Kartik Krishnaiyer
Decades of Manchester City support has brought the author much joy. But the club’s state ownership and flirtation with the Super League are the latest indignities putting allegiance to the test.
This is usually the space for my weekly Yanks Abroad piece but this week, with the Premier League season coming to a close, I thought I’d offer a quick word on a personal supporters decision I recently made.
The European Super League concept was offensive to me both from a soccer standpoint and from a personal values standpoint. I’ve watched on for many years as the richest clubs in Europe have become richer and as the “big six” in England have schemed to deny the rest of the football pyramid money. The COVID-19 pandemic became an excuse for big clubs in England to try and concoct various structural changes to benefit themselves.
First it was the infamous “Project Big Picture”. Next came the attempt by the “Big Six” to seize more TV money from domestic rights. Finally, the culmination of these shenanigans, an attempt to breakaway and create a partially closed competition with other European giants.
I’ve long supported Manchester City and even wrote a book in 2014 about my fandom as an American a continent away. My support of Manchester City predated by decades the takeover by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi and while I have long had personal qualms about supporting a state-funded side, the attitude of newer Manchester City fans (who hail mostly from the United States) is what really has had me questioning my loyalty to the club the last few years. The Super League was simply the last indignity, the event horizon signaling the point of no return. Even with Manchester City being reportedly the last team to join and the first team to announce they were leaving, I felt in good conscience I could no longer support them.
The tricky thing about allegiances and soccer loyalty, however, is that they burrow into the skin and get in the blood. As the month has gone by since the ill-fated Super League idea, it has become increasingly evident to me that my bond with the history of Manchester City, particularly the club’s pre-2008 history and the UK and largely Manchester-based supporters, remains. It’s the newer American fan and the global glory hunters that bother me. Besides, I would rather City win trophies than Arsenal or Chelsea!
After a lengthy internal debate, I reached a compromise.
I would support other English clubs in addition to City, splitting my energy accordingly. The obvious choice is to support Everton, a club with so much shared history with City and one that had come out against the Super League very strongly. But that would be too easy– or too painful– depending on how you view Everton.
Instead, I’ve decided to support two additional clubs.
One is Forest Green Rovers, a club I know very little about other than that I like their world view, focus on veganism and ecological issues. I look forward to learning more about them and bonding with people who support that club and share my values.
Queens Park Rangers, a club that embodies the parochial pleasantries of football, has great appeal in this particularly global moment.
The other club is one I must now in hindsight admit I’ve softly supported for years: Queens Park Rangers.
The irony of this choice will be evident to most Manchester CIty fans, old or new, as arguably Manchester City’s greatest moment in recent history was achieved by beating QPR in stoppage time. Trust me when I say, however, that this irony played no role at all in my decision.
My new “official” support for QPR boils down to several factors.
First, there’s the parochial piece. Shepherd’s Bush is a neighborhood of London I like, and QPR is a neighborhood working-class club. Neighborhood favorite, hyper-local clubs have always intrigued me since I was young and my cousins in South London supported Crystal Palace. QPR fits that mold in a way few clubs with any “brand” in England still do.
The club’s ownership, namely Tony Fernandes, the founder of Malaysia’s Air Asia and Amit Bhatia, an Indian-Anglo businessman, is someone I admire, relate to and like. If it’s not supporter ownership, I like owners very much in touch with its fan base. I admired QPR even before Ferandes bought the club, if for no other reason that to me, it was the anti-Chelsea, a West London club whose working class fan base of all ethnicities in Shepherd’s Bush and the surrounding Fulham and Hammersmith areas would always dominate the fan culture. Sure, QPR have a wealthy owner, but Fernandes is not “Bad Guy from Die Hard” Abramovich wealthy and he appreciates the club’s working class roots.
Further, a number of my favorite Manchester City players of the past, old City heroes like Shaun Wright-Phillips and Rodney Marsh, also played for QPR, and the club has done wonders for the local community – even with honoring Kiyan Prince, a young QPR fan who was killed aged 15. QPR was also the club that groomed Raheem Sterling, one of the best human beings in all of sport, not just soccer.
West London is a working class area with growing Afro-Caribbean and South Asian influence.
QPR has integrated both those groups more seamlessly than other clubs in its leadership and academy. The club being one that is based around a neighborhood, not a city, region or nation-state is also something I embrace. It’s worth noting at the time that when City was bought in 2008, I toyed with switching to the local neighborhood club where much of MCFC’s support resides – Stockport County, but decided that was silly. To the credit of Manchester City’s ownership, unlike the other “Big Six” sides, they have spent lots of money on urban renewal and other projects in East Manchester that help residents. That commitment is yet another reason I cannot completely quit on them.
But committing to QPR, something I probably should have done a long time ago, seems too obvious now. Everything the club stands for speaks to me, and I can only hope for as many happy returns from this allegiance as I’ve received from my journey with Manchester City.
Kartik Krishnaiyer is an Editor of the Yanks Are Coming. A longtime soccer journalist and front office executive, he is also the author of “Blue with Envy: My American Journey with Manchester City.” Follow him on Twitter @kkfla737.