FC United of Manchester Given the Red Card

FC United of Manchester is a football club formed as a protest when the Glazers took over Manchester United. To many of us football, at the highest level, had been corrupted for many years by corporate greed and the Glazers were the final straw.

When FC was formed there was a clear left-wing political element to it. But, in the excitement of the fight, that could be overlooked for the cause, let's reclaim football.

The left-wing element surfaced, primarily, in a schoolboy/student style obsession with racism with anti-BNP chants at games. Fair enough, juvenile, but while far from supportive of the BNP I do not see them, or racism, around every corner.And the main reason the BNP seem to 'punch above their weight' is because their opponents constantly overreact and publicise them mercilessly. The juvenile element included banners of Che 'Ernie' Guevara, the bloodthirsty Latino terrorist so loved by certain weirdos that they wear images of him on t-shirts. It was getting tedious, especially when Guevara appeared on official FCUM DVDs. It became clear that some of these armchair revolutionaries, throwbacks to the 1960s, actually thought they were the vanguard of the workers' revolution.

Then there is the annual anti-racism jamboree they call 'People United Day'. On this day an assortment of minority groups parade around the ground before the game with banners. Of course if you question this you are immediately branded a racist. I questioned it with the club and was told, effectively, to bugger off if I didn't like it. My view is that constantly harping on about race is divisive, left to get on with it most people would just get on with it. Racism and anti-racism are two sides of the same coin, divide and rule.

Now the club are working with a group called CAFRASS who work with refugees and asylum seekers. While sympathising with genuine refugees I have severe doubts when 'asylum seekers' are mentioned. This invariably refers to people who are just not keen on their country of origin, quite a different thing to a genuine refugee. And why should a football club be involved with groups like that? Community involvement yes, but please no politically correct posturing.

FC United are wondering why their support has at best levelled off and at worst shrunk. Well I think I know the answer to that one. Here's one person who won't be renewing his season ticket or membership because, as mentioned earlier, I'm buggering off.