Bangladesh may not be a dominant force in world football, but the beautiful game is still dear to the hearts of Bangladeshis. This love for football is not limited to just international football. There is also a growing community of European club football fans in the country. Some of them have gone the extra mile and earned the seal of being an official fan group. In this series, Prothom Alo tells the stories of these fan clubs. In the fourth instalment, we tell the story of Manchester United Supporters Club Bangladesh.
“You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team.”
This quote belongs to the eccentric former France and Manchester United striker Eric Cantona. Cantona is known for his philosophical, sometimes a bit ‘out there’, statements. But he said this line in a movie titled ‘Looking for Eric’, where he played a fictional version of himself.
Even though this wasn’t Cantona’s own quote rather a dialogue from a movie, it had the intrinsic ‘Cantona-esque’ feeling to it and is currently his most talked about quote.
In the current age of club football where more and more clubs are getting bought by billionaires and obscure clubs are getting transformed into powerhouses and growing a fan base almost out of thin air, Cantona’s quote about not changing one’s favourite club seems a bit outdated.
But the members of Manchester United Supporters Club Bangladesh (MUSCBD), the only official supporters club of English Premier League side Manchester United in the country, have taken the words of their club legend to heart.
“Our fan club’s motto is very simple. Only pure Manchester United fans can join. You can be a Ronaldo fan, or a De Gea fan, that’s fine. But if you’re not a United fan, if the club’s interest is not at your heart, you can’t be a member here,” said Shihab Rahman, one of the admins of Manchester United Supporters Club Bangladesh.
Established in 2007, MUSCBD is the largest community of Manchester United fans in the country with over 34 thousand followers on Facebook. It also has a Facebook group, Manchester United Fans-Bangladesh, where 8.2 thousand die-hard Bangladeshi Red Devils are members.
Becoming a member of that group isn’t easy, said Shihab, as only true-blue Manchester United fans are welcome.
“Many people support more than one club. A very common pairing is Manchester United and Real Madrid. But we don’t keep any casual fans in our group.
“Whenever someone sends a request to join the group, we check their profile carefully. We check what pages they follow, what their previous profile pictures, cover photos etc were. That helps us determine if they are true Manchester United supporters.
“Plus, everyone has to answer questions to become a member. We also monitor the activity of every member. Their activity also indicates whether they are true Manchester United supporters or not. Whenever we feel that a member is following a particular player and not the club, we ban that member,” said Shihab.
MUSCBD started its journey on 1 December 2007, when Neon Tahidul Islam opened Facebook group.
“Our fan club began in 2007. I was not a member of this group from the beginning. Our group’s founder, Neon Tahidul Islam, and a few of his friends started the Facebook group. Back then, there weren’t as many groups or pages in Facebook on football. Initially, he and his friends used to post, gradually more members got added,” Shihab said.
To become an official supporters club of Manchester United, at least 50 members of a group have to purchase the official membership badges from the club.
After fulfilling this obligation and some adjacent ones, MUSCBD applied to become officially affiliated with Manchester United and finally, on 4 February, 2014, they earned the official stamp.
But even before becoming an official supporters club, the group was recognised as the biggest Red Devils community in Bangladesh.
Members of this group were selected to represent Bangladeshi Manchester United fans when Man Utd legends Bryan Robson and Dwight Yorke arrived at Bangladesh on January 2012 during a tour with the historic 19th Premier League title of the club.
On 22 June of the same year, members from the group participated in an exclusive fan session with former Manchester United player Quinton Fortune.
To engage its members, MUSCBD holds match screenings and also holds online discussions on their Facebook page.
Shihab said that the Covid-19 pandemic hampered these activities but from this season, they plan to resume in full swing.
“Before Corona, we used to hold screenings of Manchester United matches quite regularly, especially big matches like a derby or Manchester United playing against Liverpool. We usually screen the season opener in a restaurant, like last year we did it at the Six Seasons. Since Covid-19, the number of such screenings has gone down a bit in the last two years.
“We also collaborate with other fan clubs. We held a joint event with Liverpool, Arsenal fan clubs in the 2015-16 season. Miles member and Manchester United supporter Hamin Ahmed came at the event with Arsenal fan club,” said Shihab.
MUSCBD also provides an official membership card for its members and that card comes with its own set of perks.
“We sell Manchester United merchandise, like t-shirts, scarfs etc. Our members can purchase an official membership card from us. With the card, they get discounts at many restaurants. We have partnerships with some hotels and gyms. Our cardholders get a 10-15 per cent discount at those places.”
Manchester United’s campaign so far in the 2022-23 season has been eventful to say the least. The arrival of former Ajax coach Erik Ten Hag and the signings of defender Lisandro Martinez and midfielder Christian Eriksen got overshadowed by the ongoing Cristiano Ronaldo saga.
The return of United’s prodigal son turned sour in just one season. The Portugese wants to leave the club as he wants to compete at the UEFA Champions League, for which Manchester United didn’t qualify this year after finishing sixth in the 2021-22 Premier League table.
Ronaldo skipped the entire Manchester United pre-season campaign owing to ‘family reasons’. The situation only got worse after United lost their first two matches of the season, which included a 4-0 humiliation against Brentford.
The situation had deteriorated so much that Manchester United fans were planning to leave the stands during their match against Liverpool, demanding the current Manchester United owners the Glazer family to leave the club.
But the surprise signing of Real Madrid’s Brazilian midfielder Casemiro and a brilliant 2-1 win over Liverpool has rejuvenated their campaign and the theatre of dreams, after ages, is once again dreaming of regaining lost glory.
Ronaldo is still trying to leave the club, with his agent apparently offering him to multiple Champions League playing clubs, but no one yet has shown interest to sign the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Ronaldo’s antics and reportedly offering himself to rival Chelsea has shocked, enraged and disappointed United fans worldwide, with MUSCBD members being no different.
“United fans are quite obviously angry about the situation,’ Shihab Rahman said.
“Even my personal feelings towards Ronaldo has changed. If he ends up going to Chelsea, no United fan would take that news positively. Ronaldo is a United legend, undoubtedly. Ronaldo was the hero of United’s last Champions League win. He is respected for those achievements. But at the same time, he has refused to train with the team in the pre-season. He negotiated a move to Chelsea, which was very hard for United fans to accept.
“If Ronaldo ends up leaving, maybe some people will mock him or troll him for a while. But at the end of the day he is a club legend. But, yes, United fans are quite offended with everything that has happened,” he added.
With the team going through an overhaul, United fans are keeping their expectations modest. A top four finish and a return to the Champions League would be enough to satisfy majority of the fans.
“We have a new manager this season. Erik Ten Hag. Usually when a new coach arrives, the team needs a little time to get settled. So, I’m not expecting for anything incredible this season.
“Ten Hag has a possession based philosophy, which is very different from our previous managers. The players currently in the squad are not ideal for Ten Hag’s philosophy. This season, I want Ten Hag to recruit new players, instill his playing philosophy in the team and develop a playing pattern. If they can finish at the top four, I think most United fans will be happy,” Shihab concluded.