Patrick Barclay: Why should only away fans benefit from Premier League's TV deal?

Out of pocket: Fans champions the Twenty's Plenty campaign
(Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Patrick Barclay9 February 2016

If anything, the Football Supporters’ Federation were too moderate with their demand to peg ticket prices for away fans at £20.

True, the accompanying slogan — Twenty’s Plenty — resonated. But why should only away fans benefit from the fortunes about to be pumped into the Premier League by television?

I accept many have to pay lots more than the ticket price when they follow their team.

Many Newcastle fans, for example, must spend a large proportion of their incomes on rail fares or petrol.

Deloitte Football Money League Top Twenty

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By contrast, an Arsenal fan who lives in greater London faces little or no extra cost when his team plays away to Tottenham, Chelsea, West Ham or even Watford, and vice-versa, and this imbalance is said to have caused clubs to have spent so long discussing the issue at their recent meeting.

It is said some would prefer to subsidise travel costs, which would be fair but involve too much administration. So the simple solution initially suggested by the FSF would be better all round. And, if fans want to enforce that, they have the power to do rather more than indulge in the gesture politics — however impressive — seen at Anfield last weekend.

My first thought, when it happened in the 77th minute, was that Liverpool must have wished they had set their new top price at, say, £95, so the exodus had taken place after the final whistle in line with Jurgen Klopp’s wishes.

But, to be serious, something needs to be done about more than “away fans”.

Lots of people travel hundreds of miles to their team’s every home match and they, too — whether they are asking for it or not — deserve to share in the Premier League’s success because full houses are a factor in the English game’s appeal to television audiences here and overseas.

A significant factor, too. As the clubs would discover if Anfield proved only the start, if fans across the land went on strike — in other words, didn’t walk in, let alone walk out — and the vaunted “product” started to look like Serie A on a bad day. If only. As I say, they’re too nice.

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