Yousif Abdullah

Why Blue?

In September 96 I went to Salford University to do my MBA. There I met Martin Tyley (Hi Marty!) from Disley, a good lad and a true Blue. We chatted about football every now and then and he started telling me about Manchester City which got me more and more curious to actually see what it’s all about. He suggested that I go with him to Maine Road to see City playing Portsmouth, I think, in the First Division then. I have to say that I was more impressed with the crowd there than the match itself. I went back to Maine Road with Martin a few more times but I still wasn’t really a true City fan. That was until the day we went to get tickets for the Middlesbrough FA Cup home tie when we queued for more than three hours on a rainy day. The queue was perhaps a kilometre long when we arrived at about 10 or 11 in the morning but the tickets were sold out when we were only a couple of metres away from the window. I never got to see that game live and City lost by a goal, but I probably enjoyed being in the queue and seeing for myself all the tremendous loyalty and passion among the fans despite the bad times the club was having.

When I look back now, I know that that was the day I became a City fan. Prior to that, I had never seen City win any titles nor witnessed any good times they had (apart from winning the Second Division play-off final maybe). It was Martin and all those magnificent City fans who turned me into a Blue.

You probably realise how hard it is for me to be the one and only City follower in the whole of Bahrain (please tell me if you know of any other Blues in here so I got get in touch with!) at a time when about 99% of the population believe they support the Trafford team. But like all true Blues, I’m proud of it and I’m City till I die!

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #540 on