The Blades' Big Sky Bill

So it started with a tweet 

and with the added thoughts and support of fellow Blade Luke Prest the idea has germinated to this......

As you have no doubt seen, Sky TV have chosen our trip to Southend to be televised. This has resulted in a change of date and kick off from 3:00 pm on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday - a traditional footballing date - to 7:45 pm on the following Wednesday.

Time and time again, Sky do this to clubs across the land. The feelings, finances and desires of supporters are never once considered when these decisions are made by TV companies.

Sheffield to Southend is no short trip. With it being the Bank Holiday, large numbers of United will have booked hotels, travel, match tickets etc. well in advance in anticipation of a long weekend or just a good day out by the Essex seaside. These plans and not so insignificant financial commitments are now ruined or increased further by the decision of Sky to change the day and time of the fixture at just 8 weeks notice. Some may say 8 weeks is plenty of notice, but it is not just that, moving the match from a Bank Holiday - which makes it much easier for fans to attend - to a midweek night suddenly affects more people. What was a planned weekend away is no more. The need to book trains in advance to get the best prices, to line up accommodation around a Bank Holiday weekend means that action has already taken place and finances committed.

So what can we, as fans, do about this? The idea we are mooting is that the cost of Sky's action is calculated as a whole on behalf of all Blades and issued by way of an open letter/invoice to Sky. Seeking recompense for individual fans is probably stretching it, but instead we propose the total cost incurred by fans is settled by way of a donation to a nominated Sheffield charity. We can set up a vote so Blades fans can choose the recipients, assuming Sky see fit to pay.

So we ask that if you had made arrangements for the Southend match prior to Sky's rearranging of the fixture, you detail them by replying to this post, completing the Contact Form in the sidebar to the right of this post or by emailing email@lukeprest.com where they will be collated. We will then issue a total 'invoice' from us, the supporters of Sheffield United.

Please include your name, address, and details of any costs you have incurred as a result of the change in fixture - these could be lost wages, cancelled hotels, re-booking of train tickets etc. If you haven't already booked, don't feel left out. Can you demonstrate that the cost of travel have changed to your financial detriment? The key factor is that whatever we include has to be credible and real.

Please try and email/reply by Sunday 24th January and assuming we have a good response we will issue the bill early next week.

Just think what a small but ultimately powerful message this could provide. The Star have expressed interest in the idea, there were plenty of calls to Football Heaven tonight so we will make sure Radio Sheffield are aware of the plan and we will be letting the Football Supporters Federation know as well. For a small amount of your time in sending us the details you can demonstrate your anger and frustration at the contempt and ignorance shown to you, whilst hopefully helping a local charity benefit.

#TheBladesBigSkyBill

We are not the only fans to suffer from late notice fixture changes, with the cost implications and inconvenience that they cause. Hopefully other clubs' fans might see this and follow suit, or find their own ways to challenge the status quo. Football without fans is nothing. Football matches without away fans are sterile, muted, dispassionate events. It shouldn't have to be that way.

Thanks and Up The Blades.

Consistently Inconsistent - Sheffield United in 2014

Consistently inconsistent. I can think of no better way to describe Sheffield United's 2014.

They have given me moments of joy and exultation, both sat/stood in the stands and sat by the radio at home. Those moments that see you shoot up to your feet, the blood rushing so fast to your head that your legs shake and your temple feels like it might explode. The adrenaline rush keeping you upright as your body feels like it might collapse underneath you.

At other times they have left me angry. So angry that at times the words that are in my head, as I rise to my feet to hurl some well thought out invective, somehow disappear between brain and mouth. All that I manage is a sharp "For God's sake", before the insightful comments then fail to leave my lips. My mouth makes the shape to speak more words but they just never make it out. Arms flail, fingers pointed, fist waved, but no words and I flop back into my red plastic seat utterly flummoxed by both the team and my inability to say what I want to.

There have been times that I just haven't fancied going and when I have missed games, a rarity over the last 25 years but a more common occurrence these days. I didn't miss it like I should do. Or like I used to. Absence did little to make my heart grow fonder.

As we pass the end of the calendar year. There is much to be proud of. United have  made many a back page headline this year. Making news for reasons that bring that flush of pride to your face and a smile of satisfaction.

From thrilling cup exploits to unbeaten runs and ten consecutive victories. The euphoria of beating Villa in the FA Cup at Villa Park in January, but never for one moment anticipating it would end with the immense pride of watching the Blades play so well at Wembley, tinged with slight disappointment at what might have been, at what nearly was. Then the League Cup campaign this season. High flying Premier League clubs despatched, another semi final awaits in 2015.

Yet, despite this success, there has been on pitch disappointment. United are a team that are playing in the margins where success and failure have little to separate them and where cup success is easier to achieve than league consistency. After the lows of David Weir's brief reign there have been moments and games to match any low of the Weir tenure. The football has at times, been as un-entertaining as that seen under the much derided Kevin Blackwell.

The turgid, pedestrian football has lacked the spark and initiative to break down the most stubborn of League One defences and those that other clubs seem to open up at will. Matches where you leave feeling you could play until midnight with 4 strikers on the pitch and still not score.

The pleasure at seeing the club do its transfer business early in the summer, with all bar two of Clough's named targets secured, was quickly decimated by a hotch-potch of a preseason. Whilst fitness is a clear aim of the matches in July and August, it is also a time for the manager to identify his preferred eleven. The fact that he doesn't appear to have achieved this at the turn of the year is a huge concern.

Everyone is a football manager. Everyone knows better. From Sunday league to junior football, from FIFA to Fantasy Football, we all think we have the answer. Yet there are common themes in criticism, in amongst the bluster and Mike Bassett-esque calls for Four Four Fucking Two.

Whilst injuries have bitten hard at times, there has been an insistence in putting square pegs in round holes. No greater example being against Bristol City in the opening game of the season. Some of these problems have been caused by the manager's own stubbornness. Andy Butler and Neill Collins are unlikely to play for the club again, Summer signing Butler has barely played for us at all. The manager took a view in the flawed pre-season programme and that was that.

