightclub, which was open until 3am.
Fred was operated on for six hours at Newcastle General Hospital following the incident to remove blood clots from his brain, but to no avail.
The 29-year-old had lived in Chorlton for all of his life.
He was born in Withington Hospital and went to Chorlton C of E primary School and then Oakwood High School.
He lived with his mum, Carol, and dad Kevin on Regan Avenue up until a year ago, when he bought his own flat just off Edge Lane.
Footballers and more than 1,500 FC United fans paid tribute to Fred by holding a minute’s silence at their match against Woodley Sports last week.
Mr Garner said: "It was a really touching moment, everybody observed the silence and about 40 members of our family turned up too.
"Fred had so many friends. He used to go out to The Lounge in Chorlton, but after buying his flat he started staying in more so he could pay for his mortgage."
Northumbria Police said Fred’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Fans divided over FC United
15/11/2007
AN AWFUL lot of people seem to be getting their knickers in a twist about non-league football these days.
Some fans in Manchester, who once saved their wrath for the likes of ‘lucky' Liverpool, ‘dirty’ Leeds and ‘boring, boring’ Arsenal, now prefer to target their angst at a side in third place in the Unibond First Division North.
We’re talking, of course, about the breakaway side FC United.
Time, it seems, has done little to heal the wounds caused by the painful split when some United fans decided to form their own club in the wake of Malcolm Glazer’s take-over at Old Trafford in 2005.
There is a vocal minority among United fans who come to see the self-styled Rebels as the enemy with some even going so far as to print stickers bearing the slogan: ‘Love United, Hate FC: Judas Scum’. Even Sir Alex Ferguson has had a pop, labelling FC fans as self-publicists.
The views of many FC detractors were neatly summed up in the letters page of last week’s Reporter by Terry Medford of Withington.
Mr Medford accuses FC of being a club born out of ‘spite and bitterness’ and accused its fans of revelling in knocking up cricket scores against teams with comparatively tiny resources.
As a season-ticket holder at Old Trafford, I had my own reservations about FC. A breakaway club was always going to divide fans whose strength had always come from being…well, united.
But curiosity soon got the better of me and I went along to my first FC game.
It was really quite something to be stood there that day shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people all sharing a deep passion for something that hadn’t existed just a few weeks earlier - something they had worked together to build from nothing.
And nor had they forgotten what brought them together in the first place - their love for Manchester United.
Among the newly-created FC anthems ringing around the stands that day were old Stretford End favourites celebrating a love for United that was and remains undiminished.
Since that day, I’ve tried to go to FC as often as I can while at the same time still holding on to my season ticket for ‘Big United’.
There are two main charges critics often level at FC fans: they are ‘splitters’ who turned their backs on their team during a time of adversity and that they are the ‘Chelsea’ of non-league football with resources and attendances dwarfing those of their rivals.
Well, yes, FC do have larger crowds (around 2,500 for a home game) and consequently more money and greater player-pull, but why should they apologise for that? Their record - after last weekend - of eight wins, one draw and four defeats, hardly suggests an all-mighty force crushing all before it.
The labelling of FC fans as glory hunters seems to me the most ludicrous charge of the lot.
It is a strange kind of glory when you find yourself sat in the stands on a freezing ‘pea soup’ winter’s evening, as I did last year, watching FC battle their way to victory over Atherton Collieries in a bog in Leigh - especially for fans more familiar with watching European giants such as Juventus, Barcelona and Bayern Munich on their visits to the Theatre of Dreams.
From day one, FC has been a broad church. Some fans see it as a way of protesting against Glazer rule, others as a way of enjoying football the way they used to before the terraces were replaced by sanitised all-seater stadiums.
But what all FC fans have found is a way of remaining as United fans in an age of soaring ticket prices and the relentless commercialisation.
Moving to another club was never an option. Supporting a team involves more than just watching football. It involves buying into an identity, a history, a brotherhood and a way of seeing the world.
Following a Premier League team is an expensive business these days, especially if you have children. But when the day comes that I am finally priced out of Old Trafford or forced to look elsewhere for regular football, I know I’ll have somewhere to go, somewhere where I belong.
