Topi Kauhala

Why Blue?

I have actually supported Manchester City only for 2 years. That’s mainly becuase of my age (17). In Finland you don’t usually start to support an English club as early as in England.

When I was about 10 I liked Tottenham because of Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker. I also once liked Derby, because Peter Shilton played there. But it was never serious. There were English games on TV and I watched them, but at that time I didn’t have a favourite club and to be honest I wasn’t that big fan of English football.

Three years ago when I was 14, I bought an English football guide season 95-96 (Veikkaajan Käsikirja for Finns), which is published in Finland. I started to read it. I checked details and other info about English football clubs. I really loved to read it, but I was still without a club. In February 96 I travelled with my family to Los Angeles via London. In London we had about 6 hours time before the LA plane would take-off. We travelled to Piccadilly Circus by Tube. Those 6 hours changed my life. I bought some football magazines and started to like England and English football. When I came back to Finland I watched every game there was on TV. The game I remember best, was the Manchester derby at Maine Road. Then I didn’t hate U****d or particularly love City. I just watched it as a neutral. As you all know City lost that game and later that season got relegated and U****d won the championship.

Just before season 96-97, some Finnish weekly sport paper published an article about football in Manchester. It was actually written by someone from Manchester (Hugh Southon). The article was quite anti-United. When I read the first lines of the article I immediately started to feel sympathy for City. The article explained how U****d were the most succesful team in England that time and how everything in City was misery. It told how passionate footy fans in Manchester are and how big the rivalry between U****d and City is. I have always hated big clubs and this kind of article was sure to make me hate U****d. That was actually the first time I heard about their glory-hunting armchair fans (if you can call them as fans). I didn’t know it before, that their supporters are mostly kids and girls. I didn’t know that everything there is about money. I also didn’t know that the support of City is so phenomenal. I saw pictures of City’s supporters who were crying after the relegation and I realized that there were something special about this club.

I read that story several times. Everytime I read it I started to hate U****d more and like City more. I still wasn’t a City supporter, but I had found it. There were few clubs I liked and City was one of them (other clubs I liked were mostly Cockney clubs). In Autumn 96 City struggled and the more they struggled the more I started to support them. After season 96-97 I started to support only Manchester City. Later that Autumn I saw on TV City’s game at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United. It was the first time I saw City’s game as a supporter of the club. The game was quite s**t, but Kevin Horlock’s late equaliser gave us one point. I was amazed when I saw that about 5,000 supporters had travelled from Manchester to watch a struggling First Division side play.

In December I then travelled to Manchester to watch City play against Nottingham Forest at Maine Road. I had a brilliant time there even if City lost 3-2 and after that trip I knew I was going to be City ’til I die. I have never regretted the moment I became a City supporter. I have had some great moments and I have met some brilliant people. I have experienced that supporting Manchester City is something special.

As I earlier said I’m City till I die. Even in Finland I have heard lots of abuse because of City’s relegations, but I am and I will always be proud to wear the Sky (at the moment Laser) Blue shirt of the team I love – Manchester City.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #429 on