The Red Army: Returning a Formidable Atmosphere to Old Trafford

Manchester United’s fan culture and home atmosphere were once recognised and lauded by the media, fans, players and managers of Clubs across the world. As Manchester United’s largest independent fan group, made up of almost 6,000 Season Ticket holders and Club Members, we’re dedicated to helping return an authentic, sustainable, fan-led atmosphere back to Old Trafford and making it a fortress for our support once again.

 

Our Aim

To make Old Trafford the most vibrant, imposing, authentic football stadium in the Premier League. This can be achieved by a commitment to an “atmosphere-first” match-day between TRA, MUYSC, The Club and other significant Groups and individuals.

 

Authenticity & Tradition

We believe in a natural, sustainable atmosphere that is created and led entirely by the supporters. Utd fans pride themselves on originality and we want to continue leading, not following, when it comes to creating the best and most authentic football supporting environment in England. 

 

Growth

TRA or similar sections should be at both ends of the stadium, including a significant presence adjacent to visiting supporters, ensuring that the home support dominates every corner of Old Trafford. The Club must continually help to reintroduce and grow the atmosphere across the entire stadium, whilst catering for the needs and wishes of United fans of all ages and backgrounds.

 

Youth

Priority should be given to the next generation of Reds to ensure that they are able to create their own, independent identity and lasting legacy, whilst staying true to our fan culture and traditions.

 

Dedicated Atmosphere Group

We would like to see the creation of a dedicated atmosphere group to submit, discuss and rule upon any suggestions or incentives relating to the atmosphere. The group should be able to respond to real-time decisions that the atmosphere often requires. The group would be comprised of representatives from TRA, MUYSC, and other relevant Groups or individuals and chaired by a Club employee well versed in the traditions and intricacies of our fan culture.

 

Match-Day Agreement

The Club should continue to respect and uphold the agreements in place regarding match-day operations relating to the atmosphere and the match-day ‘experience’. Regular post-match briefings should be used to discuss how the MDA is working in practice.

 

Collaboration

TRA are always open to working alongside groups or individuals who have the fans’ interests at heart and are prepared to share an honest and transparent dialogue.

 

MUFC Community

We use our position as a positive influence in the MUFC community wherever possible, supporting a number of charities,  sponsoring local athletes and grass roots sports clubs, backing  initiatives such as the Jimmy Murphy Statue campaign and the Duncan Edwards Museum and offering assistance to our members or any Reds who may require it.

 

Problem statement

The views of many supporters who care deeply about the atmosphere and the historical fan culture of match-going Manchester United fans, are not effectively or  proportionally  represented to The Club.

 

Proposal

A new position of Fan Culture & Atmosphere rep is created on the Fans Forum.

The new representative(s) primary role would be to ensure that the views of match-going and ‘time-served’ supporters, some of who may no longer attend matches but still have a deep attachment to The Club, are fully represented in any matters relating to the atmosphere and fan culture.

 

What is Fan Culture?

Each Club has its own unique and well established set of behaviours, personality and philosophies, grown organically by the supporters themselves over many generations.

Fan culture is extremely important, particularly to match going supporters and is an essential part of not just the match-day itself, but often extending into the lives of the supporters who view themselves as belonging to it. Fan culture should never be directly driven or influenced by The Club or anyone not directly part of the match-going fanbase, instead, The Club should encourage the protection of historical fan culture as well as the development of new ideas that are presented to them by the match-going supporters who consider fan culture & atmosphere to be a priority.

 

What about Manchester United Supoorters Trust (MUST)?

MUST’s position within The Club is both well established and well understood and we wish them well in their pursuit of representing not just the match-going supporters in certain areas, but also the opinions of the wider, international fanbase. Our requirement is for representation of a very particular type of supporter who care deeply about the atmosphere and United’s historical & future fan culture and who’s views are too important not to have their own, independent and dedicated representation with The Club.

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In April 2024, following growing concerns regarding the future of the atmosphere and fan culture inside Old Trafford and within the league in general, we contacted the Club’s Director of Fan Engagement to request his support in the creation of a new position on the Fans Forum for an ‘Atmosphere & Fan Culture rep’.

We were told that this was a decision that would require Omar’s approval and we would have to wait until he was able to address this request personally. As a compromise, we were offered one of the vacant ST rep roles but felt that doing so might lessen the chance of The Club doing what we considered to be the right thing in creating the much needed independent Atmosphere & Fan Culture position.

