tfs 018`s - Football Supporters` Federation

About tfs
Contents
November 2009
The Football Supporter 018
About the Football Supporters’
Federation (FSF)
The Football Supporter (TFS) is the magazine
of the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF),
the national organisation for all football
supporters, comprising over 170,000
individual fans and members of associate
groups and supporters’ associations from
every club in the professional structure and
many from the Pyramid. All material is ©The
Football Supporters’ Federation. Please feel
free to lift things and to do us the courtesy
of a call beforehand and appropriate
acknowledgments. Or there’ll be trouble!
Contact the FSF
The Football Supporters’ Federation
The Cherry Red Records Fans’ Stadium
– Kingsmeadow,
Jack Goodchild Way,
422A Kingston Road,
Kingston Upon Thames,
KT1 3PB
Telephone: 08702 777 777
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Who’s who in the FSF
FSF Executive Committee
Chair: [email protected]
Deputy chair: [email protected]
Secretary: [email protected]
Treasurer: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
FSF National Council
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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[email protected]
[email protected]
NADS rep: Gary Deards
[email protected]
Supporters Direct rep:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Director of policy:
[email protected]
FSF Divisional Secretaries
Midland: [email protected]
Northern & N Wales: [email protected]
Southern: [email protected]
South W & S Wales: [email protected]
Northeast: [email protected]
Yorkshire: [email protected]
Staff in the FSF Office
[email protected]
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About tfs
ISSN number
1750-2594
Editors
Jez Robinson and Peter Daykin
Associate editors
Michael Brunskill and Dave Rose
The players
Paolo Hewitt, Peter Hooton, Stuart Clarke,
Kev Miles, Jonathan “Trophy” Wilson,
Malcolm Clarke, Nina Donkin, Jon Keen,
David Davies
Images
Photographs: Mark Platt at Actionimages,
the chaps at www.terraceretro.com, The
Stoke Sentinel, David Trainer
Centre Spread: Stuart Roy Clarke (www.
homesoffootball.co.uk) (with thanks to
Sally Williamson)
Princess of proofing
The very lovely Fi-Fi McGee
Our favourite people this issue
Julia Robinson (get well soon), Lesley,
Amy and Pat Monkhouse, Scott and Nette
Bentley, Tommy Bradshaw, Ciara McIvor,
Gemma Farrow, Graeme Tait (you’ll
miss us), Dahey Mahon Smith, Nats and
Pats, Tom Bright, Mol Kelly, Joe Delaney,
Irish John, Bez Purvisio, The King’s Arms
Naughty Over 40s, Dynamo Dun Cow, The
Man From Montrose, Uncle Don (still taking
the heat), Fazza, Browninho, Geoffrey
Robinson and Mark Longden
Design
Azure Graphic & Web Design Ltd.
www.azure-design.com - Kevin Gibson,
Lawrence Canning, Andy Wilkinson
and Melvyn Johnson
04. Editorial
06. Feverbitch
08. Have Mersey on my sole
12. The formation of fashion
15. Ins and outs
16. The fashion of football
22. Give and go
24. The homes of football
26 Just the ticket
30. The way they wore
32. Injury time
34 Sex, drugs and penalties
36. From the Chair
38. Football fans guilty until proven innocent
40. Identifying trends
43. tfs competitions
44. Dear tfs
46. 45 (plus one)
Supported by:
Commercial
partners:
Advertising
To advertise in tfs call 08702 777 777
or email [email protected]
Additional advertising by Space Matters
George Young – 020 8543 4445
www.fsf.org.uk
3
Editorial
by Jez Robinson
The Devil, they say, is in the detail. It’s
true, too. When it comes to the finer
things in this life, the smallest details are
always intrinsic to something’s overall
worth. Or lack of it. Whilst Primark punt
suits for a tenner, a bespoke Saville Row
number will probably set you back
around £10,000; and what dictates
the huge gulf in price between two
different sets of jacket and trouser
which might appear at first glance to be
so similar? The details, that’s what.
The ten pound suit is testimony to
man’s apparent ability to plunder the
planet and cut costs to cater for a mass
market. But a hand-tailored Saville
Row jacket and trouser ensemble, on
the other hand, is an embodiment of
man’s esoteric evolution, because such
schmutter proves precisely how far
we’ve progressed sartorially as a species
since we first learned to weave various
fibres into cloth.
Since time immemorial, human beings
have engaged in a spot of one-upmanship
over outer garments, with various animal
pelts, textiles and trinkets being so
prized by tribes that our forefathers were
prepared to endure great adversity – or
handsomely reward someone who had –
to attain and display them. Others didn’t
bother at all, and were content to hang
around the local caves, presumably in last
season’s mammoth skins.
Your idea of dressing up might be
tucking tracksuit bottoms into socks
before you put your Rockport on, or
you may prefer to whip a Hermes tie
into a Windsor knot before leaving
the house. Each to their own, we say.
But, whatever your personal wardrobe
preferences, you’re doubtless aware that
some people are far more interested in
clothes then others.
Some people can spot a Saville Row
suit a mile off. People, largely, who’ve
4
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supporting
campaigning
Incredible, really, given just how
outlandish the original proponents
actually appeared in a Britain where
millions watched black and white telly
and wore a suit and tie to the pub of a
Sunday morning.
© Stuart Roy Clarke
enjoyed the pleasure of being able to
purchase one, because they’re intimate
with the details that are the very
essence of such finery.
In certain city institutions in London,
people can doubtless differentiate
at a glance between the work of, say,
William Westmancott and Jasper
Littman. Being able to spot such subtle
differences and sort sartorial wheat
and chaff is like having membership
to some clothes connoisseurs’ club.
Where else would you find so many
blokes so familiar with the intricacies of
each other’s attire? Well, at any football
ground near you, actually!
When a new generation of football
stylists evolved and emerged from
England’s terraces in glorious
technicolour, Devil-ish little details
and quality workmanship defined
what was and wasn’t deemed fitting
attire. Just like their middle-aged
counterparts populating London’s
gentlemen’s clubs, these football
fashionistas adhered to a strict
dress code. They could differentiate
between styles of adidas footwear
from fifty yards away, and specify at
a glance which part of the country a
kindred spirit came from by the cut of
their trousers.
“ They could differentiate
between styles of adidas
footwear from fifty yards away,
and specify at a glance
which part of the country
kindred spirit came from by
the cut of their trousers.“
Three major details set the prototype
purveyors of what is, these days, referred
to as the “Casual” phenomenon apart from
their youth culture predecessors – teddyboys, rockers, mods, skinheads, suedeheads,
soulboys and the like. Firstly, they’d evolved
from football affiliations rather than any
particular musical preferences. Secondly,
they had no name. These days, people call
them casuals, though that wasn’t a word
which was currency with many of the
originators of the look. Thirdly, only people
who went to football with any regularity
actually seemed to notice their existence in
the first place.
Almost as incredible as the fact that this
mode of dress which first originated
on the football terraces thirty or more
years ago continues to influence what
people wear in today’s designer-driven,
technology-sodden society.
Of course, there’s one thing casuals
did have in common with the teds
and greasers, mods and rockers, and
punks and skinheads who’d gone
before. Sometimes, as it often the case
wherever groups of young men gather,
violence was involved.
Obviously, nobody involved either
in contributing to or producing this
magazine would ever condone or
endorse violence. But we wouldn’t want
you to think we’ve just conveniently
pretended it wasn’t part of the
attraction for some of these early
protagonists. If you’re hoping this issue
of the Football Supporter will add to
your collection of hoolie-porn, you’ve
come to the wrong place. You’ll find
plenty in paperback at Waterstones, if
that’s your thing. This feature concerns
itself exclusively with the clothes and
trainers which turned England’s terraces
into catwalks. And why football fashion
has proved so enduring and influential
during the last 30 years.
In the course of this potted history of the
birth of all things casual, we’ve tried – with
varying degrees of success – to avoid
dredging through debates over who was
wearing what first, and where. For the
record, our position is that something
happened in the North, then something
slightly different happened at a similar-ish
time in the South! We’re not claiming it to
be any kind of a definitive work, either –
but we hope you’ll agree we’ve spoken to
some fascinating people.
And paid every possible attention to
those Devil-ish little details.
tfs welcomes new readers!
When the FSF invited members to elect
to receive a free issue of the magazine,
we had no idea so many of you were
as tight as us when it comes to getting
something for nothing (good work!).
You’ll soon get used to our strange
country ways, but, for the record, each
issue tends to be loosely themed
around a particular topic, with lots of
other unrelated stuff, in case that’s not
your bag. We hope you enjoy tfs and
might even contribute or subscribe.
Cover me
We always try and ensure
tfs covers are a work of art,
but this month’s actually
is. Well, sort of. Our dead clever
design team photographed an orignal
mosaic, given to one of our editors,
Jezza, a few years ago (when he was
even more fixated with old school
adidas than he is today). Said snaps
were transmogrified by the miracle
of Photoshop into something really
rather splendid, and, handily, provided
us with an excellent opportunity for
a play on words involving art and
trainers. Which was nice.
tfs schedule
The contribution deadlines and
publication dates for this season’s issues
of the Football Supporter are as follows:
Issue
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23
Contributions by
23rd Nov 09
1st Feb 10
29th March 10
10th May 10
12th July 10
Posted on
18th Dec 09
26th Feb 10
23rd April 10
4th June 10
6th Aug 10
The Football Supporter is written and
produced by fans for fans on behalf of
the Football Supporters’ Federation. We
welcome contributions, comments and
criticisms from all football fans to our
usual address (page 3), or [email protected].
www.fsf.org.uk
5
But my favourite three of the season so
far are (I’ll do this like the Miss World
announcements):
© Actionimages
In third place, and in slightly poor taste
after the sad death of the King of Pop,
fans of Marine FC, which I believe is on
Merseyside somewhere, sang of their
midfielder: “There’s only one Michael
Jackson, one Michael Jackson; there
used to be two, but now there’s just you,
walking in a Jackson wonderland.”
In second place – and thanks to a
favourite Welsh correspondent of mine
for this one – come Wrexham fans
who used T. Rex’s “We Love to Boogie”
as musical inspiration to celebrate a
Hedi Taboubi goal: “We love Taboubi,
we love Taboubi, we love Taboubi on a
Saturday night...”
Feverbitch
by Feverbitch
It’s a whole new season!
I know that such are the
vagaries of magazine
production – since becoming a leading
columnist on a national publication,
I’ve forced myself to become familiar
with technical issues like lead times,
print runs and, er, photographs – that
by the time you read this, it may well be
December or something, but at the time
of writing I’m still in the first flushes of
giddy enthusiasm about the start of a
new campaign.
There’s just something about a season
that hasn’t gone horribly wrong yet that
you have to savour, not least because for
most of us, it’s only a question of time
before it does. In my case, I had a total of
three days in which to relish my team’s
100% record, before we lost to Chelsea;
I still can’t get over how quickly the
record went from 100% right down to
50% – that did seem a bit harsh.
This season doesn’t seem to have taken
long to warm up, either, and in many
ways it appears just to have picked up
where the last one left off. Who’d have
thought that Sir Alex Ferguson would
be in trouble for slagging off referees?
6
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campaigning
Or that my skunk-like neighbours to the
north (I should hastily point out that
the skunk reference is purely to their
strip colours: I’m not suggesting for
one minute that they’re malodorous. In
fact in my time I’ve known some very
fragrant Geordies) would be desperately
scratching round looking for a buyer for
their club, and remaining a laughingstock in the process? (OK, a top-of-theleague laughing stock, but they still
make me giggle).
“
fashionable at the moment, apparently.
I wasn’t really expecting them so soon.
I had this mad idea that maybe crowds
needed a few weeks to warm up. It
reminded me of radio commentators
who, at the opening game in August say
“You really must see that goal on Match
of the Day, it’s already a contender for
Goal of the Season”. You think to yourself,
don’t be silly, it’s the opening day, there
are hundreds more to come. And then
you watch Match of the Day, and you
think to yourself, wow, that actually
could be goal of the season.
There’s only one Michael
Jackson, one Michael Jackson;
there used to be two, but now
there’s just you, walking in a
Jackson wonderland “
It’s surprised me how quickly and easily
everything seems to have slipped back
the way it was last season. My devoted,
regular readers will know I ended last
season with some of my favourite
chants, and I’m delighted to say that
already this season I’ve heard – well,
not myself, but people have emailed
me – some really funny ones that are
Well anyway, I digress: what I was
trying to say was, there have already
been some great chants brought to
my attention (and thank you boys for
doing so, it’s really sweet of you, and
one day I’ll find a way of showing my
appreciation).
I liked the one by Everton supporters
in praise of their new Russian signing,
midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov. Not
an easy name to sing about, you might
think – and you’d be right, so they didn’t
even bother, instead singing “He’s quick,
he’s game, we can’t pronounce his
name, Russian lad, Russian lad...”.