If you had told me, when we suffered relegation from the Championship, that Collins would still be with us now I would have laughed. Now his longevity can well be linked to our longevity in this division, but his contribution last season when he covered Harry Maguire as much as Maguire covered him seems to have been quickly forgotten by fans and management alike.

Meanwhile, we have seen full backs in the middle of defence, a youngster making errors as he learns his trade played both in the middle and out of position at right back. We have loaned a cart horse from the Premier League and found that our best central defensive partnership so far comprises a left back and a central midfielder.

It is probably fair to say every manager has his favourites. Clough is no exception. Players like Scougall and Baxter have both had spells in the team when form ought to have seen them left out. Baxter has played at 9, 10, out wide, deep central midfield, the manager doesn't know how or where to use him for the best.

Clough is proving to be a manager who is stubborn with a degree of pride that sees him making unpopular decisions and refusing to bow down to fan pressure. Marc McNulty is a raw talent, with a need to be more game savvy, but the frequent and public fault finding, even after game saving contributions seem spiteful, rather than productive. Especially when others are seemingly exempt from such scrutiny or criticism.

Last season the 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 formation worked. We had a solid central defensive partnership and progressive full backs. A settled back four gave us a platform that allowed us to hit teams on the break. We started the Clough era a side lacking in confidence and sides were more willing to attack us, taking the game to us.

There were false starts when you thought we might go on a run, but it didn't last. Reading the thoughts of those committed enough to be at Gresty Road on February 1st you could not have predicted what would follow. No one would have.

From that we had a Plan A. It worked for those final few months, it has worked against better opposition in the cup this season, it hasn't worked in the league this season. Teams are wiser and more wary,sitting deeper and inviting us to find the nous to break them down. More often than not we don't find it. We lack bodies in and around the box, that killer instinct, that incisive final pass or willingness to take a shot from outside the box. Frustration mounts on the pitch and in the stands.

There were signs of this against Wolves towards the end of last season. The general feeling was that we lacked one or two players, yet the way they zipped the passes around and the quality play in possession is still something we lack. The common denominator in the three promoted sides last season was goals. Whilst Rotherham and Wolves had individual strikers who contributed significantly to the tally, all three had goals throughout the team.

Only three of the four relegated sides scored fewer goals than United last season. This season our goal difference is way behind that of the Top 4, so even if the significant points gap can be breached, the paucity of goals could be costly. There has been talk of the towsing a team might get when we hit proper form, but that is as long way off. You don't win matches with possession percentages and neither with shots that are off target. A number of times I've left Bramall Lane this season bemoaning dropped points and the relaxing afternoon enjoyed by the opposition goalkeeper.

Throughout the year our support has been nothing short of magnificent in numbers, however the lack of positivity in our tactical set up has reduced the positivity and volume from the fans at times. The grumblings about the manager are increasing in volume. Ill thought out comments, regarding his league targets and the fans support have done little to temper frustration.

Whilst 2014 delivered several high points and treasured memories, it hasn't been without its problems. We start the year with another FA Cup third round trip to a Premier League team and fans are snapping up tickets for the semi final matches in the other cup competition. We are 11 places and 8 points better off than when we ended 2014, but with just as big a task facing us. We are further adrift of the top two, than the bottom four are to us.

The players we have got are good enough to be several points and places better off than we are. That they are not is as much down to them as the manager and their should be a period of self scrutiny from the squad themselves. Money and wages do not guarantee success, but given United's relative size and budget there is no doubt we are below par in terms of results and league position.

Our 2015 will be largely defined by the end of January. In 31 days we may have started another cup run with an underdog victory, we may have finally reached a cup final for the first time in 80 years, we may have made the signings that will give us that added impetus which will see us converting league draws and defeats to wins, we may actually see a home league win for the first time since October. And in 31 days we may not have achieved any of this. You know how to manage your  expectations watching Sheffield United.

A Love Not Shared

 

 

 

They are words a football loving Dad hopes he will never hear; "I don't want to go the football with Daddy anymore." In fact I didn't hear it directly. I was working away when my wife texted me to say our son had been a bit upset and uttered those words. I knew they had been coming for a while. I knew that he didn't really enjoy going to the match. The restlessness, the questions about his surroundings rather than what was happening on the pitch, the distant stare away from the on-pitch action, lost in day-dreams of happier things.

 

He had found it hard to tell anyone. He didn't want to upset me and he liked the fact that football meant that he spends time with me. I was left in mixed emotions. The fact he goes to football to make me happy made me smile and want to cry at the same time. We explored his concerns and a litany of complaints followed. Most of his concerns can be allayed and his worries and fears can all be pinpointed to a dislike of the anger and aggression he sees at football.

 

People shouting at the end when you lose

 

You shouting at the match when you lose

 

Players getting hurt by tackles (causes crowd anger and shouting)

 

The referee getting it wrong (causes crowd anger and shouting)

 

A lot of this concern arises because he is a sensitive and emotional lad and an incident at Wembley in 2011 when mindless thugs, purporting to be Stoke 'fans' attacked the stationary car my wife and son were sitting in on their way up to the Wembley car parks. Banging on the windows, shouting leering, goading, ripping window flags down and rocking the car. He was 6 and very scared, as was my wife. When they subsequently parked up they were again confronted by a beer-fuelled aggressor, invading their personal space and abusing them for not supporting his team. Rare events maybe, but once they have happened they are engrained, especially at such an age where perceptions are quickly formed and opinions are even harder to retract.

 

Some of the other questions he asked about football when trying to explain his lack of enjoyment are slightly more difficult to answer;

 

"What do the spectators get out of it?"

 

"The players get paid even when they don't win. But when they win, what do the fans get?"

