Stand up for the punters
Stop sticking away fans in a different postcode
THE Premier Sports Cup might not be everyone’s cup of Tetley but it does give us a flavour of what’s to come.
It also should give Scottish football the chance to try a few things out and learn a few lessons.
Unfortunately the folk running our game don’t like to take a telling. Our lot would rather just keep making the same mistakes.
Take Wednesday night at Rugby Park. A decent tie between two evenly-matched sides.
A 3,000-plus turnout in the middle of July, when most folks are on holiday or watching the golf, isn’t too shabby a crowd.
But it’s what we do with them that is the problem. It was another game on the telly when we simply refused to stick on a bit of lippy and a nice dress to make a decent impression.
Partick Thistle brought a band of lively away fans – but where were they? Perched up in the gods at the back of the Chadwick Stand.
Folk watching on the box got a lovely view of swathes of empty seats.
Listen, this is not a bash at Killie. They all do it. Week in, week out, away fans are fired in to sections as far from the pitch at possible. They are tucked in to top tiers, away in snidey corners or behind dirty great big pillars.
We know why clubs do it. They don’t want hordes behind goals chanting and cheering on their side when the home teams are meant to have an advantage.
But it looks blooming terrible, and it wrecks any chance of an atmosphere.
We’re trying to sell the game here. We’re trying to attract eyeballs and sponsors, grow Scottish football.
We do that and everyone benefits. Hiding away fans only hinders the game.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Our clubs tend to treat their own fans with contempt, what chance have rival fans got?
But let’s not forget something here. Supporters of other sides are being asked to stump us serious cash to travel to matches.
It’s all money that goes straight in to the coffers of the home team. Yet they are being treated like absolute trash.
There are a plenty of folk in suits at football clubs, the ones in sharp suits who make power point presentations.
The use phrase such as ‘going forward’ and ‘frontfacing business’, whatever the heck that guff means.
They also refer to fans as customers. Well, are away fans not customers too?
How on earth can they get away with charging punters 30 bucks a brief and then making them watch games from a different postcode?
Want another example? The penalty shootout. To take it in front of an empty stand that resembles a building site at the moment, when supporters are housed in the stand behind the other goal, 120 yards away, is an absolute joke. It’s disgraceful. And embarrassingly small fry and short-term thinking.
Our game has some right rough edges but things like this can be easily ironed out.
The SPFL have two weeks to the big kick-off and should rush through legislation to bin this nonsense.
Away fans should get as many tickets as possible and be as close to the action as they can get.
Will it happen? Absolutely no chance. The league is run by the clubs and they’d need to vote it through.
Our lot can’t see beyond the end of their own noses, never mind taking a peek at the bigger picture.
We know the Old Firm travel and this doesn’t really concern them as rival chairman are happy to hand over entire stands to make a buck when they come to town.
But it’s about the rest. The likes of Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, right down to clubs like Thistle and others, have cracking backing on the road.
Yet you’d never know it when there’s banks of empty seats between them and the real stuff.
The new season is nearly upon us – sort it out SPFL.
Hiding away supporters only hinders the game. Sort it out SPFL