I am a little bit taken aback. The team I have supported since 1974 invited Nigel Farage to a tour of the stadium. They gave him 6 “Number 10” shirts with Farage’s name on the back. Photos in the dressing room, on the pitch, wearing a scarf – everything.
It’s all over social media and now many neutral football fans who have always generally quite liked Ipswich now think the team is a right-wing, immigrant-hating bunch of arseholes.
Ed Sheeran seems quiet on this – but I am 99% certain he wouldn’t be happy. I am 100% sure Sir Bobby Robson would have booted him out in seconds.
If there isn’t a fulsome apology, I’ll have to just stick to Woking FC. Or follow Liverpool – who were always my second-fave anyway. What do you think?
Have they renamed the ground to Deportman Road ?
They’ll be playing in black shirts next.
As I understand it, Ipswich didn’t “invite” Farage, he just turned up. His guys bought the shirts, arranged the photo shoot etc
As a Norwich FC supporter I should add that latest polling shows Reform winning 50 of the 60 seats in the upcoming Norfolk County local elections (the Fine City itself will no doubt be painted Green)…. still, great fun watching the Tractor Boys squirm
Hmm yes the story seemed to change. It began with him just turning up and going on a tour but then… it transpired that he was indeed invited by the Chairman and had lunch and posed in the changing rooms with the Farage shirts all hung up where the players’ shirts should be.
Pollcheck.co.uk is predicting that Reform will win 54 of the 70 seats in the Suffolk County Council election. Thry predict that Reform will up to 4 of the 16 Ipswich Borough Council seats up for election.
Come on you Cards!
Absolutely
It’s a terrible terrible look for our club. There’s been a few statements released, some contradictory. Our chairman:CEO Mark Ashton has apologised unreservedly (of course) but hasn’t said what for.
Our fans are mostly seriously dischuffed.
Take it all back –
“The BBC understands he was invited to a meeting by a club representative.”
Ipswich chair apologises for causing fans ‘hurt and pain’ after Farage’s visit to club https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/mar/27/ipswich-town-chairman-apologises-nigel-farage-visit-to-portman-road?CMP=share_btn_url
It does seem to be a genuine apology.
I’d really like him to say clearly, for those who believe this is a storm in a teacup, why he now considers the invitation such a big mistake.
After looking at it again I think that he is devastated mainly by the inconvenience to him.
Sorry you felt ‘hurt and pain’ is the classic non-apology, surely?
Yes it is. And I say it as an Ipswich fan about a chairman who’s barely put a foot wrong in the 5 years he’s helped turn our club around. Albeit with a lot of American money
The Ipswich chairman seems quite prepared to eat humble pie. What I’m more baffled by is Sunderland’s reported offer that Frogface is we!come to attend a match there. I’d like to see the thin-skinned git laugh off the enraged reaction of 40,000 Mackems when they spot him.
For good or ill, I wouldnt assume all 40,000 woukd be antagonistic. Pollwatch.co.uk is predicting that Reform will win 39 seats in Sunderland in the forthcoming council elections. If that turns out to be accurate then they will control the council, albeit by a narrow margin. And one would have to assume that a fair few fans will have voted for them. The possibility of a Reform council might well also have played a part in the football club’s offer, if only for pragmatic reasons.
I travelled up to Sunderland earlier this year there were plenty of lampposts with flags still fastened to them.
May or may not be indicative of voting intentions.
The Electoralcalculus website tracks voting intentions if an election held today. Who knows what will actually happen in a few years time, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Current predictions for Sunderland ( Wahsingtkn appears to include some Sunderland wards) are:
Sunderland Central Reform 44.5% ( 84% chance of winning)
Houghton and Sunderland South 52.4 % ( 89%)
Washington and Gateshead South 52% ( 88%)
Incidentally, the same site has Reform and Labout neck and neck in Ipswich
One of the (probably) unintended consequences of forcing through a council election the year before we get three new unitary councils is that local voters get to see just how good they are at sticking to their pothole/council tax/waste of money promises before getting the opportunity to vote them all out again in 2027.
Doubtless. The same may also turn out to be true of Green councils elected on the basis of Gaza being the most pressing local issue.
One of our local Green Councillors is apparently “…a very happy ITFC season ticket holder” which I’m assuming hasn’t been updated in the last week or so.
There are a lot of right leaning football fans, and, contrary to what I might like to think, the same applies to many professional sports people
This is absolutely shameful…I mean, how low can you get? The thought of being such a source of ridicule and opprobrium.
But hey, BC, you don’t have to resort to following Liverpool…
There’s only one thing for it.
Deduct more points from Everton.
Leeds would like a word. We’ll get a points deduction if Man Citeh are found guilty.
Why six ‘Number 10s’? I’d have thought ‘Number 2s’ would have been far more appropriate for Farage.
Politicising a football team (or not noticing when it is blatantly being done) is pretty dumb. Farage will stop at nothing to attract the man on the street but, I suspect, it will back fire. Not everyone in Ipswich supports ITFC and, there are going to be ITFC supporters mobilised by his attempt to align the club with his vile and racist party..
Think you’re absolutely right with those comments @leedsboy
Looking at the posts on the TWTD (Those were the days!) message boards, most fans are raging or at the least cringing but there are definitely a few who are, if not supportive of Farage, aren’t bothered at all.