But overall winner for me goes to
the Fulham fans who adapted the
Ram Jam hit “Black Betty” to laud
centre half Brede Hangeland: “Oh
oh Big Brede (Hangeland), whoa Big
Brede (Hangeland), He jumps so high
(Hangeland), you know that’s no
lie (Hangeland), He’s so rock steady
(Hangeland), When you see him on telly
(Hangeland)...”. Genius.
And if it’s true that the song-smiths have
got off to a flying start, then managers
and their stranger comments aren’t far
behind. And just as there’s already a
familiar look to the top of the Premier
League table, then it’s also the usual
suspects who are setting the pace in
the post-match interviews. Where, dear
readers, would this column be without
Harry Redknapp and Ian Holloway?
Harry’s been having a go, in his
own inimitable style, at the modern
professional, and I think it’s fair to say he’s
not impressed. First of all, he’s returned
to his theme that they shouldn’t be
drinking:“Do you think Paulo Maldini
at 41 is going out on a Saturday night
and drinking, with lager coming out
of his ears and falling over? I don’t see
it somehow”.The biological difficulties
involved in spilling lager from your ears
notwithstanding, he may have a point.
Fergie - a man of his time
And then Harry reckons perhaps they’re
all a bit too pampered into the bargain:
“I remember getting beaten at Bolton
last year and looking at the bench. I
think two of them were asleep with hats
pulled down and blankets over them.
I said ‘I’m sorry to drag you up here, I
know its f****** cold and you could be
at home with the missus with a cup
of tea. It’s hard to watch a game on 30
grand a week!”
Even Harry is hard pushed to compete
with Ian Holloway for a cute turn of
phrase and an unusual metaphor,
though. He found an interesting way
to say that it’s a bit early to judge his
achievements with Blackpool: “If this
was a first date, they haven’t even taken
our order yet, the night might turn out
to be rubbish, she might walk out on
me. Who’s to say what will happen?”
Not that Ian’s unsure of his own feelings
about his new home: “I love Blackpool.
We’re very similar. We both look better
in the dark.”
But in case you’re starting to think that
this new season is likely to be nothing
more than a repeat of the one before
– and even worse, suspect that my
lovingly crafted columns are going to
be a rehash of what’s gone before –
then allow me to introduce a couple of
new names who show great promise
when it comes to memorable, amusing
or just plain quirky quotes. New
names to me, at least – I’m sure in their
respective parts of the country they’re
familiar faces...
First up is Bristol City’s manager Gary
Johnson, with mixed praise for his
players after they lost to Carlisle in the
Carling Cup: “The players are a nice
bunch of lads and you would be happy
for any one of them to come home with
your daughter. Unfortunately, they are
involved in football matches and they
need to be aggressive.”
And then there’s Norwich’s new
manager Paul Lambert, not entirely
clear on how much to big up young
midfielder Korey Smith: “I’m never quite
sure how far to go with praising young
kids, because the next thing you will
see him probably driving a Mercedes
and he’ll have his socks over his knees
and four earrings in and a Walt Disney
hat.” A Walt Disney hat? Total gibberish
– don’t you just love it? That man has a
fine season ahead of him.
Feverbitch loves nothing more than
your help, suggestions and dark
secrets – [email protected].
www.fsf.org.uk
7
peter hooton
tfs: So, Peter, you were around the scene when
people in Liverpool first started to wear what we’ll
refer to for the purposes of this interview as “the
gear”. What sort of reaction did these pioneers get from their
fellow football fans at the time?
PH: “Well, the main thing was the straight jeans really –
seems funny looking back, but that was the main thing
people picked up on, initially. You know, state of his jeans –
people calling you “puff” and “divvy”. There’s a lot of interest
in the casual thing now, and it’s so widespread I think it’s
important to remember that it wasn’t all adulation for people
involved at the start.
© Actionimages
“It became the thing to have trainers nobody
else had, and there were more than
enough young entrepreneurs willing to go to
the continent and feed the market “
“In the very early days, by 1978 say, it was a mish-mash of
styles, the Liverpool crew, with an almost punk influenced
look. The thing was, in Liverpool and to an extent in
Manchester, I suppose, the music crowd and the football
crowd weren’t two exclusive groups like they were in most
other cities. Lads who went the match went to gigs and clubs
too, so there was a crossover in terms of where people went
in town, and what clothes they wore at the match. It was all
mixed up for a while. I remember going to Chelsea in January
‘78, wearing a black duffle coat, straight jeans, and black
plimmies like you used to have for PE at school.
tfs interview
Have Mersey on my sole…
“There was carnage that day, because the Liverpool crew
looked so different to everyone else. We stood out like sore
thumbs. Then it was, like, mohair jumpers, straight jeans,
duffel coats, Peter Storm cagoules, and adidas Samba. And,
people often forget to mention, blue snorkel parkas. Not
like the green ones you had for school as a kid, but the blue
version, with great fur on the hood.”
tfs: In the very early days then, do you recall the whole thing
being much more about buying into an overall look than into
specific labels?
We’re all about double-bubble. So when we interviewed The Farm’s front man Peter Hooton about
his seminal 1980s Liverpool fanzine The End for tfs 17, we made sure we picked his brains about the
Scouse style shifts said publication delighted in detailing. Handily, an eye for detail is something Mr
Hooton’s evidently been blessed with – and his memory’s not bad, either. As tfs’s resident trainerspotter Jez Robinson discovered during a lengthy afternoon discourse on Merseyside with the great
PH: Definitely. The uniform back then was blue snorkel
parka, Fred Perry shirt, Lois jeans and, first, adidas Samba,
then adidas Stan Smith. And, of course, the wedge hairstyle
– that was everywhere. That look certainly crossed over to
Manchester around that same period too.
man himself. Here are the edited highlights…
“The Samba back then were a slightly different shape to the
ones that came later I think. Samba were the first trainer to
8
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campaigning
be sported by lads all over Liverpool, if I remember rightly.
But then the Stan Smith simply swept everything else
away, and was the shoe to be seen in for several months.
Strapovers were the thing to have after that, when someone,
an Evertonian called Tommy, came back from Switzerland
with a pair. Trainers with straps across instead of laces
became the Holy Grail for a while after that. Other brands
soon caught onto the trend, and makes like Kio certainly
had a following too, on Merseyside first and certainly in
Manchester around the same time.”
tfs: For the benefit of our younger readers, Mr Hooton, do
you think it’s fair to say terrace fashions were evolving far
faster in those first few years than they’ve ever done since?
PH: “Things did change very quickly, yeah. By the week, it
seemed. But by 1980/81, there was a lot more sportswear in
Liverpool – Lacoste, Sergio Tachinni, Ellesse, Fila, all that stuff
was everywhere – and the trainer thing was going mad, with
people obtaining them from Europe by any means necessary.
“It became the thing to have trainers nobody else had, and
there were more than enough young entrepreneurs willing
to go to the continent and feed the market, shall we say.
Ideally, people wanted a style nobody had ever seen before,
but trainers in different colours to those otherwise available
were also very much sought after.
“People would talk endlessly about tongues, heel sections and
sole units, and sightings of various, sometimes mythical styles
of trainers. Remember, this was all when the internet was a
twinkle in some American computer scientist’s eye. Obtaining
these items meant either going to what people still called
the continent and getting them, or, in most cases, knowing
someone who did. And lads making a living out of sourcing
trainers and sportswear were commonplace in Liverpool at
the time. We used to get loads of letters at The End from jails
all over Europe!”
www.fsf.org.uk
9
tfs interview
peter hooton
tfs: Liverpool legend has it that it was just such a group of
enterprising international clothiers who first hooked Wade
Smith up with the trainer that’s since arguably succeeded in
becoming the most famous of them all – adidas Forest Hills?
PH: “The Wade Smith story says it all really – and it’s actually
true, too! In late 1980, he had a little concession in Top
Shop in Liverpool, and he was trying to persuade adidas to
supply his store with these Forest Hills trainers, which he’d
seen being brought back from Europe. Anyway, adidas had
thought that Forest Hills was too much of a luxury trainer to
do any business in England, due to the state of the economy
and unemployment figures at the time. Their retail price
was £29.99, which was an awful lot of money. Consequently,
there were only a few hundred pairs in the country, which
were gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere. Wade Smith
eventually got ten pairs out of them, and had sold the lot
within days. Anyway, he got the rest of the stock they had
and sold the lot by Christmas. A couple of years later, when
he had his first shop on Slater Street, in about 1982, he got a
load of adidas trimm-trab when nobody else could, despite
the fact he couldn’t get them from adidas themselves, and
they let him start importing what he wanted after that.
“ I think the whole pot smoking culture played
a big part in the development of that
whole “scruff” look, too. A lot of people
looked like out of work geography
teachers, around that time “
“I’d pretty much got out of trainers by that stage, though – the
whole look had started changing into a much more dressed
down thing, certainly in Liverpool. There were a lot of tweed
jackets being worn, crew neck jumpers from Marks and
Spencer, suede fronted cardigans, Hush Puppies, cord jackets,
and cord shoes, too, they were the thing to have. I was a bit
obsessed with them for a while.
“I think the whole pot smoking culture played a big part in the
development of that whole “scruff” look, too. A lot of people
looked like out of work geography teachers, around that time.
And there was a lot of Pink Floyd being played. The hair got
longer, and it went on into hiking boots and Barbour jackets,
and mountaineering stuff, which was very big.
“So, just when the rest of the country was going mad for the
whole sportswear thing, in Liverpool, certainly, there was a
move away from all that into something else again. Anything
with labels plastered all over it was considered right out and
the loud sportswear went the journey, to a large degree.”
10
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tfs: So when did people in the North West first become
aware that something was stirring on the streets of London,
and that several other cities were developing their own
dress code too?
PH: “September 1982 when Liverpool went to Arsenal.
The London clubs had been very slow to pick up on the
whole fashion thing, and we always used to be surprised
that they were still wearing flying jackets and boots and
all that. I can remember being down in Newquay in 1977,
just after Liverpool signed Kenny Dalglish, and there
were Millwall fans on the campsite. We were all made up
with each other because we all had Lois jeans on, which I
thought was very strange at the time. They used to call us
“soul boys” down there, which we could never understand,
thought we’d taken a wrong turning on the way to some
nightclub, I think.
“Then, when we went to Arsenal in ‘82, every one was, like,
“Look at the Cockneys!”, because they had more sportswear
on than we did – and there’d been no sign of it at all on
our visits to the capital the previous season. Nothing.
At Tottenham in 1980, I’d been kicked unconscious by
Cockneys, basically because I had a red pair of Puma
Menotti on and certainly stood out from the crowd. They all
looked like Giant Haystacks – their look, if you like, was all
back end of the mod revival, Sham 69, and Ska influenced
really, at that time. Within a year or so, though, as I say, it had
all changed beyond recognition.
“ ...Bill Drummond - a madman, and maveric
genius if ever there was one. He’d
picked up on what was going on, and wanted
to put us in tracksuits - way before
they were the steet fashion they are today. “
“There was a lad from London called Mick Mahoney who
was a playwright at the time, and he wrote articles for later
editions of The End, including the famous one In Search of
the Casual, about the evolving football fashions of the day
in London. It wasn’t really a Liverpool word though, I don’t
think, casuals.
“After the articles in The Face and suchlike, about “Casuals”,
people were looking to jump on the bandwagon. Garry
Bushell started writing about it in Sounds, and their letters
pages started filling up with stuff from football lads. Bushell
came up to Liverpool to see us – The Farm, like – and was
saying he’d look after us, and what the “movement”, his words
not mine, needed was a band to front it up. Telling us all
about his Charlton Athletic connections and how he knew
exactly what was going on.
“He was, like, “come to London with me and let’s get this thing
started.” We were, like, “No!” The other person who suggested
the very same thing around the same time was Bill Drummond
– a mad man, and maverick genius if ever there was one. He’d
picked up on what was going on, and wanted to put us in
tracksuits – way before they were the street fashion they are
today – and have us with big, hard dogs with spiky collars
and that. As usual, he was ahead of his time really, because we
could have been East 17 six years before East 17 happened. We
met him in the Vines in Liverpool, and he told us his plans for
us. But we weren’t having any of it. We left on good terms, but
left it at that. Thankfully! ”
www.fsf.org.uk
11
© Actionimages
The issue is apparent even in the first great tactical shift in
the 1920s. For half a century everybody had played 2-3-5 with
minor variations, but in 1925 the offside law was changed to
counter increasing negativity in the game, so that just two
defensive players rather than three needed to be between an
attacking player and his opponent’s goal when the ball was
played for him to be onside.
“ The truth is
that we changed to 3-5-2
because people were talking about it
on the telly “
Suddenly the game had to be rethought, and the most
successful of the early re-thinkers was Herbert Chapman at
Arsenal. Over the course of five years, he pushed his centrehalf back to become a third defender, and dropped back
his two inside-forwards, so 2-3-5 became 3-2-2-3, otherwise
known as the “W-M”.
