8th Feb 2016
Battle lines have been drawn this past week as top flight football in England seems to be on the brink of imploding: fans on one side, and owners, executives and CEOs – aka the money men – on the other.
As of next season Premier League clubs will enjoy a windfall the likes of which they have never seen before – some £8.3 billion spread over the next three years thanks to record-breaking TV deals at home and abroad.
Clubs will make an estimated £11m per televised match from next season onwards and as a result will be able to boast spending power beyond the wildest dreams of the majority of teams around the world.
As a result the revenue generated by fans through ticket sales – while still important – is becoming increasingly insignificant when it comes to a club’s accounts.
The arrival of that £8.3 billion offered the power brokers of the top 20 teams the unique opportunity to reward the loyalty of their supporters by reducing ticket prices.
Did they seize that opportunity? Did they bollocks. In fact they did the exact opposite.
Liverpool – home to some of England’s most passionate fans – while freezing and reducing some season ticket prices opted to raise their most expensive tickets from £59 to £77 and also increased the price of a significant number of season tickets.
If that wasn’t bad enough a number of the Premier League’s biggest clubs blocked a proposal to cap away tickets at £30. You have to presume they came to that decision while stroking a white cat and plotting world domination via some diabolical scheme.
These same owners and chief executives were willing to hand parasitic agents – an utter blight on the game – £130m between September 2014 and 2015 and pay players a staggering £828m last season.
These figures are only going to increase as the English game becomes ever dominated by cash but the vastly improved TV money will comfortably cover those increases, meaning there’s no need to punish the fans more than they already do.
In addition to rising ticket prices, merchandise, food and drinks, programmes and more are also on the rise making the cost of attending a match an ever more expensive exercise – one that fewer people are able to afford.
The fans of a football club, whether they’re Premier League giants like Liverpool or Manchester United, or minnows like Longford AFC – dubbed the “worst team in England” – are its beating heart and soul and they must be protected for the sake of the game.
Unsympathetic people might argue that they don’t have to go to the match but that’s exactly the point – they do. It’s what they’ve been doing their entire lives and, short of being priced out of the sport, they’re not going to stop –it’s their drug of choice.
This has led to a breathtaking arrogance amongst Premier League owners, convinced that fans will continue to pay whatever is demanded of them simply because they love going to the football and don’t want to stop supporting their team.
They also have the security of knowing that if the local supporter base doesn’t go there’s always someone who will take the ticket regardless of the cost such is the current allure of the Premier League.
Well, perhaps that’s about to change.
Fans are sick of being bled dry of their hard-earned money by Premier League clubs and are receiving support from overseas fans.
Those who follow English teams from afar are the same supporters who are generally willing to spend more to watch their heroes in action. If they refuse to play ball then the clubs have a problem.
Back in England discontent is growing and it’s now manifesting itself in action.
Anfield – one of the most famous footballing venues in the world – has been home to matches since 1884 and last Saturday played host to the first ever walkout in its 132-year history as thousands of Liverpool fans voted with their feet in response to the club’s announcement regarding price hikes.
Their anger at the owners was all too evident: chants of “You greedy bastards, enough is enough” rang around Anfield as passionately as You’ll Never Walk Alone usually does prior to kick off (but not, poignantly, on this occasion) as an estimated 15,000 people made their feelings crystal clear.
Prior to the game Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre – in a moment of titanic ignorance and arrogance – said it would be “staggering” if the fans staged a mass walkout but that’s exactly what they did and the numbers involved seem to have taken the owners aback with Fenway Sports Group (FSG) responding by saying that new discussion surrounding ticket prices will take place.
This could, and most likely will, prove to be nothing but smoke and mirrors but Saturday’s passionate mass exodus certainly grabbed John W. Henry and co by the balls and made them sit up and take notice in Boston.
And it won’t have just been FSG who were made to take notice.
Premier League owners will have seen Liverpool’s fans voting with their feet and will now fear similar events at their stadiums.
More important, however, is that fans the length and breadth of the country witnessed events at Anfield and are aware of the impact it had on the club’s owners.
Knowledge is power and reportedly the Football Supporters Federation is to sit down with fan groups all over England and discuss a widespread walkout of Premier League matches in the future.
The fans have fired the first salvoes but it shouldn’t stop there. Supporters should be uniting as one to affect change by boycotting matches, official club merchandise and their food and beverage outlets so that match day revenue starts to dry up.
It’s only when the clubs are hit in their coffers will change be made.
Fortunately there now seems to be a real appetite to bring about change amongst supporters – the camel’s back has been broken – and it’s to be hoped that Saturday’s mobilization of fans at Anfield starts something that snowballs across the country because this current trend won’t alter its course without action.
If supporters continue to vote with their feet then football will be approaching a crossroads: keep going down the current path with rising ticket prices and face the consequences or cut the costs and reward the supporters for their dedication.
The atmosphere at Premier League grounds is poorer than ever and will only get worse if fans continue to stage protests at rising costs.
Liverpool and the Premier League in general sell their product and brand based on atmosphere and packed stadiums. Should the TV cameras highlight empty stadiums or grounds full of sullen, somber, disgruntled fans then you’d have to think the money will eventually dry up and people will look elsewhere and the TV revenue might start to flow Germany’s way.
German football is thrilling and goal-laden, and if you want atmosphere at stadiums, the Bundesliga is the place to be.
It might not have the rollercoaster unpredictable nature of the Premier League but it still ticks so man boxes.
Week in, week out the stands are full and the supporters generate an intoxicating atmosphere that currently most Premier League grounds could only dream of.
Fans are treated with respect in Germany and viewed as fans – not customers. Tickets cost as little as 10 euros with season tickets at massive clubs like Borussia Dortmund starting at as little as 195 euros – less than two of Arsenal’s most expensive tickets at the Emirates.
Clubs in Germany wouldn’t dream of exploiting its fans in the manner that Premier League clubs do and they do this without the gargantuan TV revenue that England’s top flight enjoys.
If they can do it in the Bundesliga, why can it not be replicated in the Premier League?
It’s because the Bundesliga clubs have the appetite to look after arguably football’s biggest asset – its supporters.
Wouldn’t it be something if the powers that be at the Premier League clubs decided that £30 for an adult ticket (still way above Bundesliga prices) and £5-10 for children at home matches were appropriate prices and then got behind the ‘Twenty’s plenty’ scheme for away matches?
That would make football affordable for all, hopefully reverse the current trend at stadiums in the top flight and restore some feel-good factor at Premier League grounds.
It would be amazing if the clubs decided to put the fans first but all evidence suggests that’s highly unlikely.
Prices will probably keep on rising and if that does we can expect a battle for the very soul of football; a battle where both sides will inevitably lose out.