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    Originally posted by Jobi1 View Post

    I remember a few articles not all that long ago that had found a few: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38252537 The lad interviewed in that piece claims he "knows of around 100 fans who have made the same switch of allegiances as he did".
    100 is just a flat out lie. Or else the person doesn't understand how numbers work. But I fear taking over the Giggler thread.

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      TT and NHH will probably remember this better than me, but wasn't there a story from around the time that FC United were formed of the NWCL being run by some pretty shitty people? I don't remember enough specifics to put my recollections down here.

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        I have a vague recollection of Barnsley and Man city (?) fans attempting to set up phoenix clubs around the time FCUM got started. Did they ever get off the ground? Has the FCUM novelty worn off now? The last time I looked their support appeared to have dropped off quite a bit

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          AFC Barnsley did exist for a few seasons.

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            AFC Barnsley played a couple of seasons in the Central Midlands League. I vaguely remember that they were formed due to worries that Barnsley might fold over the summer and the organisers wanted to make sure that there would be some sort of side for the forthcoming season. As it was Barnsley survived but AFC decided to play anyway. I saw them beat Rolls Royce Leisure in a game on the Barnsley training ground. I think they folded at the end of that season, largely due to lack of interest.

            They were more successful than Blackburn Town, who were formed by some Blackburn Rovers fans shortly after the Venkys took over. They entered the Mid-Lancashire League (centred on Preston) but didn't last past mid-September. Playing outside of Blackburn, at the BAE ground in Samlesbury, can't have helped.

            Still going are AFC Liverpool, who formed in the mid 2000s. They attracted some decent crowds in the early days but are now down to around 100 a game.

            I don't recall a specific Man City Phoenix club. There is Maine Road, who started out as a Man City supporters club side in their local Sunday League and have been going for decades.

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              Originally posted by Foot of Astaire's View Post
              I have a vague recollection of Barnsley and Man city (?) fans attempting to set up phoenix clubs around the time FCUM got started. Did they ever get off the ground? Has the FCUM novelty worn off now? The last time I looked their support appeared to have dropped off quite a bit
              The novelty factor wasn't an issue, as the FCUM crowds remained surprisingly consistent and loyal, even during their extended spell in the NPL Premier. If anything, the biggest factor was an internal civil war, with board members resigning for opaque reasons that EIM will be best placed to elaborate on.

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                AFC Liverpool seem to have been superceded by City of Liverpool. From what I recall, AFC Liverpool made the mistake of wanting close ties with Big Liverpool, which rather undermined their protest ethos. City of Liverpool wear purple, I think, and have set themselves up as non-denominational between Liverpool and Everton. They play at Bootle, and have been reasonably successful.

                In terms of Manchester City, I agree that FoA is likely thinking of Maine Road, who've been going since the 1950s and started out as a fans team. I don't remember there being any talk of a breakaway club at the time that ADU bought Manchester City.

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                  Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View Post
                  TT and NHH will probably remember this better than me, but wasn't there a story from around the time that FC United were formed of the NWCL being run by some pretty shitty people? I don't remember enough specifics to put my recollections down here.
                  They threatened to kick us out of the league, because we wanted to send a woman to the annual dinner.

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                    Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post

                    The novelty factor wasn't an issue, as the FCUM crowds remained surprisingly consistent and loyal, even during their extended spell in the NPL Premier. If anything, the biggest factor was an internal civil war, with board members resigning for opaque reasons that EIM will be best placed to elaborate on.
                    There were a number of factors. The infighting, we stopped winning, a whole swathe of fans reaching an age where football no longer became a priority and drifted off, coupled with no young fans coming through to replace them. A lot of attendance and membership figures were swollen by people who wished the club well so bought a ST or membership as a contribution to the new ground. That stopped when we moved in. I think the support is still solid, and still impressive.

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                      Yesss, that's the one. They had a "blue comedian" booked for it, or something. Proper Wheeltappers & Shunters stuff, that.

                      To be honest, I'm surprised they've held up the way they have. I haven't been to the new ground, and it's doubtful I will in the foreseeable future, Wingus & Dingus and all. It was as much as I can do to get them to Worthing last season, and that's only a ten minute walk from our house.

