Twenty’s Plenty: Making a stand against modern football

For those of you who’ve somehow managed to miss it, there’s been a bit of a furore over away match ticket prices of late, sparked by Man City fans not taking their full allocation at Arsenal after baulking at the £62 asking price.

The issue has received a lot of attention and a problem that has been understood by football fans for some time has made its way into the mainstream media.

Sensing that a tipping point has been reached and that there is real potential for fans to make a stand on the issue, the Football Supporters’ Federation has launched the Score Campaign: Twenty’s Plenty For Away Tickets. The FSF “want clubs throughout England and Wales to agree to charge no more than £20 for away match tickets (£15 concessions)”.

[linequote]There were some really good opinions and great suggestions and some very passionate people who are clearly up for taking on this fight.[/linequote]

As part of the campaign the FSF have held two meetings to tell fans about the campaign and get their ideas and opinions on how to take it forward. Last Thursday, I went along to the London meeting to see what it was all about and find out how to get involved.

I came away from the meeting supportive of what the FSF are trying to do, if a little frustrated.

Sticking 60 fans, from different clubs and different leagues, in a pub and asking them to come up with constructive ways to campaign together is never going to be easy. Just getting everybody to agree to support the campaign itself, let alone come up with ways of taking it forward, felt like an uphill struggle at points.

Some argued £20 was too high, some too low. Some asked why concentrate on just away fan prices when home fans get stitched up too. Some fans succumbed to the tribalism that was supposed to be left at the door, singling out other fans’ clubs but taking offence if their own was criticised. Some strayed off topic, bemoaning other ills of the modern game and some complained it was too Premier League focused. While a lot of these points were legitimate, I did spend a lot of the meeting thinking “we’re not really getting anywhere with this are we?”

[linequote]Some fans succumbed to the tribalism that was supposed to be left at the door, singling out other fans’ clubs but taking offence if their own was criticised.[/linequote]

However, there were some really good opinions and great suggestions and some very passionate people who are clearly up for taking on this fight. I think the FSF have come up with a good campaign. Not perfect, but good. It would be nigh on impossible to formulate a campaign that completely addresses every single fan’s gripes about the game, while still being realistic and winnable. The Score Campaign has a clear, achievable aim, it’s easy to articulate and if framed as the first part of a bigger campaign to check the increase in ticket prices for all fans, it should be something every supporter can get behind, whether they travel away regularly or not.

The key for me, as somebody said at the meeting, is not letting the best be the enemy of the good.

So, what next?

While the FSF will provide a central point for the campaign, there is an onus on the fans of individual teams to take action, putting pressure on their own clubs. The success of the campaign will rely on us, the supporters, getting involved and making our voices heard. It will also require us to put aside partisan feelings and work with our traditional foes. Liverpool and Man City fans provided a great example of this on Sunday, unfurling a banner between the two sets of supporters, reading “£nough is £nough.”

[linequote]The success of the campaign will rely on us, the supporters, getting involved and making our voices heard.[/linequote]

It would be great to see us making a stand and playing our part in this campaign. So, I guess the main point of this article is to ask how we, Spurs supporters, can get involved and, in particular, is this something for the 1882 movement? Banners are great if they’re picked up by the TV cameras, what about walk outs at a designated time or fans turning their back on the game en masse for a minute or so? Something visual to demonstrate our feelings about being mugged off over ticket prices and show our support for the campaign. Any thoughts or suggestions on how we could take this forward would be greatly appreciated. I’d love to think Spurs fans could do their bit and help make this campaign successful.

[author name=”Paul Head” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/1500524670/n532720102_2385269_1646.jpg” twitter=”PaulHead83″ tag=”PaulHead[/linequote]