WHEN I think about Liverpool Football Club at the moment I can’t make my mind up whether my overwhelming feeling is one of sadness or disillusionment. On the pitch things aren’t going great, that goes without saying. But it’s the off-field issues that are causing me the most consternation.
For me, one of the worst things about the Tom Hicks and George Gillett era at Anfield was the way in which they somehow managed to get fans to turn against each other.
It’s now widely acknowledged they were destroying the club from the inside, with leveraged debt, no spades in any ground and nothing going on in the boardroom apart from knives in backs.
At the time, though, plenty of people were either willingly — or accidentally — ignorant of just how much damage they were doing to Liverpool FC.
I readily admit that I was one such person. I was training at Birmingham School of Acting at the time and as much as I kept up with all of the information I could about the comings and goings, I didn’t really understand the damage that those two clowns were causing.
Had I spoken to one of the more active members of the Liverpool support during that time, someone who was going on the marches and could see the way the club was being destroyed, they may well have been completely and utterly disgusted by my apathy.
It would have been entirely fair of them to feel that way, but my only excuse is I simply didn’t know the facts and I couldn’t see the long-term effect it would have on the club.
Hicks and Gillett somehow got away with bleeding Liverpool dry for years and for a time the biggest fighting that took place over the issue was different sets of supporters fighting against each other. We absolutely cannot allow that to happen again.
Brian Durand sent some tweets out yesterday explaining how Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the first time he went to Anfield and how it won’t be the special occasion he thought it would be because of the planned walk out on 77 minutes.
He said he was afraid that if he didn’t leave early he’d be called a “scab” by his fellow fans for breaking the protest.
Some people are against the notion of a walkout.
If you read replies to tweets sent by The Anfield Wrap or The Liverpool Echo over the proposal you’ll see plenty of people saying it’s “pathetic” or “a waste of time”. They claim that “FSG have already got your money so they won’t give a shit”. They may, of course, be right.
We'll be handing these leaflets out around the ground/pubs tomorrow. Feel free to print your own #WalkOutOn77 pic.twitter.com/w0hfbmA3zc
— Spion Kop 1906 (@SpionKop1906) February 5, 2016
Make no mistake, though: huge swathes of fans walking out on 77 minutes will cause waves.
Even the idea of it has already attracted national media attention. It will get more tomorrow. It will get coverage on Match Of The Day and Sky Sports News. Journalists will see it as the defiant act that it is and questions will be asked of Ian Ayre and the powers that be at Chapel Street.
Suggestions have been made that it might be better to refuse to buy food and drink from the outlets inside the ground. Many do this already such are the exorbitant prices in the bowels of Anfield. The idea being that if you hit the owners financially behind the scenes then it will make a real difference.
I think this is, in some ways, a good idea. The problem is that it isn’t public enough; no one will see it happen and the owners can keep it to themselves easily enough.
A walkout is a very public and very noticeable thing that will get people talking. That’s what we need right now — an action that gets people talking.
I won’t be at the match on Saturday as it’s my girlfriend’s sister’s birthday so we’re heading out for dinner. If I was there then I’d walk out on 77 minutes in solidarity with those who have planned this protest.
Perhaps the fella next to me wouldn’t. Maybe he’s never been to Anfield before and he wants to enjoy every last minute of his time there. Maybe, like Brian, he’s there celebrating a special occasion and, as much as he agrees with what’s taking place, he feels it would be remiss of him to do anything other than support the players for the full 90 minutes.
Both of those things are OK.
Protests are a personal choice, they have to be. I can’t force someone to believe what I believe in. I can put my argument forward, I can make suggestions about how what I feel will benefit them, but if I force them to join in then it isn’t a protest at all.
If someone gets up and leaves the ground on Saturday because you’ve guilted them into doing so then you’re more likely to turn them against your argument out of resentment. Let them find their own way to where you’re coming from and there’s no zealot quite like the converted.
I’ve started watching a series on Netflix called Chelsea does…. Once I got over my disappointment that it wasn’t a porno I actually started to get quite into it.
The idea is that an American comedian, Chelsea Handler, goes around the country exploring various topics and speaking to people about it.
