They'll only miss us once we've gone

What is it that Guinness advert proclaims? "All good things come to those who wait". Well the Footballing Authorities may not have to wait too much longer until their transition of the game is complete. To rid the game of the bad and populate it only with the good. No more rowdy behaviour, no more rebels of society daring to stand up and make their feelings known, no more problems.

Their ideals consist of fans turning up every week, queuing to gain entry in an orderly fashion, having booked their tickets 3 months in advance. Entering the stadium and taking their seats, rising only to applaud goals where they dance along to carefully selected music over the PA, before clearing up their litter and disappearing into the countryside until the following weekend. No hassle, no passion, no noise.

"They'll only miss us once we've gone"

As the game I know and love becomes more diluted by the passing year, I often wonder just when the breaking point will come. When will those authorised with sanitising our game realise the error of their ways? Or can they not actually see that they are breaking the very foundations of what has made this sport a success? Pound signs blur their vision, seen all too often in every walk of life. Greed takes over, people want more. They've exhausted the Premier League "brand" and now have visions of taking it further afield; the infamous "Game 39". Translated to you and me, meaning they have milked pretty much every penny they can from the "consumers" in this country, and now want to tap into the pockets of those football hungry consumers overseas. All in the name of expanding the pockets of the shareholders, players and governing bodies of our sport. Our sport, not theirs.

If I rewind 7 or 8 years; I'm leaving the house on a matchday and making my way to Anfield. There was no need to ring around in the morning; I'd just turn up and walk into one of two or three pubs around the ground, and would bump into people I knew. You knew where everyone would drink, and had done for years. The same faces, the people that made this club what it is. I can pop my head into those same pubs now, and I wouldn't recognise a soul. Those long standing supporters have now all but disappeared, replaced by families from all over, decked out in official replica sportswear and taking pictures of anything that moves. There's a smaller crowd of us left and tend to keep out of the way. We don't conform. Those areas around the ground have now been taken over by the new brigade, while the old guard retreat to pastures further afield.

Year after year, more and more people are dropping away. There's still a hardcore of a few hundred that travel everywhere. There's still thousands that go to every home game just like they always have. But it's becoming harder and harder for these people to carry on. Supporters being replaced by consumers. Participants being replaced by spectators. Just how much higher can the bar be raised by the controlling bodies before they've pushed away everyone that gave the game it's appeal in the first place? What happens when the passion disappears for good? You can't manufacture passion, no matter how hard some clubs try.

They have mascots running up and down the touchline trying to encourage the fans. At Bolton they play "I feel good" when they score, with two young lads running the length of the pitch with big flags. Music played after goals is now commonplace, as if fans don't know how to celebrate a goal by themselves. Is it because they realise the passion is dead and are trying to hang onto a small semblence of it? Or is it aimed at manufacturing a friendly atmosphere to suit their agenda?

Manufactured support; I can't think of anything worse. Handing out those clappers seems to be the next step this season, with the whole of St.Andrews clapping along with them before their opening game. This in a ground that used to be known as one of the most passionate and hostile in football; now transformed into a childrens play ground with everybody doing as they are told. Sat down and singing what the club want them to sing, and clapping when they want them to clap. So sad. Ticket prices on the increase there every season, and a ground I now refuse to visit. £40 for an away ticket some 4 years ago. No thanks. It doesn't take a genius to work out why they barely fill half of that ground any more.

Newcastle had their lowest league attendance for nearly a decade at the weekend, with cash turnstiles in operation, entry for £10 if you bought a replica shirt and other such promotions, but still had thousands of empty seats. Manchester United have been contacting everybody on their mailing lists trying to push season ticket sales again this summer. Whereas Old Trafford used to be like Fort Knox when it came to getting in, they're now closer to resembling one of the happy hour bars in Benidorm, with teenagers stood outside handing out cards with promotional offers to encourage trade. What was once a closed shop, is now opening it's doors and trying to drag people in off the streets.

Is the football bubble about to burst? I hope so.

On Monday night, Portsmouth's most famous fan, the bell ringer with the blue hair, or less commonly known as "John", was approached by the ground staff at Fratton Park and asked to keep the noise down. I'm sure it's not only me that's absolutely staggered by that. Asked to stop ringing his bell and keep the noise down, in a football ground! The mind boggles. But it's another notch on the many that have been made previously, in slowly sanitising the way we support our teams.

