F.C. United of Manchester: The Soccer Team Run by the People for the People

In August 1819, people from all over greater Manchester gathered in St. Peter's Field, a grassy expanse in the city center. Historians estimate the crowd at 60,000 to 80,000, though eyewitness Sir William Jolliffe described the scene as "so filled with people that their hats seemed to touch." They gathered in protest. Their government no longer represented them. Outdated voting laws had restricted the voice of the growing urban population and empowered the aristocrats in the countryside.

To break up the gathering, authorities sent cavalry troops charging into the mass of people, and in the ensuing mayhem, 15 people were killed and hundreds more were injured. The event, known as "The Peterloo Massacre," became a defining moment in the history of English radicalism and led to the 1821 founding of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, today known as the Guardian.

In May 2005, shortly after the late Malcolm Glazer gained full control of Manchester United Football Club—with heavily reliance on loans taken out on behalf of the club—a group of United supporters gathered in a series of meetings at Methodist Hall in Manchester. Disenfranchised by the high wages of players, high ticket prices, and the general corporatist focus on profitability that they saw in Manchester United--a club once founded by workers of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway--the supporters aimed to create a new club based on their own political and economic ideals. According to the book Football and Community in the Global Context: Studies in Theory and Practice, at one of the final meetings before the rebel team known as Football Club United of Manchester was officially formed, a flag hung behind the stage bearing Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara's slogan, "Hasta La Victoria Siempre."

FC United of Manchester's first open tryouts drew hundreds of players, there because they believed in the spirit of the club or because they were simply looking for a way to play in the lowest divisions of English soccer. Now, more than nine years after those first meetings and tryouts, FC United of Manchester sits in 9th place in the Evo-Stik League Northern Premier (the 7th level of English soccer). The club was knocked out of the FA Cup last week after a 1-0 defeat to Lancaster City. However, competitive success is only one aspect of FC United's mission.

"Advancing through promotions and winning trophies and winning games is part of what we do--we're a football club," said FC United founder and general manager Andy Walsh in a phone interview earlier this week. "But it's not all we do."

"Our primary goal when we first set out was to create a sustainable model for football that's based on supporters owning and running the football club," said Walsh. "That's not changed in nearly 10 years of the club being in existence and I can't see that changing for a long time to come."

The club today has over 3,000 members, an online team store that functions as a non-profit, a fan-built FCUM.TV site that hosts video of match highlights and news updates, a web radio station that proclaims itself to be the largest volunteer-only radio station in the United Kingdom, and after playing in other club's stadiums for the last 9 years--and after a stadium project 4 years ago was derailed by an issue with the local government--FC United is currently building its own stadium in Manchester.

Broadhurst Park, located northeast of the city center, is expected to be completed and opened for matches by the end of this year. The stadium will seat approximately 5,000 fans, and the roughly £5.7 million cost of the project has been covered through £1.9 million in funding from the club's community shares system, £2.5 million in various grant money, and the rest from other investments furnished by local businesses and organizations, with a small portion from the Manchester City Council (the full business plan is available here).

"Manchester's got a proud history of radicalism and breaking new ground," said Walsh, explaining how his club represents the greater Mancunian identity. "It's radical thought--radical political thought--as well as industry and creative energy. And FC United of Manchester I think follows that proud and rich tradition."

With Manchester United currently sputtering in 7th place, looking more like a General Motors ad campaign than a decent club despite spending over £150 million on new players this summer, and Manchester City FC owned by a foreign oil magnate whose family has an estimated $1 trillion in assets, FC United represents a populist alternative for a city with an identity steeped in the English labor movement going back to Peterloo. According to Walsh, his club's support has even begun to bridge the deepest of the city's divisions.

"Our supporter base is predominantly Manchester United fans. But there are others who have come from other clubs, including City, who are equally turned off by the whole corporate money-making machine that the English Premier League has become."

"It takes a big ask for a City fan to cheer on a team in red," said Walsh, but he believes that his club's ideals reach beyond the rivalry. "It's not about the United-City thing, it's about wanting to make a difference, and wanting change the way that football is run."

Though former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson called FC United supporters "a wee bit" self-promotional and questioned the strength of their former loyalties to United (longtime United star and now assistant coach Ryan Giggs was more understanding of FC United when interviewed for a 2005 BBC documentary), Walsh himself admits that he still follows Manchester United and hopes to see them win. He is less forgiving, however, towards the English Premier League.

"I think the whole ethos of the Premier League is damaging to the game, and ultimately damaging to the way our society is run in this country," said Walsh. "It's the pursuit of cash and greed at the expense of everything else."

As billionaires across the world continue to hungrily stare at the ever-growing pile of television money that the English Premier League earns, clubs such as Manchester United— with rich identities and histories—stray further from their roots, becoming global brands. In doing so, they often price out longtime season-ticket holders and weaken connections with the communities they represent. The inevitable growth of of these clubs leaves a hole to fill at ground level. FC United of Manchester, with its radical ideology and fan-driven goals, may not be today's solution, but they'll be around long enough to jump at the chance.