Last night, I watched the episode about racism and in it she was speaking to a Native American about his beliefs and values. He said: “If we look at today compared to a long time ago…it’s about ‘me’. Our philosophy was always about ‘us’.”
They don’t want it to be about ‘me’, they want it to be about ‘us’.
The lads that are protesting tomorrow aren’t doing it because their ticket price is due to go up and they aren’t happy. They’re doing it because your ticket price is going to go up.
They’re doing it because the club has had an opportunity to revise its ticketing strategy to help out people at a time when the government is turning the screw on us as much as it can. But instead the owners decided to make £2million more profit from the people that showed so much passion that it made them want to buy the club in the first place.
Liverpool, both as a club and as a city, was formed in its recent history on socialist ideals. Here’s Bill Shankly on the issue: “The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It’s the way I see football, the way I see life”.
Everyone working for each other.
Liverpool isn’t about the idea of ‘I’m alright Jack’. One of the constant things said about the people of this city is that they’re incredibly friendly, that they have big hearts.
Scousers aren’t friendly because they think it’s a good PR move, they’re friendly because it’s the way decent human beings are supposed to be with each other.
Like Gerry and The Pacemakers sang: “People around every corner, they seem to smile and say, ‘we don’t care what your name is boy, we’ll never turn you away’.”
You might fervently believe that leaving on 77 minutes is absolutely the right thing to do on Saturday or you might not. You might think that showing support to the lads in Red is the number one thing a fan is supposed to do. Whatever your choice is, you’re right.
The only thing to remember on Saturday is that the protest is an act of selflessness — a defiant roar in the face of the American owners who seem to think they can do what they want without anyone putting up a fight. If they think that then they really don’t understand this city.
The sad thing is that Sunderland fans may cheer and mock when a host of Liverpool fans walk out on Saturday, ignorant of the fact that the protest is on their behalf, too.
Let them jeer, let them laugh; let them sing “where’s your famous atmosphere” as though the Stadium Of Light is a simmering cauldron of hate week-in, week-out. Whatever you do, though, don’t turn on your fellow supporter. They will have their own individual reason for staying or leaving and that’s perfectly ok.
The people who walk out on 77 minutes are doing so because they believe it’s the best way to send a message to John Henry and our absentee landlords. They’re doing it because they believe that if we tolerate these price rises then before too long it will be nigh on impossible for any working-class people to attend the match on a regular basis.
It really is that simple.
They believe in the idea of everyone working for each other. The people that remain behind and continue to watch the match will have their own reason for doing so and that should be respected, too.
Whatever you decide to do on the 77-minute mark the most important decision you can make is to respect your fellow supporter and the choice they’ve made.
We’ve turned against each other before and while we were in-fighting the cowboys were pillaging our club.
Let’s not go down that road again.
The most important thing a Liverpool fan can do is make sure his fellow supporter doesn’t walk alone.
Whether you walk out or stay sat down it’s vital we turn on FSG, not on each other.
Excellent Adam. I’ll be leaving my seat in the lower centenary on 77. I’d like to think I won’t be alone
“Sister’s girlfriend’s birthday!? Fu*k me, modern fans.
Spot on. Side step the protest for girlfriends sisters boyfriends mothers godsons friends christening.
How dare anyone have plans outside footie. #spoton
Take the quality out of any Product and increase the price, and customers will fuck off.
Or save thier money and watch in the ale house, with proper, scouse kopites who can’t afford the game any more.
Fuck FSG, the sooner these shite hawks sell up the sooner we can get to achieving what Leicester have.Or City. Or Chelsea. Where football comes before profit.
I very rarely go to games and my gf has only been once (Liverpool v Wolves under hodgson ……!!) so we are both looking forward to seeing the mighty reds. I am afraid however, that if we dont leave at 77 minutes we will be lambasted for staying, called a wool, an oot etc. I very much doubt it will happen the other way around.
I completely believe in the protest and will clap the people who walk out, but considering how special a day it is for me and my gf be at Anfield, I am not sure I will be able to walk out, as I dont know when I will be back next. I just hope I wont regret not doing so
Cheers for that comment Steve. You’re exactly the sort of person I’m talking about. You have your own reason for staying in the ground until the final whistle and I completely respect it. I really hope that others do too, but if they don’t and you are the victims of any comments from people then I hope you don’t let them upset you & realise they’re coming from a good place, even if they’re delivered in the wrong manner. I also hope you have a cracking day and see a better performance than you did under Hodgson!
