A view of a corner flag before the Emirates FA Cup fourth round match at Old Trafford, Manchester, February 7, 2025
MANCHESTER UNITED’S identity is deeply rooted in its working-class origins.
The club, originally founded as Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club in 1878, was primarily a recreational activity for railway employees. Engels wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England while living in Manchester.
The city was central to Chartism and was the site of the first Trade Union Congress meeting in 1868.
With climate change, commercial overload and endless fixtures, footballers are being pushed to breaking point. It’s time their unions became a more powerful, unified force, writes JAMES NALTON
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
A new front in the fight for football’s soul is emerging — one rooted in trade union values and collective power
