
Led by the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF), the Away Fans Matter campaign is to assure the contribution of travelling fans is not taken for granted. It’s about ticket pricing, conditions and travel arrangements, for starters.
Background
As the Football Supporters' Federation explains, away fans are vital to the health of football. A good away attendance brings colour and noise to grounds, often sparking the home support into life, generating the sort of atmosphere that has had such appeal to television audiences around the world. Away fans are the hardcore, often those spending the most money and making the most effort to support their club.
Yet there’s a growing impression that away supporters are something of an endangered species. Travelling supporters are confronted by so many obstacles in trying to follow their team: the rising cost of travel and inflexibility of rail tickets in particular; changes to fixture dates and kick-off times thanks to the – often conflicting – demands of television and police forces; frequently unfriendly stewarding; poor location inside the ground; limited stadium facilities; in extreme cases, “bubble match” arrangements with everyone inconvenienced and treated as a potential public order problem. And of course, most prominently of all, increasingly extortionate ticket prices.
More information can be found here: http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/away-fans/
Action
The Football Supporters 'Federation has set up a campaign called Twenty's Plenty, calling for cheaper ticket prices for away fans and improved treatment and conditions. To show your support, please sign the petition below. A notification of your support for the campaign will be sent to your club, also:
http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/20plenty/
The Football Supporters’ Federation is running an Away Fans Feedback Survey. Please log on and complete this after each away game you attend next season:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/away-fans
Next steps
The Football Supporters' Federation will be arguing, persuading, lobbying, collaborating, advising, petitioning, reasoning, negotiating – and where necessary demonstrating and protesting – to ensure that away fans are encouraged and supported to continue to make their particular contribution to the game.
THST’s positionConsidering the 9% drop in away attendances during the 2012/2013 season and the fact that away fans are major contributors to the success of the Premier League, the THST Board backs this campaign and urges all supporters of all clubs to sign the Football Supporters' Federation petition, linked above.
THST also distributed flyers for the Twenty's Plenty campaign at the DW Stadium last season and will continue to leaflet on match days throughout the 2013/2014 season, both home and away.