It Will be a great day for us but more importantly it’ll hopefully be a great day for football supporters in general as the way football is governed is sickening from the FA, owners, agents and players. Congrats on the article, very good
As Adam said, thanks for your support Steve, have a great time or, in the mood of the moment have yourself an enjoyable matchday experience (dont forget to visit the club shop!).
From a personal point of view what I find repulsive and it seems clearly spelt out by Ayre today is this ‘well if you think its too dear we’re not bothered as someone else will go in your place, thanks for supporting the team for 50 years and making it what it is we dont need your sort now’.
its not just the ticket price but the whole matchday experience which has spiraled out of control and beyond the pockets of many.
Football was ruined the day good money could be made on it. Shockingly self centred from the owners, agents, players etc. Maybe we are the idiots for feeding into it by buying the tickets / shirts / sky sports etc etc.
P.s I know I go to a handful of games a season, but club shop?! I’m not that much of a wool ;-)
Good luck tomorrow. Fully supportive
77 minutes in to your girlfriend’s sister’s birthday meal you need to get up and walk
That’s my plan, mate! Fuming I’m missing my first match this season because of it to be honest!
While I’m one of the people who thinks that the protests to walk out early won’t change FSG’s attitude, I sincerely hope it’ll make the ripples in the public’s attention it intends to do. I’m a big fan of gestures to make your voice heard. It’s actually one of the traditions of my home club, so I’m torn.
Why?
Because I know it’s a different country with different surroundings and a different mindset. Fans seem to be more accepting of the restrictions and disadvantages that are put on them gradually every year. It seems to take more effort to make your voice heard in the slightest. That’s why I’m happy they’re trying now.
I’m torn because the way they’re trying to do it won’t be effective. It’s a start, but it won’t really force FSG to change. On the contrary, today Ian Ayre steps out (mostly likely on behalf of the owners and the board) and basically tells the fans to suck it up. It sounded like a threat.
So what to do? Don’t buy the merchandise, don’t buy magazines or beverages/food. Get them where it hurts, their bank account. When the loss of revenue tips over the profit of raised ticket prices they might finally rear their heads to contemplate. If not, I’m sure there’ll be another way. As long as fans don’t give up to fight for their rights of an affordable matchday experience.
Thanks, Adam, for the well thought out, well explained, and logical article.
Will be watching the match with two of my mates in a pub in the city where I live, and we plan to walk out from the pub on the 77th minute too. this little gesture may not mean anything to anyone really, it may even be considered to be stupid, but it just make our conscious clear that we are in solidarity with the fans in the stadium.
Enjoy your girlfried’s sister’s birthday dinner, and remember to finish the main course and dessert before 77th min. cheers :)
We must support the boycott-this year Main Stand prices are increased which prices are hiked next?
The clubs owners cannot take us for granted, if these prices remain for next season I won’t be attending any matches. The bastion of English football can determine the future for it’s supporters let us all hope that the correct decisions are made
Unfortunately I will not be at the game tomorrow – not my turn on the season ticket I share. I doc like the idea of walking out of the pub I’ll be watching the game at tho and will be doing that.
One of the things I love about our support is that we stand up and be counted. Everyone thought the protests against Hicks and Gillet would have no effect – well look what happened there. Other clubs have half hearted protests (Mancs buying green and white scarfs against the Glazers for example), but scousers have never been prepared to put up and shut up and I for one am proud of that.
For me the best thing tomorrow would be 77 minutes of solid support for the team – God knows they need it at the moment and at 77 those who feel they can walk out while those who feel the need to stay to support the team show some acknowledgement and applaud before returning to support the team again. Lets remember – those that stay are staying to support the team not the ticket prices.
YNWA
Good luck to all those involved, i hope we’re 3-0 up the atmosphere is rocking, and then thousands upon thousands walk out. Doing nothing gets you nothing.
If this was 30 years ago i’d be joining in without a doubt.
