“Nobody is saying the King Power will turn into La Bombonera overnight…” Teachers, authenticity and tifos with Union FS
British football has long been the trailblazer in football matters. What British football did, the rest of the world followed.
We saw through the Casual movement of the ’80s that our football culture was, rightly or wrongly, the envy of supporters globally. But active and organised support is an example of British football taking back from their European counterparts.
Born out of Italy and southern Europe, organised support is now more visual and vocal than previously seen on these shores, and is closely entwined with ‘ultra’ culture. It has been ever-present on continental terraces for decades, but we’re starting to see it seep into grounds at home. The aim is to be the group that provides the most vocal support and back their team visually through flags, confetti, streamers and full-stand displays. That brings us on to tifos.
Essentially, a tifo is a choreographed display, flag, sign or banner in the stands of a football ground – they’ve been rising in popularity over the past 10 years in stands across the country.
Some believe that the impressive full-stand displays you see at Leicester matches are produced by the club. They’re not. The tifos you see on the Kop at Filbert Way are designed, created and implemented by Union FS.
Union FS is an independent fan group founded in 2013. They have long lobbied for safe standing and supporters’ rights, and have recently secured a season-long trial of a dedicated section within SK1 where they can give prolonged vocal and visual support to the team.
There have been perceptions from parts of the fanbase that the group is made up of teenagers who just love to moan. Simon A is a 53-year-old teacher and been part of Union FS since 2015 – he says it’s the tifos that keep him young at heart.
“The group has given me a new lease of life as a supporter after some desperately dull years,” he explains. “I often wonder if it wasn’t for Union FS, would I still be going?
“I love the whole process of the tifos and it gets me loving football again. I rarely do away games anymore, I don’t do European trips – but the visual displays are what keeps me coming back for more.
“In that 10 minutes before it goes up, there’s that sense of exhilaration and trepidation. There’s always fear because you’re so reliant on another 6,000 people buying into what you’re doing.
“The window is so small. The whole thing is over within two minutes. There’s months of graft, time and money going into those two minutes, and when you’ve done it and the surfer comes down, and you dump it in a bin outside, you look at the lad next to you and can say, ‘We just did that’. It gets me every time.”
Munshi is 24 and has moved into the new SK1 section – he agrees that tifos are something that City fans should be proud of.
“The tifos are seriously impressive,” he says. “Knowing how much time, effort and money goes into producing them makes them all the more special. Things like tifos are what kids will see and be drawn towards.”
The group’s first full-stand display came during the Great Escape season of 2014/15. With City beginning an upturn in form under the guidance of Nigel Pearson, a simple fox head was choreographed from the Kop before we cantered to a 3-0 victory. But arguably Union FS’s most impressive display to date came on one of the club’s biggest nights. When Sevilla came to town in the last 16 of the Champions League, the group was ready welcome them, as Simon remembers.
“That Sevilla tifo was my proudest achievement to date with the group,” he remembers. “It was just a culmination of everything. It got local, national and continental interest and it just felt massive - especially with the size of the fixture.
“It was a huge gamble in terms of the logistics and the design itself. But it had gravitas, it had a nod to the city, to the club, and it’ll have to be something special to top it.”
Not all groups take as much pride as Union FS at being fiercely independent. More and more seem to be doing it differently than the traditional DIY approach - hiring graphic designers, sending PDFs to a printing firm and then taking the credit. Munshi says he’s proud that the displays at Leicester are all done by the hands of local people.
“There aren’t many groups that do it properly, so it gives us something different to most other clubs - and it’s all paid for by match-going fans,” he says. “No shop-printed stuff around here.”
The tifos are also being used to prise the next generation of football fans off their PlayStations and onto the terraces. Junior L is eight and attended his first match earlier this season within SK1.
“When I tell my mates at school that I’m going to the football, they see it as a big thing to do,” he says. “Some of them support Leicester but there are Liverpool and Manchester United fans who have never seen their team play. They all ask me how they can get tickets and stuff, so it makes me feel good that I’m doing it.”
Simon is a teacher and loves that his kids take an interest in the group’s movements.
“There’s a few City fans in my class of 11- and 12-year-olds – they know I’m a part of the group and love the idea of being involved. They all want to be part of it so, they’re asking their dads to move into SK1, as that’s where it’s all happening. That’s the buzz for me, inspiring the next generation of vocal supporters.”
With the King Power Stadium expansion looming, the atmosphere on Filbert Way has been a discussion on many an internet forum – and the new section has proved a hot topic.
Munshi says he’s enjoying his new vantage point and thinks the atmosphere can only improve once the players start winning games: “It feels good to be with like-minded people who just want to sing for 90 minutes regardless of what’s happening on the pitch,” he says.
“Nobody is saying the King Power will turn into La Bombonera overnight, but having a group like Union FS really does make going to games a lot more enjoyable. Hopefully the section will get bigger and better over the years”.
Simon agrees. “I was raised on the terraces in the ’80s, and whenever you went to Filbert Street on a Saturday and stood in one of the pens, you knew it was going to be an experience you wouldn’t get anywhere else in your life – this section is obviously a long way from that but it’s probably the closest we’ll get.”
Union FS will continue to push for safe standing on Filbert Way, and will carry on pushing civic pride through their visual displays and charity drives. Their annual food bank collection for The Bridge will come back around in a few months and they recently raised over £1,000 for local hospice LOROS.
They’re also attracting support from different parts of the fanbase which Munshi is thankful for. “I come from an Asian background and you don’t really see people like me bouncing and singing at games, but the group has really helped to get myself and a few mates involved and we appreciate them doing that,” he says.
FOLLOW Union FS on Twitter, Facebook – or support their work through exclusive merchandise here
“I moved to SK1 by myself a few years ago and now there’s six of us (the brown blues) going at it for 90 minutes every week. It’s thanks to the Union FS lads for making it easy for us.”
With 13 full-stand tifos successfully choreographed so far, number 14 will need to be something special to get Leicester City off the bottom of the Premier League.
Watch this space…
The Union FS TIFO Record:
LEICESTER 3-0 Newcastle – WIN
LEICESTER 4-2 Sunderland - WIN
LEICESTER 1-1 Manchester United - DRAW
LEICESTER 4-0 Swansea - WIN
LEICESTER 0-0 Arsenal - DRAW
LEICESTER 1-0 FC Copenhagen - WIN
LEICESTER 2-0 Sevilla - WIN
LEICESTER 0-3 Palace - LOSS
LEICESTER 2-0 Wolves – WIN
LEICESTER 3-0 Arsenal – WIN
LEICESTER 0-0 Wolves - DRAW
LEICESTER 3-1 Legia Warsaw - WIN
LEICESTER 1-1 Roma – DRAW
LEICESTER vs ???