Is football still a working class game ?

The BBC sport pages have a interesting article today on their website on the changing face of football and how out of touch it is increasingly becoming with the mass’s. I republish the article below. Is football still affordable for the working classes? Cheapest tickets for English league football average £21.24 according to the BBC Price of Football Survey • BBC Sport Price of Football survey 2012 With players earning £200,000 a week, transfers of more than £50m and match tickets up to £126, can football still be considered a sport of the working classes? Wales manager Chris Coleman says the distance between players and fans has grown because of what the two sets are earning. So what are the opinions of others involved in the game and how can it be made more affordable? We asked three people their views. The fan Tim Hartley has been following Cardiff City for the past 38 seasons. When he started going to matches the price of tickets was hardly a consideration. Now he feels it's getting harder for supporters. "I fear the working man is being priced out slowly and it would be a pity if this continued. "There is no atmosphere in a stadium without passionate, committed fans. How clubs help • Stoke City hasn't increased their ticket prices since being promoted to the Premier League in 2008. This year they're offering free coach travel to away games • Arsenal has a discount scheme for younger supporters and has set up a ticket exchange scheme for season ticket holders that can't get to a match • Crystal Palace is offering discounts for 18 to 21-year-olds at every home game. • A number of clubs allow fans to pay for season tickets through interest-free direct debit instalments. • Aston Villa offer its season ticket holders a loyalty scheme to get money off tickets, food, drink and merchandise. • Brighton Hove Albion offers season ticket holders free bus travel within the city on match days . "If you turn football into a one-off special treat like going to the cinema or going to the opera, it's not going to be the game we all love." As the team start life in the Premier League Tim's still paying Championship prices for his season ticket. A few years ago he took advantage of a price freeze offer at the club. He says that £349 for the season is great value at around £18 a game but going to away games can be more expensive with some tickets over £50. "As a family we can't go to every away match like we used to. We are picking and choosing where we go." As chairman of Cardiff City Supporters' Trust he wants the prices of away tickets fixed. "At around £20 I think more people would go. "My top tip to reduce the cost on away games is to fill your car with friends, pack some sandwiches and bring a thermos," he said. The fansite owner Matt Cook's tips • Book your tickets early - particularly trains, hotels and parking - to get the best deal • Get flexible rates for your transport and accommodation in case kick-off times change • Share cars and fuel costs • Eat before you get to the stadium. Food at the grounds can be expensive, vary in quality and mean standing in a long queue • Buy club branded hoodies or t-shirts rather than the replica shirt. It's usually cheaper and you don't need to replace it every season • Talk to fans of other clubs for their tips and share knowledge about the cost and quality of what's available at each ground Matt Cook is founder of First Rate Football - a fans' guide to football grounds. He feels football is still a working man's sport but thinks clubs need to keep focused on catering for all budgets. For Matt, the biggest challenge is the cost of transport. "As a Brighton and Hove Albion supporter in London I have to travel by train to every home match," he says. "With limited car parking spaces and trains servicing the route on match day there's only so much I can do to keep the cost down." New Financial Fair Play rules start this season, aimed at stopping clubs from getting into money problems. Matt thinks it will benefit supporters. "As a fan I fear too much money is going out of the game and straight into the players' pockets. "Hopefully the new rules will play a part in helping supporters' costs. It's a good idea to prevent clubs overspending and risking their long term relationship with the fans." The finance expert Football now appeals to a wider class of people, not just the working man. That's the view of Dr John Beech from Coventry University. Even Prime Ministers and members of the Royal Family are open football supporters. Prince William is an Aston Villa fan. Dr Beech is concerned that in the future fans' passion for their teams could be turned against them as teams aim to make more money. "Football clubs are under pressure to generate revenue to compete at the highest level, "Clubs are producing a third kit outside the home and away strip for fans to buy. I wonder how much further can clubs go in their pursuit of generating Football and money seem to be more closely linked than ever. Being a fan is unlikely to become much cheaper anytime soon. For the supporters the game is more about love. Cost will usually come second. But as prices increase fans may be forced to be more selective about when and how they support. With thanks to the BBC sport pages for the article

Hillsborough the truth finally is outed and highlights shameful role of the state

The report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel has ripped aside the tangled web of lies and cover-up woven by the South Yorkshire police, the government and the army of lickspittles in the press who denigrated Liverpool and the victims of the man-made catastrophe in 1989 that was Hillsborough. Kelvin McKenzie, then the editor of the Sun and Murdoch's bag carrier who peddles his poison to the highest bidder, was the most vocal with his tissue of lies about that tragedy. 96 football fans lost their lives, those deaths affected thousands of people. Many continue to suffer extreme trauma as a result of their experience. Some suffered personality changes and went to an early grave. The families of the 96 greeted the report with relief and euphoria. Having campaigned in the face of impossible odds for 23 years, this was to be anticipated, but the relief and sense of victory and exoneration throughout Liverpool was palpable. This fight for the truth has united Liverpool and Everton fans alike. Fans who oppose each other in a football sense came together as football fans feeling a huge injustice over Hillsborough. Yesterday was a shocking day and a groundbreaking day in many ways. The independent report uncovered some very startling home truths on South Yorkshire police and the wider role of the state. Trevor Hicks of the family support group, who lost two daughters, reported that three family members fainted when evidence was revealed by the panel that with the correct support from the emergency services 46 of the victims may have been saved. This information added to the sense of anger and outrage which permeated the city. A question uppermost was that, of the 48 ambulances which rushed to the stadium, only two actually made it onto the pitch. Even the tops of the ambulance service were implicated in the subsequent cover-up. The police, the Sun, with Thatcher and her government implicated in the cover-up, were subject to excoriating condemnation. McKenzie's apology and the Sun's later apology was contemptuously dismissed for the hollow gesture that it was. There can be no doubt that the instructions for the cover up came from the very tops of the state machine. The brutal anti-working class culture of the South Yorkshire police force which played a leading and pernicious role in crushing the miners in their struggle to defend their jobs and communities was laid bare by this report. Michael Mansfield QC, who assisted the families, clearly identified the link. The police authorities revelled in an atmosphere of impunity which flowed from the anti-working class outlook of the then Thatcher government. Liverpool was also the city where the Militant-led socialist council in the mid-1980s had resisted the attacks of the Thatcher government by mobilising the support thousands of working class people. By falsely accusing Liverpool football fans as being drunken hooligans, the ruling classes also intended to denigrate the city's tradition of militant struggle. The next stage of this campaign will be to call for those implicated in this cover-up to be subject to the criminal law. Even the chief constable of the South Yorkshire police has been compelled to accept that those engaged in unlawful activity will be subject to prosecution. Cameron's frank admission of the cover-up and his apology surprised many. But if he had attempted to continue the cover-up his government could have fallen, he had no choice in the face of the evidence but to admit the truth. Parallels can be drawn with French author Émile Zola's article J'accuse (1898) in which he exposed the role of the French state in the anti-semitic frame up of Alfred Dreyfus. The furore which followed brought down the government. Not only are the families to be applauded for their courage and tenacity in the pursuit of justice, but a debt of honour is owed to them for showing that working class people fired with courage and determination can render the forces of the state accountable. The police officers involved in this awful cover up who colluded with the state and politicians at the time should not be allowed to get away with this. The Hillsborough victim’s families have the truth now, now they want justice and I and the socialist party fully support their fight.