I Live in N.Z. so don’t get to go to the match very often but wanted to lend my voice to an Important issue. Thanks Adam for a very well argued dialogue on the issue and dynamics which which will be at play for people at the match tomorrow. My feelings- a warning to Ian Ayre and the clubs owners, fail to recognise the feelings of the supporers at your peril. Shanklys socialism, the community of the club and Liverpool city are THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS AT LFC. Ignore that and your ability to lead the club to success is over. Pity they don’t give a shit.
One thing that disturbs me about this is that the veil of righteous sound and fury obscures the fact that SOS has not released any information about the counter proposal(s) they made during the 13 months of discussion in the Ticket Working Group. Therefore, we have no way of knowing what actually happened — other than taking their word for it. Does everyone really believe they sat in meetings for 13 months and were mute and submitted silently and were forced to accept what the Club stuffed down their throats? I.Don’t.Think.So… They’re never quietly submissive any other time.
So what DID they propose, and what is the delta between what they proposed and what actually ended up being decided by the LFC Board? With no basis of comparison it’s impossible to judge the extent to which both sides were actively negotiating. Where are the Minutes from those 13 months of meetings?
It feels like the £77 premium price has been used to whip everyone into a frenzy to suit an agenda of bitter hatred against FSG — one which is largely unwarranted by actual real-world facts. Absentee landlords? Are we all such babies that we need Daddy and Mummy reassuringly waving down on us from the Directors’ Box every match?
In actual fact, the £77 seats are a tiny percentage of the overall ticket availability — a mere 208 seats each match out of 54,000 seats — and the likelihood that people who are ranting about it on social media would ever be the ones purchasing those tickets is slim to none.
Meanwhile, all the Kop and Annie Road ticket prices have been reduced, except for two tiers of tickets in the Annie Road that will see increases of 50p and £1.50 per match (1% and 3% respectively, a total of 2,858 seats out of 54,000 in the ground). Hardly earth shattering. If you aren’t willing to pay an extra 50p or £1.50 for the hugely improved stadium we all get as a group to be extremely proud of, then I’m not sure what ‘everyone working for each other’ really means.
If you carefully study the breakdown of match-day ticket tiers and number of tickets available in each tier, what’s actually happening is that those who CAN afford (and are probably not bothered by) paying £5 – £10 more per match in the TOP price tiers — and who will as a result enjoy more comfortable seats and other pleasures in the new Main Stand — will be subsidising those are getting some price relief ranging from -48p to -£4.75 per match.
It helps to study the facts. Bad decisions are made by those who don’t, and the consequences can often be quite detrimental in the longer term. My dear Mum always told me “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, because you’ll only end up deformed.”
Very well said Ellie. A rational mind amidst the blinkered herd followers who only look at the headlines and don’t analyse the data.
The facts have been studied at length. Alternative proposals were put to the club. Address Jay McKenna directly, he’ll tell you. And don’t assume everyone is running around angry only reading headlines because that isn’t the case.
The bottom line is clear: the club is making more revenue out of tickets. Tickets are already expensive. Fans have already been priced out. The revenue they’ll make out of charging more won’t transform Liverpool into title challengers overnight. But what it will do is become the tipping point for more regular match-goers to walk away. But supply and demand, eh? Business, eh? Economics and so on… Great. 1-0 to the balance sheet. What it’s all about; what we’re all in it for.
And the suggestion that prices at the top end are balanced out by prices at the bottom doesn’t add up. Ayre keeps quoting £9. That’s 500 tickets in three games out of the 19 Liverpool will play. It’s not the alternative to a £1,000+ season ticket however you add things up.
You’re right Ellie, the £77 tickets in reality do represent a small fraction, much like the £9 that Mr Ayre loves to point to.
There’s tickets also ranging from around £60-75 (I don’t know the EXACT numbers but there or thereabouts.
You’re also right when you say the chances of the people ranting having to pay to price is slim. I think that’s the very point of the article though which you’ve clearly missed. Whether it affects certain fans or not, those prices are disgraceful, and ergo it smacks of a defiant, selfless act.
Matt – ‘blinkered herd followers’. I’ve been lucky enough to have an education that teaches me to objectively ask questions and not to take everything at face value.
