When I was a lad, football teams 'belonged' to towns. Wigan Athletic was a Wigan team with a 1 in 4 slope cinder pitch and no reputation at all. Wigan RL team was the best in the world and played at Central Park (Wigan, not NY!). They had fans who lived in Wigan. Later, kids started following teams they saw on the telly box, wherever they came from. Nowadays, fans can live in Timbuctu and follow Man U. The world has changed, and money rules everything via advertising and the reptilian new world order.