Stand Up if you love Leicester

[davieG]

From the Merc:

RED LEICESTER FOLLOW THE FOXES? MAN U MUST BE JOKING! WHY YOUNG FANS SNUB CITY

10:30 - 09 August 2008

The kids are United. Manchester United, that is, as young local fans turn their backs on beleaguered Leicester City and pledge their allegiance to the Red Devils. On the day when City kick off in English football's third flight for the first time, a major new Mercury survey of Leicestershire schoolchildren sees the club tumbling to another all-time low.

Premier League not so long ago, City are no longer even the premier club in their own city.

Ask a classroom full of kids to "Stand up if they love Leicester", and most bums will stay resolutely glued to seats.

Just one in six local youngsters now support their home-town team - that's the shock headline figure from our research carried out in conjunction with the University of Leicester.

Their dads and granddads might have been blue through and through, but a crucial new generation of fans is overwhelmingly more likely to follow the likes of United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Only 17 per cent of the 11 to 13-year-olds who took part in our study support Leicester as their top team - way behind the 43 per cent who cheer on Man United.

Pete Jones, Leicester City's supporter relations manager, calls the results "disappointing".

"It's not good to discover Leicester are not the first team in their own city," says Pete.

Soccer sociologist John Williams, director of the university's Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, confesses his surprise at City's "incredibly low" number of young fans.

"I knew Leicester was not going to be the most popular club," he says. "What I didn't realise is how unpopular they were among this age group."

It gets even worse. A paltry three per cent of youngsters named someone in a City shirt as their favourite player.

Manchester United's Ronaldo got more than a third of that particular vote, while one-in-10 went for Liverpool's Fernando Torres.

Asked about the prospects for the new season, 38 per cent of kids gloomily predicted another relegation dogfight for Leicester, 32 per cent forecast mid-table mediocrity and only 13 per cent thought the club will go up as champions.

The cynicism is hardly surprising, according to John.

"We're at a particularly low point in Leicester's history," he says. "The club has never been lower than this. It is a long way from developing local heroes, never mind national heroes.

"The chairman has changed the manager a lot and the players have changed a lot. Adults and kids have found it difficult to identify with them because they change so frequently."

In Big Ron pundit-speak, the club has lost the dressing room.

Past generations might have been prepared to follow City through thick and thin, but today's fickle youngsters - seduced by the glamour and the glitz of the moneybags Premiership - are less easily pleased. They want Champions League runs and step-overs, not dummies who can't win two home games in a row.

A replica shirt used to be for life, now it's for Christmas - a time, of late, when Leicester's relegation worries begin.

Football glory hunters are nothing new - but this survey reveals a seismic shift in support to the "Big Four", who now can now count 76 per cent of Leicestershire's kids as fans.

"If you went back 20 or 30 years, maybe even more, people in Leicester had an interest in other clubs," says John. "Some supported other clubs too.

"Often, though, the likes of Liverpool would be people's second club. You would still go and watch Leicester City.

"Now that's been reversed. Now Liverpool and Manchester United are the first club for many, and Leicester second."

Leicester used to be known as a yo-yo club. Then the string snapped, leaving them adrift.

But that's not the whole story behind these figures, says John.

This poll - of 712 boys and girls - tells you as much about the changing face and multi-ethnic mix of Leicester as it does about the fading fortunes of the club.

Supporting City used to be buried in your family's DNA. It was like having curly hair or buck teeth - you might not always like them, but they were yours and if anyone from Nottingham or Derby had a go, they'd get a verbal volley.

New and recent arrivals to Leicester - including some families who have been here since the 1970s - do not have those deep roots or blind loyalty.

"If there's not that long history of support, you are almost certainly going to support a different club," says John.

"Frankly, the main way people connect with a club now is through the TV. Over the past few years, Leicester has not been on TV as much and are not a top-rank club any more.

"If you're picking a club from the TV, it's always going to be the ones who have the most success and the most glamour.

"Football's not just a sport any more, it's a brand - and these clubs have incredible marketing opportunities. They're not just taking over in Leicester - they are colonising the world."

The closer you get to the Walkers Stadium, the less likely you are to find a young Foxes fan, reckons John.

If 17 per cent of year seven youngsters in the six schools we surveyed across the city and county support Leicester, then the figure is much lower in the city itself because there are more ethnic minorities.

