The South West France branch of the F C United of Manchester supporters group meets on most Wednesday evenings in the Café  l`hotel de Ville in Marciac.

The town is in the Gers department and is best known for its international jazz festival, which runs for fifteen days at the beginning of August every year. You can click on the Jazz in Marciac icon to the left for details of the latest programmes.

Our members include expats and holiday homeowners as well as local French people.

In November, 2006, four of us, Two Brits and a French couple went to England and watched F.C win 7 – 0 against Stone Dominoes and we were thrilled to have a picture of ‘our’ bar and our banner featured in the programme. A framed copy of the programme together with an enlarged print of the picture now hangs on the wall of the Café l’hotel de Ville.

Although we are a long way from Manchester, Bury and Gigg Lane we all support the principles, which led to the formation of F.C. United. Football fans the world over think in terms of ‘our club’. For most that is not really the case, but a fans relationship with a football club is not the same as the relationship with his, or her, favourite retailer. When the Glaziers took control of Manchester United people felt differently from the way they felt when Wallmart took control of Asda. Not even the most ardent Asda shopper felt like that.

I believe it is true to say that many football supporters who are not ‘Reds’ are aggrieved at the way that big business is interfering with ‘our’ game. If the big business is football it is perhaps acceptable, but if big business is taking over football it is not.

We support F.C. United because it is a supporter-based club.

We can only wonder what the future holds for Liverpool. We are told that Dubai International Capital Group is in for a “medium term” profit.  Not football then?  According to the BBC David Moores stands to net £75 million on his initial investment of £10 million. In the event DICG did not take over Liverpool, just Americans.

Football must appreciate that it does not exist for itself. Professional football cannot exist without fans. Notwithstanding David Beckhams move to Los Angeles past events suggest that this is certainly true in the United States. Even George Best could not significantly raise the profile of soccer there.

Now F.C. United enter their fourth season having won promotion to the Unibond Premier League. Promotion for the third year running !