Leeds United - The club with a truly global fanbase

It's not always easy making yourself heard amid the sound and fury of an Elland Road matchday.
Harry Kewell is congratulated by Mark Viduka and Gary Kelly after scoring against Grasshoppers at Elland Road in December 2001.Harry Kewell is congratulated by Mark Viduka and Gary Kelly after scoring against Grasshoppers at Elland Road in December 2001.
Harry Kewell is congratulated by Mark Viduka and Gary Kelly after scoring against Grasshoppers at Elland Road in December 2001.

But listen carefully to the chants and cheers that fill the ground every other weekend and it soon becomes clear that Leeds United are a club with a genuinely worldwide appeal.

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Leeds voices obviously dominate in LS11, the spiritual home of the self-styled Yorkshire Republican Army.

Johnny Giles.Johnny Giles.
Johnny Giles.
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Mixed in among them, though, are a whole range of foreign accents - some from across the Irish Sea, others from more distant locations.

And a quick glance at the list of nationalities represented by the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust is enough to confirm the remarkable geographic sweep of the club’s fanbase.

Canada, Japan, Spain, Russia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Germany, Malta, Venezuela and even American Samoa are among the places that are home to Trust members.

Graham Hyde, vice chair of the Trust, said: “The Leeds United fanbase is a truly global one.

Eirik Bakke battles it out with Arsenal's Ray Parlour.Eirik Bakke battles it out with Arsenal's Ray Parlour.
Eirik Bakke battles it out with Arsenal's Ray Parlour.
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“It's crazy to try to get your head around. To think that somewhere out in American Samoa or Venezuela, there are fans who feel the same anguish when we fail to convert our chances as those in LS11 seems very strange.

“Like all religions, the message has been spread far and wide and it’s hard to shake off once you join the congregation.”

Ireland has long been regarded as a Leeds stronghold, thanks in part to the exploits of Dublin-born Johnny Giles during the club’s all-conquering Don Revie years of the 1960s and 1970s.

Leeds’s Irish supporters include Eamonn Dalton, who handles design duties for United fanzine The Square Ball.

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Dublin-based Eamonn told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Being a Leeds fan in Ireland is like being part of a secret tribe. We identify each other when we see scarves, 2010-era Macron jackets and car stickers, and without fail will give a Leeds salute or start singing Marching On Together while passers-by look on deeply confused.

“Leeds remain one of the best-supported English clubs in Ireland, as anyone who has taken the 6am flight from Dublin to Leeds Bradford on a Saturday morning will tell you.

“From Johnny Giles to Gary Kelly to Paul Green, the links to Ireland have always been strong.”

Australia is another key United outpost, with many fans being bitten by the Whites bug while watching Giles, Billy Bremner and co in action on highlights shows during the 1970s.

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Still more supporters came on board Down Under as Aussie stars Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell played prominent roles in David O’Leary’s exciting Leeds side of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

United’s famously-devoted Scandinavian following is another that began to take shape during the club’s golden Revie era.

A hugely-popular Norwegian TV programme called Tippekampen screened English games in the 1970s, with the Tipsextra show providing the same service in Sweden.

Today the Leeds United Supporters Club of Scandinavia has more than 5,000 members and its own magazine, The Peacock News.

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The dedication of United’s fans in the region was underlined in April last year when 130 of them chartered a flight from Kristiansand in Norway to West Yorkshire for Leeds’s home game against Aston Villa.

The match made headlines around the world as Marcelo Bielsa ordered his players to let Villa score an uncontested goal to level things up after a controversial Mateusz Klich strike.

And the Leeds coach’s exalted status in his native South America means the Whites have attracted particular attention – and almost certainly some new fans – in countries such as Argentina and Chile over the last two seasons.

Newspapers such as Olé, La Nacion and Perfil Cordoba have all kept track of Bielsa’s stunning work at Elland Road, opening a fresh chapter in the story of Leeds’s very own United nations.