In the meantime, we reached out to MUST and requested that they support the idea of the new rep or reps, given that the atmosphere & fan culture feature so highly on the list of concerns of many match-going Reds. Their response was that whilst they did not believe they were in a position to influence such a decision, in principle they disagreed with it, citing that the atmosphere and fan culture were too important to have their own representative on the fans forum and that these two areas should instead be shared among all the existing reps.

Finally, after the positivity generated by Omar’s initial statement to the supporters that he was looking forward to working with all fan groups to ensure their views and feedback are heard, we contacted him direct and asked him to support our request

Last week TRA received a response from Omar ( below). Whilst our request has been refused at this stage, we remain optimistic that Omar won’t be discouraged from meeting with us to discuss our concerns and ideas for the atmosphere in the near future.

 

Thank you for your email, and for the support The Red Army give to the team. I know that will include many hours of unpaid effort each week and it is much appreciated.

 

Old Trafford should always have the best atmosphere in the country and it is important we keep working to facilitate it where we can. It makes a difference to on-field performance and if done in the right way also improves the matchday experience for fans. I would encourage you to keep working with the club, and other fan groups, to identify ways to improve things and to ensure all fans get a voice in this important area.

 

I believe fan culture and heritage is something that is the responsibility of all fans. And in specific relation to the Fans’ Forum, all fan representatives. I do not think it should fall on one person to solely advise or champion this and I think what makes Manchester United the greatest club in the world is our fanbase and the incredible loyalty and passion we have both here in Manchester but also all over the world. I believe all the current Fans’ Forum reps are long-standing season ticket holders / members (with a combined tenure of hundreds of years) and are all very passionate about preserving the legacy of the club as well as ensuring we move with the times in the right way. They all make up what our fan culture is and having many different aspects to that is what makes it so powerful.

 

Manchester United’s Fans’ Forum, and our Fans’ Advisory Board, has a very high reputation across the Premier League and I am looking forward to engaging with it and ensuring it retains the full support of the senior management team going forwards.

 

If there are specific projects or pieces of work where we need additional input from fan groups around fan/culture/legacy items – as I believe the club did with the Jimmy Murphy statue which TRA were part of along with other groups – then we can also pull together a working group to help shape that.

 

We will keep the composition of the Fans’ Forum under review and ensure it remains a representative and collaborative body.

 

I am looking forward to being at Old Trafford this week for our opening game and am sure The Red Army will be in full voice supporting the players and cheering us on to victory.

 

Best wishes

Omar

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In 2024, TRA we were given information that led us to believe TRA has been classified as a ‘risk group’.

We have been advised that any group being classified as ‘risk’ at football could have serious implications for the group or anyone who belongs to it as being branded as ‘risk’ in football only means one thing – ‘hooligan’. The implication being that as a member of a ‘risk’ group of football fans, you are now more likely to be subject to prejudicial treatment should you come to the attention of authorities at or around football, for any reason.

We take our members’ welfare very seriously and don’t believe you, your families or friends, deserve to be discriminated against merely because you want to passionately support United

On Tuesday night an emergency meeting was held at Hotel Football with 25 representatives of the 400+ Fixed Group members and a decision not to run TRA for the Crystal Palace League Cup and Galatasaray games, under present conditions, was voted for unanimously.

The Club warned us that they may instead attempt to run an ‘atmosphere section’ without TRA. We would prefer that instead of attempting to create their own ‘atmosphere’, they would support all of our, and your, ongoing efforts and initiatives to improve the atmosphere.

We’ll release more information as soon as we have it, in the meantime, TRA will be running for the  remaining 8 league games as the seat moves for these games have already been processed by The Club. If you are a Youth ST holder and are concerned you may be split from a family member or someone you need to be seated with for these cup games, we’d advise that you contact The Club immediately.

We are currently waiting for a detailed explanation and satisfactory resolution in time for us to run the ballot for the Copenhagen match, which The Club require from us by the 18th September. We trust that the rest of you feel as strongly as we all do about TRA, trust this decision and stand with us for the longer term good of the atmosphere and, just as importantly, the perception of YOU as an individual and TRA as a group.

 

An emergency meeting was held at Hotel Football with 25 representatives of the 400+ Fixed Group members after TRA were once again classified as a ‘risk’ group. The decision not to run TRA for the Crystal Palace League Cup and Galatasaray games, under present conditions, was voted for unanimously.

