Actions for fans

The news that Manchester City returned 900 tickets for their January visit to Arsenal was the ember that sparked the current fire but match-going fans have long known that football is unaffordable for many. Twenty’s Plenty aims to do something about that.

In the past weeks, months and years there have been loads of different campaigns, petitions and surveys which highlighted this. Nine out of 10 fans agree that ticket prices are too high and thousands of you are prepared to do something about it. The FSF’s role is to try and harness that energy and our events in Manchester and London (January 2013) were a starting point.

Individual fans, fanzines, websites and supporters’ groups from dozens of different clubs came together to have their say. It’s the first time that many of these groups from rival clubs have joined forces and agreed on, well, anything!

That in itself is significant but it’s only the start.

The FSF can tell the story on a national level and we’ll be speaking to the FA, Football League and Premier League about Twenty’s Plenty in the near future but we firmly believe that this campaign will be won by fans at club level. 

Clubs are more inclined to listen to their fans than anyone else. If a club’s fanbase is prepared to say, “We back Twenty’s Plenty and think away fans should be rewarded for their loyalty” then we might have a chance. 

The London and Manchester events heard from fans with all sorts of ideas and we’ve listed some of them below. It’s by no means a definitive list but it’s a starting point. If you think we’ve missed a trick email your thoughts to tickets@fsf.org.uk.

Possible actions:

• Contact your club and tell them you back Twenty’s Plenty and call upon football clubs at all levels of the game to recognise and reward the amazing contribution of travelling fans by getting together to agree an across the board price cap on away match tickets of £20 (£15 for concessions).
• Bring together the fans’ groups, fanzines, websites and blogs who support your team and write a joint letter to the club outlining your commitment to Twenty’s Plenty. How about doing that but on a regional basis with rival clubs? We can help you contact rival supporters’ groups or fanzines.
• Visual displays are another way for fans to support tha campaigns aims as Liverpool fans have shown. If you are going to organise a visual display like this please email tickets@fsf.org.uk for further advice as it’s not quite as simple as turning up at the ground with your banner at the ready. Clubs like to be informed in advance and there might be other issues such as fireproofing, ensuring other fans’ views aren’t blocked and so on.
• Protests outside the ground/handing out flyers. Again, we’d advise you contact tickets@fsf.org.uk before going ahead with these actions as there are often other factors which need to be considered (e.g. informing the police, club and council). It also allows us to promote your actions to fellow fans.
• Designated “walkouts” or boycotts (such as Germany’s Kein Zwanni) or mid-match actions (e.g. fans turn back en masse for a minute or two). Some fans in attendance argued for these actions while others felt they were unachievable, unrealistic or even counter-productive.