We are told we're not allowed to stand up as it's unsafe; yet rugby sides play in exactly the same stadia and those rules don't apply. Apparently it's safe for rugby fans to stand in those same seated areas, but not football fans (the reasons for that I could write a book on, and will address again). It's madness. They're also allowed to drink in their seats while watching the game. I know of a fan that was facing a 3 year football banning after peering over the exits at White Hart Lane to catch a goal he'd missed when coming down early at half time. He'd walked down the steps, was handed a pint by a friend, and heard the roar from the stands. He went halfway back up the steps to see what had happened, when two officers arrested him for consuming alcohol in view of the playing surface. It defies belief. But I'm told we're different. As our friend from Portsmouth has pointed out this week; would this sort of discrimination be accepted anywhere else, or by anyone else, but football fans?

I was on a final warning in my old season ticket seat for foul and abusive language. I was reported by fellow fans for swearing, and risked losing my season ticket. Now in that seat, I was reserved, very reserved. It was on the halfway line and not a noise was made all season by anyone. They were spectators, I'm a participant, or like to be. I want to go to the game and let off some steam. I go to work to pay the bills, put a roof over the family heads, and to enjoy myself during my time off. I choose to do that at the football, something I've grown up with. It's always been a part of who I am. But in that seat, I had to control myself and just sit and watch the game, conforming to those around me for over 7 years. I must have sworn a handful of times in that entire period, when telling the referee where to go or some other trivial slip of the tongue. Yet I faced losing my season ticket and not being able to support my side over it. I was one swear word away from walking away from the game for good. If this was in a family enclosure I'd understand. I know when swearing is unacceptable, and in my view, a football ground is one of those places where it fits.

When I go to the match, I want to stand with fellow fans, my friends. I want to participate in the game, I want to support the side. I want to shout and I want to sing. I want to do the things that made me fall in love with the game and going to the match. But one by one, the authorities are trying to take all those things out of our game. To have us sat in silence, only singing when they want us to sing, and singing the songs they want us to sing. Blaring music over the PA system we are supposed to dance along to. We're unable to create an atmosphere ourselves it seems.  For the future, see American sports for how it will go. Club issue foam hands can already be seen, dancing girls have been tried, the list goes on.

Keep sanitising; you'll soon be wondering where it all went wrong, when the very people that made this game what it is, have all long since disappeared. There's not many of us left. Soon there will be none.

Enjoy modern football. Enjoy scratching your heads in some plush office arguing with each other about who's to blame when the crowds start to stay away. I'll be long past the caring stage. You'll have brought it upon yourselves and destroyed a game loved by millions in the process. I hope it's worth it.

Paul Jones

Comments

[aaron grey]

agree totally mate
im a birmingham fan and the part about st andrews really hit home as it couldnt be any truer - only last week about 20-30 fans got kicked out of the ground from my block alone for merely standing up. were the back row as well so the arguement that were obstructing views cannot even be used in the authorities defence.
its ridiculus and fans are expected to be robotic like
st andrews used to be a fortress, now its more like a library, with fans fearing to stand up and support the team in case they get there £500 season ticket snatched away from them

[tim]

Looking at the wikipedia articles on the FA and the Premiere Leaugue, and at european-football-statistics, a uk site that shows attendance, it seems that financially the clubs are doing better than ever and more and more people are going to see the games.

Since, as the author points out, the clubs are run by people motivated by money, and seems there seem to be plently of "specators" waiting in the wings, sadly it seems unlikely that they'll miss you once you've gone.

Football, nay the whole world, will gradually turn into Disney Land.

[Rob]

Many years ago, when I was an awful lot younger, I studied economics. I have, somewhere in a cupboard, a nice piece of paper to prove it, saying that, all in all, I did okay. Not great, not even all that good. But okay.

One of the first subjects covered in that course, and the one that sticks firmly in my memory, dealt with demand. I had before me a textbook that stated, clearly and unambiguously, that a consumer looks for the most gain at the best price, and gave the example of choosing a film you expect to enjoy if you go to the cinema. After all, if you have a certain amount of money to spend on entertainment, on pleasure, it is natural - inevitable - that you would spend that money in a way that can be most relied upon to provide that entertainment, that pleasure. So a good film, a nice meal, a holiday to somewhere that appeals to you. The idea of paying in the knowledge that misery and frustration, discomfort and disappointment, were a real possibility was inconceivable; the laws of demand forbade it.

