Football’s unlikeliest global brand: how Fleetwood made it big in the UAE
Despite relegation to England’s fourth tier, Cod Army have cast net to be like ‘City Football Group but on a much smaller scale’
Fleetwood United’s celebrations on becoming second division champions in the United Arab Emirates could not be dampened even by a freak thunderstorm in Dubai. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” the captain Ben Pringle told the Guardian. “It was the most rain they have had for 75 years. Cars were underwater on the motorway.”
This is not supposed to happen in the glittering city of skyscrapers and excitement but then Fleetwood Town, a club that have just dropped into England’s fourth tier, are not really supposed to be at the head of a stable of international clubs that also includes Waterford FC in Ireland and Western Cape Fleetwood in South Africa.
