During my one of my trips to Gigg Lane to watch Englands foremost fan-run football club, I stumbled across a group of lads with bold banners and distinctively non-Mancunian accents. I later learnt that the self-styled ITFC Rejects were in a very similar position to myself. Disillusioned with the state of mainstream football, they saw in the FC United project a chance to re-connect with the experiences and emotions that made them first fall in love with the game. Following a booze-fuelled conversation at a punk festival (appropriately at the Moston Miners Centre, across the road from Broadhurst Park, FC United’s soon to be completed new stadium), this interview was born…

OK, So firstly, how did a bunch of Ipswich supporters first end up going to FC Utd games en masse?

Matt: Firstly, sadly it’s not en masse. There’s only 3 of us regular, with another town fan tagging along occasionally. We all know each other through Ipswich away games and became friends, ultimately ending up living together in Manchester. I’ve been going for 5 years and introduced the others, separately, over the past 1-3 years. We’ve also made another town mate at Uni in Manchester, purely by chance, who sometimes tags along with us.

Will: There is mainly three of us who go to watch FC United. We all knew each other from following Ipswich and started going to games together in January 2009 as part of an attempted ‘Ultras’ group that has now disbanded (called Section Six). Matt has been based in Manchester throughout this time and has been to a handful of FC games over the past few seasons. Marcus moved to Manchester in summer 2012 and I followed in summer 2013 and we all still live in the same house, despite me being the only one who goes to more than a couple of Ipswich games per season these days. Midway through the 2013/14 season we started going to FC games more regularly. The main reasons for this are that compared to watching Championship football, games are much more affordable, there is generally a decent atmosphere and you get a lot less hassle from police/stewards. We have also made friends with others who follow FC and are planning to hopefully travel in decent numbers to games in the upcoming season.

Marcus: We are a bunch of mates who used to regularly go to Ipswich away games, and tried to find ways of bettering an atmosphere at these games. We then moved in together in Manchester 2 years ago (Matt already lived here and I moved across from Leeds). Matt had been following FC for a while previously, and I went to my first game around 3 years ago. I really appreciated the community atmosphere of the club and began following them from then.

Was it difficult ‘divorcing’ yourself from a club which you’ve given a considerable emotional investment (not to mention money and time)?

Matt: The other 2 will no doubt have entirely different answers as they’re not fully divorced. For me, it was hard. Football’s always been a huge part of my life and I spent a good year or two trying to give up all together. Spent hundreds of pounds travelling in the hope of improving things (in terms of atmosphere, and thus too enjoyment) but it just didn’t happen. I’d already been to Fc at this point but continued persisting with Town. I think it was the 11/12 season I jacked it in. I was becoming more and more aware of my place in the game, realising i was giving all this time and money and effort, and getting nothing back as a fan. I can handle shit football and long journeys, I enjoy them in fact, but I want to have a laugh too. Even the big Town games became dull to me, singing the same boring songs etc. Getting thrown out for standing up and putting flags in the wrong place and you just think, “whats the point?” That;s when I knew it was time to try move on. It was a Stone Roses moment

“When you’re so much in love you don’t know just how much you can take”

Will: I wouldn’t say that I have divorced Ipswich (although that probably would be an accurate description of Matt, and maybe Marcus too). Ipswich is still my club and I don’t think that it will ever not be. I went to around 10 Ipswich games last season and I’m still planning to go to a decent handful this season but my calendar now has a lot more FC fixtures on it than Ipswich. This is mainly because I get more enjoyment from watching FC at an affordable price (and obviously now living in Manchester it is a much more local team). I’m not too bothered about supporting a winning/successful team and go to football for the enjoyment of the day out rather than to watch the match.

Marcus: It was definitely difficult. I was born and raised in Suffolk, and followed Ipswich for a considerable time home and away. But over the last decade the club stagnated, and the away games just weren’t fun anymore. Ipswich take a great away support in most of the south and London, but as soon as we venture past the Watford Gap, our support plummets. As I was in Leeds, the majority of away games I watched were in the north, but I couldn’t justify paying the sort of money for away games for something I wasn’t enjoying. Being constantly hounded by stewards all game to sit down is not how I like to spend my Saturday afternoons!

How would you respond to the age-old adage ” “You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team.”?

Matt: Funny thing is, I was definitely one of those people, a person who would say that. To me, I’ve not entirely changed, I’m still an Ipswich fan. They’re my first love. Is partly down to my nomadic background, dad Ipswich, mum Cheshire, raised Yorkshire that I always feel a bit lost. I love football more than I love Ipswich, and I’m happy doing something positive rather than fucking about stubbornly with Ipswich.

Will: I wouldn’t say that I have changed my football team, but I have obviously changed the team which I go and watch week-in week-out. I feel more emotional attachment to the results of Ipswich than I do for FC,and I still find the fact that I’m cheering on a team that is Manchester United in another guise as hard to grasp. I’m also seeing the upcoming season as something as an experiment on loyalty and a writing project to document what it is like to follow a club that isn’t “yours”. I have bought membership for FC and a season ticket (as well as Ipswich Town membership). It will be interesting to see if my answers to these questions would be different in a years time. Choosing a club to follow based on their principles and fan base seems quite odd but for us feels like the right thing to do. (An interesting read is Nick Davidson’s book “Pirates, Punks on Politics” – he is a Watford fan who stopped going to football before discovering FC St. Pauli and going over to attend several games a season)

Marcus: Ipswich will always be my football team. That won’t change. But it is always possible to fall in love with another. The whole atmosphere at FC is something I feel very connected too; the community, the atmosphere, the mentality, the days out on the Didsbury mini-bus having a few drinks. There is love enough for two. If I moved from Ipswich to say United or Chelsea, then that would be a different matter, as it would not be out of principle but glory hunting.