Graphs were drawn, tables composed, formulae computed, showing clearly the relationship between demand and the expected benefit gained from a product of service. And so, I wrote an essay, short and to the point, showing how paying to watch your side lose doesn't fit into this, but an awful lot of people do it every week. Not surprisingly, it brought me no end of trouble. Irrational, they said. It doesn't fit the curve.

So, I ask you, why do you insist on breaking the laws of demand every week? Why do you spend a vast sum of money each year on a season's worth of tickets with the guarantee that at least some of those tickets will be to see failure? A 100% chance that some of those tickets will leave you coming home disappointed and frustrated - what would make you act so, well, irrationally?

I'm guessing you didn't have to think about it for very long. Not one person who has ever even considered buying a season ticket, whether for Liverpool, Accrington Stanley or whomever, did so in the hope of a constant stream of unbroken joy. We do not go to be entertained; we'd like to be, sure, and sometimes we are, but fundamentally, that's not the point. Never has been. Never will be. It means more. It means something.

Do you remember when this first dawned on you? Long time ago, probably. Chances are you knew someone older, father, brother, friend, whatever, someone who knew what it meant already. So you start going, and you keep going, and, as far as you possibly can, you keep going forever more.

But what if it had never happened? What if the idea had never dawned on you? What if following a football team meant watching them on telly, maybe popping along for the 'experience' once or twice a year? Maybe your father/brother/friend goes regularly, but he can't afford to take anyone with him, and his world seems as remote as those of the players. Interesting, certainly, but you've never lived that way, and wouldn't know how to start.

What, then, would lead you to develop the 'experience' into a forty, fifty, occasionally even sixty game-a-season obsession, at huge cost, and in breach of those laws of demand? Why, in short, would you bother?

There is not a professional club in the country who has not dug this hole for themselves. Of course, for the Premier League sides (whether permanent, transitory or aspiring), the hole is much deeper. But it's there nonetheless, waiting for a generation to pass before snaring your team, my team, everybody's team.

Some clubs - Man Utd, primarily - have enough occasional fans to weather the storm. But a great number of sides are rushing headlong into harm, unwilling and unable to stop, if only because everyone else is doing it.

And therein lies the crux of the problem. Everyone else is doing it? The powers that be in our game (and it is still OUR game, albeit barely) are acting like schoolchildren. Where else would you find a business, some massively successful and internationally famous, that bases its entire financial plan on what everyone else is doing, even in the knowledge that it must leave to catastrophe in the non-too-distant future?

There is a way out of this, and a way that does actually fit in with established economic norms. The big word is investment. Choosing to forgo a portion of profits, an element of success, in order to build a future that is even more successful. There is not a solitary company on the FTSE 100 for whom this would be an alien concept; yet in football it's seen as unthinkable. This has to change, and URGENTLY. And the power to change is there; after all, there are perhaps as many as 91 league clubs who stand to lose massively from the problems being constructed today. With near unanimity amongst clubs in this respect, there would not be the fear that one club would face if they went out on their own. Long-termism is only a safe approach if everyone else is looking to the long-term - and then, it is the only safe approach.

The investment in question is bringing the dedicated, every-week fans back. Cheaper tickets. Less TV saturation. In some cases, better and larger stadia, but certainly, this isn't necessary for everyone. Ultimately, clubs need to sacrifice a part of their turnover to what your out-of-town supermarket terms 'loyalty'. We're all loyal fans, of course, but the clubs need us to be loyal with our wallets more than just our hearts, minds, voices.

Supermarkets will sell products at a loss to guarantee that consumers keep coming. Football clubs, like it or not, have to follow the same principle - lose money today, but make more money tomorrow.

It's a sound and well-established economical principle. Trust me. I have a piece of paper to back me up.

[Katie B.]

Excellent and very timely. Professional football is dying as a sport and becoming just another manufactured entertainment. My only quibble is that I would like to stand on the Stret rather than the Scoreboard end at Old Trafford. I even watch Sky with the sound off to avoid the innane 'musical' celebrations vomited from the PA system and drowning out any subversive hint of spontaneity. Well done.

