Imagine if one day a rich businessman bought the club you supported your entire life and all of a sudden decided to change the team's entire history and tradition. Your blue jersey and team crest adorning the bluebird suddenly change to red while a red Welsh dragon complimented the crest. Well this imaginary nightmare is the reality facing English Premier League side Cardiff City right now. After over one hundred years of history and tradition, Malaysian business owner Vincent Tan decided to rebrand the club by implementing changes to the team color and crest. Someone who doesn't support Cardiff City could easily say, well as long as the club have the financial backing and now play top flight football why does it matter? However, such commercialization and rebranding takes away the thing that matters most to true supporters; not results, but identity. What if this happens to a team like Liverpool. One day they no longer wear red, instead they become blue and their beloved liver bird is no more. Would it matter then because this is more than just about having money and being a successful club. In the last decade there have been more cases of protests from fans regarding rebranding. Some of these were so drastic that supporters decided to form entirely new clubs true to their team's identity. Take for example, F.C. United of Manchester. In 2005 the Glazier family decided to takeover Manchester United by buying the main shares of the club. This move pissed off the Red Army enough to break away from the American owners and form an entirely new club that embodied the true spirit of United. Another equally known breakaway was done by supporters of Wimbledon F.C. In 2002 the chairman of the club decided to relocate due to financial issues. The fans decided that no one could just break their team's traditions with the city of Wimbledon, so they formed their own team known as AFC Wimbledon. This success story started off in the ninth league and currently plays in the fourth winning countless promotions throughout the years. All this goes to show that no matter what the reason is behind a change in club identity, the true supporters are always willing to take extreme measures to preserve their team's traditions. New ownership and rebranding are one thing, but what about an entire business taking over the heart and soul of a club. Well, with their expansion away from the extreme sports market, Red Bull decided to venture into the world of football and do just that. In 2005 Red Bull bought out SV Austria Salzburg and in doing so completely disrespected all supporters of the club by saying "this is a new club with no history." Well, they definitely overlooked quite a bit of history; 77 years before the takeover along with 3 Austrian Bundesliga titles and a runners-up position in the 1994 UEFA cup. All the same elements applied like the changing of the team crest to the Red Bull logo and renaming the team Red Bull Salzburg, but the open disregard towards the club's tradition was something the fans never forgot. Their hatred led to the formation of a new club SV Austria Salzburg, which also ran through countless promotions currently playing in the Austrian third league. If these two sides were to ever meet through the Austrian Cup or eventual promotion to the top flight rest assured SV Austria Salzburg would be the team with the real wings. Apart from the extreme measures taken by fans to secure identity there's also the contemporary issue of fan association. Take for example fans of Ajax and Tottenham, who are the biggest clubs associated with being called Jews. Their association isn't based on any deep connection with Judaism. Instead it's an association the two teams embraced because their rivals used the term as a means to insult. Both teams just happen to be placed in an area of the city where there's a higher number of Jews, though there are only a few other connections these team truly have with Jews. Still, for Tottenham fans the identity is so ingrained that they call themselves the Yid Army. The identity itself has caused controversy in England due to the term Yid being regarded as Anti-Semitic. Spurs fans have been threatened with stadium closures and arrests, but the fans made themselves clear. They are going to sing what they want and call themselves what they want. Their identity even though it's controversial is exactly what the fans feel represents them. They embrace it fully and once it's there no threat will make them rebrand themselves. There are countless other examples in football that show diverse identities in fans and their respective clubs. For example, La Liga side Athletic Bilbao has a Basque policy that assures only ethnic Basques play for the club and it's been that way since the team's inception. Another aspect to the identity spectrum are 'works teams' where a city's major business is the reason behind a clubs' formation. These teams are associated throughout history with the company that established them like PSV/Phillips, Wolfsburg/Volkswagen and Leverkusen/Bayer to name a few. There are numerous identities throughout each league that demonstrate just how deep the tradition goes. The point I'm making here is that rich business owners, through their commercialization, aren't in a position to take over years of football tradition and history without upheaval from true supporters. All these examples show that the fans' identities with clubs are real and meaningful. Rich owners can try to change things by buying teams out, but the fans will always be beating their drum because they are the never ending heartbeat of the club.
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