I’ve done that, and I think it’s still disgusting.
Tell you what. Is there any club in the world that can wind you up like LFC? The day Jurgen Klopp was announced as our new manager I felt like Keith Richards after a blood transfusion. Now, you would think that an assembly of astute business folk such as FSG would allow the man time to ease our sorrows, to create a team worthy of the old town and do a little due diligence, hold off on the hosing, allow the team to become a force once again and then strangle the goose but no. I seem to recall quite a few celebs threw a few bucks in the kitty when Henry and co bought the team. Get back on YouTube as you did against the last rats to look upon us a fucking “franchise” and let all know what is going on. I remember how many of my old mates made sacrifices and where there through thick and thin to make the club what it is today. I didn’t. I left in eighty and missed some of the best football the team produced. I was there in spirit and always will be. Whatever the likes of those who produce the wrap, the people of 1906.SOS and all those fighting for fairness decide to do I will support donation wise etc. On Sunday look in on the Super bowl , take a look at the percentage of African Americans on the field then try calculating how many are in the crowd. We live in an age where the haves get, and the have nots can piss off. Me and the girlfriends husband are behind you, though I won’t be walking on seventy seven, just wishing I was there to do so. Ironic, my capcha code is 2ma8. to my old mates, good luck.
Bill, I must be missing something here mate “me and the girlfriends husband” ?? that’s intriguing stuff
On a more serious note and the 77 minute walkout, if the great man Shanks’s mantra for our Club & City strikes a harmonious chord with the masses beliefs at the match today then all should do the right thing today without question. The great man resigned as Manager in 1974 over less of an issue than today’s
To expand the conversation to a broader audience may well result in further pressure being applied in the unlikeliest of places. Just possibly this may tilt the balance of opinion in the favour of all EPL game paying fans. And maybe it is time for both the Clubs and players alike to make a financial sacrafice for the greater good of the game, current match goers and the current and future younger generations who are being and will be excluded from the game unless changes are made NOW.
IMHO after the experiences of the last decade I think it is about time the fans took control of our Club, a la Barca et Real Madrid. Don’t know how it can be achieved but how magic would that be for the members to decide the Clubs fate!
YNWA. Come on you Reds
II’ve been a Liverpool fan all my life (38) and I now live in California so paying a ticket doesn’t directly hit me in the pocket. However, in what other business would one get away with price hikes when the product on show is getting worse. It would be akin to Apple charging an extra 20 bucks for an older version of an iPad. Many people wouldn’t protest as much if what they were paying for wasn’t so shite. What FSG are doing are exploiting people’s emotions and loyalty by rasing prices to an already struggling ‘consumer’. Have they not seen how these ‘consumers’ react to greedy owners?
This seems exactly the attitude of a ‘customer’ or a ‘consumer’ who judges what he’s willing to pay for a ‘product’ based on whether it gives him what he wants and expects. A very American attitude. #facepalm
Great article and I hope more people get to read it before it falls down the pecking order following weekend games. I like the idea that we’re the fans that say to To OUR club, this isn’t acceptable, that say to other fans, you shouldn’t accept this from your club. The lack of fans at Hull away last season was great and made all the right sort of noise but the momentum concerning football prices as a whole needs to be maintained and we can be the fans to really say enough is enough. Not much unites football fans but the ever expanding ticket cost does. That being said not many supporters point the finger at their club and say “you’re wrong.” I don’t know how much Sunderland fans will pay this weekend but they should think as they’re mocking the walkout on 77, you over pay week after week too.
I can appreciate and understand the fans who won’t want to leave because it’s their one trip to Anfield that year. The reason I understand that is because that will soon be me, it will soon be most of us. I can’t afford to keep going like this.
To quote the manic’s:
“If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”
I’ve supported the club for around 50 years and can comfortably afford my Kop season ticket. So I won’t be walking out for myself, I’ll be doing it to save the soul of this club for future generations.
The players might as well walk on 77, (they did much earlier at Leicester.) too along with the manager, the holy trinity, Moreno would probably go the wrong way and Benteke take longer than anyone else to leave.
I tend to leave on 82 minutes anyway to beat the traffic ( long way back to Surbiton, chaps). Will that count?