With Herbie Roberts, a disciplined but unexceptional defender,
as the centre-back man-marking the opposing centre-forward,
Arsenal sat deep, drew other teams onto them, and hit them
on the counter attack, using the ability of first Charlie Buchan
and then Alex James, playing as inside-forwards, to initiate
breaks with long, low accurate passes.
The formation of fashion
tfs’s top scribe Jonathan Wilson is something of an expert on soccer strategy. When it comes to tactics, he
wrote the book – literally. By his own admission, though, fashion is an area in which Wilson enjoys nothing
approaching expertise, unless you’re discussing the fashion of football formations, of course – so that’s
The system was later decried as having caused the death
of English football, and blamed for the lack of imagination
so evident when English teams played the likes of, for
instance, Austria in 1932, the Dinamo Moscow tourists of
1945, or Hungary in 1953. Yet Chapman’s variant was a
highly successful, dynamic form of football. The problem was
that, because his system was seen to work, others copied it
unthinkingly, but without the likes of Buchan and James to
apply the formation intelligently.
The lack of understanding is evident in the continuing
fetishisation of the traditional winger in England, until Alf
Ramsey finally killed them in 1966.
what we asked him to do…
In 1996, my college football
team started playing 3-5-2.
It worked, our wing-backs
driving the opposition wingers
back onto their full-backs, while we
dominated the middle because we
had three centre-backs against two
centre-forwards and three central
midfielders against the opposition’s
two. It suited our players as well,
12
informing
supporting
campaigning
because we had two very fit wingbacks and a glut of central players. We
won the league, and congratulated
ourselves on our tactical acuity.
Which was nonsense, of course. Nobody
had actually considered what playing
3-5-2 involved (much less what would
have happened if one of our opponents
had sat a winger high up the field).
The truth is that we changed to 3-5-2
because people were talking about it
on the telly after England had used it to
beat Scotland in Euro 96, and it seemed
fashionable. We got lucky. And this,
when you’re considering the history of
tactics, is one of the most difficult things
to sort out: to what extent were changes
that occurred evolutionary, and to what
extent were they simple faddism?
Chapman had been suspicious of wingers, preferring
to use players wide who could cut infield, rather
than pursuing what he called the “senseless policy of
running along the lines and centering just in front of
the goalmouth, where the odds are nine to one on the
defenders”. Other clubs, in other words, adopted the W-M
simply because it was fashionable.
Which is not to say it was not an evolutionary step forwards.
The W-M spread to Europe and eventually to South America,
and in Brazil and Hungary it developed into the 4-2-4, from
which came 4-3-3 and then 4-4-2, and so on.
It was a similar story in England after the World Cup victory in
1966. There were those who protested when Ramsey did away
with one winger, but for the quarter-final against Argentina
he did away with both, using a 4-1-3-2. It was a system that
worked with the players he had, Nobby Stiles operating as the
midfield holder, with Bobby Charlton creating in front of him,
and Alan Ball and Martin Peters providing the perfect blend of
energy, ball-winning ability and distribution.
After England had won the World Cup, though, the shape
became laid down as the “right” way to play. It had been right
for England, with those players, but that did not mean it was
right in all circumstances.
Forty years later, English players were still clinging to 4-4-2 as Linus
in Peanuts clings to his comfort blanket. Now, the trend is to lone
central strikers in 4-2-3-1s and 4-1-2-3s, which given the fitness
of modern players, makes sense as it allows creative players to sit
slightly deep of defenders, and offers flexibility in midfield.
“ Now, the trend is to lone central strikers
in 4-2-3-1s and 4-1-2-3s,
which given the fitness of modern players
makes sense as it allows creative players
to sit slightly deep of defenders,
and offers flexibility in midfield “
The change seems a logical evolutionary step, and it is already
becoming fashionable – but that doesn’t mean it is necessarily
for everyone. There may be games this season, for instance, in
which Steve Bruce feels Sunderland need to play with a fiveman midfield, but with Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones both
in form and playing well together, it would be absurd for him
to change from 4-4-2 as his standard.
But perhaps to say that is to say nothing more than the right
tactics are those that are best for the players available in the
circumstances. There are no universal truths, and managers
should beware of following the evolutionary curve for the sake
of looking tactically fashionable.
Jonathan Wilson is a freelance football
writer who works for the Independent,
Guardian and 4-4-2. Jonathan is also author
of “Inverting the Pyramid: The History of
Football Tactics” and “Behind the Curtain:
Travels in Eastern European Football”.
He was once very good at table football.
www.fsf.org.uk
13
tfs advertorial
Ins and outs
© Actionimages
WellChild
England football stars are
giving sick children a helping
hand by donating their hand
prints to WellChild for a unique series of
Christmas cards.
England and Chelsea captain John Terry,
team-mate Ashley Cole, Aston Villa’s
Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young,
and Manchester City’s Wayne Bridge
have all provided hand prints for these
unique Christmas cards and hope they’ll
raise awareness of both WellChild’s work
and vital funds for seriously ill children
and their families.
“It would be great to see as many people
as possible supporting WellChild by buying
these cards this Christmas – the children
have worked really hard on them and
the finished results look fantastic. These
are cards which do more than just send
a greeting – they show you care about
vulnerable kids who need your help.” said
Chelsea and England skipper John Terry.
As well as putting their hands in paint,
the England players put them in their
pockets too, supporting WellChild
through their Team England Footballers’
Charity, and donating match fees to
WellChild right until the end of the 2010
World Cup campaign.
WellChild is committed to helping
children and their families deal with
the consequences of serious illness
by focusing on three key areas – care,
support and research.
The charity provides a team of WellChild
children’s nurses who work with families,
ensuring children with complex care
needs can leave hospital and return
home. Through its Helping Hands
scheme, WellChild enlists volunteers to
tackle practical projects in the homes
of sick children. And the charity has
invested more than £20 million in
ground-breaking children’s health
research projects.
To help children like Bradley and Chloe (right column),
buy the WellChild Christmas cards for just £4 plus
postage and packing for a pack of ten.
Please visit: www.wellchild.org.uk
tfs advertorial
WellChild is helping very
special children like:
• Eight-year-old Bradley, who has
both Down’s Syndrome and Spinal
Muscular Atrophy. Unable to walk or
sit up on his own, he’s fed through a
tube, and sleeps so little that he can
wake more than 20 times a night.
A WellChild nurse has relieved the
pressure on the family, offering vital
support and care. Bradley is now able
to attend school, where he’s thriving.
WellChild nurses help children like
Bradley to be cared for at home with
their families rather than in hospital.
• Eight-year-old Chloe, who had
brain surgery to remove a very
large cyst at the age of three – it
affected her ability to swallow, and
subsequently caused a heart attack.
She became ill again six years
later and had surgery to remove a
blockage of fluid in her spinal cord,
which again affected her ability
to swallow, her sight and even her
smile. When Chloe’s needs became
too complex, a WellChild nurse
stepped in to co-ordinate all the
different carers involved and to
make sure the family’s voice was
heard. That WellChild nurse has
helped to train Chloe’s parents to
carry our some of the procedures
their daughter needs, and Chloe has
now been home from hospital for
seven months.
No, your eyes do not deceive
you. This is indeed your
beloved Ins and outs column
– but without a pair of adidas trainers
in sight! Now, it’s not that the
trend-setting team behind Ins
and outs don’t worship at
a blue altar with three
stripes on it anymore.
If, like most people, you look for
the Ins and outs first when your copy
of tfs lands, you’ll have gathered from
even the most cursory of glances, that
the rest of this issue is pretty much a
trainer-spotters paradise.
Obviously, the Ins and outs crew
harboured reservations when the
gaffer informed us the likes of Peter
Hooton and Paolo Hewitt would be
contributing to a “fashion” special.
This media lark being the cut-throat
carry-on it is, we weren’t convinced
having such acknowledged street
culture experts on board was good
for our employment prospects.
We were secretly hoping they
wouldn’t be up to much but,
predictably, they proved even
better at talking trainers than
we are.
So we’ve bowed out gracefully this
month, and left all that to the experts.
With many of the fashion features
very much a retrospective in tone,
we’ve concentrated on the here and
now and endeavoured to make
mention of people we’d like plugs on
the radio from, and stuff we’d like sent
to us for free.
Ins
• Specta
cles
• D eser
t boots
• Bicyc
les
• Vitam
in B12
• Dann
y Baker
• Mid-l
ife crise
s
• Bus sto
ps outs
ide pub
• Evenin
s
g classe
s
• Dr y sh
erry
• Detac
hable h
oods
• Persia
n rugs
• Runn
ers
• Plasti
c Paddie
s
• The E
uro
• Hamm
ond org
ans
• Conk
ers
• Toota
l
• Sayin
g “I’m ju
st not fe
• Arctic
eling it
Roll
. . .”
Outs
• Artic
Mon
• Umbre keys
llas
• Buses
• Persc
ripti
• Stainle on drugs
ss Steel
• Tabs
• Lyle a
nd Scott
• Taxi R
anks
• Lager
• Phill J
upitus
• Pubs
outside
bus sto
• Shag
ps
bands
• Reun
ion tou
rs
• The p
oun
• Denim d
• Jogge
rs
• Socce
r AM
• Shallo
ts
• Sayin
g “at the
end of th
• Casua
e day“
ls
Rest assured, we’ll be mentioning
adidas trainers again in the next issue,
just in time for Christmas. (Sizes 8,9
and 10 – anything suede with a gum
sole, please).
www.fsf.org.uk
15
The fashion of football
“I don’t know what I’m doing here, it’s really… not my…
scene at all…” Weller chirps. I know exactly what I’m doing
here today, though – and the nature of my mission makes
that Wardour Street coincidence even weirder. I’m strolling
towards Soho this late summer’s sunny afternoon to meet
Paolo Hewitt, who grew up with Paul Weller and was a close
associate of The Jam’s when A Bomb In Wardour Street was
released in 1979.
There’ll be no mention of the Modfather today though, as
after a thirty year friendship the pair endured a parting of the
ways. And they don’t like to talk about it. What I am here to
pick Hewitt’s brains about, though, is what was happening on
the streets and football stadia of London town during the late
1970s and early 1980s, when The Jam ruled the world.
Paolo Hewitt has carved himself a career out of being a man
in the know. Having first come to national prominence as a
young reporter on the ever-influential NME, Hewitt has since
devoted his life to the holy trinity of football, clothes and
music. His books, The Sharper Word, The Soul Stylists – a project
on which he collaborated with erstwhile mate Weller – and,
particularly, The Fashion of Football, have become cult classics.
While Hewitt’s collaboration with former Oasis drummer Paul
McGuigan, The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw – The Robin
Friday Story, is one of the most moving and enlightening
books ever written about the game.
I meet Paolo Hewitt in the dark depths of Leicester Square
tube station, and as we ascend the stairs towards the slice of
September sunshine beckoning above, there’s a spring in his
step. He’s been swimming on the way into town from a north
London flat he describes as being “nice and handy for the
Lane”, and reckons it’s energised him. As I’ve promised to buy
him a bite of lunch by way of thanking him for his time, I’m
quietly hoping energised doesn’t translate to starving...
We plot up at a quiet table in the back corner of Amalfi, on
Old Compton Street, and Hewitt orders just a lemonade and
a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. We’re off to a flying start!
Our man is currently working on a biography of Spurs’ Martin
Chivers, and clearly relishing the project. “Can’t get over it
really”, Hewitt confesses. “Every time I’m round his house and
he offers me a coffee, I’m thinking ‘Bloody hell! Martin Chivers
is making me a cup of coffee!’”
Author, journalist, broadcaster, cultural commentator
and Spurs fan Paolo Hewitt talks terrace trends to tfs’s
resident fashionista, Jez Robinson
“There’s an A Bomb in Wardour Street…” There isn’t,
of course. Not this particular Monday afternoon,
anyway. But I’m still pretty well blown away by
what’s just happened before my very eyes. Well, exploded in
my very ears, actually, because I’m walking through London’s
West End, I’ve just turned onto Wardour Street – and whallop!
Out of the thousands of tunes at its disposal, my iPod’s shuffle
feature has selected this precise moment to provide me with
The Jam’s 1979 classic single “A Bomb In Wardour Street”.
16
informing
supporting
campaigning
Even my shady grasp of mathematics suggests the odds
against that happening are lengthy, but that’s Paul Weller in
my ear-hole all right. An instant aural flash back to an England
time forgot. A pre-Sony Walkman world where walking down
the street in headphones on would’ve been newsworthy.
An England yet to be colonised by Swedish furniture stores,
Starbucks and shopping malls, and the only regular live
televised football was the FA Cup final. Younger readers may
be surprised to learn it wasn’t so long ago.
By the time our drinks arrive, though, the talk has turned from
one of London’s football legends to the capital’s pioneers of
terrace couture.
“I think the word “casual” has kind of become currency now,
hasn’t it? A lot of people don’t like it, but if you’re talking about
that whole football look thing, it’s the one word that conjures
up the image in people’s minds. Anyway, personally, I first
became aware of the whole casual thing taking off in London
in early 1982, when I’d just started working at the NME. It was
fascinating
ing to me, because unlike any other youth movement,
if you want
nt to call it that, it was something which was spawned
not by music
sic and nightclubs, but came instead from football
f
grounds, from
om the terraces.