[Paul Tong]

I had to come back on this one, being the first contributor, as it has warmed my heart very much, to see so many fans, whoever you support, saying that they want the Game that they loved back, with all the Trimmings.

I mean things like, when I was 16, I took my girlfriend of 2 weeks, to the local cinema in Croydon, Sth London, on the eve of the Crystal Palace v Manchester United Match, circa 1979, and running into Brian Robson and Steve Coppell, in the very same cinema, and having a bit of Cheeky Banter about how many United would beat Palace by, I think they actually Lost !!.

Then another memory of going to Chelsea with a mate who supported them, and standing in the Shed, watching Chelsea play New York Cosmos from the old NASL, a team that include Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, and Pele, to name but a few, and spending 80% of the game singing Knees Up Mother Brown, with all the actions, along with about 6-7 Thousand others, until Ray Wilkins scored to Equalise, at which point the whole stadium went Beserk, and the police just gave up trying to control anyone.

And both of those experiences cost me about 6-7 quid at the time including getting there and back, Program, getting in, and a pie and a pint at half time.

There isn't enough money in the whole game to bring those sort of feelings back.

Perhaps, next time we go to a game, our chant should really be,
"They'll only miss us once we've gone"

[Andrew McNally]

Absolutely superb!

[Dunc]

Agree with that completely being an Argyle fan of over 25 years the sanitisation brought about by our rapid rise into the championship makes you wonder if it was all worth it, no terracing being told to sit down all afternoon by over officious stewards major price rises all add up to the death of the game as we knew it.

[Simon Bell]

Agree with a lot of. I have had a Season Ticket at Chelsea for years, ideal view above the crossbar between the goalposts in the Matthew Harding Lower - the supposed hard core end these days, and so it was for a time.

But I've given it up the last couple of years to a friend as I can't justify the money for what I get in return, at what is 'supposed' to be the glory days. I found myself in £30,000 of debt, largely as a result of following Chelsea and to some extent England.

There is nothing at Chelsea these days, people can text a number to report you for swearing and your issued with an instant ban, no questions asked. Sit down, shut up or get out. Celery is now banned, a long standing tradition at Chelsea for 40 years.

The club have no respect for the fans and if we leave they don't give a monkey's as someone will ufortunately always be there to take our place. I'm happy to do the odd away game now as at least there is some passion... but even then the stewards are on your case and you can't get a train anywhere without shelling out more than a flight to Spain costs!

Where's my Chelsea gone, if found please return to the fans, not the owner.

[Martyn Meredith]

Thanks for saying what has needed to be said for a long time, except that it seems most football commentators/writers are too blinkered or feathering their own nest to say anything which may be deemed as going against the corporate image of the Premier League. And as for the three 'wise ' men of television punditry - Lawro, Hansen, Shearer - forget it. They come out with the same old garbage week after week after week, pushing the ideals of the Premiership dream, anyone with half a football brain knows that 99% of what these gents have too say is obvious, safe, and completely lacking in sponteniety and original thought. The trouble is that the 'corporate' 'plastic' fans being bred by the Premiership marketing men believe everything they say and repeat their inanities and opinions to anyone who has a mind (in truth you only need half a mind ) to listen. As many of your other contributors have said the way forward is to deprive the Premiership machine of your hard earned cash and go to watch football where the fan is still appreciated, where the players actually seem interested in playing, where you can go and have a drink and a chat with your favourite player after the game and, more importantly, where your support is genuinely welcomed - namely non-league football. Okay the standard of play and the individual skills of players do not match those of some premiership players, but what you get is honest endeavour and players playing for each other and not for themselves. Go on try it - you know it makes sense.

[Graeme]

100% agree. Reminds me of when I was a 'spectator' at Selhurst for a cup game a few years back. Palace scored and, not being a Palace fan, I didn’t do the whole going bonkers thing but gave it some big claps and back slaps for my mates (who are Palace fans). One of the lads behind me leaned over and said: 'this isn’t the f**king opera, if you clap again I'm gonna punch your lights out.'

It made me crease up. That’s the kind of passion I want.