                      The key to Bury remains what happens over the ground. A club that ends up playing senior football there will win, if there does turn out to be a schism. Same thing happened with Enfield. Town became the decide facto successor club to EFC because they secured the new stadium which was as near as practicable to the site of the old one. The former players and managers certainly do, and practically all of the former owners are either dead or can do one.

                      EFC folded in 2007, but they didn't even allow it to die then, and Enfield 1893 rumble on in the Essex Senior League, playing at Bishops Stortford. Town offered a merger, but they turned it down.

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                        Is the groundshare with Radcliffe Borough indefinite or just one season?

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                          Being pedantic, Radcliffe FC dropped the "Borough" from their name a couple of years ago, after realising that the town had lost its borough status 46 years earlier.

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                            Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                            Is the groundshare with Radcliffe Borough indefinite or just one season?
                            I understood that it was for this coming season then to be reviewed thereafter. Getting back to Gigg Lane will be crucial in the long term but its tied up in all sorts of financial shenanigans, with 3rd parties owning parking spaces etc. Perhaps the winding up of the original club and Dale's insolvency might hurry things along.

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                              Zombie Bury's application to join the National League system has been rejected and that decision has been ratified by the FA council.

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                                Good.

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                                  Whilst we’re kind of on topic, I used to browse Waterstones in Tottenham Court Road quite often on my lunch breaks or between trips to a sister office of ours and I remember seeing a book on FC United in there. Has anyone read it and if so, is it worth the time?

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                                    Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                    Zombie Bury's application to join the National League system has been rejected and that decision has been ratified by the FA council.
                                    Tragic that it confirms the end of Bury FC but good in the sense that Dale's ?1 purchase might now bite him on the arse and the fans can all throw their weight behind the phoenix club.

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                                      Originally posted by Jumbo McGinnis View Post
                                      Whilst we’re kind of on topic, I used to browse Waterstones in Tottenham Court Road quite often on my lunch breaks or between trips to a sister office of ours and I remember seeing a book on FC United in there. Has anyone read it and if so, is it worth the time?
                                      I did, it was interesting to me because I was involved in a similar situation, with similar politics. It all gets a bit too much about personal grudges among people I don't know.

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                                        Originally posted by Foot of Astaire's View Post

                                        Tragic that it confirms the end of Bury FC but good in the sense that Dale's ?1 purchase might now bite him on the arse and the fans can all throw their weight behind the phoenix club.
                                        Or is the end?????!!!!!

                                        Steve Dale doesn’t think so according to this perfectly sane statement, the first official word from the club since October 2019:

                                        https://www.buryfc.co.uk/news/latest...t-august-2020/



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                                          Forever Bury have really, really fucked up here, haven't they?

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                                            https://twitter.com/forever_bury/status/1291864295618293769t

                                            You'd think they'd throw their weight behind AFC now, but no, that paragraph at the end indicates a real bitterness there.

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                                              "United We Stand. Divided We Fall."

                                              What shuddering fuck do they think is going to happen, here? Do they think the new club is just going to refund those 1000+ shirt sales, resign their NWCL place and cancel their tenancy agreement with Radcliffe on their account?

                                              I understand the emotional pull of the football ground, and Gigg Lane is a finer football ground than many, but it's also mortgaged to high fuckery and the only hope that I can see of them ever getting back there is Bury AFC somehow finding the money to make the lenders an acceptable offer alongside the council. They're doing considerably more harm than good at the moment.

                                              With Newcastle's backing a despotic overseas government over the 'investment in the North East' straw man (ooh yeah, because that's what it's all about, rather than some fever dream about Newcastle being richer than Croesus) and Bury's supporting the shady owner of the old club rather than the new one, Supporters Trusts have really gone to shit since Supporters Direct were folded into the FSA.

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                                                It's extraordinary, isn't it?

                                                The end of Supporters Direct was a shame, but it had been coming a while. Very badly led for a good few years.

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                                                  I can't even remember who they had running it after NHH.

                                                  The Daily Mail got what they ultimately wanted, there.

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                                                    Exactly. And yes, indeed they did.

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