 

The main problem is that he doesn't enjoy football, either watching or playing. Although he says he supports United and Bolton (he often lists the Wanderers first, more to wind me up), he doesn't really have an attachment to them, they are more "my dad's team" or "my mum's team", not "My team". It is an easy joke to make that if he is going to follow United he should get used to being bored and not enjoying it. In fact, it is hard enough watching your team struggle as an adult, never mind as when you are 6, 7 or 8, going along to out of duty as your Dad hopes beyond hope that you may develop that strength of affiliation and bond that he developed with his team when he was your age. If I have been bored numerous times in the last few seasons, how must he have felt? Cold, fed-up, wishing he was elsewhere, wishing his dad would let him play on his phone or his DS.

 

He has gone along to football training, but both times it wasn't a great experience. I first took him along to our local junior team; indoor training with their nursery side, all about learning skills with a game thrown in at the end. He wasn't the best, he was by no means the worst. He seemed to enjoy it, but preferred being in goal and showed some bravery in throwing himself at the feet of groups of goal hangers that always materialise at that age. Then, not long after he had started they said that it was time to reduce a sports hall full of 5 year olds down to a squad for Under 7's football. The axe was to be wielded at reception class age. "If you signed up, you have to be committed. You have to turn up every week regardless." Woe betide those that don't. He wasn't going to make the cut and without the opportunity to continue training and learning we went elsewhere.

 

This isn't some "Football is failing our youngsters" rant, everyone is different and has different life experiences. I know two friends who coach junior sides in Sheffield, I know the challenges they face, one blogs about the trial and tribulations of coaching here, but it has failed my boy. The junior football system didn't garner and develop the interest of young boys who might develop later as footballers. Cast aside at 6, because they aren't good enough and can no longer attend training because they are not in the squad. Teams are set up to compete and not develop, that means they don't coach and develop players who aren't in their squads. It is like Lord of the Flies, survival of the fittest.

 

At the second local club we went to there was little attempt at integrating a new face. Other, clearly talented players laughed when he couldn't do what they could do, or when he stumbled and fall when taking a shot. The braying not picked up on by the coaches or the bullish and ignorant parents who think they have sired or given birth to the next David Beckham, complete with obligatory stupid haircut. We didn't go for many weeks. I love football. I enjoy playing - as well as I can - and will happily watch a match between anyone. But that environment wasn't a comfortable one to be stood in. I watched on with a huge amount of sadness.

 

Would these things not happening have changed anything? Would he enjoy football now? Would he want to play with his friends at school? Would he find interest at Bramall Lane? Who knows, but I can't believe any of it has helped in anyway. Maybe my interest benefited from not going to watch United in the early to mid-80's when United stagnated, crowds dropped and frustration came to the fore. But I still enjoyed playing at school and after on the fields with mates or taking pot shots at my Dad in the back garden. I pored over Shoot! and Match magazines when they were delivered every week. Sunday mornings were reading the football reports and completing my League Ladders. He just hasn't got that interest.

 

What he has got are other interests and other sports he enjoys and if they develop then that might mean over 25 years of being a season ticket holder for me come to an end. What he, or my daughter, wants to do comes first and I will support them and take them to wherever they need to be, when he needs to be there, to pursue what gives him happiness. That is what being a dad is about. He says he will still come to some games with me and I am probably a different fan when he is there with me; more tolerant of his day-dreaming and off-topic chats during the game, trying to give him more idea of what is going on, letting him do his own thing when he wants to.

 

The club's marketing team have used the phrase "True Blades" are at the Lane. That might not always be the case. Sometimes, some things are more important than being at the football, however much I passionately support my team. There are times in the past where I had to be at every home game, be it the Zenith Data Systems Cup or a Testimonial. I went away to watch the Blades at 50/60 grounds. Little would deter me. Things change. Life changes. Fatherhood changes a lot. So if I am not there as often as I used to be, I am not less of a fan, I am just being more of a Dad. You never know, if I don't push it he might come back to football later in life………or maybe he won't. We shall see.

 

Up the Blades!

A Fatherly Hand

I recently asked #twitterblades to vote for their favourite three games of recent times. In response I received a tweet on twitlonger from Blades fan Tristan Woods-Scawen (@mrwoodpigeon) explaining his choice. His well chosen words resonated strongly with me and with his permission I have reproduced his words here. Hopefully they will strike the same chord with a wider audience. Football is a bond that unites us all and many of us will recognise elements of Tristan's story. 

You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. It could be said the same for your football team too. Like many other boys growing up, I was “given” my team by my dad. Although I have never lived in or even near Sheffield, it was The Blades for me.

My dad went to Sheffield University in the early 1960s and having spent his formative years living down south and going to see Aldershot Town play, it was time for a step up in quality and with recent promotion to the First Division, it was BDTBL that he headed and it was an affair that was going to last the rest of his life.

I was born in December 1978, not the best year to have been born a Blade with the team being relegated to Division 3 at the end of that season. By this time my dad had moved with us to live in Essex – not really known to be a hotbed of blades fans. With work and family taking over his weekends, it was more difficult to get to any matches, but the passion remained and I remember Saturday afternoons in the 80s say with my dad watching Teletext refreshing and the occasional celebration.

We moved house again with his work and found ourselves very much in the heart of Coventry City supporters. As 1987 came and the infamous Coventry FA Cup win happened, I confided in my dad that I thought I wanted to go to Highfield Road as all my friends did and asked if he would take me.

You should know that my dad was someone who always said he didn’t really like football unless it was The Blades playing. He was never one to sit down on Sunday to watch West Brom v Blackburn or some equally “non-match” as he would describe them. He had no real interest in going to see Coventry City, but he took me along.

We watched a season together at Highfield Road, but before every game he always whispered to me at kick off that next season he would take me to see some “proper football”. I knew what this meant and whilst Sheffield was basically a foreign country to me, I was excited.

So from my first trip with my dad to BDTBL (Beautiful Down Town Bramall Lane for non-United fans) in 1990, I was hooked. My parents had split up in the early 80s and I hadn’t lived with my dad for years, but doing the weekly 3-hour round trip to Sheffield or travelling to the countless away games was our time together and I’ll never forget it.

