United in Leipzig: A different kind of football

The footballers from Manchester who arrived at Leipzig-Halle Airport in May 2006 certainly looked the part.

Dressed in suits and sporting red club ties, they walked through the melee of camera teams and bemused bystanders to board the team coach, with a police escort in front and behind, and a helicopter circling above.

"What have you told them?" one incredulous player asked. "They think we're Manchester United!"

It would be another 14 years before Manchester United actually traveled to Leipzig – they face RB Leipzig on Tuesday night needing a point to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Back in 2006, the players who arrived in the city were amateurs representing FC United of Manchester, the newly crowned champions of the English tenth tier.

Formed just 12 months earlier by Manchester United supporters unhappy at the takeover of their club by American businessman Malcolm Glazer, they were in town for a friendly against Lokomotive Leipzig – themselves reformed by fans just three years earlier and on course to win the German seventh division.

The two sides would play out a 4-4 draw in front of 7,462 spectators, including around 400 from Manchester. But the match was about more than just two amateur sides playing a friendly. It symbolized something greater: an alternative vision of football.

Against modern football

The match was the brainchild of United fan John Marley and Lokomotive supporter Matthias Löffler, who had met by chance in a Leipzig pub a year earlier and had bonded over their shared experiences as football fans. Both of their clubs had, in different ways, fallen victim to economic developments in the modern game.

In Leipzig, Lokomotive had become one of many East German giants to succumb to the free-market football of the reunified Germany. A few years later, the city would become synonymous with "modern football" when Red Bull selected Leipzig as the location for a new football franchise.

Meanwhile in Manchester, supporters had become disillusioned with the trappings of the modern game, with many feeling excluded by rising ticket prices. When previously debt-free United were saddled with £580 million (€635 million, $770 million) of liabilities by the Glazer takeover in 2005, supporters broke away to found their own club.

"Both FC United and Lok Leipzig represented the idea of a different football being possible," Löffler tells DW. "Football clubs run by fans on a one-member, one-vote basis."

Fourteen years on, the make-up of Champions League Group H throws that idea into even sharper relief. Alongside United and RB Leipzig, Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain can also progress if they avoid defeat to already eliminated Istanbul Basakehir, the pride of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Big brands and nation states playing off against each other. If the Glazers and their ilk had their way, there would be even more of this," says Andy Walsh, who served as FC United's general manager from their foundation in 2005 until 2016, and who now works for the Football Supporters Association in England.

"What Red Bull have done in Leipzig, for example, is a purely corporate strategy. It's not about football; it's about brand building. But if supporters are involved in decision making, the game will stay true to its values and true to its roots, rather than being hijacked by big business and billionaire owners."

Logistical and moral challenges

Ideals are one thing, but tuning the fanciful idea of a friendly between two amateur clubs from different countries into reality posed significant challenges.

"None of us had ever organized international travel for a football team so it was a massive learning curve," recalls Walsh. "None of our players were on contracts; they were all part-time, so they all needed to take time off work. Several players had never actually travelled abroad before. It was like herding cats."

There was a political issue, too, with Lokomotive's support at the time featuring a notorious right-wing hooligan element. Therefore, the match took place under the theme of anti-discrimination and marked the start of the German club's association with the Fare network, which fights against discrimination in European football.

"At the start of the game, the players displayed a banner against violence and against racism to make the message clear," explains Löffler. "It's better to acknowledge the problem and try and help rather than take the easy option and brush it under the carpet."

"We hoped that we could support those in Leipzig who wanted to bolster and support a different narrative; one of reaching out, not closing in," adds Walsh. "We had common themes of humanity that could transcend racism. We wanted to emphasize the positives."

'The perfect evening'

The match ultimately passed off without major incident on a weekend which had historic significance for both clubs – marking exactly one year since the Glazer takeover of Manchester United as well as the 19th anniversary of Lokomotive's European Cup Winners' Cup final defeat to Ajax in 1987.

"It was a fantastic experience to see Lok playing against international opposition again, especially one with a similar story," remembers Lokomotive fan Andre.

"There was an immense euphoria and pride around the club," adds fellow supporter Thomas. "It felt like we were reconnecting with classic European Cup battles."

For the visitors from Manchester, the trip to Leipzig came a pleasant surprise. Many of them had followed Manchester United around Europe and beyond for years before deciding to follow FC United instead.

"It was the perfect evening, middle of May, quite warm, the sun just going down and the floodlights coming on," recalls Jonathan Allsopp, an FC United fan who made the trip. "The atmosphere was fantastic. The city center was packed with United fans. It was like being at a Champions League match."

Tuesday's actual Champions League match between RB Leipzig and Manchester United could not be more different. With Europe still in the grip of the pandemic, there will be no fans inside the Red Bull Arena, perhaps a fitting backdrop for two clubs which embody the commercial excesses of the modern game.

"The whole system is just getting more and more crazy," says Löffler, who still volunteers at Lokomotive, now in the regional fourth tier. "Maybe the pandemic can help heal football, reducing its reliance on these ridiculous sums of money and giving real supporters more opportunities to influence the game."

As FC United and Lokomotive Leipzig demonstrated in May 2006, another football is possible.