Why I stopped supporting Man City
Sports success is meaningless if you can just buy it
11 October 2026
I grew up in Cheshire, so I was always likely to be drawn to sports teams in the North West. I first went to watch Lancashire play cricket at Old Trafford when I was eight, and that's been my county team ever since.
I was less committed when it came to football. I was never taken to the other Old Trafford, and for a couple of seasons I was actually an Arsenal fan - I loved the red shirt with white sleeves. I was however vulnerable to peer pressure, and the boys I went to school with were Man Utd fans, so that became my team as well - I remember being gutted when they lost 1-0 to Southampton in the FA Cup final. On Saturday afternoons, the first thing I'd look out for was United's result. But when they began to win trophies and became a global team with huge profits, they began to lose their appeal. Slowly my affnity moved across Manchester and I began to follow City, who felt more like the authentic team for Mancunians. I even went to watch them at Maine Road - once. In 2007 if you'd asked me which Premier League team I supported, I'd have said Man City. Ish.
But in 2008 that changed. When an Arab sheikh bought the club and brought with him a blank cheque book, it took away the main reason why I'd grown to like City in the first place. What does success mean when you can just buy all the best players. Football was already a game played by mercenaries - in my childhood, half the Man Utd team were Scottish - but now they were international mercenaries with even less cultural affinity with the region where they playing football.
Whatever bond I'd begun to form with City disappeared that season. Since 2008, when it comes to football I've been largely homeless - though I was very pleased when Leicester City won the Premier League in 2016, was happy when Everton avoided relegation, and always enjoy it when a small club makes progress in one of the cup competitions.
Why DO we support sports teams? It's something to do with sharing an identity with them - the place, but also the people, and some sort of shared culture and history. But there's also something bonding about supporting an underdog, a team that is fighting against the odds and doesn't have the means to simply buy 'success'. These days, one of the first football results I look for is Dulwich Hamlet, my local team who play in the Isthmian League.
And in cricket? Well it's still Lancashire of course - despite, or possibly because - they are these days languishing at the bottom of Division 2.
1 of 8 Older