Leeds United scarf sellers have spoken about their “manic, stressful” lives on matchdays where they’ve seen people kicking off and others “squished” by passing cars.
Surrounding Elland Road Stadium there are unofficial stalls selling all assortments of LUFC scarves, hats and memorabilia. Come rain or shine, they’ll be out there, welcoming fans to the stadium, hoping to an entice an eager customer.
As it turns out, most of the stalls are owned by family business Foster Enterprises. The firm manufactures a whole range of scarves, not just Leeds ones, and has been passed down the generations.
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Foster Enterprises has been operating since the late 1960s, during the club’s golden Don Revie era when Leeds were at their greatest. It was started by Peter Foster, now 83, who passed the business down to his sons Mark and Paul.
Mark, 60, runs the manufacturing side of the business and is out on matchdays selling with all his employees which includes his nephew Stephen Foster, 26. Mark and Stephen revealed the challenges of the job, like coping with “horrendous” weather conditions, the dos and don’ts on matchdays, realising when it’s going to “kick-off” and the heartbreak they've experienced along the way.
Mark lives in Wortley, he’s a father of two, 28 and 30, and a grandfather of one. Stephen, who’s based in Horsforth, is Mark’s brother Paul’s son. Stephen began working beside his dad at the age of nine, then was promoted to running his own 'badge board' at 11 and was given his own stall to run in his teens.
Paul sadly died of a heart-attack in bed in 2019, his death threw a “spanner in the works” for the business, according to Stephen. The 26-year-old took over his dad’s stall the week after he passed away, it was a “tough” time and he was struck by how “weird” it all felt.
Stephen said: “I think about my dad all the time. I miss having someone to talk to and rely upon. My uncle Mark was always the brains [of the operation] and my dad was the muscle.”
Since the pandemic, Mark has had to scale down the Foster Enterprise operation significantly. He used to employ about 30 members of staff and they’d manufacture approximately 4,000 scarves a week. Now they’re barely making 1,000 scarves he employs five people who work in his factory, helping to manufacture the products and sell the stock on matchdays.
Prior to kick-off, they’ll sell between 40 and 100 scarves on a good day. These are sold at £9 a scarf – a price that has had to be raised during the cost of living crisis.
'Extremely stressful'
Asked if he enjoyed selling scarves outside the stadium, Mark said: “Fun? No, I find it extremely stressful because I always have to be mindful of what I’ve got to do.
“I’ve got to make sure that everyone else has got what they need and when they need it. That no one has run out of change and things like that. Fun is not a word I use. Following Leeds has never been fun, it’s always stressful.”
Stephen said: “It can be a pain in the arse, especially if it’s raining and windy. If there’s a late kick off and fans have been in the pubs all day, there’s always a chance that it might kick off.
“It might be stressful, but I wouldn’t stop doing it for the world. I love it outside Elland Road, we’re part of Leeds furniture now pretty much. It reminds me of my dad and my grandad, I like spending time with my uncle as well.”
Mark has a lot to keep in mind on matchdays which he described as “absolutely manic” right up until the first whistle goes off and then it’s “eerily quiet” on Elland Road.
Even putting the wrong scarf out on display can attract trouble. Matchday half-and-half scarves attract “the most abuse” from the “fervent Leeds United fan”, especially if it’s a clash with ardent rivals Manchester United.
So he instructs all of his stallholders to store the half-and-halves under the counter. These scarves are popular amongst collectors so remain a profitable stream of income.
'Scary'
Mark and Stephen have had some “scary moments” on Elland Road, they’ve seen fights, riots and people run over.
Mark said: “We’ve had a few scary moments. I’ve seen people ripping all the seats out the buses they were bringing Man United fans in and chucking them through the windows. There were chairs and glass all over the place. Police horses charging the crowd and then trampling all over the cars in the traffic queue."
Stephen said: “I’ve seen it kick off quite a few times, riots, a few big scraps and stuff like that. You just pack up your stall as quick as possible and get out of there. I’m on about big riots where police horses start charging down and stuff like that.
“It used to kick off nearly every game. You can see when it’s going to kick off straight away, when all the casuals start coming out and the balaclavas start going on. You see the regular faces that you know have come for a scrap.”
Even more troubling, they’ve seen fans run-over on Elland Road by whizzing cars. Mark said: “I’ve seen people crossing the road without looking and getting squished.
“We’ve had that about three occasions. So we’ve seen it all on Elland Road. A couple have been quite bad, and we actually knew one of them who got squished and he was quite poorly. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often, the way people cross that road.”
Stephen’s experience differs slightly but there have been times he’s had to rush in and offer first-aid. He said: “It’s not a very fast road so they never got properly-properly smashed but quite a few of them went on top of cars and rolled over.
“I’m first aid trained, so there’s been quite a few times I’ve had to go over, sort them out, put them into safe positions and tell them not to move their necks.”
'Horrendous conditions'
Mark speculated over why Fosters Enterprises had such a lasting effect on Elland Road, why over the years his operation had kept on running and kept a hold over the stadium’s unofficial trade. What separated his products and traders from the other transient stall holders who had been and gone.
Mark said: “Most of them are ‘fair weather traders’. When you’ve stood out there for a couple of seasons in some horrendous conditions, that shows the true mettle of them and they soon waver when it starts raining and flowing.”
“It gets very windy on Elland Road. We’ve had it on several occasions where it just picks the whole lot up and blown it down the road.”
On rainy and windy days, a lot of the products get damaged because of the white colour. Mark grumbles that the white hats tend to be the first to blow away and hit the muddy water.
Mark says that most of his business depends on “park rangers”, a nickname they give to strangers visiting Elland Road for the first time. These can range from fans coming from overseas or a kid attending their first match.
Mark said: “You meet all sorts, from young kids to hardened hooligans but you’ve just got to treat them with respect, be polite and get on with it.”
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