Once again in
the world of football, we are seeing fans wishes being ignored by their owners.
At a time when ticket prices are constantly increasing, it is more important
than ever to show loyal and adoring supporters respect.
Assem Allam’s
statement regarding the “City Till I Die” chants, is one that certainly lacks
respect. The owner of Hull controversially stated that the fans responsible for
those chants could “die when they want” and that those who displayed banners
were “hooligans” who were responsible for distracting the players.![]() |
Die when they want.. |
After a glorious
season which saw the club earn promotion, the tables have well and truly turned
with the fans being neglected.
It’s a situation
which could have been avoided had the owner considered the effect of a name
change on the fans, and realised that while he is the one that injects money
into the outfit, it is a club that belongs to the fans. Not just him.
Dave Whelan once
said that he was not the owner of Wigan, but a custodian of the club and that
the fans were the real owners. This is a statement that ought to ring true for
all clubs. A football club ought to belong to the community, to the people who
have loved it for far longer than those who buy it with financial interests.
It is
disappointing that we have come to a stage in football where owners adopt the
belief that they can do whatever they wish with a football club on the grounds
of global expansion, or in attempts to increase profit, making decisions with
no regard for the fans that have spent their lives supporting the club.
It is an age
where we are seeing managers being sacked by the day because they have not
exceeded the often unrealistic expectations set by the owners, we are seeing
weak candidates who are not necessarily worthy of the responsibilities of their
job being employed, and we’re seeing massive changes to the traditional and
core values of historic football clubs.
As the oligarchs
continue to monopolise the industry, fans are expected to just sit back and be
grateful for the money invested into their clubs. This would not be as much as
a problem if the clubs were well and truly belonging to the fans. But as owners
tear them apart, and revamp them into “new” clubs, it is difficult for fans to
take.
We have seen the
breakdown of fan owner relationships occur at numerous clubs, Portsmouth,
Coventry City, Birmingham, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City and now Hull City.
Something needs to be done about it.
This vicious
circle always comes back to the need for fans to have some involvement in the
running of their clubs. When you examine the Bundesliga in comparison to the Football
League, while it may not be perfect, it is still a great example of a league
where fans are, on the whole, fairly happy.
In the Football
League, however, this is not the case. Fans are having to put up with
completely incompetent owners who have no care, or regard for the history and traditions
of these clubs. It is not necessarily a problem to do with “foreign owners”,
but more a problem of incompetence. It is fair to say that the “fit and proper”
test regulated by the FA is simply not working, as more and more football clubs
are being exposed to owners who aren’t running the clubs in a fit and proper
manner.
This is
something the FA has to take responsibility for. As a Blackburn Rovers fan, I
was horrified at the abuse that was directed towards the fans of my club as
they protested against the owners, and the employees they were hiring to run
the club. It was not fair – fans of a club do not get to choose who owns their
club, or who manages their club. They have to deal with it.
When it all goes
wrong, when a club dips into administration, or is put under a transfer embargo,
or forced to suffer a ground share, or experiences two or three successive
relegations, the owners can leave. They could sell up if they wanted to.
A fan can’t do
that. A fan cannot just abandon their club in times of hardship, fans are the
people who stick around and pick up the pieces when the outfit implodes.
Yet with all
this in mind, fans are the people who don’t get a say. They don’t get to voice
their opinions. Something needs to change.
Whether this be
the FA implementing an updated regulatory system to perform checks on
prospective owners, or whether they begin to make the correct decisions in
situations such as the one Hull City find themselves in, something definitely
needs to change.
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