“the wholee casual thing
th
was fascinating to me
because unlike any other youth movement
it was something spawned not by music
but came instead from football grounds,
from the terraces “
“All the other youth cults had grown up exclusively around
music, but this one was about football and clothes first, then
music second. The whole Skinhead and Suedehead thing
had a very strong connection with Reggae music. The whole
Mod thing was based around soul music. Such ways of life
developed and revolved around nightclubs, pubs and cafes,
just as everything else that had gone before had, too. This
didn’t. This involved working class kids appropriating the
uniform of the upper middle class golf set and wearing it to
football matches.
“The example I always point to of this kind of appropriation of
clothes is Jack Johnson, who was the first black heavyweight
boxing champion in the USA. Much of middle America loathed
him, partly because he’d knocked out all the white contenders,
and secondly he’d been very open about his relationships
with white women, and made no bones about it. Just to make
sure he upset them even more, he used to buy and wear
golfing clothes, just the same as they did. Not only did he
have their money, he’d appropriated their wardrobe too, for
good measure. I think there was a similar principle involved,
especially when the whole thing went down the Pringle,
Burberry, Acquascutum route.
“I don’t think it is possible to overestimate the influence these
people had on the future of menswear in this country, really,
because it’s still going on today. The look and even some
of the labels involved are still current today. In fact, as far as
menswear goes, they’re still as current as ever, many of them.
www.fsf.org.uk
17
The fashion of football
Then there’s the fact that the length and breadth of the land
you can see pensioners plodding around in sportswear, too.
You can trace that back to the early casuals giving sportswear
the sort of appeal it still has for some people today. The fallout from it is as much about Grandads in shopping centres in
Reebok Classic and tracksuits, as much as kids today wearing
Stan Smiths, isn’t it?”
wear when they go to football. The ultimate anti-replica shirt
statement, if you like.
“ They can take away
people’s connection with the players,
they can move to new grounds,
As he pays some overdue attention to the sandwich that’s now
been sitting in front of him for a while, I wonder when exactly
Hewitt first noticed something stirring around London’s stadia,
just what he saw, and where he saw it first.
“I picked up on it when it started to take off at Spurs, my club,
and certainly one of the first with a significant casual following.
I’m not claiming I was first to catch onto it, or anything like.
In fact, for a long time, nobody caught onto it at all in the
mainstream media. But, of course, the casual thing didn’t
happen over night, even though it might have seemed like it
did at the time”, Hewitt continues.
“I find it fascinating, in hindsight, that this had all been going
on at the same time as punk, was much bigger than punk,
in fact, in terms of the number of people involved in it. But it
had succeeded in getting absolutely no media attention at
all. Basically, nobody at all in the media had sussed what was
going on. And I think that’s precisely why the whole scene
developed so quickly and was so vibrant, because it was long
while before the media cottoned on. In the tradition of all
such youth cults, for most of those truly involved in it at the
beginning, once the media get involved, it’s all over, really. It
becomes something very different, at least.
A CASUAL ALPHABET
“I think for a lot of people who go to football even today,
whether they were casuals when they were kids and still take
an interest in what they wear, or whether they’re the new
breed wearing things us older blokes haven’t heard of, the
last thing they’ve got left which they can really consider to be
theirs is the fashion culture that’s grown up around the game.
They can take away people’s connection with the players,
they can move to new grounds, they can change the kick off
times, they can mess with what they like. But not what people
A – Adidas
B – Barbour
C – CP Company
D – Dries van Noten
E – The End
F – Farah
G – Gabicci
H – Hurley’s,
Manchester
I – Inega
J – John Smedley
K – Kappa
they can change the kick off times,
they can mess with what they like.
But not what people wear to football. “
“From researching the various books I’ve been involved in
about this sort of thing, I think aspects of the whole look had
been evolving for ages in certain parts of London, particularly
the south east. My friend, the playwright Mick Mahoney,who
wrote stuff for The End about the whole casual thing, reckons
the whole thing was kicking off as far back as 1977. And my
friend Mark Baxter, a Millwall fan born and bred in the same
area of south east London, who I wrote the Fashion of Football
book with, says the same thing. Mark clearly recalls what he
describes as the “London cab driver look” being one adopted
by both black and white youth on his manor – Peckham –
during the late 1970s.
“You can trace it back to what were known as the
Sticksmen, young Jamaicans who adopted the styles
sported at the time by Reggae stars like Gregory Isaacs
– Farah slacks, shirts and knitwear by Gabicci, shoes by
Bally, and plenty of “tom” – chunky gold jewellery. Not
what became later known as the “casual” look, but many
of its facets were there, alright. A new generation of faces
took it and put their own twist on it. That, for me, was the
forerunner of what became the fully-fledged casual look. In
London the first wave of it, the casual thing, was all about
European sportswear, and expensive Scottish knitwear.
“Things changed very, very fast, especially amongst the major
faces, but such items were the mainstay when the whole thing
first took off. Cutting edge casuals of today are probably doing
L – Lois jeans
M – Margaret Howell
N – Nigel Cabourn
O – Osti, Massimo
P – Peter Storm
Q – Queen’s Park
Rangers
R – Re-issues
S – Stuarts, London
T – Topsiders, Sperry
U – Ungaro
V – Vivienne Westwood
W – Wood Wood
X – The last letter
of Gore-tex
Y – Yachting by
Paul and Shark
Z - Zegna
www.fsf.org.uk
19
The fashion of football
“ I love the idea of a whole thing
going on without anyone really noticing –
a code of dress for those in the know,
one which seemed to change
with the wind “
something very different – something an old man like me
hasn’t picked up on yet and probably wouldn’t understand.
Just the way it should be! But for many match-going football
fans, some of the staples of their wardrobe remain fixtures in
people’s wardrobes even today – and continue to dominate
British men’s fashion.”
I decide I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t press
Paolo Hewitt a bit further on the great geographical debate,
though, the war of words between north and south about
who wore what, who were the cool cats and who were the
copy cats. I tell him I can remember, as a fifteen year old kid,
sections of Liverpool’s and Everton’s away following starting to
look like they were from another planet in 1979. Likewise the
two Manchester clubs.
“Well, the debates about who started what and where will
rage on forever, and what I’ve found in talking to so many
people about so many different aspects of the whole football
fashion thing is nobody thinks anybody else has got a clue
what they’re talking about. Which is great, and just the way it
should be”, Hewitt says.
20
informing
supporting
campaigning
“People will be reading this feature you’re doing, and saying,
nah, they’ve got all this wrong, mate. And I love all that. The
fact is, something did happen, it was enormously influential all
over the country, and remains so today.
“Of course, getting the details right is everything and they’ll
always be points of great debate – which is great, because
what is really important is that this unique and very special
football culture is recorded and celebrated.
“For me, different things started at different times in
different places. And they were all similar, but different. In
the north, in Liverpool and Manchester, in the beginning,
it was about trainers, and then sportswear. But here in
London, the first wave of it was very much what you
would call the Del Boy look – funny, as we’re talking about
Peckham. That whole thing was a cross over from what was
very much a black youth look, and school playgrounds were
very influential too, with black and white kids mixing, and
adopting things from each other’s style of dress. I’m sure it
was the same in the north, too, as all the different regional
styles evolved.”
The fact there’d been a Mod revival just before this whole
football fashion business became something approaching
a movement is something Hewitt feels played a big part
in events, too. And he believes there are many similarities
between the Mods of the 1960s and the Casuals of the
1980s – a theory Hewitt and Weller effectively expounded
into their book, The Soul Stylists.
“There’s a number of parallels with the 60s Mod thing,
undoubtedly”, Hewitt says.“There are so many similarities. I mean,
nobody knew about the whole Mod thing until about 1963 and
had been evolving for at least five years before that. Nobody
noticed what is now known as the casual movement until it was
fully formed. I love the idea of a whole thing going on without
anybody else really noticing – a code of dress for those in the
know, one which seemed to change with the wind.
“I spoke to a lad called Gary from Blackburn who told me about
finding a Fila tracksuit top in Spain which he knew nobody
had ever seen before. He couldn’t wait to get home and show
everyone. Course, he gets home after his holiday, and everyone
is wearing Burberry jackets and deer-stalker hats, and laughing
at the top he’s blown a fortnight’s wages on. He’d only been
away a week! Now, that same week in London, it was probably a
certain pair of cords that were the thing to be seen in, because,
just as with the Mod thing, and with the skinheads, there were
always little, regional differences.
“Dressing for others who’d read all the little signals, just
as much as you were dressing for yourself. And the whole
European sportswear thing was just like 60s Mods craving
American clothes, really – Levis 501s and Brooks Brothers
shirts. They weren’t interested in what was on the High Street,
it was all about having something from somewhere else which
other people couldn’t get.”
Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself, which, I realise, I have
been. It’d be hard not to in Hewitt’s company. With Amalfi
starting to fill up and buzz with early evening punters, Paolo
has places to go and people to see. So have I, believe it or not!
Doubtless his destination tonight is more salubrious than
mine, as I’m heading way out West to O’Connells on Chiswick
High Street to meet a character called QPR Dave, for a pint. We
say our goodbyes as we head into the West End’s gathering
dusk, and I turn back onto Wardour Street. Not an A Bomb in
sight – but this afternoon has certainly been a blast.
www.fsf.org.uk
21
Stone cold killer…
Jonny’s wedding tackled
Despite fifty murders daily
amounting to but a fraction of
South Africa’s scary street crime
statistics, locals fear the weather
at next summer’s World Cup could
claim more victims than criminals.
Because it’ll be freezing at the
night matches.
“We’ve all seen the films. When did
you ever see a lion shivering, or a
Zulu warrior in scarf and gloves,
right? ”, said FSF international coordinator Kev Miles.
“Although it’s in South Africa, it’ll be
winter there next June.”
You had to feel a bit sorry for
Jonny Evans for being put on
the spot at a Manchester United
press conference last month.
Sitting alongside Sir Alex the
young defender was asked for his
views after his boss had finished
extolling the benefits of players
settling down and getting married.
Evans sheepishly declined to
comment on the grounds that
his girlfriend was among the
assembled hacks. “Get him tied
down dear, rings are cheap now!”
chirped Sir Alex as the normally
assured Evans grew more flustered
by the second.
Teletext
Football fans of a certain vintage
will receive further confirmation
times are indeed a-changing
come December, with the demise
of Teletext. Before lap-tops, live
streaming and Jeff Stelling were
invented, spending Saturday
afternoon watching little yellow
numbers change on Teletext
was a popular form of selftorture. Booking holidays was
commonplace, too – and equally
frustrating. Remember having to
wait an hour for page 72 for “NEW7 nts Ibiza- (dep Gatwick)-s/c no
trans - £99” to come back up? God
bless t’internet!
“You’re shire, and you know you are…”
Funny how one letter out of place can make all the difference, isn’t it? Just ask Crystal
Palace press officer Thomas Coupland, who inadvertently made himself public enemy
number one with Preston fans recently.Rushing out a press release about Eagles’ new
signing Claude Davis, a former North End player, he managed to replace the “r” in
“Lancashire” with a “t”…
22
informing
supporting
campaigning
Aussie rules
White lines (don’t do it…)
Banners in order
There’s outrage in Australia about
draconian drinking laws set to be
imposed on the nation’s sports
fans. In a bid to keep beer-swilling
hooligans away from motor-racing
tracks, spectators will now be
allowed to take just one case of 24
cans of beer inside with them!
Unpleasant discoveries on Sunday
league pitches largely come in the
form of anonymous donations from
local dogs, which tend to be unearthed
during the execution of a sliding tackle.
Worle FC recently found something far
more disturbing on their pitch though
– a giant phallus. Well, a huge white
line drawing of one, anyway.
“If you drink lower strength lager,
you can take 36 in”, a spokesman
said. Wine drinkers have also fallen
foul of the authorities’ wrath and
will henceforth be limited to a
daily allowance of just four litres.
Manager Mark Chesney clearly
saw the funny side, though. “It’s
a terrible way to be shafted, we’ll
tackle whoever did it – what a balls
up!”, he said.
The media are more interested in
football fans who exchange blows
than those who exchange banners.
Supporters organising violence
is news-worthy – fans organising
anti-violence demonstrations
isn’t. So the recent joint initiative
between Middlesbrough and Ipswich
supporters garnered few newspaper
column inches. Banners reading “We
support our team, NOT violence”,
“Fans Not Hooligans” and “Supporters
Not Criminals” were exchanged when
the two clubs met in September. We
thought you should know.
Plain wrong
A quick word
Wheely good
When it comes to words being
inappropriately used in connection
with football, “irony” remains right
up there with “loyalty” on the
repeat offenders list.
Spare a thought for the poor footy
hacks of Teesside following the
arrival of Gordon Strachan as the
new manager of Middlesbrough FC.
He truly is a man of few words.
