AS COLLECTIVE football supporter movements gathered pace during the 2024/25 season, there have been a number of wins on the back of tireless campaigning and organising among fans of Premier League clubs. 

There is still plenty to be done, though, which raises the questions of what steps to take next and how to get more people involved.

Whatever they are, those next steps need to be a collective effort. They can include everyone affected by the way the game is run, from fans to players, and from full-time club staff to part-time matchday workers.

The next part of this movement could also take many of its cues from trade unions, and a group at Manchester City —  the Trade Union Blues — has already taken this a step further and formed a supporter group rooted in trade union membership and ethos.

It makes sense that football supporters can learn from the trade union movement. It is about the collective, about unity, and about fighting for the rights of those who are being exploited by capitalism.

A previous edition of this column suggested supporter groups could be the trade unions of football. There are already many across the country that have have echoes of trade unions in the way they operate. 

At Liverpool, Spirit of Shankly was set up specifically as a supporters’ union and is a registered Industrial and Provident Society.

Others from teams across the country, covered previously in this column, are rooted in their support for working-class fans and the fight to prevent fans from being exploited by football club owners and organisations in the same way unions fight against worker exploitation by their employers.

The Trade Union Blues have emerged as one of the active supporter groups at Man City, along with the 1894 Group and MCFC Fans Foodbank Support, amid the recent countrywide push to stop club owners exploiting the loyalty of football supporters.

The Trade Union Blues were formed by trade union members with the aim of bringing union solidarity and awareness of union issues into the football supporter group movement.

“It’s the way we are set up,” says Trade Union Blues secretary Chris Neville when asked about what makes them a trade union supporter group specifically. 

“In our constitution, for example, what we’re looking to do is increase awareness of trade unions and increase membership of trade unions. 

“Quite a few of us are also involved in trades councils, so we see the link between trade unions and the community. 

“For us, in our constitution, we’re obviously interested in making sure that football workers have good terms and conditions, and see how we can support that. 

“We just wanted to bring back some kind of progressive, pro-worker politics into that arena, really. 

“Combating racism is in our constitution as well, and what we want to do is try and encourage other fans of other clubs who are trade unionists to set up similar initiatives.”

The Trade Union Blues are naturally set up to get behind such nationwide supporter movements as part of their work, but they also aim to support staff working for the clubs. 

This can even include players, despite their large salaries, but will likely naturally focus more often on the lower-paid, short-contract, or zero-hours workers.

Neville points out that “theoretically, quite a lot of players are trade unionists because they’ll be in the PFA as well, which is still a TUC-affiliated union.”

Issues for workers will arise as part of the process of global capitalism’s takeover of football at the top level. 

From state ownership by countries with various levels of restrictions on employee rights and union organising, to notoriously anti-union employers such as Jim Ratcliffe, workers and fans will be exploited as these owners try to convert sports clubs and community institutions into brands that exist to make profit and act as marketing tools for other interests, or to serve egos, rather than continue to reflect the communities from which they emerged.

The pushback on this, which will be needed if clubs are to retain links to their roots and some kind of individual identity, will need to be a collective effort.

“A lot of football clubs were founded with a social purpose,” adds Neville. “City was, but they’ve moved so far away from that, and it’s the fans that pay the price because they put the ticket prices up every year.

“There was a video of Ferran Soriano from a few years back saying that City is like Disneyland and Sergio Aguero is their Mickey Mouse.

“The success of the Premier League means it’s become commodified over the years. 

“This happens to everything, in every aspect of our lives, whether it’s housing, schools becoming academies, education — everything becomes commodified and everything is more about profit.

“It’s like the clubs are being stolen from the fans, really. And it’s just all become about the money, and gets worse and worse every year.”

Just as exploitative employers fear collective trade union action, those owners, leagues, and governing bodies who increasingly exploit fans will fear a collective supporter movement.

The rivalries between clubs and fans can sometimes create obstacles to such togetherness on off-pitch issues, but the increased financial strain put on fans and families who simply want to watch their club each week, as generations before them have, has prompted some cross-club action.

These rivalries can also lead to arguments about whose owners are the worst or the best of a bad bunch, but this obscures the fact that most owners of top-level clubs have at some point tried to take advantage of fan loyalty.

Collective action is needed against them, and to indicate to potential future owners that they have a duty as custodians to the club as an institution, its supporters, and the community.

“There needs to be some consistency in fans realising that all the owners are in it for one thing, and that’s to make a profit or to have political influence,“ says Neville.

“We’re part of the trade union movement where unity is a key consideration, and a key factor of what we do.

“So we agree that the owners don’t want to see fans of different clubs coming together for a common cause.

“It’s really important that we try and find a way to bypass that [rivalry]. Obviously we still have the rivalry and still want to beat teams on the field, but when we’re all getting screwed over by the same thing, it’s essential that we unite as many different clubs’ fans as possible, because that makes us powerful.”

The supporter initiatives so far this season have led to small wins in some areas, including the freezing of ticket prices at some clubs and the return of concession ticket pricing at others, but there is still much to do.

The Trade Union Blues will be involved with the 1894 Group and MCFC Fans Foodbank Support in continued protests against various ticketing issues at the club ahead of City’s home game against Aston Villa on Tuesday night, which will start at 7pm outside the Colin Bell entrance.