I was recently close to Arsenal’s stadium and I made a
few observations about the demographic of their supporters. I could not help
but notice how different it was to my own experiences of football fandom as it
was clearly skewed to a wealthy clientele rather than the more traditional
predominantly working class fan culture I myself am used to.
This also coincided with hearing about growing discontent
amongst Arsenal fans over the management of Arsenal by Arsene Wenger, accumulating
with Wenger being abused at a train station in Stoke. I agree with Arsenal fans
that they have a lot to be angry about but it shouldn't be at their lack of
defenders or holding midfielders. It should be at their board for gentrifying
their club out of all recognition.
After doing some research on how the pricing structure of
Arsenal had changed over the years, even I was shocked with what I found out. Back
in 1990 it would cost £5 a ticket to watch Arsenal play. Fast forward to today and it will cost you
around £50 to watch the same club play. If football had followed the rate of inflation
across the rest of the economy over the same period then the tickets should cost
£8.86. In my opinion Arsenal fans and the footballing community should be very
angry about this. However, momentum on the issue is starting build. I would recommend
that every fan joins the Football Supporters Federation and join the campaign for
fairer prices. It is time for football fans to get political.
www.fsf.org.uk
