We're still the Manchester United alternative 20 years on - this is for fans sick of modern football

Back in 2005, the final straw for one group of Manchester United fans was reached when the Glazer family takeover of their club was announced. A new, fan-owned club was formed with the aim of bringing the beautiful game back to what fans loved the most.

George Baker is a founding member of FC United of Manchester, and has been heavily involved since the very early days.

“The branch network was really important in the early years,” he recalls. “I was only 19 at the time and living in Preston, which is where I started the North and West Lancashire supporters branch there and I got to know people that way. We would put on events and fundraisers when there was an away game in your catchment area, so we built up the fanbase this way. This meant a lot of people got together and made friendships that still exist.

“The idea of the club being created was first mentioned in a United fanzine called ‘The Red Issue’. There was an article in there that stated that if the Glazers took over, a new club would be created as a counter protest. The idea had first been mentioned around 1999 around the possible BSkyB takeover of United, which didn’t happen then so nothing in terms of creating a new club happened.

“The article in ‘Red Issue’ really got a lot of people talking and wondering if creating a new club would be viable. A couple of years earlier AFC Wimbledon formed and showed that fan owned clubs at the semi-professional level was possible. Using them as a base it was deemed as feasible to be able to do.”

The wheels moved quickly and the donations rolled in, showing there was significant momentum for the club.

“A fundraiser was set up and in the first couple of days around £26,000 was donated and a steering committee was set up, largely involving people from the Independent Manchester United supporters groups, fanzines, and other core supporters groups,” George said. “Presentations were made to the North West Counties League, which is the lowest level in the region, to allow the club to compete.

“There were a lot of regular match-going United fans who were fed up with the Old Trafford experience, and the Glazer takeover was the final straw in many ways. The atmosphere was going flat, the ticket prices were going up and it was becoming difficult to get season tickets. For individual tickets you needed to apply five weeks in advance and get this in on time, this was before tickets were sold online.

“There was always a catchment of United fans who were fed up with what the club had become. We then created a club in the image of what we think United should be, a fan-led community club that plays in the colours of United and is essentially a rejumbling of United’s name. It was a very attractive prospect to many United fans.”

During the club's 10th anniversary year, a major step forward was taken with the creation of their own stadium, Broadhurst Park, in Moston.

“We became the first club in the world to build our own ground from scratch that we know of,” George said. “Through this we’ve been able to step up our community work and have a sustainable facility that generates income for the club. Since the very beginning, we’ve had ‘Big Coat Day’ which is a drive to donate clothes for Manchester’s homeless. We’ve had Youth United Day where everyone under 21 can attend for free, and we’ve recently donated tickets to the Holiday Inn where asylum seekers are staying and was attacked during the riots earlier this year.

“We’ve always done events and fundraisers to benefit the local community. Things like this show that football and particularly FC United is for everyone. We want everyone around the North Manchester area to be able to access FC United and to know that we are here.”

One of the non-negotiables that the FC United ownership have maintained throughout the lifespan of the club is to have affordable, easy-access football for the local community.

“We want football to be affordable, and to be able to walk up to a stadium and pay on the gate like you used to be able to,” George said. “We like to remind United fans that there is an alternative. We still support United in the sense that we want the club to win games, we wouldn’t be supporting FC United if we didn’t care about United.”

George said that the owners keep an eye on things at Old Trafford, but feel that there is no way back for fans to have a say.

“The future administration of Manchester United is very much a lost cause,” he said. “We don’t see a way back for any supporter control. Even in 2005, over a quarter of the shares at the club were owned by a supporter banner. There was hope that supporters could influence the club's decisions, but that’s been stripped away.

“There’s a notion amongst football fans that you stick with your club through thick and thin, no matter what. I think a lot of football club owners take advantage of this as they know fans will be loyal regardless. They will put up prices and make it more difficult to get to games because they know that the blind loyalty that fans have from childhood is something they will pay for. In our opinion, this isn’t a noble thing. This is something that has attracted the money men.”

George had some powerful words for United fans who may be wary about what FC United are doing.

“What I would say to any United fan who is critical or sceptical of FC United is that we’re an example of United fans taking things into our own hands and making something very successful,” he points out. “It’s had ups and downs, but we own our own ground and we play league matches week in, week out which a lot of people didn’t think would happen. One of these was former United player Alan Gowling who famously said that the club would be ‘over by Christmas’ which we regularly remind him of because 20 years later, we’re still here.

“The reputation of United fans is that we are all glory hunters from Surrey who know nothing about football, but FC United has blown this out of the water. We’re very much a Mancunian entity, and know enough about football to run our own club.”

With the 20-year anniversary on the horizon, all eyes are on what is next for the phoenix club. They’ve just changed manager with Mark Beesley at the helm in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. They also return to action in the Fenix Trophy next week, a European competition for non-league clubs.

“It’s been the most incredible rollercoaster,” George said. “I never expected to be involved in such an incredible thing from the start. We knew there was a future with what we had created, but to be here 20 years later and 10 of those in our own ground its incredible. Fan ownership isn't the utopia we initially believed it would be because if you now look at non-league, there are clubs going full-time and paying more to their players.

“I do hope we can be a full-time team and also compete as high as we can whilst also being fan-owned. I want us to be at the top end of non-league, which is the National League. This is two promotions away and whilst the budget doesn’t reflect this at the moment, our attendances do. We’re getting between 1,500 and 2,000 fans to a home game and we have a strong away following.

“It’s about reminding people that FC United still exists and will continue to exist for people who are fed up with the excessiveness of modern football.”