AOB: Living in the Past

I must confess that I was highly amused to see that Unibond Premier league matches are now being moved because of TV. This is deliciously ironic given that FC United of Manchester, the splinter club set up by the poor downtrodden fans of Man Utd, compete in said division.

Apparently one of the reasons for the formation of FCUM was dissatisfaction at the real Man Utd’s games being moved on a whim by Sky, so of course they are not amused that FCUM’s upcoming fixture with Curzon Ashton is set to kick off at 12.45pm. In fact, the club are asking their fans to boycott the match.

“Football has a massive problem with this at the top level and the last thing we need is for Unibond football to fall of it as well,” whined FCUM Chief Executive Andy Walsh (who I imagine to look exactly like Gary Neville for some reason) in the NLP. “Our fans have turned away from kick off changes in favour of attending matches at 3pm on Saturday.”

For me this sums up everything that is wrong with the FCUM project. No one likes kick off times being messed about with, but unfortunately in football, as in life, things change. While the FCUM hierarchy are busy jumping on their high horse they seem to be forgetting that there are other clubs in their league who are probably looking forward to (albeit limited) extra media coverage as a way to increase their profile.

FCUM is not a fans club in the sense that AFC Wimbledon is. It is more an extended nostalgia trip for a bunch of middle aged men who don’t want to accept that football at the top level is not the same as it was in the 70’s. That’s all very well, but as they continue to progress up the pyramid they will realise that the non-league is not the footballing timewarp they seek. What are they going to do if they get into the Blue Square Premier and their matches start getting moved to Thursday nights? Stamp their feet and tell their fans to march on Setanta HQ?

I’m not saying fans don’t have a right to complain, but equally you can’t have your own way all the time. I’m inclined to agree with Unibond League Chief Executive Duncan Bayley, who labelled FCUM ‘narrow minded’.

“If the league are going to mess about kick-offs our fans will say stuff it,” warns Walsh. I suspect I’m not the only who hopes this happens sooner rather than later.