The game that stood out for me is the FA Cup Quarter Final against Coventry. As well as having everything a game could have, we were going home to friends and family who were Sky Blues fans. It meant more to us than most I think and at the final whistle we just uncontrollably jumped and hugged. I couldn't wait to get home and rub it in with my Sky Blue mates.

If you are reading this, I’m pretty sure you know that life as a Blade is never dull. There has been some success over the last 25 years, but mostly it’s a catalogue of disappointments of missing out on promotion, relegation, selling the best players and penny-pinching chairmen.

I always read people complaining and they usually have a point, but this is why our club is the greatest club there is. We have had some amazing times at BTDTL (the greatest are usually evening matches it seems to me) and there is always something newsworthy happening at the club. Football with Sheffield United FC is the best soap opera you’ll ever see, the greatest movie plot you’ll ever hear and like the Hollywood greats, it’ll make you laugh and make you cry.

My dad was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2011 and I didn’t know it at the time but we had been to our last match together. After some pretty heavy treatment, he lost much of his speech and it was tough to make conversation. But through the last few months, we talked so much about the matches we had seen and what was happening that season.

We knew he was coming to the end and so was the 2011-2012 season. Ched was gone, but I thought we could still hang on to the automatic promotion place. I thought that would be a great season for us to finish on if we could get that promotion spot.

Nothing is ever straightforward with the Blades though and of course we had to go through the pain of the play offs. I sat with my dad watching the TV as the 432 penalties (or something like that) were taken at Wembley in the final. As Simmo missed his penalty and the game was lost, he just raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

He passed away 12 days later. He was 65 years old.

Somehow, we both knew the season had summed up what it was to be a Blade and that the last match he ever saw was strangely appropriate.

We moan about this club of ours, but a football club will give us much more than we ever realise. It pulls people together; it creates great moments to share and memories to treasure forever.

Unwanted Visitors

With ticket pricing in the news again a real set to started on twitter with fans of various clubs, journalists, fan organisations and fanzines all having their say on the issue of ticket pricing. Sadly much of the debate with fans sinks to two trains of thought. One driven by partisanship where fans are happy to criticise other clubs, but see little fault in their own club.  The other prevalent train of thought seems to be "well I can afford it so what is the problem if some cannot?". This again misses the point and seems symptomatic of an increasingly selfish wider society, where it is all about "me" and balls to everyone else. A survival of the shittiest, if you will.

My piece on Huddersfield fans boycotting Bramall Lane last season, over the prices being charged by for a League One match, caused a bit of debate at the time. My point then was that it needed a concerted national focus on ticket prices and discretionary pricing on the back of the cases being highlighted. As much as there were elements of the Huddersfield boycott to be admired, their fans seemed to direct ire personally at Sheffield United whilst remaining oblivious to their own club doing exactly the same to other clubs (United included); albeit with marginally lower prices.

Nothing has changed in my view. The FSF and other fan organisations need to ride off the back of the current media storm and push the authorities for controls and caps to be in place. This has to be at all levels, not just the Premier League, regardless of whether this creates problems for clubs lower down the leagues. How can Alfreton Town charge £18 for Blue Sq Premier League football? Obviously, the Premier League are in a much better position to absorb these reduction; as the FSF Chairman Malcolm Clarke pointed out last week, the new Premier League TV deal would allow clubs to reduce existing prices by an average of £30 per ticket.

Whilst many focus on the generic issue of high prices for all fans; after all you cannot charge away fans more than a home ticket in an equivalent part of the stadium, others focus on the price discrimination in play with game categorisation and the added difficulties of the away fan, the debate set me thinking on a different track - whether football clubs really want away fans in their stadiums at all?

In some ways it seems like a vaguely romantic notion that clubs would see the benefits of away support; the thrilling atmosphere of fans chanting support for their team, shouting down the opposition, generating a buzz and a visceral roar to the game. Two sets of fans going verbally head to head in a to and fro of songs and chants is an integral part of going to the match. Yet, with a few exceptions, is this becoming a thing of the past?

Maybe I notice it more as clubs come to Bramall Lane with away support proportionate to their home attendances; dwarfed by empty red seats around them and 18,000 fans in the other three sides. But switch on Match of the Day or Super Sunday and you will see it in the upper echelons of the game. How many clubs sell all their away tickets, how many times can you hear the away fans chanting in and amongst the home support. How often is a match played out to the sound of Martin Tyler and Gary Neville and little else, aside from moments of goalmouth action?

Are the clubs bothered? Are the TV executives bothered? When the Premier League started and ticket prices were more affordable there were empty seats, what is there incentive to do anything about it?  You could even see them sticking on a pre-recorded tape of crowd noise, who in the millions of Sky subscribers, those that seemingly matter most these days, would notice? They seemingly aren't botheredabout empty seats, the only people who are bothered are opposition fans who have another verbal stick to attack the opposition with.

Having given it a bit of thought over the last week I can see why clubs might want to minimise away support. At first I thought the theories set out below might only benefit clubs in the Premier League, where capacity is reached and demand for tickets outstrips supply, yet some could still be applied to Football League clubs and maybe the increase in costs for handling away supporters outstrips the often minimal uplift in turnover from them being there?

Financial benefits of selling those seats to home fans

Obviously there are segregation issues to address and this is not always straight forward depending upon ground design, access routes etc. but if tickets are returned and sold to home supporters there could be a significant financial uplift for the club.

With tickets priced between £30 and £65 the cost of attending as an away fan could be anywhere between £100 and £200 depending upont ravel costs, food and drink, programme etc. In most cases the home fans have much lower additional costs of attending and more likely/comfortable to spend that on a ticket.

Certainly at the larger Premier league clubs, where there are more members than seats and limits on match-day availability the lack of opportunities to see their team will encourage the casual fan to look past the ticket price. After all, it is not like they are spending this amount week in, week out.

Additional discretionary spend

Money made from other discretionary spend  should increase as well. Firstly as a home fan there is a greater willingness to spend money at your club on food and drink for example. Then there is the additional spend in other club concessions and the club shop. Granted not every additional home fan will do this, but whatever proportion does, it is all additional income the club wouldn’t have had with away fans in those seats.

