Rebel FC
Posted in FC United on Tuesday January 17th, 2006 10:21am
Dominic Fifield in The Guardian
Barely seven months since conception FC United of Manchester is a phenomenon sweeping through non-league football. The club formed by disenchanted supporters infuriated by Malcolm Glazer’s £790m takeover at Old Trafford sit 14 points clear at the top of the Moore & Co Construction Solicitors’ North West Counties League Division Two, with a goal difference to match their points tally of 49. If strides have been made on the pitch, progress off it is staggering. Those perturbed by the sudden emergence of a club dubbed, often unkindly, “The Rebels” or “Little United” might have hoped initial momentum would have dissipated by now. The reality is very different.
Some 4,328 people attended FC United’s recent victory over Winsford at their adopted home of Bury’s Gigg Lane, a league record that swelled their average attendance to near 3,000. Six League Two sides - Bury included - cannot match such support. A club that attracted 900 hopefuls to trials for the first-team squad last June now boasts supporters’ branches from Swindon to Switzerland, north Lancashire to New Zealand. “This is about building a sustainable club for the benefit of its community, its players and its fans, a football club which is about football,” said the acting general manager Andy Walsh. “We’re not unique in that. There are plenty of clubs out there interested purely in the game but, from where we came from, this is a new experience.”
That background was one of disaffection. Glazer’s arrival last summer prompted the breakaway but many who swapped the Premiership for trips to Padiham and Castleton Gabriels had long felt squeezed out. If those involved in AFC Wimbledon arguably had no option but to form their own side following their club’s defection to Milton Keynes, FC United was founded by people who had a choice, albeit gut-wrenching.
“This club is a symbol of the opposition to the commercialisation of the game,” said Walsh. “Football cannot continue like it is, whether it be with the Glazers or the way those running the top-level clubs chase television money. There’s no feeling of long-term responsibility.
“Some people have objected to what we’ve done but none of us are any less United fans. It’s not been an easy decision to give up our season tickets but it’s also not been easy for those who’ve stayed at Old Trafford. We recognise that. Time will show that Glazer is bad news for United and for football - no one has outlined how he will pay off his debt in the long term - but those of us boycotting Old Trafford joined a growing band of disenfranchised: people who couldn’t afford to go any more or have been edged out by unsociable kick-off times. We’ve touched a nerve among fans who want to attend games yet don’t want to support the business takeover of football.”
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