{"id":426177,"date":"2011-05-18T16:10:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T16:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/"},"modified":"2011-05-18T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T16:10:33","slug":"fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans’ City taunt banner to return"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 May 2011<\/span> Last updated at<\/span> 11:24 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Manchester City’s long-suffering fans waited 35 years to get the monkey off their back.<\/p>\n

But, just when they think it is all over, they find out they will have to suffer the taunts of United’s infamous “ticker banner” one final time.<\/p>\n

Having mocked City’s lack of silverware for more than a decade, the “35 years” banner disappeared following City’s FA Cup win<\/a> – much to the delight of Blues fans.<\/p>\n

But Stretford End Flags, the independent supporters’ group behind the banner, have said United fans will have the last laugh when it returns for the final game of the season.<\/p>\n

Spokesman Andrew Kilduff said: “The banner’s going back up in some form or another for the Blackpool game.<\/p>\n

“What goes up is open to interpretation – it’s going to be the same banner but it will just have something else on it,” he said secretively.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had suggestions to turn it to 43 which is how long since City last won the league.<\/p>\n

“But if we do that it would just give City the motivation to win it again – and it would look a bit petty really.”<\/p>\n

Screaming supporters<\/span><\/p>\n

Focus on the banner has grown since Manchester City’s sale in 2008 to billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour and its move into the higher echelons of the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Their manager Roberto Mancini was aware of its significance, urging his players to “take off this banner” in the build-up to the Wembley final.<\/p>\n

At the final whistle, exultant City players even unfurled their own ticker banner on the Wembley pitch, reset to “00”.<\/p>\n

“It clearly struck a nerve,” said Mr Kilduff, 35, from Runcorn.<\/p>\n

“There were City fans outside Wembley screaming into the TV cameras, calling for it to come down.<\/p>\n

“To me if you’re in the FA Cup Final, you’ve won the cup. It’s not about taking a banner down at a rival football ground.”<\/p>\n

But, after a decade of winding up their Manchester rivals, are United fans disappointed the joke’s over?<\/p>\n

“To be honest, it didn’t bother us because my focus was on Manchester United winning the 19th title,” said Mr Kilduff.<\/p>\n

“That’s more important than anything because the rivalry with Liverpool over the number of titles was always bigger than that.”<\/p>\n

Museum piece<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Mr Kilduff, the banner was conceived in the early 1990s by Manchester United’s away fans who wanted to taunt City fans over their lack of success.<\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStart Quote<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

It clearly struck a nerve – there were City fans outside Wembley screaming for it to come down\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

End Quote<\/span> Andrew Kilduff<\/span> Stretford End Flags<\/span><\/div>\n

In 2000, a United fan had the first ticker banner made up which he displayed on the Stretford End before turning his back on the club in 2005 following the Glazer takeover – and taking his banner with him.<\/p>\n

Soon after, Stretford End Flags was formed to create eye-catching banners and crowd mosaic displays at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

“We were inundated with fans’ requests asking if it could go back up,” he said. “So we actually got it remade and it’s been up there ever since.”<\/p>\n

A mock-up of the banner was even taken to the City of Manchester stadium on 28 February this year – the 35th anniversary of City’s League Cup win in 1976.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Kilduff, the banner may now have a future in the new National Football Museum, due to open in Manchester in 2012.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been in touch with them about using it in a display about football rivalry which is probably the right place for it now,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tiny banner which is about a tenth of the size of banners we put up on the Stretford End.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got huge banners of Ryan Giggs, George Best, Sir Matt Busby. And we’re looking for ideas for a new banner to mark the 19th title.<\/p>\n

“To be honest, that’s what it’s all about – the history and tradition of Manchester United.<\/p>\n

“Now the ticker’s gone, we can focus on that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More here:
\nFans’ City taunt banner to return<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 May 2011 Last updated at 11:24 ET Manchester City’s long-suffering fans waited 35 years to get the monkey off their back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nFans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Fans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"18 May 2011 Last updated at 11:24 ET Manchester City's long-suffering fans waited 35 years to get the monkey off their back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Fans’ City taunt banner to return\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-18T16:10:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\"},\"wordCount\":704,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\",\"name\":\"Fans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-18T16:10:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Fans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"18 May 2011 Last updated at 11:24 ET Manchester City's long-suffering fans waited 35 years to get the monkey off their back.","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Fans’ City taunt banner to return","datePublished":"2011-05-18T16:10:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/"},"wordCount":704,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/","name":"Fans' City taunt banner to return - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-18T16:10:33+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/fans-city-taunt-banner-to-return\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}