F.C. United of Manchester
Encyclopedia : F : FC : FCU : F.C. United of Manchester
Football Club United of Manchester (FC United of Manchester, FC United or FCUM for short) is a semi-professional English football club based in Manchester, although they currently play their first team home matches in nearby Bury. The club was formed in 2005 by Manchester United supporters who opposed Malcolm Glazer's hostile takeover of their club, and is run as an industrial and provident society in which members only receive one share regardless of the amount they have invested in the club.
Although the majority of the club's support comes from Manchester and the surrounding area, its supporters club has branches in over ten countries including Poland, New Zealand and the United States of America. It is not uncommon for overseas supporters to travel to the UK solely to watch an FC United match [[Citing sources citation needed]]. The local television station Channel M began a monthly series of programmes about the club in January 2006, and television crews from France and the Netherlands are regularly seen at the team's matches.
FC United's first season has been successful. They entered the second division of the North West Counties Football League, and were confirmed as champions on 15 April 2006. They will play in the first division in the 2006-7 season. As of April 2006, they had the season's second-highest average attendance in English non-league football. The team is managed by the former Macclesfield Town player Karl Marginson and their record attendance is 6,023 for a match against Great Harwood Town on 23 April 2006.
History
Formation
The club was founded in the summer of 2005 by disgruntled supporters of Manchester United. Although those supporters had various reasons for their dissatisfaction with the club, the catalyst for FC United's formation was the hostile takeover of Manchester United by the United States businessman Malcolm Glazer. United supporters had previously considered forming a new club in response to a proposed takeover by Rupert Murdoch in 1998, but the takeover bid was unsuccessful so the idea was not implemented. When it was announced that Glazer was considering taking over the club, the idea was brought up again as a possible "last resort" and discussed in Manchester United fanzines including Red Issue.The Glazer family obtained overall control of Manchester United on 12 May 2005, and supporters who had opposed the takeover organised a meeting at the Manchester Methodist Hall on 19 May. Although the focus of the meeting was on continuing to oppose Manchester United's new owners rather than forming a new club, the meeting's chairman, Andy Walsh, announced that the formation of a new club would be discussed at a second meeting on 30 May and that Kris Stewart, the chairman of AFC Wimbledon, had given advice on setting up the club.The meeting took place at the Apollo Theatre, Manchester. AFC Wimbledon is another supporter-owned club that was established three years earlier. It was decided that the club would be formed if 1000 people at the meeting pledged to support it financially. Although the number of pledges fell short of 1000, the organisers decided to form the club anyway after discussion with Stewart, who later addressed a third meeting of United supporters, encouraging interest in FC United and offering AFC Wimbledon's support.
A nearby club, Leigh RMI, were in financial difficulties at the time and asked FC United to take them over, as the extra support from FC United would have ensured their club's survival. The founders of FC United refused this proposition because they were creating the club in response to an unpopular takeover and didn't feel that taking over another existing club was appropriate. The clubs remained on good terms, though, and FC United's first public match was a friendly against Leigh RMI. The club's founders originally chose the name FC United, but the Football Association rejected this as too generic. Those who had pledged money to the club were then asked to vote on a name from FC United of Manchester, FC Manchester Central, AFC Manchester 1878 and Newton Heath United FC.Manchester United was founded as Newton Heath in 1878 and the latter two names represented claims to this heritage (Manchester Central was one of the three choices in 1902 for the new name for Newton Heath, along with Manchester Celtic and Manchester United). On 14 June, 2005 it was announced that FC United of Manchester had been chosen with 44% of the vote. FC United continues to be used as an abbreviated form of the club's name.
Karl Marginson was appointed as manager on 22 June, and the club held trials for players on 26 June. 900 players applied to take part in the trials, of whom 200 were selected to do so and 17 were chosen to play for F.C. United, although most of those have since left the club. By 8 July 2005, over 4000 people had pledged money to FC United and the club had over £100,000 in the bank.
FC United were admitted to the second division of the North West Counties Football League, putting the club at level ten of the English football league system, nine levels below the FA Premier League. The league had four spare places at the time, so no other club was denied promotion as a result of FC United's admission. The club was formed after the deadline for entering the FA Vase had passed so they were not eligible to play in it in the 2005–06 season, although they were able to play in the North West Counties League Challenge Cup. They will be eligible to enter the FA Vase in the 2006/2007 season and the FA Cup the year after. The club then arranged to play their 2005-06 home matches at Bury F.C.'s stadium, Gigg Lane.
2005-06 season
FC United's first public match was an away friendly fixture against Leigh RMI on 16 July 2005. The match ended 0–0, and many FC United supporters invaded the pitch at the end of the game. Although the pitch invasion was good-natured, it was claimed that a supporter had assaulted a steward and St Helens Town subsequently cancelled a proposed friendly match on the advice of their safety officer. The club's next match was another away friendly at AFC Wimbledon, on 23 July 2005, which AFC won 1–0. The following Saturday (30th July 2005) they visited the Conference North team Stalybridge Celtic, in a benefit match for Myra Mandryk, a member of Stalybridge's staff who was suffering from cancer. Stalybridge won 2–0 in front of a crowd of 1800.
An important milestone was FC United's next friendly, as guests of Flixton F.C. on 2 August. This was due to F.C.'s highly-anticipated first-ever goal, scored by Steve Torpey very early on in the game. A further four goals were scored, resulting in an emphatic 5–2 victory in what was F.C. United's first match against a club from the same league (the three previous games had been against higher division clubs).