[Simon Denyer]

Time for a new campaign?
Kick tinned music out of football.

This isn't America, where this canned atmosphere has been commonplace for years.
Had to put up with some awful music when Pompey won the FA Cup Final at wembley and all we wanted to dows sing our own songs.
I feel a petition coming on!

[Jay]

(Simon Turner) - I shall return to Old Trafford when the following happens -
1. Glazer takes HIS debt with him.
2. I'm allowed to STAND anywhere in the ground - preferably with my mates & in the Scoreboard End.
3. Prices are reduced to a sensible level.
4. MU put FC back into their name.
5. Players are paid sensible money.
6. The nazis remember that their job is to ensure we are safe & is not to ensure we keep them in work by ruining our day.
7. The mega-whore is closed.
8. We no longer offer credit cards, insurance, savings accounts.
9. We remember who is the most important person at the ground & do all we can to ensure they have a good day.
10. Fred the Red is retired.
11. The club is fan-owned.

[Simon Arnold]

I would like to say "thankyou" for stating so eloquently what many of us have felt for a long time.

I know you cannot change teams but if you want to feel what it's like the old fashioned way I'll buy you a ticket to sit with us in the Wing Stand at Luton anytime.

It's not quite like the 70's but it retains a level of the edge that you talk about and it's great that our new owners plan to give priority to retaining the atmosphere of the old grounds.

I've been to several of the new stadia, good for watching cricket or open air theatre I'd say.

[mike]

I'm a Pompey fan and on all three visits the build up was ruined for me by the continued insistence on loud music over the tannoy which completely drowned out any attempt at singing. It was such a relief when the game started, but the music continued until the players were actually standing over the ball, no chance to sing any pre-match songs. When we got promoted it was the same, the final whistle blew and they started playing bloody Status-Quo over the tannoy for ages.

I wish these corporate suits and tv execs would jump off the same cliff. They are ruining the game. The reason atmospheres are dying is that they used to be made by thousands of youths and young men, (95% male, not advocating it, just stating a fact), who used to turn up witha few drinks in them and sing some songs. Now 99% of teenagers are there with their parents. If you want a great atmosphere, you need 5,000 blokes aged between 12 and 25, some alcohol and a terrace with a roof on it.

[Dave West]

I'm through with football, I used to have a season ticket at Elland Road up until last year but the prices are ridiculous. I'm young so have started playing on a Saturday instead. Much more fun and alot cheaper!!

[Paul Jones]

JonnyC,

For many thousands of fans at Anfield, Liverpool FC is their local club. They haven't just chose to follow a successful side. They've been watching Liverpool since the days of the old second division, well before the glory hunting mobs latched onto the club. Can you seriously expect them to just walk away and start supporting somebody else?

It doesn't work like that. I couldn't go and support anybody else. I've been going to watch Liverpool my whole life and have hardly missed a home game in 20 years. I can't walk away from to go and watch some non-league side that means nothing to me.

Liverpool FC are the only club I have any passion or feeling for. And when the time comes where I can't afford it anymore, or I become so disillusioned with the game I stop going; that's it, I'll stop going. I won't be going anywhere else.

Liverpool FC or nowhere for me. The shout of going to watch somebody else doesn't make sense for many. Including me.

Paul Jones

[JonnyC]

Agree with this article. Its spot-on.

Want a solution? Try non-league football. I used to be a hardcore LFC supporter, but found myself unable to spend the £40 to go to anfield, and sit amongst a crowd of silent tourists. The very last game I went to at Anfield (and probably the last game I'll ever go to) apart from YNWA there was only ONE chant in the whole game, at the start of the 2nd half. I was so appalled I vowed never to waste my money again.

Now I go to watch my local side Lancaster City play in the Unibond League Divison 1 North. And I join up with the 200 or so fans who enjoy real football where players play for the badge on the front and not the name on the back, and where we can go where we please, say what we please, and are only charged a fiver for the privilidged...

Whats more us 20 or so Lancaster fans that are vocal for 90 minutes make a damn sight more noise than Anfield these days.

[tim]

Absolutely spot on. I fear its now beyond repair

[Simon Turner]

As a typical Manc foghorn it appears I am falling into the tar-pit that used to be known as the scoreboard end; me and my kind quickly becoming extinct, replacing us a useless drove of southern idiocy. "Move south" they say... why? so you can come up here and ruin my team further?