I remember seeing your banner at Gig Lane (ITFC Rejects).What was the motivation behind this banner?

Matt: The banner was just when me and Marcus were going together. We wanted a flag to have at the games. We both felt we’d actively rejected Ipswich, and been rejected by them. Simple as that really. The bit underneath “Going against the grain for the soul of the game” is just a reference to watching non-league, and us going against our natural inclinations of following Town.

Will: I think that banner is mainly to do with our attempts to improve the fan culture at Ipswich, and although we had some success, our group was always limited and began to fizzle out within a couple of years. In this sense we were rejected by the mass of the ITFC fan base and have chosen to watch our football elsewhere as a result.

Marcus: It came from the football chant originally. We felt let down by Ipswich after we invested a lot of time in trying to build an atmosphere at games.

If it comes down to the clash, and FC United and Ipswich are both playing at the same time and both within reasonable travelling distance; which match do you go to and why?

Matt: Now, FC 9%0 of the time. I’ve done 70 ground with Ipswich and it doesn’t appeal. Fiver with FC or £25 watching Ipswich at a ground I’ve been too numerous times and to me it’s an easy contest. Occasionally I choose town, but that’s to tick grounds off mainly, a la Bournemouth and Yeovil last season.

Will: This is something that I am having to toy with at the moment as I plot out my Saturdays and compare fixture lists. Fortunately most of the Ipswich games that I have pencilled in only clash with an FC home games which I am not too bothered about missing. In general I would have to take it on a game by game basis and factors such as grounds, price, and who else is going would be taken into account. This season I am also planning to go to a few Lowestoft Town games. They are a non-league side from Suffolk who have just gained promotion to the Conference North. I went to watch them on a handful of occasions when I used to live in Norwich and being a Suffolk boy up north feel some sort of duty to go to a couple of their games. It will be interesting to see if many people from East Anglia make the long trip to places such as Stockport and Barrow to watch them.

Marcus: This may sound fickle, but it depends on the game! In the majority of cases now, it will be, and has been, FC games that I’ve chosen over Ipswich games. Mainly because it is affordable, and because I generally enjoy myself much more. As most FC fans will know, it is conflicting to love a club that you don’t agree with in many cases, and thus I normally find it disheartening when I do make an Ipswich game. One relatively recent example was when Ipswich played Bolton away last season. The atmosphere was sterile, only a handful of Ipswich fans stood and we were completely disheartened at the lack of passion.

Similarly, FC United play Ipswich in the FA Cup, which end do you go in and which team to you support, and why?

Matt: Tough, tough, tough one. I have as many new friends at FC united now, which to me is a big part of football. A team I was given by chance versus the team I’ve adopted for the brilliant morals they represent and their locality to my adopted city? Ipswich. No FC. No Ipswich. I’d probably not go to avoid the decision.

Will: I would definitely go in the Ipswich end if this ever happened. I would have friends at both ends of the ground and it would be an interesting occasion but I could never bring myself to cheer on a team that is playing against Ipswich.

Marcus: Now this one is a hard one! I think I’d rather not go to the game, and shut myself in a dark room rather than stand in either end. If I had to go, I ultimately would end up in the Ipswich end, with a heavy heart.

How do you see the FC United project panning out?

Matt: I think the club will continue to grow, but personally they need more young people coming from the doors. There’s still a lack of 16-25 year old’s at FC. They have the opportunity to make it like the good old days with half the crowd being local kids. It remains to be seen if they’ll progress up the league, but who cares. Is league position the only way to judge success?

Will: I think FC have been remarkably successful in the 9 years since they started both on and off the pitch. To maintain their initial momentum is impressive and there is obviously a long term future for the club now that their new ground is being built. I think there will be a limit to how far the club can progress up the leagues without severely compromising the principles on which the club is based. I’m not bothered about how successful they are on the pitch and actually feel a bit uncomfortable supporting a winning team. I think it would be interesting if they got promoted and then had a relegation struggle the next season to see how the supporters would react. Watching a struggling team is not something that United supporters are used to – whether they support Man United or FC.

Marcus: I think it is a fantastic, democratic model to follow. It is in the hands of the fans to shape the club how they see fit. It is a solid long term plan and sustainable. Businessman up and leave a club without notice or care in the Premiership and professional leagues (and indeed in some semi-pro clubs). The difference is the fans at FC love the club, so they will never abandon it. Once FC establishes itself at Broadhurst Park, I see no reason why the club can’t make its way into the Conference and beyond.

And what do you think, and hope, the influence the FC United project could have on the rest of the football pyramid (especially Ipswich of course!)?

Matt: I hope it’ll spread. Fans will be listened to, accommodated, taken seriously, even helped. Ticket prices will come down, over the top rules will be replaced with common sense. That, or we’ll continue in the lower leagues remaining mainly unnoticed while people get blinded by sky TV and dick-head Premier League players without ever attending a game.

Will: Hopefully the fan ownership model will continue to grow but with how the majority of clubs are run I can’t see it ever taking off on a large scale. Something like the 50+1 rule in that they have in Germany would be nice but I can’t see this happening any time soon. It is hard to detach FC from Man. United which means the supporters of other clubs will always hold some animosity against them, even if they appreciate how the club is run. It feels good to be part of a successful supporters movement but I think my involvement will always be somewhat limited because of FC/Manchester United not being the club that I grew up supporting.

Marcus: Sadly, it appears it has little or no influence at the moment. The money, greed and inequality in English football appears to be getting worse and worse every season. I think, however, the limelight has begun to shift towards German football where there are many fan owned clubs, sustainable business models, terracing, atmosphere and successes on the pitch. I truly hope that English fans see the light, and embrace such a model. For now, FC has something special, and hopefully it will inspire fans at other clubs.

DR