Not all fans curdle with resentment at the thought of FC. The club has forged close links with the breakaway AFC Wimbledon, formed when their mother club moved from south-west London to Milton Keynes, and even groups such as Red Action opposing an attempted buy-out at Arsenal.
It took a Leeds fan to bring home to me what had been achieved at FC. After spotting my FC United away shirt during a recent five-a-side game, he told me that he had been hoping his club would do something similar following a summer of boardroom turmoil, but concluded: “We haven’t got the nous.”
In his letter, Mr Medford rightly warns that the future of football will depend on ‘true supporters’. But if he thinks fans are doing the game any favours by blindly shelling out for astronomically priced tickets or merchandise, he is wrong.
The creation of FC has sent out a message that there is another way. One that doesn’t mean giving up who you are.
And in the process they have struck a blow for football fans everywhere. It’s just that not everyone can see it yet.
AN AWFUL lot of people seem to be getting their knickers in a twist about non-league football these days.
Some fans in Manchester, who once saved their wrath for the likes of ‘lucky' Liverpool, ‘dirty’ Leeds and ‘boring, boring’ Arsenal, now prefer to target their angst at a side in third place in the Unibond First Division North.
We’re talking, of course, about the breakaway side FC United.
Time, it seems, has done little to heal the wounds caused by the painful split when some United fans decided to form their own club in the wake of Malcolm Glazer’s take-over at Old Trafford in 2005.
There is a vocal minority among United fans who come to see the self-styled Rebels as the enemy with some even going so far as to print stickers bearing the slogan: ‘Love United, Hate FC: Judas Scum’. Even Sir Alex Ferguson has had a pop, labelling FC fans as self-publicists.
The views of many FC detractors were neatly summed up in the letters page of last week’s Reporter by Terry Medford of Withington.
Mr Medford accuses FC of being a club born out of ‘spite and bitterness’ and accused its fans of revelling in knocking up cricket scores against teams with comparatively tiny resources.
As a season-ticket holder at Old Trafford, I had my own reservations about FC. A breakaway club was always going to divide fans whose strength had always come from being…well, united.
But curiosity soon got the better of me and I went along to my first FC game.
It was really quite something to be stood there that day shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people all sharing a deep passion for something that hadn’t existed just a few weeks earlier - something they had worked together to build from nothing.
And nor had they forgotten what brought them together in the first place - their love for Manchester United.
Among the newly-created FC anthems ringing around the stands that day were old Stretford End favourites celebrating a love for United that was and remains undiminished.
Since that day, I’ve tried to go to FC as often as I can while at the same time still holding on to my season ticket for ‘Big United’.
There are two main charges critics often level at FC fans: they are ‘splitters’ who turned their backs on their team during a time of adversity and that they are the ‘Chelsea’ of non-league football with resources and attendances dwarfing those of their rivals.
Well, yes, FC do have larger crowds (around 2,500 for a home game) and consequently more money and greater player-pull, but why should they apologise for that? Their record - after last weekend - of eight wins, one draw and four defeats, hardly suggests an all-mighty force crushing all before it.
The labelling of FC fans as glory hunters seems to me the most ludicrous charge of the lot.
It is a strange kind of glory when you find yourself sat in the stands on a freezing ‘pea soup’ winter’s evening, as I did last year, watching FC battle their way to victory over Atherton Collieries in a bog in Leigh - especially for fans more familiar with watching European giants such as Juventus, Barcelona and Bayern Munich on their visits to the Theatre of Dreams.
From day one, FC has been a broad church. Some fans see it as a way of protesting against Glazer rule, others as a way of enjoying football the way they used to before the terraces were replaced by sanitised all-seater stadiums.
But what all FC fans have found is a way of remaining as United fans in an age of soaring ticket prices and the relentless commercialisation.
Moving to another club was never an option. Supporting a team involves more than just watching football. It involves buying into an identity, a history, a brotherhood and a way of seeing the world.
Following a Premier League team is an expensive business these days, especially if you have children. But when the day comes that I am finally priced out of Old Trafford or forced to look elsewhere for regular football, I know I’ll have somewhere to go, somewhere where I belong.
