ENGLISH : SWEDISH BRANCH « BACK The CUFC Swedish Branch is a rather unorganized bunch of about 20 to 30 persons that more or less active follows the mighty U's ravages in Coca Cola League One. The slightly crazier among us try to get over to England at least two or three times (sometimes even four or five) a season. That is if girlfriends, money and work allows us too ... usually in that order. We also sponsor the club in different ways. Unfortunately not as much as we would like to but you have to consider that we spend quite a lot of money on traveling. There's more about our sponsoring on another page. For the 2005-2006 season we sponsor the away shirt of Kem Izzet and also Krista Hultquist in the Colchester United Ladies Team. In 1992 we produced a CUFC Swedish Branch badge where the profit went towards a players shirt sponsorship. The badge was a huge success among Colchester fans and is now sold out. More about our souvenirs on the souvenir-page. In connection with our visits to Colchester games we do also try to squeeze in as many other footie games as possible. You do turn into a sad groundhopper after a while ... WHY COLCHESTER ...? ... is definitely the most common question you get when people you meet eventually find out that you support the U's. If I could have a penny every time someone said "Why Colchester?", we could have bought ... Wayne Rooney. It all started back in October 1988 when about ten of us were sitting on a train from Harwich to London. We had just arrived by ferry from Sweden and were on our way to see our National team play England in a World Cup Qualifier at Wembley (we drew 0-0 and defender Glenn Hysén had a great game and was sold to Liverpool). One of many station that b*stard slow train stopped at was of course Colchester. One of us, and I still don't know who to blame, said - Colchester isn't that a football team? None of us were sure. A couple of minutes later we passed a really dodgy looking football ground (which turned out to be Chelmsfords). Anyway, once we got to London, we decided to find out everything about this club that we even weren't sure existed. We soon discovered that Colchester indeed had a football club and that they got beaten by Leyton Orient 8-0. At that time Colchester United played in the 4th division and were really shite. We immediately decided that we had to get back to England soon to se this team "in action". It took more than a year before we returned. Meanwhile we had great difficulties in keeping up with results. This was a few years before satellite TV and the Internet. We had to rely on sources like two weeks old issues Shoot and Match magazines and the odd phone call to English newspapers: -What, calling from Sweden and you want the results from the 4th division? Fuck off you c*nt! That is exactly what I was told once when I phoned up the sports desk at the Sun in 1988. We were back on British soil on the New Year 1989/90 for our first Colchester game. At least some of us where there. n'Anders and I stayed at our hotel rooms with terrible hangovers. Who the hell decided New Years Day was a great day for football? The rest of the boys, seven or eight I think, managed to get to Colchester and see the U's beat Hartlepool 3-1. This was also to become the last game any of us would see the U's win for a while. Before, during and after the game they met loads of people who thought it was great that there were people who came all the way from Sweden to see their crap team. Hey, they said it, not me. So the boys immediately decided that we had to come back to Colchester again. A few months later, in Easter 1990, it was time for our second visit to hallowed turf ... well, Layer Road then. Colchester played Southend. Colchester were bottom of the 4th division and lost 0-2 and later that season the U's were relegated to the GMVC or The Conference as it's aclled nowdays. Great, now it got even harder for us to catch up with results from England. The Swedish papers doesn't cover the Conference that well, infact most people in Sweden have never even heard of the Conference. By now we had become rather addicted and trips to UK became more and more frequent. During the first trips we hardly ever saw Colchester win at all. Even during the first year in the Conference when Colchester only lost one home game all season, we picked that game! Yeovil Town 0-1. The following season 1991-1992 it changed slightly, both for Colchester United and us. We set a new record of four visits to England and the U's won the Conference and also the FA trophy at Wembley. After the Wembley game we met a bloke at Gatwick Airport wearing a Col U top. He lived in the United States ... and I thought we were the weirdest people on earth. 1992-1993 and: -Col U are back, Col U are back, hello hello! As the 4th division was scrapped, Colchester were the first club to make it straight from the GMVC to the 3rd division :-). We were back in The League and our travels didn't decrease. We made another four trips that season. TODAY Now it's 2005 and we have actually followed our beloved Colchester United for more than sixteen seasons, and we still tries to get over as often as possible. I still don't really know why though. But when you have started to follow a team it's bloody hard to give it up. Some times I even whished I could. Specially at a home game vs Northampton in 1993 that got postponed after a heavy rain or Fulham at home in December 1996, called off due to a frozen pitch. Thanks a lot God, I only spent about £200 on the flight! The 2000-2001 campaign were even worse as Yeovil away in the FA-cup sevearly put my loyalty under pressure and two more trips got ruined by weather. Millwall at home in January and then a few weeks later Cambs away got cancelled just about when three of us disembarked the flight at Stansted. If you were at the airport that day and heard a loud shout/scream of -F*CKING HELL!, it was probably me. If I wanted great football and fancy grounds I would be at Arsenal, Chelsea or Manure. So it must be the people and the atmosphere. Small and often neglected grounds but with a crowd that really cares passionately about their team, town and colours. That's what football is about ... for me anyway. Up the U's! Paul, updated 2005.09.10