Dundee United are first Scottish club to go for cardboard cut-out fans

Print out your own waterproof, recyclable pic to sit in your seat

In Mönchengladbach, thousands of fans bought cardboard cut-outs to take their place at Borussia Park for closed-doors matches. Picture: Ina Fassbender/AFP

Everyone knows sport without fans is a lot less enjoyable than when fans are there.

Hence why schemes are hastily being put in place to give some semblance of supporters being present as football edges closer to a return in Britain.

A Glasgow advertising company has launched a Fans At the Game app, where supporters can order recyclable, waterproof cardboard cut-outs of themselves to be placed inside their club’s stadium.

Sport is already back elsewhere, inspiring a variety of innovative crowd replacement strategies. Not all have been completely successful. FC Seoul were fined when it was found they had placed a number of sex dolls in a stand to spice up the atmosphere in a closed-door match v Gwangju.

In Australia, an idea to use cut out figures of fans turned sour when images of Adolf Hitler and Harold Shipman, Britain’s most prolific killer, were spotted among the faces at rugby matches after the scheme was hijacked by rival fans.

The potential pitfalls are obvious, especially in a country with such fierce tribal football rivalry as Scotland.

Dundee United are the first Scottish club set to make use of the technology ahead of their return to the Premiership, with the top-flight season due to start at the beginning of August. The club have announced that 3,500 fans have bought season tickets but clearly, as Covid-19 restrictions persist, they won’t physically all be inside Tannadice Park, not initially at least.

This is another away to be ‘seen’ to be there at least – which perhaps gives fans hoping to preserve long ever-present attendance records some slight satisfaction. Fans won’t be able to insist on their cardboard cut-out occupying their actual season ticket seat as matching supporters to a specific seat is considered to be too time-consuming.

Colchester United are already on board. The English League Two side return to action in a League Two play-off with Exeter as early as next week following a vote yesterday.

The tie is behind closed doors but Colchester fans have the chance to ‘attend’ the home leg in the form of a silhouette of a fan that is then installed at the ground with the person’s face printed on it.

Colchester are charging £25 but each club will decide their own price point. If they wish, they can absorb all the cost and let the fans in ‘free’ so to speak.

“What is important is that this is the first time that a single company has a complete end to end solution that will enable dozens of clubs across the UK to have their supporters ‘get back in the ground’,” said Kenny Whittmann, managing director of The Football Company.

“We’re all missing live sport, and we know that supporters are desperate to get behind their clubs, and so we think this is a great way of channelling that passion.”

The idea was inspired by German club Borussia Moenchengladbach, where fans ordered 12,000 lifesize cut-outs of thesmevles to fill their Borussia Park stadium when the Bundesliga re-started last month. The proceeds have gone to charity.

This particular UK version is a commercial venture with funds split between The Football Company and the club involved. It is being marketed as another income steam at a trying time for the game. Clubs earn a per sale commission.

There have been efforts made to stop the pranksters. Supporters will have to click on the Fans At The Game button on their club’s website and take a picture of their own face – favourite photos, or those of others, cannot be downloaded. It seems Dundee fans will be thwarted if they had designs on introducing some undesirables to the Tannadice crowd.

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