This decision was taken against a long-standing backdrop of setbacks and refusals that have severely hindered our attempts to improve the atmosphere over the past 7 years.

We are currently waiting for a detailed explanation and satisfactory resolution in time for us to run the ballot for the Copenhagen match, which The Club require from us by the 18th September.

 

TRA were once again classed as a ‘risk group’ by the Licensing Authority. We take this extremely seriously because as many of you will know, being a member of a group of fans classed as ‘risk’ can only mean one thing in football and could have serious implications for the group or anyone who belongs to it. We take our members’ welfare very seriously and don’t believe you, your families or friends deserve to be discriminated against merely because you want to passionately support United.  

TRA’s objective, as you should all know, has always been to return the atmosphere to the entire stadium and not just a single stand or area. It’s well known that the best atmosphere is created when two sets of fans are close to each other and 6 years ago, we requested for the first time that away fans should be relocated into ET2 and that L-Stand should be made available for Reds who wanted to help improve the atmosphere. Combining a loud presence in L-Stand with a reinvigorated Stretford End, both in SERS and in Tier 2, is an essential first step for anyone at The Club who is taking the atmosphere problem seriously.

Unfortunately, despite several successful ‘trials’ where TRA were in L-Stand and away fans in ET2, this option has since been mystifyingly ruled out due to ‘safety concerns’ and away fans, for the time being, remain in their current location directly above our disabled section and as a result, the atmosphere at the east end of the stadium continues to be dominated by the away fans.

Last season, we managed to persuade The Club to allow TRA use of A-Stand (S229) for the games against Bournemouth, Forest, Palace and Barcelona. Following the Barcelona match, TRA were classed as a ‘risk group’ by the local council on the advice of GMP.

As we were refused access to any of the conversations and people involved in the decision, we asked The Club to challenge it on our behalf and eventually received assurance that the ‘risk’ label had been removed and that A-stand would again be made available for all Cup games for the 23-24 season, irrespective of the opposition, which we viewed as a welcome, positive step towards reigniting the atmosphere at the east end of the stadium.

This season, Palace offered the first chance for TRA to use A-Stand, both in the league and in the Cup as they have failed to sell their allocation for both matches. However, we have been advised that the ‘licensing authority’ have once again refused TRA the use of A-Stand for the Palace & Galatasaray games.

The Club warned us that they may instead attempt to run an ‘atmosphere section’ without TRA. We would prefer that instead of attempting to create their own ‘atmosphere’, they would take an even firmer stand with the local authorities and support all of our, and your, ongoing efforts to improve the atmosphere.

We hope that the rest of you feel as strongly as we all do about TRA, trust this decision and stand with us for the longer term good of the atmosphere and, just as importantly, the perception of YOU as an individual and TRA as a group.

It is possible that you will receive an email from the club asking if you want to be moved into SERS for one of these games (they cannot move you without permission). Our ask of you is to ignore the call/email and fully support the unfortunate, but necessary stance we're having to take.  We're proud of what we've achieved so far and like to think we have proven to you all that we know what we're doing over the past 7 seasons.

We’ll release more information as soon as we have it, in the meantime, TRA will be running for the  remaining 8 league games as the seat moves for these games have already been processed by The Club. As a final note, if you are a Youth ST holder and are concerned you may be split from a family member or someone you need to be seated with for these cup games, we’d advise that you contact The Club immediately to ask for a resolution.

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In 2024, Premier League clubs voted on whether to scrap VAR.

We believed that whilst there may an argument for a future system that delivers an automated and instantaneous decision directly to the referee, any Club vote regarding  VAR, or a system based on VAR must be against its continuation or introduction.

These are the reasons why:

• VAR was not asked for by the Fans

• The Fans were not consulted

• VAR is not wanted by the majority of Fans

• VAR is not needed

Beyond these facts though, the real damage that VAR has inflicted upon the game is that Fans are no longer able to celebrate a goal in the same manner that they were able to before VAR was imposed upon us. Without this intangible but powerful emotion attached to supporting a football club, many of us will continue to fall further out of love with the ‘beautiful game’ and ultimately, may walk away forever.

After polling thousands of our members, the results showed that over 95% of them wanted VAR to be scrapped.

We therefore urged Manchester United to vote ‘YES’ to scrapping VAR, unfortunately, as with almost all major decisions that impact the supporters, the club did not listen to the fans wishes.

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