It hasn’t been a particularly good week for football’s traditional paying customers.
A VAR delay of almost six minutes at West Ham, price hikes at Manchester City, OAP concessions removed at Tottenham. At Chelsea, meanwhile, relations between the club and its fans continue to deteriorate.
It’s a bleak picture, to be sure, and it’s painted in a landscape already pockmarked with a persistent, ingrained contempt for football fans who attend games. Prices, kick-off times, public transport challenges. The direction of travel has been set for some time and shows no signs of reversing. It’s quite shameful.
However, the only voice in the search for context belongs to Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, and it’s worth listening to.
Postecoglou was born in Greece and spent most of his life in Australia. As such, the 58-year-old knows what it feels like to follow football from a relatively remote location. He knows what it means to fully invest in something from a distance. He knows it can be done.
Ange Postecoglou responded to Tottenham’s controversial plans to increase season ticket prices by 6 percent
Postecoglou made it clear he wanted the local faithful to be accommodated as well as fans from around the world.
Supporters’ in-match disdain was highlighted by the long VAR delay during West Ham’s clash with Aston Villa on Sunday.
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And now he is speaking out on the issue of foreign fans attending Premier League football matches.
Some have suggested taking the place of more local supporters in our football clubs. They’re not really, but for some, they’re nonetheless unwelcome. They call them “plastic” and jeer when television cameras show rows of them brandishing cell phones like tourists. These people are not real partisans, we are told. They pose a problem. They take our game away from its roots, from the communities and people it is traditionally meant to serve. But that makes no sense and Postecoglou was confident enough to say so.
“I want Tottenham fans in the stand, I don’t want just anyone,” he said.
“But I’m probably ‘plastic’ and ‘tourist’ because I was from the other side of the world, really passionate about football and if I could get access to a Premier League game it meant the world to me.
“This football club has fans all over the world and I think we should always be able to welcome them. You don’t know how passionate they are about their football club. Maybe they only started supporting him only for the last two years. This in no way diminishes who they are.
This whole debate highlights a slight conflict in terms of the identity of English football and in particular that of the Premier League.
We talk about English football, but in reality the Premier League has become an elite football competition played in England. Foreign owners, foreign coaches and foreign players make it what it is.
Why then should we only care about the fans who live down the street? The nature of our game has changed forever and the truth is that without the enthusiasm and deep pockets of those who follow it around the world, it simply would not exist in its current form.
For example, it is television that makes players rich in 2024. It is not receipts or the sale of match programs or hot pies served on a wooden kiosk.
All that helps, but it’s not what drives our game. No, it’s money paid for broadcasting privileges and a look at the numbers reveals that the billions of pounds paid to Premier League clubs by foreign rights holders currently exceeds for the first time the amount paid by our national media.
Tottenham fans protested against club’s decision to scrap OAP ticket concessions
The decisions made by clubs like Tottenham regarding concessions are lamentable. The supporters are right to react. City, our champions, are under pressure from supporter groups who point out that raising prices during a cost of living crisis that continues to hit families in some of their traditional sky-blue heartlands is wrong.
Fans in stadiums remain at the heart of what live football is about. But this experience remains out of economic reach for many. For some, the closest way to watch their team is through their Sky subscription or, if they’re in America or Australia, on NBC or Optus Sports. Why should that make them less important to a football club than someone who grew up in the spotlight?
As Postecoglou points out, this is discriminatory, presumptuous and condescending. This is an outdated view.
Chinese and South African fans are not the reason Tottenham OAPs are not entering the stadium on match day. This one belongs to president Daniel Levy. These are two separate questions.
The “plastics”, the “tourists” and those who watch the whole world from their armchair are not only worthy, they are fundamental. They are the ones who pay James Maddison’s salary.
England’s purple kit ploy
On the final day of the World Cup in Qatar, I bought a fake England away shirt for my daughter from a market stall for £3.
If she shows any interest in this summer’s European Championship, she could wear it again when England play. It still fits.
England have never played in purple before and there’s a good chance they never will again.
But the problem is it’s red and England’s away kit this summer, launched this week, will be purple.
England have never played in purple before and there’s a good chance they never will again.
But for parents across the country, the trap is set.
Out of date or out of your pocket? Maybe it’s time to return to the market.
A useless trip to the West Indies
Tottenham and Newcastle will play a friendly match in Melbourne on May 22. The Arsenal ladies will be in town for a match at the same time.
There is too much football, we are told. The players are tired, they tell us.
And yet, they still don’t stop.
England’s warning on the euro
England are expected to do well this summer and that’s only to be expected. However, we have had good teams before and we have not always succeeded.
Twenty years ago, for example, Sven Goran Eriksson fielded a team during the 2004 Portuguese Euro: James; Neville, Terry, Campbell, Cole; Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes; Rooney, Owen.
This team lost in the round of 16, but how many of the current crop would participate? Pickford, Walker, Bellingham, Kane. Who else?
Composite teams prove nothing but history is rich in lessons. Summer tournaments are desperately difficult to win, no matter who is on your side.
How many players from Gareth Southgate’s current generation could feature at England’s Euro 2004?
The FA Cup can still evoke unbeatable drama
Manchester United’s victory over Liverpool last Sunday will long be remembered, but also served to illustrate how fundamentally the FA Cup has been changed.
Previously, Antony’s 87th-minute equalizer for the home side would have been a blow for Liverpool but not a fatal one. At 2-2, a replay at Anfield would have been imminent and, as such, half the job would have already been done.
Previously, Antony’s 87th-minute equalizer for the home side would have been a blow for Liverpool but not a fatal one.
But with replays now a thing of the past, United were able to take advantage of their momentum and energy during extra time and deservedly win the tie.
I’m disappointed that there are replays from the third round. Nothing will change my mind.
But this past weekend, there’s no denying that a winner-takes-all scenario set the stage for what has become an unbeatable drama.