We Are Bristol City, Not BRISTOL!!!

City and Rovers fans have their say on how it feels to be called 'Bristol' all the time in the national media
“They wouldn’t do it in Manchester, so all I hear when media people say ‘Bristol’ is I am not interested and I can’t be f****** to do any research"

Something that is guaranteed to annoy supporters of both Rovers and City is when national media pundits refer to either club as ‘Bristol.’

It occurs on a frustratingly regular basis, and happened again on the weekend.

In a conversation about football chants, Tim Marshall, author of the book "The Story of Britain's Football Chants" appeared on Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday May 12. He discussed the best chants in the game, and included the song ‘Goodnight, Irene’ which he said was sung, "by one of the Bristol teams".

Any self-respecting football fan in the city would know the chant, adapted from the 1930s folk song by Lead Belly, is synonymous with the blue half of the city at Rovers.

Now, in fairness to Tim, he did apologise on Twitter and said: "Sorry I forgot which one halfway through the sentence," and he's only one in a long line of media pundits to do this over the years.

But it opens up a wider debate: How does it constantly feel to have the proud identity of your club, one where there is no love lost at the best of times, merged into one?

And why does it always happen, and perhaps most importantly what can we do about it?

It’s arguably the only thing you will find that City and Rovers fans agree on. They are equally annoyed, and that's putting it mildly.

Outside London, which has an obvious plethora of football clubs, the only other cities with two professional teams are Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Stoke, Sheffield and Nottingham. North of the border there are also two teams or more in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Falkirk. But do any of them suffer the same fate?

Bristol Live spoke to a wide range of fans in Bristol, both Rovers and City, to see what they thought.

Season ticket holder at Bristol Rovers describes it as, "one of the biggest bugbears of my life". He continued: “You don’t say ‘Manchester’ or ‘Sheffield’ yet both City and Rovers get referred to as ‘Bristol’.

“And we all know Bristol is the rugby club aka Bears,” he added.

This was concurred by Andrew Thomans, a City fan, who expanded on this and said: "Sounds like they have got their expert badge a bit early. Its disrespectful to both clubs when media refer to either of us as Bristol."

"I think we should refer to Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal as London from now on," he added.

City fan Rob Fernandes who runs the South Bristol Clothing Company, and now lives in London, feels very strongly and gets very annoyed by it. "Its an insult to over a century of two unique football football clubs, which have represented specific communities, areas, and identities in Bristol."

"It is lazy and belittling for people to not bother or even acknowledge which football team they are referring to."

"They wouldn’ t do it in Manchester, so all I hear when media people say ‘Bristol’ is I am not interested and I can’t be f***** to do any research," he added.

So it’s clear we are annoyed by it. So why does it happen?

Gashead Steven Betteridge, stated: "It’s a lack of care. I mean not that it’s sloppy, that they literally don’t care."

"We’re not in the Premier League, so it’s just not worth caring about. It happens to that lot (City) down the road too. Radio 5 described them as ‘Bristol’ just last week."

Josh Windebank feels its the fact neither are in the Premier League that affects this, he said: "Because if you aren’t in the top flight you aren’t relevant to 90 per cent of the country! So most people aren’t aware the other exists or aren’t aware of the offence they cause!"

For some like Rob from the South Bristol clothing company, it’s as part of a wider problem with how Bristol is perceived nationally. He said: "I suspect for some of us Bristolians it’s a focal point for our irritation about a much wider trend of always treating Bristol as a second-class place to the likes of Manchester and Liverpool."

"I suspect lots of ‘right on’ people in the media's heads would explode if they found out Bristol was as big a city as Liverpool."

So is the key to changing this all too common phenomenon, simply being more successful? Like Manchester, the key is to start getting in the Premier League, and winning major trophies and achieving more regular exposure to the national consciousness.

On closer inspection this may not be entirely true, as you could argue that other cities with two teams like Sheffield, Nottingham and Birmingham don’t suffer the same fate. Although the clubs in those cities can draw on a history of winning national and European trophies.

Could it be in the actual name? In the city of Liverpool for example, Everton is very different to Liverpool, and one of the Sheffield clubs is called Wednesday, in the second city it's Birmingham City or Aston Villa and the Nottingham clubs are Forest or Notts County. So they is a clear difference in their names.

Perhaps the Bristol teams suffer the fate of bigger and more successful teams called City, and largely when pundits or fans say Rovers, they are usually referring to Blackburn Rovers. So what's the answer?

Kitman and Bristol City legend Scott Murray came up with the simple and perfect solution. He explained: "I think out of respect for both clubs the full name should be used at all times. I am yet to hear the media calling the two Manchester clubs, just Manchester. It's the only way."

If Bristol City get into the Premier League sometime soon, and Rovers start to make inroads into challenging for promotion into the Championship, then perhaps this will slowly change and the curse of the commentator annoying every football fan in this city, may change.

Perhaps having more national commentators and pundits from Bristol, that would be willing and ready to challenge this could be one solution. But aside from Jonathan Pearce at the BBC and Steve Scott at ITV, there are few, so that’s a slow burn.

But one thing none of us want is a merger, so it looks like fans are stuck with it.

There is no guarantee of change, so we may have to keep moaning about it until they get it right.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/city-rovers-fans-say-how-2862295

 

I hate it when they call us Bristol in the press, we are Bristol City FC and play in RED & WHITE, not that clapped out side from North Bristol that pretend to play dressed in that idotic Blue and White Quarters and paddling in the swamp, I would rather die than get mixed up with a merger with that load of reprobates.

Show us all some respect call us BRISTOLIANS or Bristol City, call even the minority side Bristol R"vers and acknowledge their impotence.

 

Thee be gud enuff for I me ol' babbers.