For many football supporters, pre-season is a time of optimism. What lies ahead is the great unknown but is generally judged by the players who come and go. Some clubs, however, spend the summer not only rebuilding a squad but an entire organisation after a fallow period. Bradford City are one such example.
Two years ago, Bradford were one game from the Championship; now they are a League Two side after being relegated with a whimper last season. Their performances were overshadowed by the reign of the German chief executive Edin Rahic, who left last December after a two-and-a-half year spell amid demands from fans for him to go.
Under Rahic – who reportedly wanted a say on all aspects of the club, from recruitment to team selection – significant damage was done. The new regime, spearheaded by the manager Gary Bowyer, has not only recreated a sense of optimism at Valley Parade but shown a firm desire to reconnect the club with its past in groundbreaking fashion.
When the club starts the season at home to Cambridge a week on Saturday, there will be a different look to Bradford’s shirts. For years, the club has sported one star above its badge – in honour of their FA Cup success in 1911. Now underneath it, each player’s shirt will have a unique heritage number, underlining their place in the club’s 116-year history. As a lifelong Bradford supporter, I was delighted to be involved in the process.
Going back to Bradford’s first game, in September 1903, it has taken almost two years for me to research and organise a list of every player to have played a competitive fixture for Bradford and put them in order. John Beckram was the first, Jacob Butterfield the most recent: No 1,278, to be exact. Between those two another 1,276 men, all placed in order of their official debut. And after any of Bradford’s signings make their debuts this season, they too will be awarded a number that will be placed on their shirt.
“This project represents a cornerstone of our commitment to bring the club’s history to the forefront,” says Ryan Sparks, Bradford’s director of communications, who has secured EFL approval for the club to have the numbers printed on the shirts. England’s Test cricketers have a similar number on their shirts and numerous rugby league clubs have adopted the system – but Bradford are the first English football club to do it.
“To be the first football club is magnificent,” Bowyer says. “Some magnificent footballers have played for this club and it’s vital we never forget them.” Bowyer has invested time into the project, as well as the history of the club; he requested that the training ground be covered with profiles of Bradford’s greatest players this summer to emphasise the importance of history to his signings.
“We’ve a massive rebuilding job at this football club, and part of that involves connecting the present with the past. These players need to know what this club is all about.”
It is a stark contrast from the Rahic era. Some staff formed the view that he was opposed to dwelling on the club’s history, preferring to focus on the future and disregarding what happened before.
“It goes without saying that the club had lost its way, and we’ve put a great deal of emphasis on repairing our image,” says Sparks. “Heritage numbers are common in rugby and cricket, and it’s something I implemented in a former role in rugby league. It’s surprising to see no football club has done it but we’re excited and honoured to be first. Since announcing it, we’ve been contacted by other clubs.”
History is a vital part of Bradford’s DNA. Every May, generations of supporters meet in the city centre to pay tribute to the 56 people who lost their lives in the 1985 fire disaster. Bowyer spent the evening before what was the first memorial he has been involved in this year watching the documentary about the tragedy and is intent on ensuring that while he leads a rebuild of the club on the pitch, as much detail as possible is placed into matters concerning the rebuild off it.
“Supporters have made me aware of important figureheads in the club’s past, and for us to be the first club to wear heritage numbers to honour those guys is just brilliant,” he says. Throughout Rahic’s tenure, Bradford created too many headlines for the wrong reasons. Now, they are at the forefront of something positive – and something which very conceivably will catch on elsewhere.