Maybe it will all blow over, though I’m not so sure. I was having this conversation with a couple of mates last night over a beer and pizza. (A Tarantella since you ask, olives anchovies etc ) . A Leeds fan and a Man Utd fan (so hardly without form! See Sir Jim’s recent comments about immigrants and of course I had to bring up Lee Bowyer/Jonathan Woodgate..) and of course I’ve been getting an awful lot of stick over the week and it’s not going away. Indeed it’s building. I first heard about it at the start of the week via TWTD , then The Athletic got their teeth in and it’s on the BBC website now.
I agree, a pretty dumb thing to associate yourself with one football team for a publicity stunt.
Go ahead, fill yer boots Norfolk, your vote for Reform in the upcoming elections will be a vote for Suffolk’s biggest team. I know what I’d do.
Not sure you’ve seen that Reform, according to the latest polls, are actually doing even better in Suffolk than Norfolk. There are towns/villages in both counties that are bang in the middle of proper Bandit Country and I would not be surprised at all if a correspondingly high proportion of both football clubs’ supporters think the Farage thing was ” He’s a right laugh, one of us” etc etc bloody etc….
That was how Boris gained power. I actually saw a vox pop when he was running for London Mayor where the interviewee said, “He’s a bit of a laugh innee.”
Sadly yes.
Right – my position on this now is that the Chairman doesn’t regret inviting Farage, he just regrets the shit that it’s got him into. Meanwhile, Reform now have a “favourite” club that they can align with. Reform have piled on to the comments sections of the internet and seem to be claiming Ipswich as the only club to stand up to the libtards and the wokerati etc etc.
I’m interested in what the team, the manager and the fans have to say at the next home game,
Well I’m rooting for Middlesbrough to take the second automatic promotion spot then. And ITFC to have a disappointing play off experience. Sorry and all that but the idea of Farage hijacking a Prem promotion is too much.
@leedsboy
We might well have a disappointing play off experience but I’m not sure I agree that Farage has hijacked a promotion party. It was more than likely just him getting a bit more exposure than normal. Unfortunately with us, thanks to our Chairman who really needs to apologise exactly why he is apologising for the shit it’s got him into.
There is no real animosity from me – I’ve always been quite positive about ITFC (Bobby Robson, Mick Mills, Kevin Beattie, John Wark – what’s not to love?). But I suspect the general fans, like myself, will just favour Middlesbrough now.
And I write as a Leeds fan that has never had anything other than a disappointing play off experience.
@leedsboy
Wasn’t meant as a negative towards you!
It certainly reflects badly against us and wouldn’t be surprised if Middlesbrough do become everyone’s favourite second Championship team now, Though truly I’m not sure we were really anyone’s this season…Coventry have been knocking on the door for a while and we’re not as lovable as two seasons ago.
@black-celebration
I agree with your first comment. I just hope your second isn’t true.
ITFC won the FA Cup in 1978.
UEFA Cup in 1981.
Farage and Reform will never do that.
Vote Lib Dem!
Erm… has the French cheese mentioned football once in all the time he’s been in politics, a.k.a. his whole life? I don’t think so.
He likes Jolly Ol’ Twickers and even that’s a front, otherwise he’d have gone there instead of… (a) not being allowed to go to the Chagos Islands after travelling all that way, and (b) not getting to meet Trump at his golf club after travelling all that way… during the Six Nations.
Mind you, his English rugby team are shite, so there was good reason. Good on yer, Fromage!
Actually, some of this makes sense. He certainly comes across as a rugger bugger.
Hey, maybe it was just publicity for him in the first place and the naive cuddly little country bumpkins have been drawn into his world. Yeah, that’s it. The Super Blues are blameless if not guileless.
Trip up to Middlesbrough today to the hospital still plenty of flags up there on the way in.
As per the websites I quoted earlier, current predictions for Middlesbrough seats
Middlesbrough and Thornaby East : Reform 42% support and 90% chance of winning
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. 3 way contest, but Reform and Tories have 57% support between them.
But have the football club offered Farage shirts and a photo opportunity?
Thankfully it seems we can move onto the football itself….2-0!!!!
Dodgy ref, dodgy penalty, no idea why Nunez didn’t get sent off! Saying that, better team wo….. (seems to be something stuck in my throat)
Yes, we certainly benefited from a couple of poor decisions…never a penalty! Nunez is a fool and our manager did the right thing in “re-substituting “ him. But we defended extremely well, restricted you to very few clear cut chances and then took a couple of ours.
Bet we cock it up at Portsmouth on Tuesday!
Please don’t… Ipswich having a storming end to the season, starting with thrashing Pompey, would be very helpful to Oxford. We can but hope.
Fingers crossed @malc
Conor Chaplin is bound to score tomorrow (if he’s allowed to play against us.)
I hope Oxford stay up
I haven’t given up on Town. As far as I am concerned, they are on a warning to not to do anything like that ever again.
Although we are sitting pretty at the moment, I won’t relax until it’s beyond doubt.
Pretty much my view tbf
Boro at home, Southampton away…
It’s theirs to lose.
@alias
You’re pretty much correct. We just need to hold our nerve and hopefully not too much tinkering of our line up though the changes KM made for Saturday worked. Conor Chaplin can’t play tonight btw, in case anyone is still interested.
Stupid game , football.
Love footie, me….
The score was accurately predicted by a QPR-supporting friend of mine. “They’ll roll over and give you a nice 3-0 win, don’t worry about it…”
Nice to be back in the Premier League again and I just hope we can be a bit more competitive this time.
Indeed. Bit of a squad makeover needed again…
Well done and all that but Nunez being carried around on someone’s shoulders cried out for a sharpshooter….
He’s not that likeable really, is he?