We surveyed 120 kids from Moat Community College in the predominantly Asian Highfields area of Leicester. Not a single one called themselves a City supporter.

Only three Moat youngsters even had Leicester as their second favourite club. One, perhaps ironically, ticked them as his preferred foreign team.

Leicester City are straining every sinew to bring young fans into the fold, insists Pete, the club's supporter relations boss.

They are going into schools, they are reaching out to junior sides, they put on entertainment for kids, and they let under-eights in free as long as they're accompanied by adults.

Just five per cent of youngsters who took part in our survey said they would not go to a Leicester game because they "would not feel safe" - a testament, Pete believes, to a commitment to fostering a family atmosphere.

"I don't think anyone is doing more than us," he says. "If kids get to 10 or 12 and support someone else, you've already lost them. We're trying to get them younger.

"I went to my first game in 1964. I'm a rabid City fan. I know how important it is to reach out to the grass roots. Kids are the future of this club. We are doing everything we can.

"It's not easy when football has become a TV spectacle. Even the computer games the kids love don't feature any City players. It's not easy to compete."

Getting families in is one thing, getting them to come back is another - particularly if dad, bored stiff by another limp defeat, decides the best view in the ground is the exit gate.

It's a criticism Pete takes on the chin.

"We've not had a great home record in the last two seasons," he says. "We've not scored enough goals or entertained the crowd as we would have wanted. I can understand it if kids say, 'Are we going to the match today, Dad?' and he says, 'Nah, I don't think we'll bother'.

"That malaise filters through to the kids. We have to perform off the pitch and on it."

It's not all doom and gloom. Far from it, reckons John.

Today's match against MK Dons will draw a bumper crowd as optimism surges through the hard-core City support

Attendances at the Walkers held up despite the rubbish so often served up last year and 35 per cent of kids - twice the number of youngsters who ticked Leicester as their first choice club - own a City shirt.

Another 29 per cent nominated the Foxes as their second team.

Nearly half of our survey - 42 per cent of youngsters - did not support City because they were not "a very successful club".

Give them a bit of success, unearth another magician manager in the Martin O'Neill mould, get back in the Premiership and the tide can be turned.

"It all depends on how those kids define 'success'," says John. "Leicester are never going challenge Manchester United, but in five years' time they could be back in the Premier League.

"Look at what they achieved under Martin O'Neill. They were a top club. It's not impossible to do it again."

Pete sees only positives at the start of the new season.

"I'm not going to be downbeat," he says. "We might not have the most supporters, but we've got some of the best.

"Get a few wins under our belt, get on a bit of a roll and everybody will be smiling again."

Thanks to the Faculty of the Social Sciences at Leicester University, and the staff and year seven pupils of Moat Community College and the Lancaster School in Leicester, Gartree High in Oadby, Woodbrook Vale in Loughborough, Mount Grace, in Hinckley, and Castle Rock, in Coalville.

[Cobbo]

Bring back the cane.

[lildave3]

Only the parents to blame.

[Corky]

It is quite concerning. Some of the kids' comments were frankly laughable, but there seemed to be a bit of antipathy towards the club.

[Raj]

The little bastards will start supporting City when we are challenging for European honours in about 5 years time!!!!

And when MAx Gradel will be the new Ronaldo (And Steve Howard still cant hit a barn door from 10 yards!!!)

Glory hunting little bastards!

[Joe.]

Well I never realised the figure was that low. Unfortunately this is the state of modern football these days; no longer do you necessarily support the team your dad supports or where you grew up.

Having said that, and this is not meant in a racist way, but I would say that the majority of Asians living in Leicester don't support us and are happy to "support" Man Utd or Liverpool. That's certainly what I've found at school and through living in Leicester.

[Corky]

As someone who doesn't live in the area, do the club promote themselves well and the kids just aren't interested, or is it a lack of promotion by the club?

[Joe.]

As someone who doesn't live in the area, do the club promote themselves well and the kids just aren't interested, or bad PR by the club?

Media obsession with the Premier League I say.

[lildave3]

As someone who doesn't live in the area, do the club promote themselves well and the kids just aren't interested, or is it a lack of promotion by the club?

Bad parenting.

[Matt]

Only the parents to blame.

