WHEN football superfan Ian Webb made the 4,000 mile trip to see his favourite football team he expected to fulfil his dream of seeing the side he played as on Football Manager in real life.
However, he was left devastated when he missed the opportunity to see his beloved Wakefield AFC.
Wakefield, located just south of Leeds in West Yorkshire, play at step ten of the English football pyramid.
So it may come as a surprise that their reach stretches all the way out to Ian, who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the USA.
But after picking up a copy of the Football Manager video game, Ian became “obsessed” with the semi-professional outfit.
Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: “I thought what’s the biggest city in England without a professional team? I thought maybe there’s a little club that can maybe fill some big boots.
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“I Googled it and Wakefield came up. I saw there was a team there, which was semi-professional and founded in 2019, and I looked into that.”
This ended up with him convincing wife, Megan, to join him in travelling to England in October to catch Wakey in action, prefacing visits to York, Bath and London.
The trip cost of £4,500 took 18 months to save up for.
Unfortunately, Ian was forced to change his plans when the game he was due to see at the Be Well Support Stadium on October 21 was postponed due to scheduling issues.
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And three days later unlucky Ian was left “crushed” after the back-up game was abandoned due to torrential rain.
He said: “I was certainly crushed. It was one of those things where you get a pit in your stomach. It had been raining most of the day, and it was coming down really hard.
“I think the disappointment was spread out of a few hours. As it kept raining more and more, I could tell that the game was definitely going to be postponed.
“It was really hard when I told my wife and got back to the hotel, saying ‘We are not going to be going to the game’. I felt a little bit emotional in that moment, but we had to move past it.”
He added: “There was a Saturday game that the trip was planned around. We had built our trip around being in Wakefield for that weekend to see that home game.
“And then we heard that it was postponed because the other team made it to the next round of the cup, so they had to call it off.
“Then I moved my trip to Wakefield to the Tuesday for the away game, and then that one was waterlogged.”
But Ian, who works as a recruit manager, was still able to squeeze in a stadium tour of Wakefield, who had been saved from administration from US wealth management firm VO2 Capital in 2021.
And despite not seeing a game from his beloved Wakefield, Ian has declared he will be back to try again in a couple of years to try and absorb the “authentic experience” of non-league football.
He added: “In America, big NFL stadiums with 60-80,000 seats are a dime-a-dozen. There’s something exciting about being in a huge, packed stadium and the energy that brings.
“But it’s an incredible corporate league, and you’re a customer, and it’s about ‘how many butts can we fit into these seats?’ and ‘how much can we charge?’
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“Ultimately, what has always been attractive about Wakefield is it’s more of a local, authentic experience.
“The plan is to come back in a couple of years. The dream is to see Wakefield play in a pivotal game while they’re challenging for promotion. That would be incredibly exciting.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