Not all fans curdle with resentment at the thought of FC. The club has forged close links with the breakaway AFC Wimbledon, formed when their mother club moved from south-west London to Milton Keynes, and even groups such as Red Action opposing an attempted buy-out at Arsenal.
It took a Leeds fan to bring home to me what had been achieved at FC. After spotting my FC United away shirt during a recent five-a-side game, he told me that he had been hoping his club would do something similar following a summer of boardroom turmoil, but concluded: “We haven’t got the nous.”
In his letter, Mr Medford rightly warns that the future of football will depend on ‘true supporters’. But if he thinks fans are doing the game any favours by blindly shelling out for astronomically priced tickets or merchandise, he is wrong.
The creation of FC has sent out a message that there is another way. One that doesn’t mean giving up who you are.
And in the process they have struck a blow for football fans everywhere. It’s just that not everyone can see it yet.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Young Alex is having a ball
Source: South Manchester Reporter
LITTLE Alex Croft has been given a new lease of life thanks to his footballing heroes at FC United.
The nine-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is the proud owner of a new £12,000 wheelchair, paid for in part by the fundraising efforts of the club’s players.
And his new set of wheels have improved his mobility to such an extent that he is now able to repay their kindness by serving as a ball boy at the club’s games.
Alex’s father, Les, says he turned to the club for help when his son’s old wheelchair kept breaking down.
“They’ve been fantastic,” he said. “I’ve been taking Alex to the games for a while and as soon as I told them we were raising money for a new chair, they immediately said they’d help.
“They’ve been so generous, to say they’re not exactly on premiership wages, and they’ve given so much of their time too.”
Players for the club also donated items for an auction that the family held at Chorlton Irish Club. Even the club’s kitman chipped in, riding a 450-mile sponsored bike ride to raise money.
OVER the moon: Alex with dad Les and sister Lucy, six
Les, 37, from Brookburn Road, Chorlton, said he and wife Claire, are thrilled at the difference it has made to their son’s life.
The insurance claims advisor added: “He’s got his independence now. Whereas before he always had to have someone to push him, now he can go about on his own.
“He’s been out and about with his friends and having a whale of a time.”
Despite naming his son after two Manchester United legends, Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby, Les switched allegiance to the breakaway club when it was set up by disgruntled reds’ fans.
“He got addicted to going straight away, so we kept on going.,” said Les.
And having become one of FC United’s most loyal fans, Alex was called on to the pitch to help the team celebrate when they won the league this season.
LITTLE Alex Croft has been given a new lease of life thanks to his footballing heroes at FC United.
The nine-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is the proud owner of a new £12,000 wheelchair, paid for in part by the fundraising efforts of the club’s players.
And his new set of wheels have improved his mobility to such an extent that he is now able to repay their kindness by serving as a ball boy at the club’s games.
Alex’s father, Les, says he turned to the club for help when his son’s old wheelchair kept breaking down.
“They’ve been fantastic,” he said. “I’ve been taking Alex to the games for a while and as soon as I told them we were raising money for a new chair, they immediately said they’d help.
“They’ve been so generous, to say they’re not exactly on premiership wages, and they’ve given so much of their time too.”
Players for the club also donated items for an auction that the family held at Chorlton Irish Club. Even the club’s kitman chipped in, riding a 450-mile sponsored bike ride to raise money.
OVER the moon: Alex with dad Les and sister Lucy, six
Les, 37, from Brookburn Road, Chorlton, said he and wife Claire, are thrilled at the difference it has made to their son’s life.
The insurance claims advisor added: “He’s got his independence now. Whereas before he always had to have someone to push him, now he can go about on his own.
“He’s been out and about with his friends and having a whale of a time.”
Despite naming his son after two Manchester United legends, Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby, Les switched allegiance to the breakaway club when it was set up by disgruntled reds’ fans.
“He got addicted to going straight away, so we kept on going.,” said Les.
And having become one of FC United’s most loyal fans, Alex was called on to the pitch to help the team celebrate when they won the league this season.
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