Sale of alcohol to away fans vs. home fans

Some grounds still impose a ban on the sale of alcohol to away fans. Obviously this will be relaxed if home fans take up the seats. Again it is a marginal financial benefit, but it is still additional profit.

Cost of policing and stewarding?

The greater the away support; the greater the costs incurred. Policing bills increase with increased resources deployed to maintain segregation and control outside the ground. The clubs' stewarding contractors will charge more for managing and maintaining safety in the ground. For the same sized crowd, the stewarding requirements will increase, the higher the proportion of away fans.

Partisan atmosphere

It could be argued that minimising the number of away supporters gives the home team an edge. Many clubs already try to marginalise the impact of away support; usually by placing them in a distant part of the stadium and making them barely seen or heard - take the rafters of St James' Park as an example.

The Premier League has said that it will encourage clubs to bring in new incentives to encourage away fans but will not intervene directly over ticket prices. There have been calls for a cap on the amounts clubs are charging away fans - particularly where the categorisation of matches is in place - but the league insists tickets are a matter for individual clubs. Yet again complete avoidance of the issue.

There have been various proposals put forward on the ticket price issue, many focusing on the problem for away supporters. One suggestion was that coaches should be subsidised for travelling fans, a laudable suggestion to some and the kind of incentive the Premier League were clearly angling for; but the cynic in me sees it differently.

Not all fans want to travel by coach, be held at service stations, be deposited next to the ground close to kick off, without the chance to explore a town/city and have a choice over where they eat and drink beforehand. This kind of suggestion just plays into the authorities' hands. We have already seen examples of "coach bubble" tactics from police,where fans have to buy joint match and coach tickets, and must travel to their home ground for a journey, escorted by police to the stadium. This has been used for high profile games, where they see a risk of violence, but this is hardly going to discourage them from making its use more widespread. At times it is the clubs as much as the police that are advocating such controls.

Yet again, what is proposed as a solution ends up being a punishment for the majority and reduces their civil liberties. Add in legislation that means that you can’t drink in a mini bus or coach going to or from a ground, it adds little to the supporter experience. Meanwhile, for those who arrive by train, it’s not unusual to be met off the train by police,corralled to a local pub and effectively made to stay there until shortly before kick-off.

I, as a shirt wearing fan, have been told where I will drink, not been allowed to leave for the ground well ahead of kick off and then been escorted there (arriving as the match kicked off), all the while having police dogs straining on the leash and cameras trained on us. Away fans are the enemy treated with contempt and suspicion, with no attempt to recognise the differences amongst them. So what if they miss a few minutes of the game.

I accept that there are some clubs taking positive steps and a look at the site of The Fan Experience Company http://bradleyprojects.com/blog.php?id=5 highlights interesting and welcome initiatives from Brighton, Cardiff and AstonVilla.

As an example; Cardiff addressed explored each visiting fantouch point with all of the key club representatives involved (including the Safety Advisory Committee, stewards, police, fans and those responsible for the away fan experience within the club itself), unravelled it and effectively re-engineered it. Yet the irony in Cardiff’s stance in trying to make visiting fans more welcome is that their away support can sometimes suffer from restrictions on their travel and allocations. I heard recently of potential issues they face going to Leeds, whereby restrictions on ticket collection and an early kick off are being imposed, with a threat of tickets being withheld otherwise.

The initiatives mentioned above have reduced instances of crowd trouble and increased pre-match revenues from away supporters, yet they are the exception rather than the rule. They will remain the exception unless the mind-sets of those running the game change. Talking about the Manchester City game Arsene Wenger commented;

"I am really worried they are high for our supporters.For the visitors, it only happens once a year, so that is less of a concern. We sell out our games, but ideally you want ticket prices to be affordable to everybody. It is a very delicate subject." You can argue that he is focusing on his club and the specifics of the ticket price furore and also that he is not in a position to influence club policy, but if that self-serving attitude pervades the whole of the football club that has to be a concern. As long as our fans are okay, we don't care about the rest.

The game of football has devalued away fans for many years; demonised by the authorities, treated like second class citizens by clubs, police and stewards, their football watching made more difficult by television schedules and prohibitive costs, and all without a second thought. Not all of this is driven by the clubs, but they are complicit in it happening. Away fans are a vital component of a British football match, more so than in other countries and aided by geography and a culture of travelling support. It seems at the minute that host clubs have only a little interest in their well-being or experience. There may come a point in the near future where they don't care for them at all.

Things I have learned about football in 2012 - No. 2

For the second in this end of year round-up of posts, a few thoughts on the Portsmouth FC situation and the response of some of their support.

Pompey Chimes Out of Tune

 

 

 

Portsmouth FC fans ought to deserve some sympathy and, for a while, I have given it to them. But over the course of the year they have started to grate with, rather than ingratiate themselves to, some fellow football fans; me included.

What has happened at Portsmouth could happen to any club. Over time, clubs have been set back or destroyed by the unscrupulous actions of local businessmen or tainted by much vaunted foreign owners. The continued failure of Fit & Proper rules for ownership should be a constant source of embarrassment to the footballing authorities and one can only hope that the financial fair play rules are more adept at preventing the financial meltdown of clubs funded well beyond self-sustainable means.

 

But as the Portsmouth administration lingers on for the second time, I have grown tired of the self-righteous bullshittery mouthed by certain supporters of the club. When questions were raised about the high profile (for League One) short term signings being made by the club at the start of the season; including a player who, prior to signing for Pompey, couldn't negotiate a deal with a club with 18,000 crowds and a salary cap to meet, they couldn't see the problem. Detractors were chided for knowing nothing about the financial state of the club and generally being "clueless". True the administrator should not be running the club so close to the financial precipice, but who really knows?

There was nothing to stop Portsmouth signing professional players to pep up their squad this season, but with many local businesses remaining unpaid or receiving pennies in the pound, the irony of signing Championship and League One players appeared lost on many. You can point the finger at previous owners, but the one constant that remains, for now, is the football club and as one commenter on this excellent post at The Two Unfortunates was quick to point out, the administrator of the football club was sitting on a £6m bank balance.

