'If I can make a United fan happy and put a smile on their face, I’m happy'
Many suffered greatly during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of course, football supporters, as a group, were far from the worst affected, but nevertheless, the behind-closed-doors era took its toll on fans from a social and mental perspective.
For the first time in many lives, the matchday routines were gone. The ritualistic weekly chats with casual acquaintances absent. The fabric of supporter communities up and down the country was temporarily broken.
But fans managed to find new ways to maintain positivity. Online technology, inevitably, was key, and one of the recent Reds to appear in United Review’s iconic handshake illustration is a great example of its power.
Sukie Sidhu, 57, from Halesowen, near Birmingham, is no stranger to difficult times as a United fan. In fact, it was the relegation season of 1973/74 that first piqued his interest in the Reds!
“I was only nine years old,” he recalls, “and I remember Manchester United getting relegated and it was all over the TV and the newspapers. It was just massive news. That initially attracted me – what’s going on?
“I did a bit of background and found out about the Munich Air Disaster and what the club had gone through, et cetera, and, basically, that’s how I fell in love with the club. And here I am now, at the age of 57. I’ve followed the Reds ever since.”
Sukie first came to a match at Old Trafford in 1980, and got to away games in the Midlands whenever he could. A member and an M16 regular for years, he fulfilled a lifetime ambition to become a season ticket holder two years ago – only for Covid to intervene.
“I got my season ticket in the Stretford End and then we went into lockdown!” he explains. “So I went through a whole season unable to go and sit in that seat that I’d dreamt about for so long.
“Then, the start of this season was Leeds. I’d gone to the friendlies, but two days before Leeds my son got a positive Covid test, and I had to go into isolation. Well, talk about devastation... I was absolutely gutted. My first game in my season ticket seat ended up being Ronaldo’s homecoming, so it was still a fantastic day!”
But, that Leeds game aside, Covid actually enabled him to have a positive effect on the United fan base. Before Old Trafford’s last game prior to the first lockdown – the 2-0 win over Manchester City in March 2020 – Sukie innocently posted a pre-match video online “for a laugh and a joke.”
“The response was just astronomical,” he remembers. “It just went mental. Loads of people liked it and commented on it, and I thought, wow! It was just a bit of a sing-song, a bit of a laugh, and it just got people... [smiling]. So I continued doing it on matchdays. It got bigger and bigger through the lockdown, then I decided to create my own Facebook group, Sukie’s Red Devils. People said it cheered them up.”
The online community Sukie has built has even led to numerous charity drives to assist fellow Reds. One helped a young 13-year-old lad who’d lost his wallet and birthday money inside the Megastore. Another enabled a fan to replace her stolen wheelchair.
Poignantly, Sukie says his desire to bring people together and help the United family derives from the tragic loss of his nephew, “Billy the Red”, who passed away at just 48. “We grew up like brothers,” says Sukie. “[His death] made me distraught and changed my outlook on anything and everything. Even now, I haven’t got over losing him.
“What gives me the determination to do nice things is his memory. In my mind, given how much I love Manchester United, if I can do anything that makes a United fan happy and puts a smile on their face, then I’m happy. That’s my outlook on the club.”
His passion has not only inspired Reds, but also earned him plenty of new friends. He’s had invites to visit Malta, Australia, Dublin and the States, to note just a few. “It’s absolutely unbelievable,” he marvels.
Sukie’s story shows how pain and personal loss can be channelled into something positive; something that strengthens the binds between people and, in this case, United fans.
The club wouldn’t have got through the pandemic without its supporters, and we hope that the club also did its bit for the community in return.
The club wouldn’t have got through the pandemic without its supporters, and we hope that the club also did its bit for the community in return.
Fans like Sukie show that together, we’re always that bit stronger, whatever the circumstances.
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