Manchester United supporters in Iceland form a self-help group – they meet in secret and claim to support Liverpool in public

A group of Icelandic Manchester United supporters has set up a self-help group for those who struggle to face up to the club's form. The group meets weekly in a basement in Kópavogur with the curtains drawn and goes by the code name “The Knitting Club”.

“People think it's just football,” says Sigurður, 47, who has supported the club since he was seven. “But try explaining to your twelve-year-old son that the team was once the best in the world. He looks at you as if you were talking about dinosaurs.”

The meetings follow a twelve-step programme. The first step is accepting that the team will not be champions this year. The second step is accepting that it won't be next year either. Nobody in the group has yet reached the third step, which deals with changing managers, since the club changes managers so often that the step is rewritten every month.

Many members have taken precautions in their daily lives. A woman in Garðabær says she keeps her shirt in a locked drawer and tells colleagues she mostly follows handball. Another member pretends to support Liverpool at work. “It's humiliating, but it's not as humiliating as the truth.”

A club spokesman in Manchester says the club is working to a clear long-term plan. Asked how long ago it was presented, he says it was “a few long-term plans ago”.

The group plans to hold an annual party in the spring if the team wins two matches in a row. The venue has not been booked.