Whether the amount is a fact or not, the problem remains that yet again a football club hits financial meltdown and leaves a trail of destruction for local businesses in its wake, yet they still have funds to pay players' wages. To creditors offered 20p in the £ in the first CVA (and never saw it) and potentially 2p in the £ now, that £6m that Pompey have burning a hole in their bank account (and are using to fund good League One players) must provide great succour as they struggle to keep their business running and cut jobs.

Accusations of jealousy abounded on social networks;

 

"You were only hoping for an easy three points" - No we are looking for fairness in the way clubs are treated and special cases not being made for others.

"We have a right to sign players to be competitive; it's in the Football League rules" - What rules are these then? The Football League rules state:

"Each club shall play its full strength in all matches played under the auspices of The League unless some satisfactory reasons are given."

That is the strongest available side. If you can only sign League 2 standard players or use your youth players that is tough.

"It's just not fair on Portsmouth" - Who said football, and life for that matter, is fair? If you are dealt a duff hand, then you just have to play it. Cup finals and AC Milan at Fratton Park - shall we disregard those then, given you, in effect, achieved them through financial doping?

"You just don't understand, it is a lot more complicated than a simplistic narrative" - I am sure it is, but the fact remains how certain fans behave now they have got here is causing people to lose any compassion or understanding they might have had for the circumstances.   

I have even heard the "big club" card being played by Pompey fans this year, the joker in the pack that belies a multitude of sins. How are they measured as a big club? Crowds of less than 20,000? An FA Cup in 2008? A Europa League campaign? Two League titles over 60 years ago? The chiding of other club's fans demonstrated an arrogance that saddened me. The use of "tin-pot" to deride fans of other smaller clubs; the last desperate cry of fans who cannot accept their club has found its rightful place, below where they perceive they should be and they refuse to accept it.

Underlying the questions being asked is a belief amongst supporters of other clubs that Pompey are getting opportunities that were not afforded to clubs in similar positions before. Smaller clubs have been to hell in a handcart for less. Pompey's points deductions have been nowhere near those suffered by Luton Town or South coast rivals AFC Bournemouth. To think there was talk of an appeal against the ten point deduction when they eventually exit administration (again) was some sort of sick joke.

The fact that football remains the exception in terms of insolvencies, thanks to the ridiculous football creditor rules, is one thing, but to see varying punishments being doled out by the authorities following CVAs and administrations is quite another. Portsmouth fans should be thankful that they haven't been treated any worse. Other clubs have.

Much reference is made to the wonderful support of the South Coast club and whilst the Pompey Trust deserve enormous credit for their efforts to salvage their club, the tribal and aggressive rhetoric of a number of their supporters in defending their club and its current undertakings, leaves me cold.

I don't wish ill on Portsmouth FC, I really do hope they find a long-term solution to the club's woes, but forgive me if I cock a deaf 'un to the sanctimony. If Kevin McCabe ever properly pulled the plug on the Blades' funding, or sold out to a miscreant businessman, I'd like to think I'd accept our situation and deal with it with a greater deal of maturity and lesser degree of arrogance than that demonstrated by some of the Portsmouth support in the last twelve months.

Tell you why I don't like Derby Day

I don't like Derby Days. There, I have said it. A massive game, the biggest crowd of the season, a raucous, sometimes volatile atmosphere and I don't enjoy it one little bit.

For me Sheffield United v "the team from S6"  turns me into an anti-football fan. Derby Day for me is not necessarily all about winning, although clearly that is what I really want. The important thing for me is not losing. As long as "they" don't have the upper hand, the bragging rights, I don't care. The next job, following any Derby match, is to focus on finishing above them in the league table.

Don't get me wrong, Sheffield Derby days are special occasions, something perhaps never properly recognised by the national media. The intensity of noise and the atmosphere generated within Bramall Lane (or even dare I admit, the other place)  could easily be compared with the other derby matches traditionally viewed as the standard bearers; Merseyside, Manchester, Glasgow. I just do not find it as exciting as a supporter of one of the clubs. With such special occasions of such rarefied intensity, just what is my problem?

My negative feelings arise for three reasons. My formative football watching years saw "them" generally have the upper hand in terms of league standing. I grew up in an era where United and "the other lot" were in different divisions, derby games were reserved for a pre-season friendly, the County Cup, a testimonial match or a Zenith Data Systems Cup game. Rarely did we win, or so it felt.

Most of my friends were not United fans, they knew how to gloat, they new how to belittle. Even then delusions of grandeur were visible; the first signs of the self belief that have led to the proclamations of how massive they are today. Claims that filter every level of the club, right through to the manager and his comparisons of relative stature. One week they are like the Barcelona of League One, the following Manchester United, the next Real Madrid. I didn't want to play "them", I just wanted them to fail. I wanted them to swap divisions with us. To fall away into a long decline.

The second reason comes from an earlier stages of my life and my first real Sheffield Derby memory. I was 4, but I wasn't at a match. United, ahead of that team from across the city in the Division 3 table, lost 4-0 at the other place on Boxing Day 1979. I remember the anguish of my father and grandfather as they arrived home to continue a family Christmas marred by events on the football pitch.

All that frustration was kept for posterity on an audio cassette by my mum. The click of play/and record as the front door clicks open and then bangs to. My running footsteps out of the lounge into the hallway; "4-0 Grandad!" I say in surprise and slight indignation. "I know….they were rubbish…." he mutters forlornly. Voices then tail off as both my father and grandfather head into the kitchen to vent their frustrations, out of view and out of earshot of the children.

By the time we looked to gain revenge at Bramall Lane in April, we had fallen away from the top end of the table, whilst they were heading for an inevitable promotion. A 1-1 draw was played out, remembered more for Terry Curran's goal for them, rather than anything the Blades achieved. I think I was there, I can't say I remember. As a 5 year old, the games I attended blurred into one a little, even those with 42,000 in the ground.

