When the football results come out, both Justin and I tend to note how Total Network Solutions get on. They are a Welsh Premier League team who were formally called Llansantffraid FC but changed their name to that of a new sponsor, Total Network Solutions.
What a magnificent name for a football team! Tells you nothing about where they are, smacks of faceless, soulless corporatism, and is just so totally off-beat compared to the traditions of British football, that you just can’t help somehow loving them.
I’ve always wondered what sort of chants the fans must have come up with: “We’re total, we’re networked, we’re full great solutions, we’re TNS, we’re TNS!” I guess it beats “give us an L, give us another L, give us an A…”
I was gutted to discover today, however, that their sponsor, Total Network Solutions, has gone bust and so the club changed their name to The New Saints – a reference to their old nickname which cunningly maintains the TNS abbreviation. It does however inject a bit of feeling into the name, so they’re no longer worthy of my support.
But as Justin says, we can always shift our allegience to fellow Welsh Premier League team Airbus UK.
What other football clubs are there with silly names, sponsor-related or otherwise?
Monday August 28 2006 at 7:53 am |
Fantastic! I want to play for a team called Maconey Drainage Solutions Ltd. It sounds a bit like something the sunday league 5 a side teams come up with (eg unreal madrid).
ps I’m assuming you meant “formerly”, and not formally. And the pedant award goes to….
Tuesday September 5 2006 at 11:50 pm |
Interestingly Simon, one of my workmates is married to Jamie Wood who plays for TNS. He got Bolo Zenden’s shirt after one of the matches which they played against Liverpool last year.