Review of Manchester: Home of the Beautiful Game? By Dylan Wiggan
My experience of ‘Manchester: Home of the Beautiful Game?’ began in surprise. The Urbis, an alternative museum, had been rebranded as the National Museum of Football. As a Manchester native I felt somewhat embarrassed I was not aware of this, apparently, non-recent transformation. As I entered the huge and impressively spiked landmark of a building (mourning the death of the Urbis) I realised I had forgotten my ticket. I was faced with the horrible realisation that I might actually have to pay my own actual money to review this event. I resisted temptations to implore the bored man behind the reception desk that it was my right as a critic to get into events for free (and then most likely slag them off afterwards). Instead I asked to buy tickets for the event, to which the bored man replied that it had sold out. This helpless position was saved by a kind elderly man behind me who offered me his spare ticket in a rare moment of true altruism. After some gushing ‘thank yous’ I ditched the old man to avoid having to force awkward conversation, which I think was a tough but right decision for both of us. Though new my ticket clearly had ‘senior citizen’ emblazoned on it I got to a seat no problem, which in hindsight may have been a slight on my appearance.
The audience was a mish-mash of elderly people, dads and sons, some couples and a few loners. The show started and our host got up and made it clear that this was not about ‘waving colours’ or ‘flaring rivalries’. ‘This is for the Literature Festival’ he reminded everyone indicating to a sign next to him that said as much. He then explained how the two speakers were from opposite sides of Manchester’s footballing divide. Rodge Glass, a United fan was here with his book ‘Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs’ a fictional story of a failed United player. Whilst David Conn, a City fan, was here with his book about the history of Manchester City ‘Richer Than God’.
They were to read passages of their books- Rodge Glass went first. He was confident on the microphone and rattled through a few passages coming in and out of voices and impressions. Towards the end of his reading his jocular tone turned into a –still humorous- but more cynical view of football, berating the money, the celebrity, the homogenised images presented of the players and managers in interviews.
David Conn then self-deprecatingly warned the audience he could not compete with Glass, having ‘not read out loud since primary school’. His reading painted a romantic view of his relationship with football. He described recent changes in the sport akin to a husband describing being betrayed by his wife.
But this audience accepted this melodramatic/hyperbolic rhetoric. When both readings was finished a brief interview was conducted by our host who freely used the term brave to describe their endeavours, this use of language induced a smile on myself akin to the one I get when introduced to a ‘genius’ at an apple store.
The readings and interview made it clear these two authors were specifically chosen. They perfectly contrasted each other: fiction/non-fiction, confident/self-deprecating, cynical/romantic and of course United/City. The two served as metaphor for what they were preaching, which was referred to throughout the event, that football is at its heart a true avenue to bring all walks of life together.
The questions were then turned onto us the audience. The first question was to Conn and was, to me, fairly accusing, with his integrity being questioned as Manchester City’s rich owners had flown him to Abu Dhabi. Conn handled this coolly, praising the support of the City owners. The next questioner mumbled semi-incoherently in a thick Mancunion twang even a native manc (albeit one behind on Urbis news) such as myself struggled to decipher. His three minute question ultimately proved to be an inquisition about how easy would it be for Manchester City to dissolve into financial ruin (I smelt red). After this our host again reminded us that this event was for the Literature Festival, prodding his thumb back at the sign.
The questions turned more serious at this point with debates emerging about how ‘clubs’ have turned into ‘companies’. Conn lamented this shift arguing football should be owned by its supporters.
The talk was at its best when debating the nature of a fan’s relationship with their club. How the arbitrary occurrence of supporting a particular team becomes an emotional, faithful, obsession for your whole life.
Less interesting was the damning of the ‘modern game’, whilst there have obviously been great changes, there was an air of youth nostalgia in the talk, akin to people complaining how ‘summer used to be nicer’ and ‘tests were harder’.
Already overrun its allotted time, the panel was brought to an end- despite never answering whether Manchester was indeed the ‘home of the beautiful game’. Shame.