Tag: FC United of Manchester

In amongst all of the filth and fury of this week, one simple truism has remained unchallenged: it has to be like this. Although modern fashion likes to talk of football supporters as if we are “valued customers” or even – God forbid – “stake-holders”, the truth of the matter is that, by and large, we’re not. Customers wouldn’t put up with being treated in the way that football supporters are as a matter of routine. They’d take their business elsewhere. Stake-holders wouldn’t tolerate perpetual hyper-inflation and the implication that, somehow, we owe those that deliver the game to us a debt of gratitude rather than the other way around. As such, the relationship between a football club and a supporter of a football club might be be more akin to the relationship between a drug dealer and a junkie. They feed our addiction. They charge what they can get away with – and we don’t even know what the upper limit of that pricing policy might be yet – and we grumble, but we still turn out in our millions. If we complain too loudly, there is a reasonable chance that we will simply be cast asunder, in the full knowledge that there are plenty of others that will take our place. We are divided and conquered, beaten into submission. We are treated with such suspicion by the...

This time. Perhaps this time. FC United of Manchester have been once bitten and can certainly be forgiven for being twice shy over their planning application for a new ground of their own, to be built in the Moston area of the city. Their previous attempt to do exactly this in Newton Heath ended in failure after government cuts slashed their hopes, but this time there should be no such concerns. This afternoon, Manchester City Council approved their planning application for the new ground, which will also house a community centre and training facilities, and the well of hope amongst their support base, which had been tempered by their previous disappointment, can begin to hope again. In the attempt to build a football ground near a residential area, the club ran into vocal opposition, which was represented at this afternoon’s meeting. Attempts to reach out to this group failed and it was rumoured that the “no” group had been using tactics to secure signatures for a petition which may have been considered underhand. If true, this was probably a mistake on the part of the campaigners to adopt this tactic. It certainly gave the impression of a group willing to descend to whatever level they could in order to win this debate on points rather than relying of depending on the merits of their case. As things turned out,...