Bloke travels 4000 miles to look at non-league workforce just for sport to be referred to as off

A US-based soccer fan travelled over 4,000 miles to look at his favorite British workforce – solely to seek out the sport was deserted resulting from a waterlogged pitch.

Ian Webb, 28, was “crushed” after flying from his house in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to see non-league facet Wakefield AFC earlier than dangerous climate ended his ‘dream’. He grew to become ‘obsessed’ with the Northern Counties East Football League Division One workforce two years in the past – after enjoying as them on the Football Manager online game.

And he’d then spent 18 months saving up £4,500 for a visit together with his spouse Megan Webb, 27, so he might watch the facet play a sport at their stadium in West Yorkshire. But he was left “emotional” when the primary fixture he hoped to see was postponed – and one other back-up sport he’d lined up was referred to as off resulting from torrential rain.

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The recruitment supervisor mentioned: “I used to be actually crushed. It was a kind of issues the place you get a pit in your abdomen. It had been raining many of the day, and it was coming down actually laborious.

“I feel the frustration was unfold out of some hours. As it stored raining an increasing number of, I might inform that the sport was undoubtedly going to be postponed.

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“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.”

Ian’s love of Wakefield AFC began when he started enjoying as them on Football Manager on his laptop – a simulation sport the place you are taking cost of a membership. The facet was solely established in 2019 and was saved from destroy a couple of years later following funding from US wealth administration agency VO2 Capital.

And Ian mentioned the obscure, semi-professional outfit, who play at stage ten of the English soccer pyramid, had piqued his curiosity when he discovered them on-line. He mentioned: “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.

“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.”

Ian later grew to become engrossed within the membership’s fan tradition and was invited to seem on an area podcast devoted to them, ‘All Wakey Aren’t We’, to speak about his help. He added: “I fell in love with it… That’s how Wakefield became my favourite club.”

His spouse then agreed to fly out with him to the UK in October this 12 months, the place they’d made plans to see a sport whereas visiting York, Bath and London. He was initially compelled to alter his itinerary when a fixture he meant to see at their Be Well Support Stadium on October 21 was postponed resulting from scheduling points.

But catastrophe struck once more when one other sport he wished to look at was cancelled following dangerous climate on October 24. Ian mentioned: “There was a Saturday sport that the journey was deliberate round. We had constructed our journey round being in Wakefield for that weekend to see that house sport.

“And then we heard that it was postponed as a result of the opposite workforce made it to the following spherical of the cup. So they needed to name it off. Then I moved my journey to Wakefield to the Tuesday for the away sport, after which that one was waterlogged.”

Despite his setbacks, Ian nonetheless liked seeing the membership’s premises throughout a tour with workers and mentioned there was one thing magical about grassroots soccer in England. He mentioned: “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?’ Ultimately, what has always been attractive about Wakefield is it’s more of a local, authentic experience.”

Ian added that he hoped to return again to the UK to see a crunch Wakefield AFC fixture. He mentioned: “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.”