As the clip appeared on the News at One, the phrase seemed vaguely absurd, or at least it must have done to an outsider. Why was he talking about the club and their reputation? Which club? What did that have to do with anti-immigrant riots, beyond the fact that a handful of the rioters were wearing Sunderland shirts?
Yet in another way it made complete sense. How does a city such as Sunderland project itself to the world these days? How many people outside Sunderland ever think of Sunderland in any context other than football (other, perhaps, than its enduring capacity to declare election results early or the Nissan car plant)?
The idea of a football club as representative of a city is commonplace, so familiar now that it perhaps escapes notice how strange or recent a phenomenon that is. Once cities would have expressed pride through their industry, their university or cathedral; now, particularly for post-industrial northern cities, it’s football.
Financially, it’s important, too: tourism in Sunderland was up 3% last year, with away fans visiting the Stadium of Light considered a major factor. When Sunderland fell out of the Premier League, local businesses estimated a 4% decline in trade. Even in the Championship, Sunderland averaged attendances of 41,028 last season; that is a lot of footfall for bars, food outlets and shops.
