David Gwilliam
Well-Known Member
What an interesting question.
We all know that a football club is a business - as is an art gallery, a museum and a stately home - but it is far more than just a business.
There would be uproar and rightly if someone decided to pull down St Mary de Castro or Leicester Guild Hall. Yet Leicester City is probably more important in terms of peoples personal heritage as are other football clubs. When a cynical owner decided to kill off Wimbledon it was reborn as Wimbledon AFC. The Wimbledon fans did not transfer their allegience to Arsenal or Chelsea.
I feel no loyalty to a supermarket. When I moved to Aylestone I stopped being a Tesco customer and switched to Safeway without any hesitation. I regarded the change from Safeway to Morrisons with total equanimity. On the other hand as someone who normally prides myself on not getting angry I was surprised how furious I was at the club letting Nigel Pearson go.
One way in which football clubs are different from other businesses is that they get on. The players may be opponents though once the match ends they are usually all pals; the fans have sometimes bitter rivalries; but the clubs work together - directors welcome each other, ticket offices have to cooperate. It is rare to hear of bad feeling between clubs rather than managers, players or fans. To put it crudely Leicester City need other teams otherw*s* the matches will be rather dull.
In the 1980s I would have got better value supporting Nottingham Forest than Leicester. I would have seen a wonderful team with players like Trevor Francis and John Robertson. I do not remember masses of Leicester fans defecting. Supermarket customers would have gone for the best value.
A lot of Man U and Liverpool fans have become rightly or wrongly disgusted with the owenership of their club. It would take someone with more courage than I have got to suggest the sensible thing is to switch to Man City or Everton. In business terms it would make sense for the two Bristol teams to merge; same with the two Sheffield teams. The fans of all four clubs would be horrified at the idea.
I grew up as a fan of non-League Worcester City. I had been in Leicester over six months before I went to see Leicester City play and perhaps two years for them to supplant Worcester City. It would have been much more difficult if I had been changing from one big club to another.
My friends few of whom have any interest in football see it as part of my identity: "Your lot did well on Saturday" "I see you have got a new manager" "Looks like your going to be relegated this season." They do not seem to regard Morrison's as part of my identity.
At a meeting in the wake of the sacking of Martin Allen Milan came out with a comment that interested me. Someone mentioned "Martin Allen's team". Milan said
"Excuse me it is not Martin Allen's team. It is not my team. It is your team. Your grandfathers supported Leicester City and your grandchildren will support Leicester City long after I have gone."
No amount of Supermarket reward cards can get loyalty like that.
