Yet another football musing

Saw this speech a long time ago and chanced upon it again a couple of days ago on MUFCUSA website. This speech was made at the AGM this year in around October/November I think.

STEVE DONOGHUE'S SPEECH AT THE AGM - A MUST READ!!!!...

Mr Chairman, please give me a minute or two to explain my point before my question.
Back in 1991 we fans had four trips to Wembley and a final in Rotterdam to pay for, our then chairman, put this club on the stock market just at the time when he knew that most fans would be at their lowest financial point of the season, leaving the board and its corporate friends to make a killing on the stock exchange. You once couldn’t do enough for the fans, but now some are looked upon with disdain, why? Because, we dare to question the boards actions. The board are so fond of quoting statistics, and pointing out to us how much it spends, it seems you’ve forgotten the true meaning of what running a football club should be all about, its about doing the best on and off the pitch for the community of supporters that come to be entertained by the players on a Saturday…err Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday whatever day SKY wants it to be, and you can’t blame the media vultures for grabbing what they can, No, it seems you were that busy grabbing their TV money, somebody forgot to check the small print that allows them to change fixtures at a whim, which I am sure everyone here, including the manager and players are fed up with. I’ll give you a few statistics, in my 47 years of following United I have travelled 264,000 miles to 16 different countries (pity, the club don’t do air miles eh!) at an approximate cost of £45,000. That’s about 14% of my 32 years adult earning salary. A weeks wages for some players nowadays. This, is my 1960’s scarf (held up) it has taken 40 odd years to build this collection into a fine work of art, it has character, it provokes memories and emotions, it is part of the fabric and history of what being a red is all about. All those years, all those emotions, all that money was spent willingly, because of the love and loyalty to my Club. Asking nothing in return, except honest toil from my team on the pitch. Before you think these are just inane ramblings, all of you present, just ask yourselves how much have YOU spent following United over the years, go on, do a few quick sums And then multiply that by 60,000 and you will see that we, YES we have invested hundreds of millions of pounds into OUR club. And you lot get it all for free. - - - - - When you needed us, when the club wasn’t doing so well, we were there, when you had no sponsors, we were there, when you begged us to help the Development Associations we dug deep and helped to build parts of Old Trafford, buy shares you said, One United its your Club you said, buy a brick for the walk of fame be part of the dream…well you made us what we are today, Fanatics 40 odd years of brainwashing us into thinking yes this IS our Club, we love it as one of our own family, look at what WE the fans did for the respect of Sir Matt, we stood for hours in the pouring rain to honour him. We came to the Munich memorial game because we knew the club did too little too late, WE paid that money to the surviving relatives, and WE have stood by Sir Alex Ferguson when some influential shareholders wanted him out. So, your to blame for our obsession, yet you expect fans to just hand it all over to the next fat cat who comes along, to maybe one day, asset strip us like our feeder club down the road in Yorkshire > ….I don’t think so.

We are not the ones who have sold our soul, Mr Edwards, Mr Kenyon and Mr Watkins could all have sold their offloading shares to fans but chose not to. By all means invest in things, but not at OUR expense with extortionate prices. There is a regulated, lawful point to all this, at these shareholders meetings which in the past YOU have decided what questions YOU will answer and when the meeting will close, I’m sorry Mr Chairman but at other democratic PLC institutions ALL questions are answered, mikes are not cut off and they run until the shareholders, who are YOUR benefactors, decide when they’ve asked enough questions. Each year these AGM’s get shorter and shorter, and you all get an easy ride. Can’t you see the way you treat us is why the fans feel let down by you. THIS, scarf is true commitment, fans re-investing all their hard earned wages, this is OUR long term investment, in OUR club. Without OUR support you would have no revenue, no sponsors, no TV contracts. “Don’t forget, its not just the fans who will be affected by a takeover, all your jobs will be on the line as well. But hey, you’ll all be very rich men, the people of Manchester & Salford won’t forget what you’ve done, you will be in the clubs folklore, but for all the wrong reasons. Don’t let that happen. Now, my question to the board is, Will you make a commitment to us, the 18% of small shareholder fans by actively encouraging all the other significant shareholders and fans, NOT just the 2,500 here today bot to the millions of reds all over the world via the clubs website, match programme and Mutv etc’ who do own the 7% or more shares needed to join the fans and take up the challenge to make the stake up to the 25% needed to build a “Supporters Trust” ? There’s been a lot of talk of “civil war” in the media just lately, none of us want that, but please Mr Chairman, don’t underestimate the fans feelings on this issue. If the board really do want to do what’s best for this club and its fans, show us your true colours you could help put a stop to all this nonsense once and for all. This, is our Alamo , the line has been drawn. It’s ironic that if Glazier wants to vote you lot off the board, you’ll have to come to the small shareholder fans to keep your jobs, SO, to coin a phrase, “your either with us or against us”… which shall it be?