Debt deluged Liverpool FC trying
to sell mortgages to their loyal
supporters, though? When the
club is reportedly struggling
to make the payments on their
own loans at the moment? That’s
irony alright – and shows loyalty
little respect.
Strachan’s tendency towards brevity
is well-known in press circles and
our Scottish sources inform us that,
whilst managing Celtic, a radio
reporter pursuing him from a press
conference asked him for a quick
word. Strachan’s reply, as he vacated
the room:“Velocity!”
We love a good cause
– especially one which lends
itself to a play on words. York
City fan Simon Hood is cycling
to Minstermen matches this
season, to raise money for the
Alzheimer’s Society.
© Actionimages
Follow his progress and donate
dosh at justgiving.com/
bicyclekicks.
Walsall fans have missed a trick
here, haven’t they?
www.fsf.org.uk
23
Discusses plans
to keep cup
Ghana v Brazil at Germany 2006
cat no 8085 by Stuart Roy Clarke
The Africans have a small following but
nevertheless manage to attract a lot of attention.
They are up against Brazil on and off the pitch.
Germany themselves (as hosts) seem keen on
the England/Scotland/Liverpool/Bay City Roller
presentation. Albeit 30 years on.
Stuart Clarke at the Homes of Football
Headquarters in Ambleside, Cumbria.
Stuart Clarke has extended his name to
Stuart Roy Clarke, is still at Ambleside, but
is preparing to take most of his football
collection to the National Football Museum
for further development.
www.homesoffootball.co.uk
24
informing
supporting
campaigning
www.fsf.org.uk
25
So we’re definitely going to South Africa. England
will have one of the biggest travelling supports, too a fact underlined by the news that only South Africa
itself, and, perhaps surprisingly, the United States of America
had generated more ticket applications to FIFA.
Where the World Cup tickets go...
9%
“AWAY” TEAM’S FANS
Qualification secured, the media was awash with features on
how to obtain tickets for England’s games. Most concluded
that if you’re not a member of the FA’s englandfans+ scheme,
with sufficient accumulated caps to qualify, then you’d struggle
to get any.
9%
“HOME” TEAM’S FANS
20%
SPONSORS AND
BROADCAST PARTNERS
Because, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, what we’ve
ended up with once more is a system designed to suit FIFA’s own
requirements and priorities – and generate revenue for them.
When football fans all over the world were invited to start
applying for tickets for next summer’s World Cup, only one
team was certain to be taking part – the hosts. Everyone
else was still playing out the qualification phase, hoping
to be involved when the draw for groups is finally made in
December. So the vast majority of applications were made
“blind” – for matches where the venue, the date and the kickoff time (and of course also the price) were known, but not
who will be playing.
Now that’s understandable for the knockout phases, but for
the group stage? The draw will be made more than six months
before the first game kicks off, but tickets went on sale almost
a year before the draw. Cynics might suspect this enables FIFA
to sell tickets for less popular games to fans hoping they’ll be
seeing one of the glamorous ties. Under false pretences, in other
words. Or maybe it’s more to do with the interest to be earned
on all that ticket money paid eighteen months in advance.
Just the ticket?
by Kevin Miles
The acid test for any tournament ticketing system is does it deliver
tickets for games directly into the hands of the fans who want to see
them, at face value prices they can afford? Once again the ticketing system for next summer’s World Cup is much more geared to the
needs of tournament organisers than those of fans…
26
informing
supporting
campaigning
One question remained largely unanswered amid the media
frenzy over tickets for South Africa, though. If they aren’t
available for purchase by ordinary football fans then who does
obtain them, and how?
Establishing the total number of tickets available sounds
straightforward. Find out the capacity of each stadium, factor
in the games that are being played in each venue, and do the
necessary maths. And you come up with a total gross capacity
for World Cup finals 2010 fixtures of 3,701,741, spread across
the 64 matches.
But that’s not the number of tickets that go on sale. A
“contingency” of 348,449 tickets, or 9.41% of gross capacity
from those 64 fixtures are removed. Because at the time of
determining ticket availability it wasn’t clear how many seats
would be unusable due to advertising hoardings, camera
positions, etc. It’s possible that after the precise stadium
configuration is finalised, some of these “contingency” seats
will become available, but they’re excluded from the main
sale process.
12%
HOSPITALITY PACKAGES
25%
PUBLIC SALE
6%
11%
FIFA
APPROVED TOUR
OPERATORS
3%
LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE
3%
COMPETING FA’S FOOTBALL FAMILY
That leaves a usable seating capacity of 3,353,292 – but that’s
still not quite the total that’s put on sale. Another 323,215
seats at games are taken out of the equation because they’ve
been designated “complimentaries”. Some 120,000 of these
“comps” are Category 4 (the cheapest) tickets being distributed
to South Africans, particularly workers involved in stadium
construction, many of whom wouldn’t otherwise be able to
afford to buy one, which sounds fair to us.
But the remaining 200,000 or so are allocated to the media
(83,260 tickets), VIPs (41,260 tickets) and “other complimentaries”.
Before we get to selling a single ticket, almost one fifth of
the gross capacity (18.14%, to be precise) has been declared
unavailable for purchase to supporters, leaving a total of
3,030,077 purchasable tickets. Which sounds quite a lot – until
you consider several other interested parties are allocated
tickets too, before they’re made available to supporters.
Commercial partnerships will account for an incredible one
in three of all purchasable tickets – 550,106 go to sponsors,
380,000 are devoted to the hospitality packages, and 66,140
are allocated to broadcast partners.
Another 12% are allocated to the “football family”. FIFA take
195,203 tickets for their own use. They’re distributed among all
www.fsf.org.uk
27
© Actionimages
their member associations, whether or not they’ve qualified
for the finals. Another 90,902 are given over to the “Local
Organising Committee” (LOC), the South African tournament
organisers. While 89,600 are reserved for the “football family”
of each of the “competing member associations” – in other
words, the sponsors and staff, and possibly even players’
wives and families.
Next comes a category of tickets which has been revived
from previous tournaments such as Japan/Korea in
2002, and France in 1998, but which was scrapped after
pressure from the host nation in Germany 2006. This
is the allocation of 11% of all purchasable tickets to
approved tour operators, in other words a list of 46 travel
companies who have been designated by FIFA as official
suppliers of travel and accommodation packages to
South Africa.
Unlike the FA’s arrangement with their own travel partners offering travel packages to fans allocated tickets via the usual
channels - these companies actually get a ticket allocation of
their own to sell as part of the deals they offer.
Given South Africa’s shortage of accommodation, its
transport difficulties and safety issues, travel packages may
prove more popular with fans than ever.
We’ll be watching closely to see how these companies price
and market their packages. Without casting aspersions about
anyone involved this time around, it’s fair to say that this
category of ticket has acquired a dreadful reputation in previous
tournaments, where the system has been dubbed “licensed
touting”. Claims such privileged access to an exclusive supply of
tickets has been abused, with the travel packages being marked
up dramatically in price to take advantage of fans’ desperation
to get hold of tickets, do hold water. Despite the strict rules
against the sale of these tickets independently of travel
packages, in France in 1998 large quantities of them emerged
on the black market, where they were sold at inflated prices.
So – keep up at the back – that’s already 55% of all purchasable
match tickets accounted for before FIFA offers any for sale directly
to fans. Some 25% of tickets (743,965 in total) are offered for sale
direct to the world’s public via the FIFA website, in five distinct
phases. Tickets are sold for individual matches by date and venue,
or, alternatively, you can buy a Team Specific Ticket (TST). With a
TST you have to specify how many games you wish to follow the
team, possibly up to and including the final. Bizarrely, if your team
of choice is knocked out, then your TST transfers to the team that
beat yours!
Even here though, FIFA don’t miss an opportunity to make money.
For a start, TSTs go on sale long before qualification is finally
settled, so FIFA accumulate lots of interest from money spent by
fans whose countries don’t even get to South Africa. They get
their money back, of course – some of it, anyway. Unsuccessful
TST applications are subject to a “non-refundable portion” of the
“TST service fee”,equivalent to 10% of the price of the group stage
games applied for – which amounts to $48 for Category 1 tickets!
England are one of the six teams whose TSTs sold out in the first
sales phase in March 2009, the other five being Brazil, Argentina,
Australia, Ireland and Holland. It’s possible some of those countries
whose TSTs have sold out won’t even qualify for the finals, in
which case they won’t be sold. (Nor will they suddenly become
England TSTs though.)
So, finally – and fittingly, as fans appear to come last – to
the tickets set aside for supporters of the teams competing
in any particular game. You’d imagine supporters of the
teams actually playing in matches would come first,
wouldn’t you? Not at the FIFA World Cup, though. At South
Africa 2010, tickets for fans of the teams actually playing in
any given game, as distributed by their own national FAs,
represent the smallest category of allocation. As few as 8%
of tickets for fixtures in later rounds end up distributed to
the competing FA’s own supporters. For group stage games,
this proportion rises to 12%, - but the average over the
whole tournament is just 9% for each team.
Should England reach the World Cup final, just 8 out of
every 100 tickets for the stadium will have been made
directly available to the fans who’ve supported their team
throughout the qualifying campaign.
England fans are resourceful, and when it comes to crunch games,
you can be sure that we’ll be well represented in the stadiums.
But remember, every ticket on the black market is one that FIFA’s
system has sold to someone more interested in making a quick
buck than in seeing a football match, while genuine fans have
their support for their team exploited for financial gain.
Five issues that may be bigger than tickets in South Africa
It’s possible tickets might not even feature in the Top Five Talking Points among England fans
attending the 2010 World Cup – so here’s our predicted top five alternative issues expected to
dominate fans’ discussions:
1. Safety
4. Accommodation
South Africa’s crime rate is dangerously high, with robberies
and car-jackings a feature of everyday life. The arrival of
hundreds of thousands of relatively wealthy visitors provides
potentially rich pickings. Accommodation and transport
problems could leave fans even more vulnerable.
There aren’t enough hotel rooms to go round in the venue
cities. Camping isn’t the same enticing prospect it was in, say,
Germany. Hoteliers have increased rates by as much as 300
- 400% for next June; with FIFA’s appointed accommodation
agency Match Ltd taking a 30% commission on all bookings.
2. Transport
5. Vuvuzelas
With huge distances between some venues, and South Africa’s
under-developed transport infrastructure, getting between
matches could be hugely problematic – and expensive.
Those horrible plastic horns so beloved of South African
fans destroy genuine match-related atmosphere, wreck
television broadcasts and generally get on people’s
nerves. Unless you think they’re a charming expression of
local culture.
3. Winter
We’ve all seen the beaches in the brochures, but June in
South Africa is the middle of their winter; nights can be really
cold, especially at altitude!
28
informing
supporting
campaigning
For breaking news about South Africa 2010 visit the
World Cup mini-site, coming soon to www.fsf.org.uk
www.fsf.org.uk
29
Come Saturday, Spurs are at home, Perryman runs out, and all
the Skinheads at White Hart Lane are going “Blimey! Look at
that haircut, he’s one of us!” – and he was an instant cult hero.”
And, across north London a few years later, Arsenal’s Charlie
George was another footballer who looked as if he’d walked
straight off the terraces and straight into the Highbury
dressing room.
“I shouldn’t say this, but as a kid I used to quite like Charlie
George, even though he played for Arsenal”, Hewitt confesses.
“Mainly because I once saw him being interviewed and he was
wearing a Fred Perry, Sta-prest and some loafers. Because that
whole Skinhead culture, just like the casual thing later on, was
never represented on TV or appeared in magazines.”
Appearance was evidently everything to some footballers
back in the day, though. Some took their interest in clothes
far beyond what they actually wore themselves and went
into retail. Back in the 1960s, Spurs skipper Dave Mackay was
one of the first in on the act, allowing his name to be used
for a tie shop on White Hart Lane, which is still trading today.
It’s a trend that’s persisted down the years, too, with the likes
of Ruud Gullitt bringing out a leisurewear range a few years
back, and, most recently, former Sunderland striker Djbril Cisse
opening a clothes shop in neighbouring Newcastle – which
didn’t last long, funnily enough!
Dedicated follower of fashion George Best was probably the
first to actually dabble in his own range of clothes, though,
and famously owned a boutique in Manchester. The late, great,
Sir Bobby Moore was heavily involved in the rag trade pretty
much all his life, while Manchester City and England’s Mike
Summerbee – a sharp dressed man, indeed – still runs his own
shirt-making business today.
These days it appears most modern footballers’
idea of dressing up doesn’t seem to extend much
further than combining ostentatious headphones
with designer hoodies, sporting baseball caps with suits,
flip flops and watches with faces the size of your old school
clock. Failure to carry a Louis Vuitton wash-bag at all times
presumably results in a club fine and a telling off from the
Professional Footballers’ Association.
But that hasn’t always been the way of the world. Certain players
of yesteryear were renowned as something approaching style
icons – much as David Beckham, the media maintain, is today.
Some of the stars of the 1960s and 1970s attained such iconic
status by accident, and some, quite literally, by design.
