Nizam B Mohd Idris

Why Blue?

I was born in March 1968 – the year City last lifted the League Championship – to a family of 12 (!!). My father is a chauffeur, driving the car of the an Englishman from Tenterdon Kent, who was the Managing Director of Bousted Co. (South East Asia) with the parent company being Bousted plc in London. I grew up in a kampong (local word for small village) which was at the paremeter of a large wealthy English settlement in Singapore. Therefore I, like all other kampong-boys, made friends with the English kids around the area. They usually have their own English League teams to support, and so do all the kampong-boys.

Being the youngest in the family, I have 5 elder brothers who are ardent followers of the English league and naturally, we have our teams to support. One of my brothers supports Spurs, one Everton, one Leeds and two Liverpool. So every Saturday we have our weekly diet of BBC World Service’s “Saturday Special” with host Paddy Feeny and Sundays are always ‘Big-League-Soccer’ days. At the tender age of 7 I finally demanded to have my own team.

I did not want to support any teams that my brothers supported and at that time, I kind of hated an English boy down the road who was snobbish (unlike the others) and very unfriendly. No prizes for guessing which team he supported – the scum!! Since City were their neighbours and bitter rivals, I chose to support City. My brothers gave me their blessing and on my 8th birthday, my eldest brother bought me a locally made and cheap City shirt. I became a real City supporter that day, I thought. Then, in April that year (1976) City went on to beat Newcastle to win the League Cup. I was wearing my City shirt that night (10 pm Singapore time) listening to the Live coverage on BBC. I was delighted when the final whistle was blown, sending me into a small celebration until I was too tired and fell asleep, still in the City shirt.

From that year on I have only missed 4 City Team photos printed annually in the Shoot soccer ‘zine.

Through good and bad times I have stuck with City. The yo-yo years in the 80s were especially tough. It was very difficult to get any kind of news regarding the teams in the lower divisions until towards the end of the season. I, like most other City fans, can’t forget the final match of the season against Luton, Hutchinson’s “double” at Wembley in 1981, the thrilling replay when the two Argentinians – Ricky Villa and Ardiles – put paid to City’s dream and the 5-0 drubbing at OT this year. On a more positive note, there was the 5-1 win over the Scum and the most memorable player I know, Dennis Tueart. He is my all time great, along with Corrigan, et al.

But City has disappointed me frequently of late. The almost-annual changing of Managers has not helped. Then along came Horton. He truly transformed the team into a more interesting one to watch but sadly he failed in many other departments, like man-management and tactics. Let us all hope that things can only get better after the arrival of Rioch (please) or whoever it may be, to take over the hot seat at Maine Road.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #92 on