Exactly, I'll admit it as a youngster I "supported" Man Utd but my dad then started taking my to Leicester matches (He wasn't exactly a fan before he just realized hang on my son's into football but instead of him supporting a team he'll never see very regularly i'll get him to Leicester - That and the fact he used to get the odd free ticket) anyway one thing led to another and we started going regular, I soon started supporting Leicester as my first team. We we're in Division 1 when I first started as a Leicester fan, Things soon were on the up with MON in charge but I was there when we were a Division 1 team.

And tbh I have been Old Trafford more times than most Man Utd fans (4 or 5 times, can't actually remember exactly)

HOWEVER I do wish the parents that do take there kids make sure the kids actually want to go to the games because you get these 5, 6, 7 years old who aren't actually that interested, they get bored, kick your seat, moan and whine, keep getting up and down, keep blowing the highly annoying horns, e.t.c.

I know there isn't anything like FNF (Family Night Football) but that is how I was first introduced to Leicester, I then soon moved to watching the first team when I knew I wanted to and really got involved.

EDIT: I'm just glad my dad took my to Leicester instead of Coventry which could have so easily happened, My dad owned a shop in Hinckley, although we live in Nuneaton and someone who came into his shop gave him the odd free ticket, It could have so easily been so different and I could so easily have been saying all this on some Covscum forum right now, what a sickening thought?!

I thank my dad highly for this.

[Guest]

I find this study really sad. It's a reflection on our modern society, where people expect success to be handed to them on a plate.

[Bellend Sebastian]

There's only one solution.

Kill all children

[Webbo]

Tbh I doubt if it was much different when I was at school in the 70s. We always seemed out numbered by the Liverpool/ManUre fans.

[Raj]

when i was at School in the 80's loads of the saddo kids supported Liverpool.

I suppose it's just supporting a winning team rather than your local shitty one which would only result in bullying and getting beat up if you DID admit to supporting em!!!!

I wish i supported Arsenal.....

[Webbo]

I wish i supported Arsenal.....

We all wish you did too. F@ck off

[Ashley]

Shocking.

Kids at school these days. I walk into the class room and you have your "Glory Hunters" sitting/standing around " Alright Ash, How'd Leicester get on, oh they lost again *Starts laughing*" Ash: "Ha Ha funny" Glory Hunters: " Yeh, we won again" Ash: " How many times you been to see your team play?" Glory Hunter " " Ash: " Excatly, i've been to watch your team more than you, and you call your self a supporter?"

[Tommeh]

It's happening everywhere, certainly not just Leicester that's for sure and it makes me sick.

Trying to make sure my brother doesn't go down the same route, he likes liverpool above leicesterat the moment and adores torres, I accept that so I brought him a spain torres shirt recently and he loves it, but also has every city shirt since 06-07, and I will not let him forget who his hometown club is and who he will support when older, he's 7 now and I hope to start taking him to games when he's about 10 and I have no doubt he will never attend a liverpool match, unless we draw them in the cup.

one thing that really made me smile yesterday was when we both got in, he was at a party and I got back from city, he genuinelly didn't know the score and his sheer joy when I told him we won 2-0 made me so happy you would not believe

Also what I would say is give me quality of fans over quantity anyday. Give me 1,800 all standing and singing at sheff united in the pouring rain loosing 3-0 over the 5,000 ****** on their arses at cov.

[Corky]

I find this study really sad. It's a reflection on our modern society, where people expect success to be handed to them on a plate.

Who aren't prepared to accept failure from time to time. Supporting Leicester is character-building, it makes you appreciative of the minimal success you have.

That's the great thing about this forum. I am communicating with proper fans, who won't jump ship after a couple of defeats or a year without a trophy.

[Father Ted]

We surveyed 120 kids from Moat Community College in the predominantly Asian Highfields area of Leicester. Not a single one called themselves a City supporter.

Only three Moat youngsters even had Leicester as their second favourite club. One, perhaps ironically, ticked them as his preferred foreign team.

I'm not being racist but I went to a school in Evington where there were only 5 non-Asian children in my year of 70 at school.

Only 1 supported Leicester!

And the stick I used to get was unbelievable:

'Who u support man?'

Me: 'Leicester'

'Der shit!'

