Manchester United’s colour is red. They are the Red Devils. They play in a stadium lined with
red seats and their red shirts are as famous as the many iconic players to have worn them.
And yet over the past twelve years, green and gold have – in a way – become the club’s colour, too.
Why is that? The Green and Gold Campaign was
and remains a visible protest against the Glazer Family’s ownership of Manchester United. But,
while the Glazer’s takeover was completed in 2005, it wasn’t until the beginning of 2010
that green and gold-coloured scarves started to become truly visible at Old Trafford.
Why green and gold? Well, Manchester United only
became Manchester United in 1902. Upon being founded, the club was known as Newton Heath,
a railway workers team who played matches at a ground to the north-east of Manchester city
centre. Accounts of Newton Heath’s colours are varied, but for a period of their short history
they certainly wore green and yellow – and that became the symbol of anti-Glazer sentiment.
The idea for the campaign came from the hugely influential but now defunct fanzine,
Red Issue. The catalyst, however, was bubbling resentment at the levels of debt that had been
hoisted on the club as a result of the Glazer’s leveraged buyout and the effect that had begun
to have on investment in the club’s first-team. In particular, upon the publication of the club’s
accounts for the 2008-09 period – released in early 2010 – an alarming truth was revealed.
According to a report in The Guardian: “The figures revealed that without the
sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £81m, the colossal interest payments
on the club's debt would have meant a net loss, after a hugely successful season in
which the club won the Premier League and reached the Uefa Champions League final.”
In a book entitled Red Rebels: The Glazers and the FC Revolution, John-Paul O’Neill recalled
the birth of the campaign and the speed with which momentum gathered around it.
"The rapidity of its take-up was spectacular," he wrote. "Swagmen outside Old Trafford struggled
to cope with demand for suddenly popular green-and-yellow scarves,
while the club's security clamped down on any staff brandishing the colours."
That can be explained by strength of feeling, of course, but also partially by context. Debt was a
very pertinent issue in English at the time. After their long-term financial mismanagement, Leeds
United’s demise had concluded with relegation in 2004 and was still fresh in the mind. Similarly,
at the very moment that Manchester United’s green and gold campaign was gathering pace,
Portsmouth’s financial debacle was reaching its crescendo. In February 2010, with debts
in excess of £70m, they became the first Premier League club to enter administration.
So, fear surrounding financial instability was at something of a zenith, and green and gold scarves
were suddenly everywhere. They were visible in significant numbers at Old Trafford for
the Premier League fixture against Hull City and can very much be seen on highlights of the
game today. As they can for the next home match in the league, against – coincidentally - Portsmouth.
According to reporting by The Independent, an estimated 30,000 scarves had been sold
ahead of that game and a “fifth of all fans” inside the ground that day were wearing one.
Ahead of the League Cup final in February, when Manchester United beat Aston Villa 2-1,
the United end was awash with yellow and green and, ahead of kick-off,
as the players were walking out, hundreds – more likely thousands - of green and gold balloons
could be seen floating out from the stands. And there would be another vivid symbol in the
Champions League, at the end of the round of sixteen victory over AC Milan. Former United
star David Beckham had returned to Old Trafford as a Milan player. Although well-beaten on the
night and over the two legs, Beckham would linger on the pitch at full-time, draping a supporter’s
green and yellow scarf around his shoulders, after it had found its way onto the pitch.
That memory’s significance may have dwindled as Beckham’s career faded and eventually finished,
but the colours of United’s protest endure. Similarly, while the specific issues animating
supporter unrest may have changed and diversified since 2010, the messaging in opposition to the
ownership has remained consistent and still highly visible within those green and gold scarves.