United season-ticket holder and fan since about '91/92 (I was four, but I saw us lose the title to Leeds) I remember the old days, I remember the chants and I loved them. Singing louder than the support, singing better songs, this is what I loved about football. Take last week at pompey. The navy boys started "we support, we support our local team" to which we replied "you support, you support your local sh*t" Lovely banter, lovely atmosphere, and a sign of dedication from us and from the Pompey fans to our teams.

I watched my dad's tape of United beating Maradona's Barca 3-0 in '84 the other week- we didnt have any Portugese starlets, we didnt have £30 million defenders; the likes of Whiteside, McQueen, Robbo and Hughes outclassed Europe's elite. We didnt win the league that year, nor did we win in Europe, but we played attacking entertaining football for the people of Manchester- for the working classes. Who do we play for now? The Chinese? The Australians? The fat cats in the executive boxes?

After Fergie retires you almost hope that (with 21 league titles and 6 champions league trophies in tow) we drop to 6/7th in the league, play a few local boys (Simpson, Wellbeck, Campbell, Gibson- all gifted players) and see some of the FCUM boys return home.

[COLIN GOODWIN]

Superb post....BRING BACK THE TERRACES !!! Make it affordable !!!
BRING BACK THE PASSION !!! To hell with the PL and all their poxy commercial hype hope they crash and burn in the credit crunch.

[Nick]

Spot on. I'm a Leicester fan and saw my first game this season away at Fulham on Wednesday. Refuse to go to the Walkers as it's the epitomy of whathas been described.

What pleased me at Fulham was seeing old faces, people standing and singing and bouncing up and down-doubt Fulham would allow that at a league game. What i also found was that other City fans were looking forward to the away days again as theres less corporate raping in lowly division 3 (league 1 to the uninitiated). So give me Orient, Southend and Carlsile over the Reebok, Emirates and Theatre of Dreams everyday of the week.

[Bill Coley SAFC]

I love everything that people have said on here - I knew I couldn't be a lone voice in the wilderness.

I absolutely despise the way the middle classes have highjacked our game. I was at Guernsey airport (bear in mind that Guernsey people don't have any identifiable team to support therefore they cherry pick their own English (Not French for some reason!) successful clubs, so this Finance Industry type is standing behind me and says this to someone - I could have either vomited or cracked his head open - "Yes, we are going to The Emirates, a friend of mine has a box and he's allowed us to use it because he's away on business this weekend, we've used it before and it's very nice, but sometimes I feel that I'd like to be down there with the "real" fans".

God help us!

carry on the fight - let's hope, like you say - that they crash and burn!

[Jay]

"Won't pay Glazer or work for sky" - the answer hopefully to get some kind of change is to boycott your club if they don't kick off at 3pm on Sat or 7.45pm on Weds.

Went to local non-league ground to watch them on the day we (FCUM supporters) boycotted game moved for internet tv. They didn't try it again.

Don't want your game moved for sky / setanta - don't go to the game. NLP full of moans re: games moved to Monday or Thursday to suit setanta. If you don't like it don't go. When they see their revenues fall (tv or clubs) then maybe they'll do something about it. Won't hold my breath. Problem with this is that club will fill ground with even more / JCLs / glory hunters / corporates & you won't be missed but try not going / not renewing & see if they listen. Don't go to away games - the corporates, etc don't. (Biggest moan at OT is how the atmosphere is dead - for most of the game. Understandable when the noise has decamped to somewhere where we're appreciated).

Harrogate fans (opposition at match I went to) said they wouldn't know where to start, when I told them that I was boycotting my fan-owned club for the day. Yet they had the answer. Vote with your feet. If the club won't listen to you why should you listen to them.

(madlad2 - why would I want to not go to FC but go to Rotherham? To state this is to not understand the question. Would you like 6,000 ex-ST, etc holders of MUFC to take over your club when that is why we left ours?)

[Darren Woolston]

Everyone in football should read this. Everyone.

[Chris]

If you want to see where support is allowed, check Germany out. You can stand for around £8-£12, you can drink alcohol, you can bounce up and down, and the stewards stand outside the stadium. That will never ever ever happen over here again.