The North West Counties League arranged for F.C. United's first league match to be away to the club with the biggest ground, Leek CSOB, in order to gauge whether it would be possible for other clubs to host F.C. United at their own grounds. It took place on Saturday 13 August 2005 and was the first all-ticket match in the history of the league. The attendance of 2590 set a new record for the NWCFL, and was higher than Leek CSOB's combined attendances for the whole of the previous season. F.C. United won the game 5–2.
F.C. United played their first home match on 20 August, beating Padiham 3–2 in front of 2498, a crowd that was higher than some League Two clubs attracted on the same day. The club started the season well, with six wins and a draw from their first seven games before suffering their first competitive defeat on 24 September at home to Norton United. They won their next four games, however, including a 5–1 victory over Cheadle Town in their first-ever cup match, and set another North West Counties League record attendance of 3808 for a match against Daisy Hill on 8 October. They played their first competitive match against a higher division side in a North West Counties League cup match on 13 November, losing 2–1 to Colne. The following month, their midfielder Simon Carden scored five goals in a single game, in a 10–2 win over Castleton Gabriels.
A 2–1 win at home to second-placed Winsford on 2 January 2006 put FC United 14 points ahead at the top of division two, although Winsford had played three fewer matches. That match's attendance of 4,328 set another record attendance for the league and gave FC United the second-highest average attendance in English non-league football up to that point of the season, and a higher average attendance than six League Two clubs. They were knocked out of the North West Counties League Division Two Cup by Nelson on 4 February.
FC United confirmed promotion from the North West Counties League Division Two on the evening of Wednesday 12 April after a 4–0 home victory over Chadderton. On 15 April they were confirmed as Division Two champions without playing as other results made it impossible for any other club in the division to catch them.
Organisation
F.C. United is an industrial and provident society. Membership is obtained by donating one pound or more to the club, but each member receives only one share in the club and is entitled to a single vote at meetings, regardless of the amount donated.The club has an elected board of twelve members, but has not yet chosen a chairman. Tony Pritchard is acting as chairman until a decision is made.
The club has two full-time employees: Andy Walsh as chief executive and Luc Zentar as secretary. Both were heavily involved in the club's formation.The club prefer to use the term General Manager instead of Chief Executive, but the term Chief Executive has to be used for legal reasons.
The club's manifesto includes the following core principles:
- The Board will be democratically elected by its members.
- Decisions taken by the membership will be decided on a one member, one vote basis.
- The club will develop strong links with the local community and strive to be accessible to all, discriminating against none.
- The club will endeavour to make admission prices as affordable as possible, to as wide a constituency as possible.
- The club will encourage young, local participation - playing and supporting - whenever possible.
- The Board will strive wherever possible to avoid outright commercialism.
- The club will remain a non-profit organisation.
Current players
The club's squad includes the following players:Players on the coaching staff
- Phil Power
- Darren Lyons
Goalkeepers
- Barrie George
- Phil Leaff
- Matt Higgins
- Philip Melville
Defenders
- David Brown
Was the last junior player signed by Ron Atkinson at Manchester United, but when Alex Ferguson took over he decided not to keep any of the existing junior players and Brown was released. He was offered an apprenticeship at Rochdale but decided to go to college instead and largely ignored football until he graduated from university. He spent short periods of time at several clubs, including a stint at Leftbridge Bulldogs in Canada, before signing for Salford City at the age of 25. He captained the team, played in midfield and stayed there for five years. He signed for Radcliffe in 2003 and helped them win promotion to the Unibond Premier Division, but he was finding it difficult to play football while working full time so he dropped down a level to play for Mossley and then stopped playing altogether.
However, a few months later his former team-mate Karl Marginson invited him to join FC United. He signed for the club in October 2005 and Scored in his first full appearance against Darwen. Brown sometimes captains the team when Dave Chadwick is not playing.
- David Chadwick
- Tony Cullen
- Kevin Elvin
- Billy McCartney
- Robert Nugent
- Gareth Ormes
Midfield
- William Ahern
- Simon Carden
- Josh Howard
- Mark Rawlinson
- Steve Spencer
Forwards
- Simon Band
- Leon Mike
- Jonathan Mitten
- Adie Orr
- Rory Patterson
After a year at Radcliffe, he was considering moving to the south of England when his former team-mate Karl Marginson was appointed as manager of FC United and offered him a trial. He made his first appearance for the club as a substitute in their pre-season friendly against Stalybridge Celtic and was immediately nicknamed "the man with no name" and "Mr Mystery" as he had no number on his back. Patterson was the first player to score for F.C. United in a home match, and scored seven goals in the club's first ten league matches.Player Profile: Rory Patterson Official Match Programme: FC United v Nelson FC, 22 October 2005, 14-17.. Participated in a trial at Grimsby Town along with FC midfielder William Ahern.
- Chris Simms
- Steve Torpey
Former players
- Craig Fleury
- Ryan Gilligan
- Matt Haley
- Ryan Hevicon
- Scott Holt
- Paul Mitten
- Phil Priestley
- Robert Trees
- Matt Weston
- Tony Coyne
Honours
- North West Counties Football League
- Division Two Champions 2006
Records
- Record League Victory: 10-2 v Castleton Gabriels, 10 December 2005
- Record League Defeat: 1-2 v Norton United, 24 September 2005
- Most Goals scored in a Match: 5 Simon Carden v Castleton Gabriels, 10 December 2005
- Record Attendance: Gigg Lane 6,023 v Great Harwood, 22 April 2006
- Longest unbeaten Run : (All competitions) 11, 19 November 2005 to 21 January 2006
- Longest unbeaten Run : (League) 18, 5 October 2005 to - 27 February 2006
References
Printed
- FC United of Manchester Official Match Programme, volume 1, issues 1,7
- Under The Boardwalk (FC United fanzine), issue 3 (October 2005)
Online
Notes
Further reading
Websites
Newspaper articles
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