| Manchester United Club Profile - The Supporters
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Wherever you go in the world, from Beswick to Bangkok, Urmston to Uruguay, you'll never be far away from somebody with an allegiance to Manchester United. Although United have always been a big club in British football, it was the Munich air crash in 1958 that gave United the world-wide profile it has today. Under Sir Matt Busby, United's phoenix-like rise from the ashes to triumph in the European Cup a decade later won the club fans the world over. It is still the best-supported club in English football, attracting the highest home crowds in the League for 29 out of the past 34 years.
A large percentage of the support comes from if local area, contradicting the '90s myth that no United fans come from Manchester. United's away following is one of the loudest in the country, and tickets at away grounds consistently sell out. The 1999 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich in Barcelona was witnessed by over 30,000 United supporters, and some estimates put the figure nearer 60,000. That is a level of support seldom seen on the Continent. Trips to Wembley for Cup Finals in the '90s became so frequent one writer claimed the stadium should be renamed "Old Trafford South".
United's first home, while they were still Newton Heath, was at North Road, just northeast of the city centre. In 1893, the Heathens moved to Bank Street in Clayton. In 1902, poor crowds forced Newton Heath to go into liquidation. The club was rescued by J. H. Davies, who c turned Newton Heath into Manchester United.
 The majority of United's vocal support traditionally came from the Stretford End, a large bank of covered terracing with seats at the rear, behind the West End goal. Before 1992, when the Stretford End was demolished to make way for a new all-seater stand, it was not uncommon to see long queues snaking their way behind the stand as much as three or four hours before kick-off.
As kick-off approached, the noise level inside the ground would increase with the volume of people and at one time in the mid '70s, the noise from the Stretford End was so loud that it was likened to a jumbo jet at take-off point. It must have been quite intimidating to members of the visiting team.
Few deny that the Old Trafford atmosphere suffered when the Stretford End was demolished to make the stadium an all-seater. Despite that, for a big European match or a championship celebration day, there is no better place to be than Old Trafford when the whole ground seems to be singing and urging the team towards victory.
During the early '70s, United supporters, especially those who called themselves "Docs Red Army", earned themselves a reputation for being unruly hooligans, causing trouble wherever they travelled. Old Trafford was the first English ground to install fences to keep supporters off the pitch, but later, in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, these fences were taken down as safety inside stadiums became of paramount importance and hooliganism, fortunately, seemed to be on the decline.
 Despite the fact that the current ground capacity of Old Trafford is limited to 55,000 people, over 140,000 United fans are paid-up members of the club. Affiliated to the membership scheme are almost 200 branches of the Manchester United Supporters' Club. The majority of these branches are based in the UK, and arrange travel for members to and from United games. United's support in Ireland is legendary and there are many branches, even in the smallest Irish towns, arranging regular travel to games in England. Amazingly enough, the largest supporters' club is one of the overseas branches, the Scandinavian Branch, which by 1998 had 28,000 paid-up members. From the USA to Mauritius, South Africa to Iceland, United's supporters have branches around the world, staffed with people keeping their loyal and enthusiastic members up to date with events at Old Trafford.
Manchester United's support can perhaps best be summed up by one of the most popular terrace anthems, which goes: "If the Reds should play, in Rome or Mandalay, we'll be there." Judging by the reception that the players receive wherever they travel, this claim would be difficult to dispute.
© Patrick Eustace 2000. Page maintained by Patrick Eustace, last updated Sunday, 16-Jan-2000 19:59:46
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