These initial memories of Sheffield derby games can scar a young child. Seeing the effect it had on my Grandad, a man not afraid to let his passions and his hurt show where football was concerned. Defeats like Boxing Day were taken like a personal affront to his support. The subsequent relegation to the Fourth Division was something he never really got over, he passed away a week or so after.

The next time we were to play a league derby was some 11 years later. For one season prior we had swapped divisions, but they had come straight back up to the top division. As a 16 year old I understood more about football then. I was passionate about football then.  That first league derby in 11 years was, thanks to police advice, played on a misty November Sunday at Bramall Lane. The other lot were flying on their return to the top flight and expecting a comfortable win.

I remember the early tension vividly and then the outpouring of sheer joy of watching young Blades midfielder Dane Whitehouse breaking forward, bearing down on goal and slotting home the first goal. Then in the second half, Brian Deane squeezed the ball between Chris Woods' legs to send Blades fans into ecstasy and leave Woods facing months of mocking for his bow-legged keeping.  His situation not helped by United winning the return match across the city 3-1, although he was less culpable that night.

Much happier times indeed, although I think I enjoyed post match celebrations as much as the day itself.  In the time since we have enjoyed what feels like a slight upper hand in Steel City encounters. Despite that, I cannot say I have enjoyed the matches per se.

Even at 3-0 at half time, as it was two season ago at Bramall Lane, you can never sit comfortably and enjoy the rest of the game. On that occasion the Blades were pegged back to 3-2 and clung on. I was the sole football fan in a  Greek hotel bar that night, a long standing fortnight of family holiday coinciding with just one home game being played when the fixtures being announced. Yet those who joined me found it hard to sit with a man who was on holiday to relax, yet appeared to be displaying all the signs of a nervous breakdown until he exploded in hysteria at the final whistle.

That really highlights my  final reason; that even when you are in front, the 90 minutes are defined by a feeling that can only be described as someone grasping hold of your guts and twisting them into a contorted shape. Rather like a children's party entertainer transforming his balloons into something you only know is a dog when he makes barking noises at the watching children. Your legs shake violently, banging against the people in the adjacent seats. You lean forward, twitching, before launching out of your seat to roar out your support for your team or hurl spittle laden invective at the opposition players and the their fans, amongst whom are many of your friends.

By the end, if you have won, something Blades fans have experienced more than Owls over the years I hasten to add, you celebrate. Well you try to. Hoarse from exhortations, legs drained of nervous energy you try to jump up and down and shout, but it doesn't quite happen. No matter what it looks and sounds like, it is the fact you are attempting to do it that matters.

I don't really enjoy experiencing such extreme behaviour and emotion. Not because of wanting to appear sensible, not because I have a lack of passion nor from any attempt to keep up professional appearances, but from seeing the effect of letting a game consume you and your health as it did my Grandad. Not letting things go, letting results rule your moods and your life.

We have been fortunate that many of the recent seasons have seen us above Wednesday; it is 12 years since they held the upper hand in terms of final league position. Despite all the incredible highs and gut wrenching lows of these matches, I am much happier to define our success over Wednesday based on the league tables. Give me a season where we are sat in a division above Wednesday, rather than playing them twice a season.

But if we have to play them, please let us not lose….and then let's set about overtaking them in the league. Thank you.

I have written the United part of a Steel City Derby Preview for football league site theseventytwo, you can read it here.

My Hopes for The Cradle of Football in 2011

20 years ago Stuart Roy Clarke started his footballing opus - The Homes of Football. As he states on his website and within several of his books he believed himself "to have a mission in telling the changing face of football, post Hillsborough." He believed he "was stood on the precipice of history, peculiarly privileged in (his) view, to witness a national institution in big trouble, reinventing itself."

This Christmas I increased my collection of Clarke's work by asking for and receiving (I have been a good boy all year - after all) The Cradle of The Game. This pulls together 20 years of capturing the passion, the atmosphere, the rituals, the emotion, the game, at all levels from the Westmorland League to World Cups and European Championships.

 

It is a vital and impressive piece of work that every football fan should own. You can buy it, along with his other books, here. Clarke's photography is so simple, yet so evocative to the senses you can hear the noise, feel the tension, taste the greasy burgers and feel yourself physically swerving around the river of urine pouring down the steps at Tynecastle in "Bogs Overspill". 

In the introduction to the The Cradle of The Game, Clarke states that he had "a real sense of mission to start telling the story anew. Club after club is facing dereliction, given the global recession combined with over-reaching oneself. Even though the game is ever more popular in footfall and some of the foot-ball is the best ever served. It’s just the sums that don’t add up."

He is so right. The feelgood factor that followed Italia 90 elevated football to such a positive level in the public consciousness that the Sky input just added impetus to the new football bandwagon. At the same time the fans were finding a voice, particularly through the fanzine movement, and as football changed, the public perception changed, the money came in to the game and the fan experience changed, initially in positive ways.

Now the fans are rising once more and the messages they are delivering are strikingly similar. Primarily fed up of being taken for granted, but also fed up of a game and players so far removed from the grim reality of everyday life in modern Britain.

As a fellow Blades supporter put it to me the other day, when tweeting about the increasing demands and expectations of fans in this country, "£30+ a ticket, fans fleeced in club shop, players earning more per week than most people earn per annum. Money has made fans want it now." As the money poured into football, with little benefit filtering down to the fans, it has empowered supporters to be more demanding of their teams to an extent which is sometimes hard to reconcile expectation with achievements. The exchange of tweets followed news of Sunderland (7th in the Premier League) being booed off by their supporters after a home defeat to Blackpool and Cardiff City (2nd in the Championship) internet forums being filled with calls for Dave Jones to be sacked. I struggle to get my head around it.

