Manchester City fans have secured a victory over the authorities this week by forcing the Community Shield kick-off time back by 90 minutes later this summer. But they have no plans of stopping there.
City supporters were largely furious at the decision to schedule the 2023 Community Shield curtain-raiser vs Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday, August 6, with a 5.30pm kick-off time. With limited public transport options on a Sunday evening, 30,000 City fans faced a return to Manchester in the early hours of Monday morning for another Wembley trip.
After thousands of fans spent thousands of pounds to get to Istanbul at the end of a long season, many were willing to leave the Community Shield and save their money. That is where the 1894 fan group stepped in, organising a boycott of the game to send a clear message to the FA and broadcasters ITV.
With over £5000 donated to the MCFC Fans Supporting Foodbanks group demonstrating the strong feeling as fans gave their ticket money to charity, City contacted the FA and the kick-off time has since been changed to 4pm on the Sunday. Still, it's not enough.
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"It's the Community Shield. How 'community' is it to force a set of Northern fans to make a 400-mile round trip on a school night? It's an absolute joke," says Nick Clarke of the MCFC Fans Supporting Foodbanks.
"We are 100 per cent not happy, it's nice that the FA have appeared to listen, but you saw in their statement. They said they changed it after 'taking into full consideration' [the travel concerns]. Why did you not take fans' travelling arrangements into full consideration before? I can't believe they said it. It's saying the quiet part loud.
"What does 90 minutes do? Add an extra train on? A boycott is a choice, we're not dictating to anyone. It feels like City fans taking a stand. It's not just a City thing, the response we've had from fans across the country, it's clearly a bone of contention across the country.
"It's been 25-30 years of TV companies dictating when the games are played. Every season over 100 games get dictated by TV companies. Why on earth, just one game, the Community Shield, a supposed charity event, for one game why can't the fans be a priority for one game? It's a joke, 90 minutes is not enough."
In the past, the Community Shield has been held at a neutral venue in the midlands, from Villa Park to Leicester's King Power Stadium last season. If the game has been held at Wembley, it has often taken place on a Saturday, or earlier on a Sunday. With that in mind, and with the backing of the majority of City's fans, the 1894 group are keen to keep the boycott going.
82 per cent of fans polled by 1894 are still in favour of a boycott despite the U-turn in bringing the kick-off time forward, with a strong feeling that 4pm still won't give fans enough time to return back to Manchester at a reasonable time.
With support and donations coming in from fans up and down the country at all levels of the pyramid, the boycott organisers argue that this is a wider issue than one that just affects City fans.
Nick continued: "It's about football fans getting together. They like the idea of tribalism. Don't get me wrong, so do I. I stand in the South Stand in the ground, but outside of it, it's fan action that's led to things like the £30 away cap and the Super League U-turn.
"These are massive things we can't do alone. City fans, we might make a bit of a stink and noise about this Community Shield thing. If we don't have support of other football supporters, ultimately we wouldn't get anything out of the FA."
Other inconvenient kick-off times for the Community Shield have been cited as evidence of a longer-running issue that affects all fanbases around the country, and it is hoped that a sparse City end without the colour and noise that broadcasters want will send a clear message to the relevant authorities.
An 1894 spokesperson said: "Fan power is an opportunity for fans to collectively flex their muscles and it's the perfect game to do this. There is a point that it's a step too far and this is the game to try and make an impact. We can't tell anyone what to do, we're encouraging people. If there's only 3000 fans in a 30,000 section, it will make an impact.
"We're not expecting zero City fans to go, we're asking at what point do you draw the line? At what point do you say we can't be pushed around as a group of fans? It can benefit all sets of fans in the country if we make a statement. We're also trying to negotiate the best deal for fans who are still wanting to go, whether that's moving it forward to 3pm.
“The fixture is a glorified friendly in the eyes of many and people saw it as a way to take the kids to Wembley when they couldn’t get tickets otherwise. But the scheduling doesn’t work for people. If it’s not at 3pm, coaches won’t be filled and maybe pulled meaning more of those wanting to go will have to drive.
"It’s a shambles of the FA and ITV’s making and fans are telling us this is a game they are prepared to swerve this time because no one is making it easy for them to attend. We’re simply reflecting what people are telling us.
"There are other issues where collective fan power can be useful at this time, for example, the North Stand redevelopment has to be with the atmosphere inside the stadium in mind. We also feel that some improvements can be made to the current plans."
With fans encouraged to donate their ticket prices - or anything they can afford - to the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support project, a bigger issue is also at play with the boycott. The £5000 raised so far, plus gift aid, is already enough to pay for a full month's worth of food purchases for the Manchester Central foodbank, who report a 147 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of emergency food parcels being given to children in the city.
The group hope that donations will continue to arrive when ticket prices for the Community Shield are released, and they have plans to build on the 2.7 tonnes of food donated from City fans over the 2022/23 season.
"People congratulate us for the work we're doing, we say don't, we're allowing you guys to do it," Nick Clarks says. "We wouldn't be here if City fans didn't come up to us before every match showing that their allegiances lie with the community. We're a community club. This is us looking out for our community.
"It could happen to any of us. Friends, neighbours, family. A lot of us don't even know but it will be happening to friends, neighbours, family. We just don't know about it, there's a lot of shame about it. It's an expression of that sense of community from what we've always known as City fans growing up. We hope to do more next season and we're angling for a future where foodbanks don't exist."
