With our game being moved to Monday night to suit Sky TV we’re facing a blank weekend. If you’re looking for a game to go and watch as a neutral I’d recommend either Barnet v Accrington Stanley in Football League Two or AFC Wimbledon at home to Braintree Town in the FA Trophy.
Monday night will be a critical game for us. If we’re to have any chance of winning the League we need a draw at the very minimum at Old Trafford. Patrice Evra has been gobbing off again. It would be very pleasing to ram his words back down his throat.
On the Carling Cup front some good news on ticket prices. They’ll be held for all gold, silver and red members who get in early at £20 for the upper tier and £10 for the lower tier with half price for concessions for the second leg at home against Ipswich Town at the Grove. The away leg at Portman Road is priced at £20, £10 for over 65s and 16-19 year olds and £7.50 for under 16s. Well done to both clubs. The attitude taken by Ipswich Town is refreshingly different from that taken by Spurs who objected to us dropping prices for our two recent home semi-final ties in the same competition against them and charged full category A prices at the Lane for both games.
The issue of ticket prices at the Grove went to Football League arbitration. They ruled that we had to charge full category B prices; the only concession being that half price was available for pensioners and youngsters in all areas of the ground, not just the family enclosure. You stay classy Spurs. Both the Arsenal and Ipswich Town boards are to be congratulated for holding prices down. I for one haven’t seen a pay rise since the start of the recession in 2008 and am really struggling financially.
On another subject a Bill was introduced in the House of Commons this week by Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster under the so-called Ten Minute Rule to permit safe standing areas at Premier League and Football League Championship grounds. The Liberal Democrats passed a resolution calling for safe standing areas to be permitted at its 2008 Conference. The Lib Dems are now of course the junior party in the current Conservative led coalition government, giving them more influence than they’ve had in decades.
Ten Minute Rule Bills have next to no change of becoming law but it is important way to raise this issue. Survey after survey shows all fans, both those who prefer to sit and those who would rather stand in favour of allow supporters an adult choice as they have in Germany, Canada and the USA, three countries renowned for their regard for safety.
The argument that standing is intrinsically more unsafe than sitting has been comprehensively demolished. The opponents of choice have now moved the goalposts to say that standing increases the scope for disorder. Well, being in an all-seated stadium hardly deterred the Serbian fans in Genoa from rioting before and during their recent international match against Italy, did it?
The argument for me is simply one of choice. I used to prefer to stand. Now I prefer to sit. That decision should be still be mine to make. It isn’t in the top two divisions. It is completely illogical that I can make that choice if I were to follow a club in the bottom two football divisions, rugby league, rugby union, horse racing, and speedway. Tens of thousands stood at the Grove throughout the Bruce Springsteen concerts in 2008. That choice should be ours once again. The choice is between safe and unsafe, not sitting and standing. All of the recent disasters have occurred in all-seated stadia. The problem was safety management.
Keep the faith!
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