Special Feature: Football fans fight their own clubs to preserve identity – Part 4
Some fans go for protests and setup their own versions of the club they once supported while others go on a pursuit of vengence against the people who take over their clubs. MUST i.e. Manchester United Supporters Trust is an organization
which has recently come into being so that United’s fans can take charge of their club by forcing the owners out. Glazer family who is in charge at Old Trafford has faced stern resistance from the MUST members. MUST have based their protests around the club’s
very first colours, green and gold, therefore their campaign is known as the Green and Gold campaign.
Green and Gold were Manchester United’s prominent colours back when the club was founded under the name Newton Heath, a title which was derived from one of the urban area’s inside the city of Manchester which itself is located
in Greater Manchester. One of the aims of MUST has been to spread awareness amongst all Manchester United fans. In doing so they also encourage fans to boycott all group merchandise and return any season tickets as well so that the Glazer family is forced
into a financial sell out of the club. In the summer of 2010, MUST partly succeeded in their mission as Manchester United F.C but didn’t manage to sell out their season ticket allocation which amounted to 54,000 tickets. Only 51,800 of the tickets were bought
which signals some sort of a win on MUST’s part.
Manchester United’s season ticket holder Andersed told BBC that boycotting the club so that Glazer’s are hurt in financial terms is not such a practical measure but it is a symbolic one. He said that David Gill, who is Manchester
United’s chief executive at the moment, will be quite worried if United’s 76000 capacity stadium, known as Old Trafford is empty on even a single match day. He said that it would hurt Manchester United, as they take pride in terming their stadium as the “theatre
of dreams”.
Andersed also went onto speculate about the future of the club under Glazers and the current debt condition. He told British Broadcasting Corporation that United’s real test will come when they have a trophy less season along.
The fact that club is already struggling with selling out all of their season’s tickets is a sign of things to come. Andersed went onto say that; a greater number of significant seats coupled with Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure from the club will be a crucial
time in the Glazer era at United.
Things have also picked up pace over the past season or two at Anfield, where Manchester United’s rivals Liverpool reside. James McKenna spoke to the media on behalf of Liverpool’s supporters group Spirit of Shankly. A group which
plans to restore the control of Liverpool’s boardroom back to the fans and also intends to keep alive the traditions that have been in place at the club over the past century or so. McKenna told BBC that he made a decision to financially boycott George Gillette
and Tom Hicks; current owners of Liverpool F.C.
Lately, James gave up his season ticket as he didn’t renew it for the 2010-2011 season. The Liverpool fan elaborated that SoS (Spirit of Shankly) had thought about boycotting the club but supporters thought against it as they still
believe in the club and think of it as their identity. Therefore they are afraid of losing their connection to the club and also losing their identity.
McKenna went onto admit that a long boycott would really hurt the American owners at Anfield because it would tell give them a message which implies that no one can take the fans and their financial support for granted. He added
that a lot of people are really indifferent to what is actually happening at the club as they just want to watch football and don’t care about anything else. James concluded by saying that he believes that supporters will have the keys to the lock at Liverpool
one day, it might not come during his lifetime but the live long red said that it will happen.
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