In addition, had been following this very interesting thread:

Part time supporters?

Given United's worldwide following, this is a very contentious issue. Last time I used to be perplexed at the level of "animosity" towards so called day trippers to Old Trafford from the locals. Generally they are all right, but there are some who outwardly express their disdain for Asians who don't sing and shout during matches, go into the megastore to shop blah blah. But slowly and slowly I began to understand a little bit of the reasons why.

Let me draw an analogy.

You used to have a very close bunch of friends in secondary school. You did well in O levels and went to RJ. There you meet a whole new bunch of people, and made friends with some of the coolest people around..or so you thought. As you hang out with these new friends, somewhere along the line, you inevitably shunt your old friends out of the way. Schedules clash, too busy, or just plain can't be bothered. Yet the relationship which had took years to build up sometimes still withstand the test of time. As you find yourself in trouble, perhaps in school or relationships, most of the new friends would not go out of their way to help you or comfort you. Your old friends will. But yet they are the very ones which you had shafted in the attempt to mix with cool new people.

The local supporters who had followed United all these years feel like those old secondary school friends. Do you still remember Premiere 12 times? English Premier League matches then used to be at unearthly hours. (11pm was unearthly for a 11/12 year old kid...) Then somewhere along the line, matches started appearing at 7/8pm. And inevitably they were the big ones like United vs Liverpool. Somewhere further, matches started appearing on Sunday nights, Monday nights blah blah. And now there is a ridiculous 115am Sunday morning kickoff ala Man United vs Norwich earlier this season. Ever wondered why? For television audiences that is. For the Far East, 7/8pm matches are much better than 11pm. (Not for me though...I hate to have to be back so early to catch the matches at home...). That translates to 1230pm kickoffs in the UK and it totally screws up some fans routines. Some love to hang out at pubs around the stadium to drink and warm up before going for matches. If the match starts at 1230pm, they would have to wake up extra early if they want to go to the pub etc...and somehow or rather you can't help but feel this is one of the reasons why atmosphere in 1230pm matches are shit. The situation is even worse for away fans. For example, United had an away match at Portsmouth at 1230pm last season. Thus the away fans had to wake up at unearthly hours (you are looking at approximately 6 hours of travelling by car) to make the trip down to the southern tip of England to catch a normal league game. Another case in point is Newcastle had an away game against Chelsea at Stamford bridge recently, again the away fans had to get up early to make the trip to London. But 3000 away fans is hardly going to bother the television companies whose sole concern is the audience in front of TVs.

The same things can be applied to Monday night matches, where fans have to take time off work just to travel and watch a league game. And 515pm kickoffs (which results in 115am kickoffs in Singapore) are shit for the Far East and people like me who get back to London at 3am after the match, but great for the growing US market.

To cater to the bigger number of television audiences, Sky shifts United's matches around to fit their schedules, and inevitably its the match going fans who suffer from the inconveniences and also the loss of the traditional Saturday 3pm kickoffs at Old Trafford. However, matchday revenue such as ticketing and merchandising are still the most important sources of revenue for United. Match going fans are still the most important to United. If *touchwood* one day United become unsuccessful, the television audience will undoubtedly shrink, but the match going fans who have supported United throughout the years will still be there. But yet they are being continually pushed around, so you can understand why perhaps some of them are not too happy about it.

As for the topic in the thread, it gets even more touchy. There are 101 ways why people can't go for matches. Living in another country. The travelling is too much. Can't afford it etc etc. And it is true that doesn't make them any less of a fan. However, what some people do in that thread is to say "If I were rich enough, live close enough blah blah, I would go to every match". That is what I feel is not right. It is a general and unqualified statement. Until you have actually been allowed to be in those circumstances you have described, and you actually did that, then you can make those kind of statements. Because simply put, it is too easy to make those kind of statements and then when crunch time comes around, hide behind those same reasons like not enough money, too many commitments etc. You never know when you will actually do something under certain circumstances until you actually encounter those circumstances. It's like if you say you will help run after a murderer if you ever saw one, but when the time comes, will you? Would the fear of being stabbed yourself deter you? You never know.

And let me just add that I am not having a holier than thou attitude against many of you in Singapore or in UK. I do not think I am a die hard fan. It's just that it's my last year here, and I am not spending my parents' money, which allows me to go for matches. But perhaps more importantly, it is my way of justifying to myself why I should have had that Arsenal or Man City or Spurs ticket and makes me all the more pissed that I never get it *grrrrrr* (Yes I am still sore about that...)