Forty years ago, for example, Tottenham Hotspur’s Steve
Perryman became one of the accidental heroes of the day,
simply by virtue of a chance visit to an unfamiliar barbers’ shop.
30
informing
supporting
campaigning
“That’s one of the little gems we unearthed
during the research for The Fashion Of
Football book”, says Paolo Hewitt.
“Back in 1969, Steve Perryman’s brother
had a stall in Brentford and Perryman was
down there visiting him. That’s how long
ago it was – imagine the equivalent today?
It’s impossible to really, isn’t it – a top-flight
professional footballer, helping out his
brother on a market stall one morning,
down in Brentford?
“Anyway, young Stevie Perryman needed a
haircut, and his brother recommended this barber nearby, who,
it turned out, was the first choice for local boxers. Now, boxers
keep their hair short, so Steve Perryman ended up with what
was basically the standard issue haircut this barber did.
Dave Mackay ties the game
Memorably, he told me he reckoned Bobby Moore was the
only man he’d ever met who was so immaculate that he
could get out of the bath dry!
“And he told me Dougie Hayward, who has sadly passed
away now, used to be Moore’s tailor. He famously made all
Michael Caine’s amazing suits for the film The Italian Job.
I went down to meet him, in his shop on Mount Street, in
London. It was an extraordinary place, and during the course
of our visit there my mate Mark and I bumped into people
like Jackie Stewart and Michael Parkinson. I remember
Dougie said to me that, as footballers stopped traffic when
they walked down the streets these days, it was a shame
so few of them appeared to pay any attention to what they
wore. They’ll pay money, yes – and plenty of it, evidently. But
pay attention? Only as far as wearing exactly the same thing
as everyone else in the dressing room, Dougie Hayward said,
I think he was probably right.
“All the way up to the early 80s
you could dress the same as the players,
and I think some of them
“I had such a good time talking to Mike Summerbee, and
it was thanks to him we were able to work out who Bobby
Moore’s tailor was – Moore was always immaculate, after all,
and one player whose style was definitely influential, I think”,
Hewitt says.
were more influential then than
players are today
“I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really known that Mike Summerbee
and Bobby Moore were such close mates. Summerbee still
owns a company which makes shirts – though I don’t think
it’s him who comes round if you decide to have a few made!
Him and Bobby Moore used to be room-mates on England
trips, and weren’t averse to the odd night out, shall we say!
Apparently they used to get home blotto, but the room
would always be spotless. And they would always hang
up their suits – even if it took them half an hour to do so.
Top Ten Adidas Trainers
1 Forest Hills
2 Trim Trabb
“
“All the way up to the early 80s you could dress the same as
the players, and I think some of them were more influential
then than players are today. It was possible to dress like
George Best did, when he was in his prime. corduroy jacket,
button down shirt – it was all available. But I think as
footballers started earning ridiculous sums of money, the
gap between those on the terraces and those on the pitch
became ever wider. In clothes terms too, maybe. Even if they
could afford to, most fans would not want to dress like most
footballers do these days.”
3 Tobacco
4 Korsica
5 Holiday
6 Jeans
7 Gazelle
8 Munchen
9 Easy
10 Stan Smith
www.fsf.org.uk
31
Top 10 football injuries
(In order of hilarity rather than seriousness of injury...
which would be a bit sick)
10
9
8
7
6
5
Injury time
Professional footballers are all stupid. “A sweeping
generalisation” I hear you cry! Bollocks! They are as
thick as their wallets and I’ve got the proof.
Nobody is saying you have to be a rocket surgeon to play
football. Making the grade at the highest level is down to
brawn not brains, surely? Well, brawn with a smattering of
natural ability and a sprinkling of determination anyway.
These days your average professional footballer is an athlete
in prime physical condition. He is surrounded by the finest
physios, dieticians and psychologists in the land to make sure
he maintains the level of the perfect footballing machine. But
even wrapping him in the densest of metaphorical cotton
wool won’t necessarily stop him from finding a way to hurt
himself. Eventually the idiocy comes through and no amount
32
informing
supporting
campaigning
4
of nanny-like attention can help; as Jeff Goldblum said in
Jurassic Park, “nature will find a way”.
I’m not talking about a broken leg from a full blooded 5050 challenge or a gushing head wound from a clash on the
edge of the six yard box. No, my proof that footballers are
gobsmackingly idiotic is drawn from the injuries they suffer
outside of the 90 minutes. What provides the overwhelming
evidence that they are intellectually challenged is how, when
left to their own devices, they manage to burn, dislocate, cut and
remove various parts of their body.
So, if you’re one of these people that says something
like “for every Jason McAteer there’s a Guardian reading
Graham LeSaux” shut up, sit down and see for yourself how
stupendously incompetent footballers can be.
3
2
1
Alan Wright – A Wright Tit
The diminutive former Villa fullback stretched so hard to reach
the accelerator of his Ferrari he badly strained his knee. Over
compensating?
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Kasey Keller – Careless Driver
American goalie Kasey Keller knocked out his front teeth taking his
golf clubs from the boot of his car.
Ramalho – Dodgy Back Passage
Ramalho was bed ridden for three days after swallowing the
medication for his dental condition; suppositories, as it turned out. In
the throws of his fever he was heard to say, “For what good these have
done me I may as well have shoved them up me arse.”
Milan Rapaic – Misplaced Pass
Milan Rapaic, formerly of Hajduk Split, once missed the start of the
1995/96 season after sticking a boarding pass in his eye at an airport.
Alex Stepney – No one Listens to Steps
Back in 1975 the Man Utd keeper Alex Stepney shouted at his defence
so hard that he dislocated his jaw and it had to be reset.
Svein Grondalen – Elk and Safety
Staying in the 70s, Norwegian defender Svein Grondalen missed an
international match. He went out for a morning jog and collided with
a moose.
Santiago Canizares – Scent Off
The Spanish keeper missed the 2002 World Cup after breaking his foot
by dropping a bottle of aftershave on it.
Kirk Broadfoot – Poached from St Mirren
Rangers’ Kirk Broadfoot ended up in hospital after an egg he had just
microwaved exploded in his face. Luckily it wasn’t a scotch egg or he
would be dead.
Kevin Kyle – Great Balls of Fire
The Kilmarnock striker had been preparing to feed his baby when the
youngster knocked a jug of boiling water being used to heat a bottle into
his father’s lap. He was rushed to hospital with badly scalded testicles.
Darius Vassell – Bursting a Blood Vassell
Darius Vassell missed several games in November 2002 after he
attempted a bit of do-it-yourself surgery in a bid to burst a blood
blister using a drill.
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33
© Actionimages
David Davies
Mussolini ensured the trains ran on
time, Kelly made sure the mail was
always late. Primarily because he took
it upon himself to sneak a peek at
everyone’s post before it reached them.
The Chief Executive of our game spent
his time on this? Unbelievable.
“ People need to
remember where football
was in the late 80s.
We’d had Hillsborough... “
“I’m first and foremost a fan who found
himself in that situation against all
sorts of advice,” says Davies, “but yes,
I relished the fire-fighting. That’s life.
The profile of the sport mushroomed.”
Yet the FA’s press office remained, prior
to Davies’ arrival, an afterthought with
little in the way of media understanding
– remember Kelly’s startled TV
appearances on FA Cup draws?
tfs interview
Sex, drugs and penalties
In more than 12 years as the FA’s Director of Communications and Executive Director David Davies dealt with more dramas
and media fuelled panics than Sven’s had hot women. The FSF’s Michael Brunskill speaks to him in time for the launch of his
new autobiography, FA Confidential: Sex, Drugs and Penalties – the inside story of English football
There’s not too many
sporting biographies where
you can flick open the Index
and happen upon Afghanistan, Africa,
AIDS and Alistair Campbell – and
that’s just the A’s. But it says a lot for
the media’s post-Italia 90 obsession
with football that in the world of spin
doctors, Davies was second only to
Blair’s main man during the late 90s
and early 00s when it came to dealing
with media firestorms. I flew through
the aforementioned Campbell’s The
34
informing
supporting
campaigning
The evolution of the FA plays a central
role in the book and there’s no doubt
Davies was a thrusting, forwardthinking administrator. Never afraid
to ring the changes, he was key in
appointing England’s first foreign
manager, a thrusting Swede (ahem),
and ratcheting up the glamour around
the squad – does he regret the ‘golden
generation’ hysteria?
“If you look at the England team now,
most of the players were a part of 2006
and learned from that experience, but
you cannot win a major tournament
without winning penalty shoot outs and
my problem was we kept losing them!
Blair Years not only because I’m a
total geek, but also because there’s
something intriguing about the ‘Access
All Areas’ element these books have.
Davies’ entrance to the FA lives up to
that billing, fulfilling every stereotype
you could have built up about the
organisation at that time.
“We tried everything – we had Hoddle’s
view on practice not being needed and
other times we practiced them all the
time. In 2006 the three most successful
in practice were Lampard, Gerrard and
Carragher – and in the quarter-final
they all missed!”
It’s a funny portrayal, more 1894 than
1994, with ex-FA Chief Executive
Graham Kelly as a bumbling despot
in a “part museum, part asylum”. While
While Davies is undoubtedly a
moderniser, he wasn’t an FA employee
at the dawn of the Premier League
– does he think the FA were wrong not
to try and block its formation?
“People need to remember where
football was in the late 80s. We’d had
Hillsborough and Heysel – those
experiences were the reality. Do I
think we had to move on? Yes. In an
ideal world would we be where we
are? No. We went from A to Z but in
an ideal we’d be at N, O, or P. Do I think
the extremes of rich and poor are too
extreme? Yes I do. Do I think the issues
around the traditional supporter got
lost in the push for radical change? Yes
I do.”
So why didn’t you say some of these
things when inside the FA?
“Well I did. I’m in favour of price
stretching [more cheaper and more
expensive tickets] and I think children
should be able to get in with an adult
[for free].
“ Most can tell you
something they think was
better 25 years ago
but I think generally
things have improved...“
“Most can tell you something they
think was better 25 years ago but I
think generally things have improved
– in 1989 I thought English football
was committing suicide. So looking at
where we are today, even with its faults,
I’d have taken it.”
Davies left the FA of his own accord
in 2008 following England’s failure to
qualify for the Euros, but that’s not
to say he doesn’t any have influence
today. He currently chairs a panel set
up by the government which will
decide which sporting events should
appear on free-to-air TV, the so-called
“crown jewels.”
While the panel won’t report until
after tfs 018 has gone to print you’d
hope the shambolic manner in which
England’s tie in Ukraine was handled
by terrestrial TV influences Davies’
recommendations. Irish, German and
Italian fans get to watch their team
free-to-air, why can’t England fans?
“The rights to Ukraine against England
were owned by the Ukrainian FA. Who
can show what and the logistics of how
it gets on screen is interesting. The [Irish]
government has effectively intervened
and said they want those matches freeto-air and it’s never been challenged, as
far as we can find, in any court.”
“ Do I think the issues
around the traditional
supporter got lost in
the push for radical change?
Yes I do. “
The latest rumours are that Davies will
urge the government to guarantee all
home fixtures are added to the crown
jewels list – a move which will win
him many friends among football fans.
Although his old colleagues at the FA
are said to be less pleased, fearing a dip
in revenue because of fewer bidders.
I have to be honest, when I first picked
up FA Confidential I feared the worst
– a dry, humourless, passionless look
into a boardroom full of old men in
Blazers – but I got a nice surprise.
Davies is a charming interviewee, easy
to strike up conversation with and
adept at giving an insight into a world
which might as well be outer space as
far as most fans are concerned.
Even his occasional tendency to slip into
Alan Partridge territory is forgivable.
There’s an amusing section where he
tells how the victorious 1992 Spurs side,
which he was shadowing for the BBC’s
Cup Final coverage, accidentally left the
Cup on their coach. But Davies comes
to the rescue as he grabs the trophy,
leaves the bus and tells how the crowd
went “potty” for him (and the FA Cup,
obviously). Davies has such an obvious
passion for the game that, after a few
chapters, these Partridge-isms even
become endearing.
Well worth a read for anyone who
wants an insight into the egos and
characters who, both on and off the
field, shape our game.
www.fsf.org.uk
35
Meetings Report
a large number of committees. If you’re not on a particular
itt you may nott b
til th
i t
committee
be aware off an iissue until
the minutes
come before Council, by which time the horse, if not bolted,
may be a good way down the track. I’d prefer to make my input
much earlier but don’t usually get the chance. I am only on one
committee, which means that I have to pick and choose items
to speak on at the Council meeting. Being the only supporters’
representative, I can’t share that responsibility with anyone
(unlike say the large number of national game members).
I believe I’ve made a constructive contribution at both the
Council itself and on the Membership Committee. Although I feel
some of the FA Council’s old-fashioned style and protocols should
be updated in the 21st century, the football values and beliefs of
many of the Council members are, in fact, very similar to the FSF’s.
I have the utmost respect for the knowledge and experience
which many colleagues have about the grassroots game and the
lifelong contribution they’ve made to its development.
Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe
© Actionimages
This autumn marks the end of my second year
as the first supporters’ representative on the FA
Council, which survived the previous 142 years of its
existence without one. This was one of the changes coming
out of the Burns review of the FA, along with the appointment
of an Independent Chair, Lord David Triesman.
Email: [email protected]
From the chair
I’m often asked what it’s like to sit on the FA Council, and
whether I’ve made any difference. It is an appropriate time to
reflect on that, in the wake of the response by Sports Minister,
Gerry Sutcliffe, to the replies from the FA, the Premier League
and the Football League to the seven questions posed last
autumn by then Secretary of State for DCMS, Andy Burnham.
The minister raises questions about the effectiveness of the FA,
even after Burns, as the game’s governing body.
Malcolm Clarke is Chair of the Football Supporters’
FSF Meetings
Federation and fans’ representative on the FA Council
August 21st – Members of the FSF’s
policing & stewarding group – including
Ash Connor, Amanda Jacks and Steve
Powell – met with representatives and
solicitors from civil rights group Liberty.
Discussion focused around the civil cases
36
informing
supporting
campaigning
The FA Council is big – about 120 people sit on it. It’s like
addressing a public meeting, with little opportunity for
dialogue. More like Parliament than a board or committee
meeting. It receives for approval or otherwise the minutes of
brought by many Stoke fans against
Greater Manchester Police last year (see
tfs 014). [email protected]
August 29th – Malcolm Clarke met with
the Association of Chief Police Officers
along with members of the FSF’s
policing & stewarding group. Their new
lead on football matters is Andy Holt
who replaces Steve Thomas. The first
meeting was a more businesslike affair
with a formal structure and carefully
I sit on a sub-committee set up by the Football Regulation
Authority (the arms-length regulation body) which is looking
at some key issues of financial governance. Unfortunately,
one of the football authorities has declined to attend that
committee which doesn’t help its work, and illustrates the
Minister of Sport’s concern about the apparent inability of the
three leading bodies in football to work together effectively.
This was occasioned by the well-publicised failure of the FA
Board, which is split 50/50 between the national and professional
games apart from the Chair and the Chief Executive, to agree
anything other than an anodyne response to the Secretary of
State’s questions. The Minister did not mince his words: “I was
disappointed that the FA, or for that matter the FA Board on which
you all have representatives, did not submit a more substantive
response. For me this raises a number of questions in relation to
the effectiveness of the on-going working partnership that exists
between the football authorities... it surely cannot be right that on the
majority of the seven questions, the FA did not offer an authoritative
view or set of proposals but simply referred us to the responses of the
leagues... I am very keen to see a much closer working relationship
between the football authorities...”.
Hear hear to all that! The Minister’s understandable frustration
has led him to re-open the debate about the implementation
of the Burns’ recommendations in full, and in particular, the
detailed notes. This isn’t necessarily a
bad thing as Holt seems very capable
and there’s no reason our organisations
have to be best mates!
[email protected]
appointment of two non-executive directors to the FA Board.
As he says “It is evident that there needs to be room for more
independent input into the Board’s decisions. Non-executives
can provide a valuable check and balance in the overall decision
making structure”.Whilst looking at the Board, it should also be
noted that myself and the other new members are in one sense
“second-class” members, in that we have no representation on,
and cannot vote for, the main FA Board.
The Minister also picked up the diversity issue, calling for “wider
representation at the FA that reflects in football the diversity of today’s
society” and, significantly for us (although don’t hold your breath),
“I would also like you to consider the idea of democratically elected
supporter representatives at football clubs”.
Along with our sister organisation Supporters Direct, we
have repeatedly demonstrated that we can make a valuable
contribution to the key governance and financial questions
faced by football and posed in the seven questions. The
document we jointly produced on those questions, together
with our more detailed paper on the football creditors rule,
stands comparison with any in the quality of its research and
arguments. We have demonstrated that we are worthy of a
place at the table.
“ Some us of can recall being told
by a senior figure in the FA, not too long
ago, that it would not be possible
to have a fit and proper persons test... “
More than that, in many respects we have led the debate in
recent years. Some of us can recall being told by a senior figure
in the FA, not too long ago, that it would not be possible to
have a fit and proper persons test in football; and by a senior
administrator that the disadvantage of such a test is that it
might stop people like George Reynolds being in football
(ahem!); and that ordinary company law is a sufficient safeguard
for financial governance of clubs. To their credit, since then the
FA, the Premier League, the Football League and the Football
Conference have all made strides in the right direction. But
they need to go much further and to do so in a more joined-up
way – hence the need for a stronger FA which can lead that coordination. YES, Minister!
September 3rd – The FSF’s diversity
group is working with the Never Watch
Alone Initiative which enables supporters
with a learning disability to attend
matches alongside their fellow supporters.
[email protected]
October 24th – Shadowing South
Yorkshire Police at Sheffield United vs
Cardiff City. Cardiff fans have previously
reported their treatment at United is
worse than at Wednesday, we intend to
investigate. [email protected]
www.fsf.org.uk
37
Football fans guilty until proven innocent
To paraphrase George Orwell’s Animal Farm, under
English law, everyone is equal – it’s just that football
supporters aren’t as equal as everybody else. A
pre-season incident between Sunderland supporters and
Northumbria Police offered further proof that football fans in
this country are often second class citizens and should expect
to be treated accordingly.
On Saturday August 8th, a group of approximately 40
Sunderland fans arrived at Newcastle’s Central Station
following their team’s pre-season friendly with Heart of
Midlothian. Four fans were hospitalised with serious injuries
caused by police dogs and batons. Many others escaped with
relatively minor injuries.
Following a surge of complaints by supporters to the FSF,
the Federation set about gathering evidence from witnesses
and fans and, as Northumbria Police’s bizarre PR offensive hit
northeast screens, it became immediately apparent that two
very different stories were emerging - what the police were
saying on one hand and supporters on the other.
Police and media have been labelled thugs and hooligans,
intent on pre-arranged violence, their homes have been
raided, their phones and computers confiscated and their
reputations left in tatters. Many of the fans, however, claim
to be completely innocent. Reports suggest supporters were
38
informing
supporting
campaigning
told the train they were on was returning to Sunderland, not
Newcastle at all, and that, rather than the incident being a
product of arranged hooliganism, it was Northumbria police
that instigated the violence.
Northumbria Police have followed up the case aggressively,
saying that they will stop at nothing to arrest all of the
“rampaging Sunderland soccer yobs” - when forced to
admit that at least some of the fans caught up in the trouble
were innocent bystanders, they described their situation as
“unfortunate”. Meanwhile, villified supporters, many of hom
claim to have been assaulted by the police in the attack, got
together to hand out almost 10,000 flyers prior to their team’s
home match with Wolves on Sunday September 27th. These
flyers explained the major discrepancies between the fans’ and
police’s versions of events and appealed for more witnesses.
Three months down the line no one has yet been charged with
any violent crime from the incident. Nevertheless, Sunderland
AFC has taken the decision to begin banning people – if you’re
a football fan it’s guilty until proven innocent. Sunderland’s
decision has gone down terribly among the club’s support and
the FSF is currently working with them to decide how we can
best challenge it. These supporters are not expecting the club
to come down on their side against the police’s – they simply
want a fair crack of the whip and the opportunity to defend
themselves before they are presumed guilty.
The FSF is absolutely opposed to violence, from police or fans.
There is no excuse for it and if fans are found guilty they must
face the consequences. Nevertheless, everyone is entitled
to fair representation - the principle that people accused of
crime are innocent until proven guilty is a cornerstone of the
British legal system - and at this minute in time not one person
accused by Northumbria Police has been charged, let alone
convicted. For that reason we are talking to the supporters
in the northeast about how best to organise an effective
campaign against this policy.
The trend for football clubs to ban fans first and ask questions
later - often, as is the case at Sunderland, without financial
compensation for the matches missed - seems to be
spreading fast, hailed as “best practise” by clubs up and down
the country. Unlike Orwell’s Manor Farm, though, football
supporters will not tolerate being treated like animals.
For more information about the Sunderland Central Station
incident, or to report a similar ban, contact [email protected]
Sunderland incident timeli
ne
August 8 – Northumbria Police clash with Sunderland fans
returning from Hearts in Newcastle. Four fans are hospitalised.
Reports appear on internet forums complaining of excessive
police force and the FSF receives a deluge of complaints.
August 11 – The Newcastle Evening Chronicle calls the event
“the worst assaults in the Northumbria force’s history” naming
four injured police dogs but none of the fans.
August 20 – FSF Chair Malcolm Clarke holds the Federation’s
first ever press conference outlining the evidence as it had
been presented to the FSF and calling for the resignation
of the IPCC’s North East commissioner following his rushed
judgement exonerating police (search “FSF press” on YouTube).
September 4 – An FSF Freedom of Information request shows
no police dogs required veterinary treatment.
September 16 – Private Eye magazine slam Northumbria
Police, labelling this their “G20 moment”.
September 27 – Sunderland fans hand out almost 10,000 flyers
appealing for witnesses.
October 29 – Sunderland fans involved in the incident are
banned from attending Sunderland matches without appeal,
pending the outcome of the police’s criminal investigation.
November 5 – Sunderland fans launch campaign against bans.
www.fsf.org.uk
39
Identifying trends…
Despite the fact football is now dead fashionable, and coverage of our
national game is as likely to dominate the front page as the back these
days, we still hear precious little about the ordinary match-going fan’s lot.
So the FSF decided to get cracking on a survey of match-going football
fans to see just what the “ordinary fan”, if there is such a thing, thinks…
More than 6,400 genuine match-going supporters
completed the first ever National Supporters’ Survey
before it closed at the end of September – a very
respectable return. Not in Gallop’s league, maybe, but we
certainly have enough responses to ensure it’s statistically sound,
and we’re sure it’ll prove its value as the Football Supporters’
Federation continues our campaigning activities.
The FSF’s national survey was internet based, and
males are famously accomplished skivers at work.
Unsurprisingly, more than 9 out of 10 respondents
(92.6%) were indeed men, with 37.3% of them aged
between 18-30. Of these, 6 out of 10 (58.6%) earn less
than £30,000 per annum and of the survey’s total
respondents half (50.5%) held season tickets.
We’re now busy slaving away over hot spreadsheets in order to
properly analyse the resulting data and hope to be able to publish
everything over the next month or so. Meantime, we thought we’d
offer tfs’s readership an early overview of results regarding certain
pertinent issues – namely safe standing, policing and stewarding,
ticket pricing, travel costs and the influence of television schedules
on kick-off times. We’ve even done some trendy graphs and stuff.
Given that it’s generally accepted that rising prices have
lead to the gentrification of our game, these figures do
stand out as surprisingly, well, normal. Ticket prices that
cost an arm and a leg aren’t necessarily being met by
the post-Fever Pitch middle-classes with money to burn.
Fact is normal people on normal wages are feeling the
squeeze to fund ever-increasing wage bills at their clubs.
40
informing
supporting
campaigning
Now, when times are tough (we’re in a recession, y’know!)
people often tighten their belts. So the fact that only 1 in 4
(25.1%) plan to cut back on the amount of games they attend
might seem strange. However even fewer people, only 1 in 5
(20.4%), say they’re going to attend more games. As gates have
been rising for more than 15 years, this could indicate that
football’s popularity as “live” entertainment has peaked.
This should obviously be a concern for clubs but what can
they do to address such a trend? The fact 50.7% of those
surveyed feel ticket prices are too high suggests the answer
is obvious. Clubs should also note one quarter of fans (25.9%)
have decided not to attend a match because a kick off time
had been moved to cater for TV coverage. Some 24.2% of
respondents have lost money on train or hotel bookings under
such circumstances.
Maybe if clubs didn’t choose to sign up to these TV deals in
the first place they’d see more fans through the gates and
a change in fans’ attitude? We’ll be talking to the football
authorities and TV companies about this.
It’s not all the clubs’ fault though, as some factors are simply
beyond their control – like travel costs. One in every three fans
(29.9%) travels 51 miles or more to attend home games alone,
and 32% maintained increased travel costs were a significant
factor in deciding to attend fewer matches. Football clubs can’t
be blamed for the Government’s public transport policy or
increased fuel taxes!
Worryingly though, 27.3% of fans cited disillusionment
with football in general as a major factor in them
attending fewer games. Aside from the aforementioned
high ticket prices and travel costs, only changes in family
circumstances/finances (30.8%) were rated more significant
in fans deciding to cut back, which suggests a general,
deep-rooted malaise which requires more analysis than we
can provide in a few hundred words!
www.fsf.org.uk
41
The recent media insistence that football fans are
regressing to the dark days with anti-social behaviour on
the rise seem ill-founded. Not only do Home Office crime
statistics suggest otherwise, the fans themselves do too.
If anything, supporters feel increasingly victimised with
53.7% saying they’d witnessed unfair stewarding in
the past five years while 46% had seen policing they
considered unfair. Away fans, in particular, reported
such experiences.