Football in 2010 has not been particularly enjoyable for me in a number of ways, not least trying to introduce my 5 year old son to live football with the dross on display at Bramall Lane. On the plus-side his season ticket only cost me £10 Junior Blades membership, a pricing policy which has been one of the few positives for me this year. That said, there has been plenty to dislike about football in 2010;

Where 45 quid gets you a restricted view seat at Stamford Bridge and £34 gets you the best seats for a  match at Sheffield United or Leeds United. Yet, average ticket prices for the competitive Bundesliga in Germany cost on average 21 Euros. And still German fans are protesting at the increasing price.

Where you have no choice but to sit and if you stand out of your seat for any prolonged period you are threatened with expulsion from the ground or arrest.

Where it has taken intense fan pressure for safe standing to be considered by the authorities. Yet in Germany these areas exist and can be entered for under 10 Euros.

Safe standing in Hamburg - from FSF

Where the food quality/price ratio is so badly skewed that a fiver is likely to provide you with an evening on the toilet rather than a nutritious and filling snack. Only at football can Guinness be advertised at £3.50 per pint, only for the pump to be foregone in favour of a can from the fridge when your money has been taken.

Where clubs feel it is necessary to put the words of fan written club anthems up on the big screen , just in case people forget the words.

Where clubs are happy to receive positive PR for foregoing shirt sponsorship in order to put a local charity on their shirts. Only then paying over a promised cut of shirt sales to the aforementioned charity when the lack of payment was made public.

Where spurious "football rules" are allowed to over rule insolvency law allowing footballers to be paid money they are owed ahead of small local suppliers and the St Johns Ambulance service.

Where it is the fans who put their hands in their pockets to donate money to pay debts owed by the clubs to St Johns Ambulance the value of which would barely be a week's wage for one of those players.

Where a winding up from Revenue & Customs seemingly poses no real threat to owners who have financially mis-managed their club, living a dream that bore little resemblance to the nightmarish reality.

Where at least 28 professional or semi-professional UK football clubs have gained the winding up order badge of honour in the last year and are willing to partake in the ultimate game of brinkmanship with HMRC before pulling a financial rabbit from a hat.

Where the big clubs are granted time they barely deserve whilst smaller clubs, who can more legitimately play the "community card" so prevalent in the arguments of defence from the larger clubs, are put out of business. R.I.P. Ilkeston Town and Chester City 

The redundant New Manor Ground, Ilkeston (Copyright:thisisderbyshire.co.uk)

A game where the Premier League, the FA and the Football League's' definition of the words "fit and proper" is looser than MC Hammer's trousers.

Where a club's fans are enthralled by overseas investment and promises from Thai Duty Free Magnates, Indian Chicken Companies or from serial football owners/administrators Peter Ridsdale / Milan Mandaric. Yet you cannot help but feel it will all end in tears.

Where such enormous sums of money are pumped into the game that the need to compete leads owners to gamble not just on short term prizes, but on the long term future of clubs.

Where player wage costs increased dramatically in 2010 to 67% of total revenue, in some cases turnover barely covers player wages.

Where the media hype English players and the Premier League beyond belief, yet explode in disbelief when it all goes wrong.

Where Richard Keys nearly ejaculates on live TV at the thought of being able to smell the tunnel as Arsenal and Chelsea line-up pre-match.

Where Andy Gray, desperately trying to maintain his support for Sky's Premier League "product" dismisses the skills of Messi et al (displayed weekly by his employers), by suggesting that the Argentinian wouldn't fancy it on a cold wet night at Stoke. 

Where Wayne Rooney can sarcastically address the nation following his and England's abject World Cup draw with Algeria. Berating the reaction of fans who had spent thousands of pounds travelling halfway round the world to watch and support the team.



Loyal Rooney - Picture ITV



“That's what loyal support is,” said Rooney, yet four months later Rooney demonstrated his admirable values and loyalty handing in a transfer request and vowing never to play for Manchester United again. A week later all was well at Manchester United and Rooney had a new deal earning a reported £250,000 per week, not far off ten times the median average annual salary in this country.

Where a 2018 World Cup bid becomes a not unanticipated waste of £15m. An ineptly run project from start to finish with no leadership, a bizarre choice of potential stadia, scandals and disappointment that Sepp Blatter's push to take football to new frontiers didn't include bringing it home. Maybe the fact that the Chairman of the Premier League and Chairman of Club England distanced himself so far from the bid told you all you need to know about its chances of success.

I hope 2011 brings some sanity to the world of football.

That some of the harsh financial realities that a large proportion of the country are now facing properly hit home with football clubs and players alike and that the playing field starts to level out.

That promoted teams can sensibly establish themselves in the Premier League without taking themselves to the brink to do it.

That the authorities clamp down harder and penalise clubs who, in my opinion, cheat by signing players that they know they will not be able to pay the full monthly cost of employing. That is by not paying over the PAYE and NI they have "deducted" from their players salaries.

That football's preferential creditor rule is successfully challenged by HMRC leading to a change in the way players contracts are negotiated and that the support line of local clubs, the small businesses that come in and maintain the electrics, fix the burst pipes, paint the stands have as much chance of receiving some form of payment as your star striker.

That we see a flattening or reversal of ticket prices so that we don't see empty seats everywhere, so that teams can take a good level of away support to each game and we can get back to having decent banter and a competitive atmosphere at matches.

That fans are recognised as the lifeblood of the game, a valued customer, deserving respect and worthy of an opinion. Not a consumer who will just accept what is presented as "the way it is".

That fans are able to have their say in the way their clubs are run and that greater opportunity is provided for fans' opinions to be proffered. Most of us are quite intelligent, often more so than some of those making the decisions.

Look I know what you are thinking, I said they were hopes, I suspect the reality will be far different. Stuart Roy Clarke's book does not present a footballing utopia, but highlights the little things you have forgotten about that are missing in the sterilised stadia and money-fuelled, media-hyped modern game. If some of the things I hoped for happen, we might get some of those things back. 

Happy New Year!

PS If someone can tell me at some point during 2011 what (ahem -Sir) Dave Richards does and how he received his knighthood I would be greatly appreciative. Answers on a postage stamp I am guessing, or a two word comment below, ending in All.