Also, if flipping Yeovil won the Prem tomorrow they would all support Yeovil and most wouldn't even know where the place is!

[Raj]

I'm not being racist but I went to a school in Evington where there were only 5 non-Asian children in my year of 70 at school.

Only 1 supported Leicester!

And the stick I used to get was unbelievable:

'Who u support man?'

Me: 'Leicester'

'Der shit!'

Also, if flipping Yeovil won the Prem tomorrow they would all support Yeovil and most wouldn't even know where the place is!

RACIST BASTARD!!!

Actually you aint wrong!

Me and my nephew are the only City fans in my family...the rest suppost L'Pool,Leeds,Arsenal.

I hate LPool and Leeds but i love Arsenal cos i fancy Cesc Fabregas.

I aint gay though!!

However im sure if you went to ANY School in Leicester(Shire) the % of kids supporting City would be very low.

[Father Ted]

RACIST BASTARD!!!

Actually you aint wrong!

Me and my nephew are the only City fans in my family...the rest suppost L'Pool,Leeds,Arsenal.

I hate LPool and Leeds but i love Arsenal cos i fancy Cesc Fabregas.

I aint gay though!!

However im sure if you went to ANY School in Leicester(Shire) the % of kids supporting City would be very low.

I think that in Leicester kids don't support the team because there not there to see their team, no family members to say, let's go and watch City. Instead they watch MOTD and think wow, Man Ure are top, I support them or Uncle, who do you support, if it's Liverpool I'll support them!

And I think the further out of Leicester you go the less likely you are to find a City fan...

[Jonbluefox9]

I feel sorry for kids growing up in Leicestershire at the moment who do support Leicester. It wasn't difficult to support City during my school days because we were going through one of the most successful periods in our history. We'd regularly be heading for Wembley or beating some of the top clubs in the country. Children now have to justify supporting a team that is in its lowest position ever. Can't be easy trying to argue with a United or Liverpool supporter about who supports the 'better' club when you're a 7-13 year old and City have lost again to a club that many kids won't ever have heard of. It'll be easier this season if we're doing well, no matter who the opposition is!

[Simi]

This study really hits home what I witnessed earlier.

I was out playing football with a few mates when a bunch of small kids around 5-8 years old came for a kickabout themselves. All of them were in replica shirts, out of 8 of them, 2 were Leicester shirts and the rest shirts of the big four.

When they found out United had won the Community Shield, two of the kids, one being the kid in a full City kit, ran inside and got a Man Utd flag.

They ran out celebrating that they'd won. My heart literally sank. Seeing this kid in a Leicester shirt running with a United flag like he was there biggest fan.

Even the kid in the Arsenal kit was all over this flag saying United were his second team.

It really hits home what it's like for little kids now. Supporting a football club isn't about pride, it's about fashion and what is socially acceptable.

The other kid wearing the full goalie strip was sticking to his guns though which put a smile on my face. Other than that, it was truly a depressing home truth.

[Sparky]

fooking little bastards , any kid of mine asking for a Man u shirt will get a bloody good kicking . I bleed Royal blue and so will any youngster of mine

[Father Ted]

This study really hits home what I witnessed earlier.

I was out playing football with a few mates when a bunch of small kids around 5-8 years old came for a kickabout themselves. All of them were in replica shirts, out of 8 of them, 2 were Leicester shirts and the rest shirts of the big four.

When they found out United had won the Community Shield, two of the kids, one being the kid in a full City kit, ran inside and got a Man Utd flag.

They ran out celebrating that they'd won. My heart literally sank. Seeing this kid in a Leicester shirt running with a United flag like he was there biggest fan.

Even the kid in the Arsenal kit was all over this flag saying United were his second team.

It really hits home what it's like for little kids now. Supporting a football club isn't about pride, it's about fashion and what is socially acceptable.

The other kid wearing the full goalie strip was sticking to his guns though which put a smile on my face. Other than that, it was truly a depressing home truth.

If I was there a would have given them a fcuking slap and a bollocking! Pisses me off totally! T*ats! They're even bigger t*ats than Raj!

fooking little bastards , any kid of mine asking for a Man u shirt will get a bloody good kicking . I bleed Royal blue and so will any youngster of mine

Fcuking Definitely! My kids WILL support City and I will make sure of that!