As the FSF receives more complaints regarding policing
and stewarding than anything else, this isn’t a surprise
to us. Some of the stories we’ve heard would make your
blood boil. The message from the fans here is plain – stop
treating us all like criminals.
For years now, the FSF has campaigned for the
introduction of safe standing areas similar to those at the
top clubs in Germany’s Bundesliga.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the majority of
42
informing
supporting
campaigning
supporters want to have the choice on whether they’re
allowed to stand or sit – around 90% of fans regularly tell
us this. This latest survey actually shows that half of fans
who responded (50.2%) would actively choose to stand
safely, if such an option was available to them.
“ Which other industry
has to harass its ‘consumers’
into not doing something
they actually want to do? “
Which other industry has to harass its ‘consumers’ into
not doing something they actually want to do? We can’t
think of one. Yet 3 out of every 4 fans who would prefer
the option to stand at games (74.7%) have been told to sit
down when watching their team.
Bring back safe standing and stop telling the game’s
paying customers what’s good for them.
tfs Competitions
In a recent poll of three people in the FSF office, 100% thought tfs readers would like
to get loads of nice footy-related clobber for free. Of the same sample, only 25% knew
their arse from their elbow, though, so you do the math(s). And on the off-chance you
would like to win any of this fine football fayre, our details are on the right...
We have four
retro football
shirts to give
away courtesy of
TOFFS.com.
They say nostalgia is not what it
used to be but most of us footy
fans are a sucker for a bit of
memorabilia. Even if it’s just that
battered, half filled Panini sticker
album from 1985. For something
with a bit more wow factor though,
try BritishSportsMuseum.com. Their
range of memorabilia caters for all
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The Old Fashioned Football Shirt
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over 1400 styles of shirt. Find your
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and enter FSF at the checkout to
get £5 off any order over £25.
For a chance to win the shirt of
your choice, simply tell us which
English club inspired the mighty
The picture, showing England team
members during their celebratory
Wembley lap of honour, is one of
the enduring images of the day and
has been hand signed by England’s
goalkeeping legend Gordon Banks.
For a chance to win this piece
simply e-mail the answer to the
following question to [email protected].
How many England caps did
Gordon Banks collect?
Win the official DVD
of the World Cup
campaign “England’s
Road to South Africa””,
scheduled for release
e
on 16 November.
With action from all the games
from the opening victory against
Andorra to the vital win over
Belarus, England’s Road To South
Africa is available now to order from
the FSF online shop for £17.99,
(cheaper than Amazon!).
In the meantime we have 10 copies
to give away. To bag one, e-mail
[email protected] with the answer to
the following question by midnight
on Sunday 6th December, 2009.
Juventus to play in black and
white stripes?
In association with the FSF,
BritishSportsMuseum.com
is offering one of our lucky
readers the exciting chance to
win a stunning 20x16” framed
presentation which features a
16x12” print depicting England’s
1966 World Cup Triumph at
Wembley Stadium.
Mark all correspondence “Free Stuff Please!” and...
Write to: tfs Competitions
The Football Supporters’ Federation
The Cherry Red Records Fans’ Stadium – Kingsmeadow,
Jack Goodchild Way,
422A Kingston Road,
Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 3PB
Email: [email protected]
Please e-mail your answer to
[email protected] on or before
Sunday 6th December, 2009.
Big hair, big ‘taches, very small
shorts, The Best of the Big Match is
a trip down memory lane to an era
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would huddle around the TV to
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The Big Match, squeezing onto the
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delivered with charm, wit and style
by Brian Moore, Jimmy Hill, Brian
Clough and Jim Rosenthal.
We have 10 DVDs to give away
featuring either Arsenal, Aston Villa,
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How many goals did England
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Spurs or West Ham. To
be in with a chance of winning one just
email or post the answer the following
question to either of the addresses at
the top of the page:
Johnny Metgod, famous for THAT
free kick, was born in which country?
www.fsf.org.uk
43
Dear tfs
The brightest and best of the FSF post bag, these days called an inbox...
Send us
your letters
Dear tfs,
By Mail: tfs, The Football Supporters’ Federation
The Cherry Red Records Fans’ Stadium – Kingsmeadow,
Jack Goodchild Way, 422A Kingston Road,
Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 3PB
By email: [email protected]
Dear tfs,
Last week while having a bit of a clear
out I stumbled across some old sticker
books which brought the childhood
memories flooding back. These
included a retro-tastic Italia ’90 effort
which I had a quick flick through.
Dear tfs,
As a 16 year old Spurs season ticket
holder I find it unfair that I am
expected to pay the same price as
adults for cup games.
Dear tfs,
Vital Lincoln received a shock rebuff
from Wikipedia when it struck
off fans’ group The Passionistas
citing the organisation as “noncommercial” and not “national or
international in scale.”
Despite the club fully backing the
crusade to return a traditional
family orientated football
experience to Sincil Bank, Wiki do
not deem us or other fans’ groups
important enough.
Poacher, the official mascot, has
us on his shirt but Wikipedia will
not relent. If you want to support
The Passionistas please visit www.
vitalfootball.co.uk.
At 16 I am unable to vote and if
anything goes wrong in my life, get
sent to a youth offenders institution
rather than an adult prison.
I have no form of income of my
own as I am still a student and
rely on parents to help me out
financially, both with the cost of my
studies and everyday expenses.
© Actionimages
Dear tfs,
I am a Burnley fan and went to
our match at Blackburn on 18th
October with my girlfriend who is
in a wheelchair. The first half of the
match was good but after half time
the police stood right in front of the
disabled people.
How can a child of 16 be told to pay
an adult price when clearly at 16
you are NOT an adult? I have been
put off going to the Tottenham
game since £5 for a child suddenly
goes up to £27.40 for an adult.
For someone of my age, that’s a
massive difference.
I asked them to move because we
could not see and all they said was
that we have to stand here. We
could not see the left hand side
of the pitch and one particular
steward refused to move the yard
to the left that would have given us
an unobstructed view. Please advise
me of my best course of action.
Rue Murphy
Jimmy Greenwood, Lancashire
Neil Hobbs
Dear tfs,
I’m working on a book about
supporters’ memories of the first
time they watched their team play,
and would love to hear from your
members. What were their first
games, stadiums, teams and scores?
It would be great if they could send
100-200 words outlining their story
to [email protected]
Georgina Turner
44
informing
supporting
campaigning
tfs responds:
tfs responds:
Many thanks for the email Rue
– ticket pricing in general, and the
cost of tickets for young people in
particular, is an issue the FSF receive
a lot of correspondence about.
Sorry to hear about your
experiences at Blackburn, Jimmy.
We have passed the details of your
complaint on to our friends at the
National Association of Disabled
Supporters (NADS), who have
picked up your case and will be in
touch. For more info on disabled
issues visit www.nads.org.uk or
contact the FSF’s diversity rep:
[email protected]
Alan Bloore is the policy holder
for ticket pricing and he has been
given the details of your email
– expect a reply from alan.bloore@
fsf.org.uk very soon.
Now, without meaning to be overly
harsh, weren’t footballers an ugly
bunch back then? Most of them
looked like they’d be dropped on their
faces at birth and the less said about
their haircuts the better, in all honesty.
After much consideration, with some
fierce competition, I’ve decided
Romania were definitely the ugliest of
a scary old bunch. Do any tfs readers
have uglier players in thier sticker
book collection?
Dean Thompson, Colchester
Dear tfs,
I am writing to complain about Stan
Collymore’s ramblings in the Daily
Mirror where he claimed that teams
like Hull and Bolton don’t deserve
their places in the Premier League
and should be replaced by Leeds or
Newcastle, because they get bigger
crowds. There was me thinking it’s
what happened on the pitch that
mattered! Collymore is a waste of
talent and an idiot of the highest
order. He should keep his thoughts
to Talksport – at least then when he
says something stupid we know it’s
so they can make 50p per furious
texted reply!
Dave Gill
I am writing to express my concern
at Stan Kroenke’s latest attempts
to increase his influence at the
Arsenal. With the American’s share
in the club now up to nearly 30%,
the worry is that he’s preparing
to launch a leveraged takeover
similar to those seen at Liverpool
and Manchester United. This
would be unneccesary and totally
unacceptable.
We’ve all seen the state of those
two once great clubs, whether they
admit it or not, and if anyone is to
get more of a say on the board it
should be the supporters.
Mark Oswald, London
Dear tfs,
I am a Cardiff City supporter who
is used to terracing. Moving to
a new stadium I was worried
that the stewards would be over
zealous with their attitude to fans
standing. Persistent standing is
not tolerated but the club seem to
understand that fans will stand for
long periods during matches and
some fans, who prefer to sit, have
been relocated to other areas of
the ground or nearer to the front
of stands and it seems a happy
medium has been achieved. As a
result there is a better atmosphere
than in the first game or two.
Common sense is required at every
stadium and a proper review by the
relevant authorities is required to
look at the standing issue. We must
never go back to the days that led
to Hillsborough but a safe standing
environment, similar to the ones
used in Germany, would be one
solution that would, I think, improve
atmospheres inside stadia greatly.
Paul Corkrey, Terharris, South Wales
Dear tfs,
I’d like to share my experiences of
some stewards at Portsmouth v
Spurs. I’m a life long Pompey fan and
I can honestly say I’ve never heard of
anyone being thrown out for “taking
the Mickey” but it happened to me.
I was holding up a poster of Harry
Redknapp with the word Judas on it.
He was always going to get stick at
this match and I wasn’t the only one
with a poster. This is what going to the
match is about. What would footy be
like without the banter? Will they stop
me booing the ref next? Anyway, I’ve
since met with the club and they’ve
listened to what I have to say and
hopefully the stewards take this on
board. Fair play to Pompey – wouldn’t
it be nice if all clubs were willing to
listen to their fans like this?
John Portsmouth FC Westwood
Dear tfs,
As a Newcastle United fan I thought
Mike Ashley couldn’t sink any lower
in my estimations but the news that
he wants to sell off St James’s Park’s
name is the final straw. He has to go.
I’m sick of owners thinking money
is the be all and end all. When
Ashley’s gone, we’ll still be here, and
if Toon fans have anything to do
with it so will our ground’s name.
I see that Kit-Kat are no longer
sponsoring York City’s ground after
this season – evidence, perhaps,
that this sort of thing isn’t popular
with fans. Have a break, Mike.
Jim Sams, Gateshead
www.fsf.org.uk
45
Ask tfs
Do you struggle with the footy trivia at
your local’s quiz night? Maybe you want
to get one over on the know it all who
lurks by the photocopier in the office,
waiting to spit out a completely pointless
poser? Perhaps you’re just sad and lonely
and should get out more? Well don’t
worry, tfs is at hand with some triviatastic titbits. As a starter for 10, swot up
on the origins of club nicknames.
#1
#2
Sp
Spot
p The
pot
Difference
D
An there you were thinking that
And
fans protesting about Cup Final
fan
ticket allocations was a new thing.
tick
These dandies from the 60s show
The
us how they did their protests with
bit of style and dignity in those
ab
days – none of this G20-style urban
day
anarchy. Boys in blazers and shorts,
an
and stern-faced women in sturdy
an
shoes was enough to get your
sh
point across.
po
tfs’s star-studded design team
tf
have made six imperceptible
h
cchanges to this particular bunch
of “casuals”– if you can spot
o
tthem all, send your answers on a
postcard to “It Wasn’t Like This In
My Day”,at the usual address.
Worstt away end?
W
d?
How about this for the worst
away end in world football?
Never mind restricted views
or a poor selection of pies, these guys
have really got it tough. These pictures
from Poland have been doing the rounds
recently, and they knock anything
we’ve seen before into a cocked hat. We
wonder if the club in question charges
more for the top tier as opposed to
the lower tier (or step, as it’s otherwise
known)? As to what the visiting fans do
for toilet facilities, that particular thought
just makes us shudder.
46
46
informing supporting campaigning
informing supporting campaigning
Bolton Wanderers
Nickname – The Trotters
Why? – A relatively recent
nickname after the famous Trotter
brothers Del Boy and Rodney from
the classic BBC sitcom Only Fools and
Horses. It’s a little known fact that the
rear bumper on their iconic yellow
Reliant Regal van sported a worn “I Love
Wanderers” sticker.
Darlington FC
Nickname – The Quakers
Why? – Named after former
Chairman George Reynolds, following his
recent stint “doing porridge” on charges
of tax evasion.
Yeovil Town
Nickname – The Glovers
Why? – Chairman John Fry
has a long standing love of the Lethal
Weapon film series and in particular the
character Sergeant Roger Murtaugh,
played by Danny Glover. Rumour has it
that after a bad result Fry could often be
heard muttering “I’m too old for this shit”.
Exeter City
Nickname – The Grecians
Why? – Came about in the
2000/2001 season when a marketing
survey identified that a disproportionate
amount of Exeter fans were 40
something males with grey hair and
really white teeth.
Fulham
Nickname – The Cottagers
Why? – Errrrmmm.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Nickname – Wolves
Why – No one really knows.
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