This will really hurt the people that leave early, they’re now going to have to leave even earlier. I will be leaving at 77.
SoS are dead right in what they are trying to do , but are going about it all wrong. If you want to persuade business people to change their minds you have to think and speak in their language.
If we all leave early today or don’t go, then LFC board don’t miss out – others will take our place.
We need to get the board to understand that we will never compete on cash or being in london. Our only sustainable competitive advantage is us, the atmosphere.
how do we do that?
1. drop the average age on the kop from 50 to 25. kick out anyone old enough to remember ‘the last time we won the league’.
2. price the kop on age – a 17 year old pays £17. just like the olympics
3. do whatever it takes to get people sat together. i’ll come in and do it myself if they want
4. accept the kop is for atmosphere, but the prime seats in the stands are for cash. charge £100 if you can.
5. drop Moreno
see you at 3, and i’m staying to the end
Fortunately I can afford my season ticket for now, but to quote Angela Davies: “If they come for you in the morning, they will come for me in the evening”.
As much as these protests are for those who can’t afford increasingly higher ticket prices now, they’re also for those who’ll be unable to afford them in the future – and at that point, there’ll be no one left to protest for us.
Another great article,with excellent comments.
As regards to protesting,wouldn’t a boycott of a match be better?
Hit the owners in the pockets?
Not a league game,but a cup game (if we get through).It may be too close for the Ausberg game but a Blackburn replay (again if that happens) I don’t know how easy it would be to organise and thousands would have to cancel direct debits for auto cup schemes but the amount of time between the first game and a replay surely wouldn’t give the club time to get an extra 30/40 thousand people to the ground in time.
The boy otters could then watch it on the telly in the pub or at home (which basically the Fa,bbc,Sky,bt etc want us to do any way)
Obviously scrub the above if West Ham and Ausberg do us in the next couple of weeks!
I hope every that left the stadium is satisfied that with their effect of hurting Liverpool football club. That is what was achieved by that walkout, well done.
Bore off Chris.
Nothing to do with the inadequate standard of goalkeeping or defending then?
If the walkout today was responsible for that explain the rest of the dross we’ve seen this season for me please?
I’ll be intrigued to hear your response.
Watch the match again and see you can see the total change in the players attitude and concentration the minute their supposed supporters walk out on them.
As for the rest of the season, it hasn’t been pretty no doubt. I feel however that is when people need to get behind their club and players even more.
They are supporters. Wake up.
I don’t pretend to know the club as well as the people that run this site, but as someone who wants to see LFC win I think the people that walked out hurt their chances. And to me that is not what a support does.
It’s a two-way thing. If the club wants respect from its supporters it should respect its supporters. And as you can see from today plenty of match-goers feel let down. No one enjoys doing it – it goes against the grain of being a fan. That is why it’s such a powerful message and should be viewed as such.
Watch the match again? No thanks mate it was fucking awful.
They’re professional footballers defending a 2 goalkeeping lead. They shouldn’t have to be molly coddled by 40-odd thousand people.
Just say you were right, and the walkout was a direct cause of is throwing away the lead. Then it’s a massive indictment of how spineless and gutless this squad really is.
Defending a 2 goal lead I meant, fucking spellchecker.
Well that protest worked out well for the players…
That aside, doesn’t really ‘show the owners’ that supporters believe the ticket costs to be too high when they still buy the tickets and leave a couple of minutes earlier than they normally would.
A stronger form of protest would be refusing to pay the prices in the first place, same with away games. Refuse to pay the prices demanded by any clubs, refuse to be a part of the machine. A protest based upon the concept “I’m going to do pay their prices but just watch the product for a slightly shorter time’ is not exactly the type of campaign to force change.
It is commendable that people protest those things that they disagree with but it needs to be in a more effective manner; refusing to pay, protesting outside the ground and contacting sponsors en masse to confirm that this will continue until change is made.
For FSG, this could turn into a “Mogadishu” scenario. Fucking arrogant yanks with no understanding of the culture and atmospherics on the ground. I have already labeled it “scouseadishu”
John Henry…fucking “shite hawk down”
Coming to a cinema near you