9^thMarch 2008 - The Big Four Disease Our League Cup final victory, all ready a distant memory following our two subsequent defeats, was a great day for our club and for all our supporters. I do not need to regurgitate the stories and emotions from that day because all fellow Spurs supporters would have felt the same. As a football fan the victory was more than just a victory for Spurs however. It was a victory for the game as a whole because it showed that other teams outside of the Big Four can win domestic trophies. It gave hope to fans of all other clubs. For anyone reading the English tabloids in the aftermath of the final though it was anything but. It was, apparently, all about how Chelsea, a Big Four team, had lost and how Avram Grant was the architect of the defeat rather than how Spurs had played the better football and won. After all a Big Four team is all that any football fan cares about. A Big Four team is all that Joe Public wants to read about. A Big Four team sells newspapers. The Big Four, a name devised by the media to encompass Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United could well be described by various other, equally nauseating, trademarks. The Sky Sports Four, named after the station that created them and continue to fund them. The Rupert Murdoch four, named after the way the media devote all their coverage to them and continue to gain funding from them. The G-14 Top Four perhaps. But for the purpose of the remainder of this article I will label them as the Cartel. Tottenham winning the Football League Cup (I have never labelled the competition with the name of its sponsor when describing it) was important for football but what the game really needed this season was for a team outside of the Cartel to win the FA Cup. Despite Arsenal and Liverpool being knocked out of the competition it appeared unlikely with Manchester United and Chelsea having both reached the last eight. Yesterday, at the time of writing, this changed with both teams exiting the competition to leave the tournament wide open for the six remaining clubs. What a day in the history of the world’s oldest Cup competition. For the first time since 1995 a team that do not make up the top four in the Premier League will have their name engraved on the trophy. I’ve not watched an FA Cup final for years because I’ve had no interest in watching a Cartel retain the Cup to enhance their domination of the game. This time I will and I will share in the joy of the winning supporters, understanding the highs they will experience at Wembley, delight that I experienced just two weeks ago. Upon purchasing my regular Sunday paper, the Sunday Express, this morning, I had hoped to read articles from journalists with similar sentiment. I had hoped to read how Barnsley had thoroughly deserved to beat the mighty Chelsea and how Portsmouth’s brilliant defending propelled them to their first victory at Old Trafford in fifty years. Instead I was appalled, but not surprised, to instead read about how Chelsea and Manchester United had lost and worse why they had lost. Most of the Manchester United v Portsmouth report centred on Sir Alex Ferguson’s vitriol at the referee. His comments were only surmised in the paper but elsewhere he stated: “The game was decided by the decision not to give us a penalty.” No, that is a blatant lie, one of many portrayed by the Cartel. Manchester United lost because they missed numerous clear cut chances and then wilted at the back at a crucial moment. The penalty incident, in which Distin let Ronaldo run into him, and then shoulder charged the winger to stop him getting past, was not a penalty. On the day when the International Football Association Board met to review the Laws of the Game it is worth noting that the majority of people within the game – players, managers, the media and supporters – are not actually aware of those laws. Law XII states that an in-direct free-kick should be awarded for players that: “impede the progress of an opponent.” This, arguably, is what Distin did and thus at the very worst Manchester United could have been awarded an in-direct free-kick inside the penalty area. Yet three so-called experts on BBC’s Match of the Day stated that Manchester United should have been awarded a penalty. Why? Because many of their viewers support Manchester United and, if they side with those viewers, ignoring what is actually right in favour of hyperbole, then their viewing figures will increase and those so-called pundits will keep their jobs.	. .
Ferguson continues: “Managers get sacked because of things like that but he’ll referee next week. Keith Hackett has a lot to answer for. He’s not doing his job properly. He’s got his favourites. He has to be assessed.” Who is Sir Alex Ferguson to demand that the referee’s assessor should himself be assessed? Surely that is the role of the Football Association? Yet Ferguson makes these comments not only to deflect the attention away from his side’s defeat but because he knows that the media, to protect their own vested interests, will publish his comments, which they did. Now Ronaldo: “"The referee against Portsmouth was unbelievable. In the first five minutes, there were three fouls and he took no action and then he failed to give a penalty. It's difficult to play like this. Sometimes they just protect the defenders and I am thinking about having to change my game because it is difficult to play like that.” This follows on from Arsene Wenger’s comments about referee’s needing to protect skilful players following the broken leg of one of his players. Law V states that the referee: “has full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection to the match to which he has been appointed.” Where, within the Laws, does it state that the referee is charged with protecting skilful players? The referee’s job is to assess each foul, or potential foul, on its merit regardless of the players involved in the situation. What Manchester United and Arsenal really mean by their comments is that they want referee’s to make decisions in their favour, to give the Ronaldo’s of this world a free-kick even if a opposing defender makes a legitimate challenge, not because he is a skilful player, but because he is player that plays for the Cartel. The media allow the Cartel to make their views heard and sadly some within the game accept it as fact. Ferguson concludes: “Earlier in the season at Bolton we had Mark Clattenburg – Jesus, God!” Spurs fans do not need reminding that this was the referee at Old Trafford who denied us our first win their since 1989 by not allowing a goal when the ball had clearly crossed the line by at least three feet, the worst decision I’ve seen in the time since I started following the beautiful game. I was behind the goal at that match and, when the ball crossed the line, looked immediately at the linesman on the nearside. He was level with the edge of the penalty area and looked straight at the incident. I firmly believe to this day that he saw the ball cross the line (although I admit that I wasn’t quite sure myself from my own vantage point at the time) but didn’t give it in case he was wrong. In case he received the wrath of Ferguson. In case his life was ruined forever by media hounding instigated by Manchester United to protect their own interests. I believe, to this day, that we were cheated and the game was cheated in the interests of money. The Barnsley v Chelsea report largely talks about whether Avram Grant will lose his job as manager of Chelsea instead of how well Barnsley played and how most neutrals will surely want them to now go all the way and lift the Cup. On the following page of the paper is an article by Harry Harris. He states that, because the Cartel will reach the last eight of the “Champions” League (a ridiculous name for a competition involving teams that finish as low as fourth in their domestic League), the Premier League is the best in the world. In fact, he goes on to say: “Watch out for some spectacular signings from Chelsea and Manchester United.” I would say that the Premier League is one of the worst divisions in the world. Every year the Cartel gets stronger and the competition gets weaker. Every year the quality of matches involving the other sixteen teams in the Premier League gets poorer (in the Reading v Manchester City report the journalist comments: “The only other notable moment of the half – yes it was that boring – came via referee Uriah Rennie”). On the other hand Sky Sports create Grand Slam Sunday, making the Cartel seem the only relevant clubs in the land and the other Premier League matches on the preceding Saturday a mere sideshow. I remember a time when finishing second not fifth in the League gained UEFA Cup qualification and when finishing fourth was a failure not an aim of the entire season at the expense of anything else. I’ve stopped buying the Daily Express but continue to buy the Sunday Edition. One of the previous Chief Sports Writers, James Lawton, often wrote and lamented about traditional values and beliefs in sports. Jim Holden, the current top sports journalist has a lot to live up to but I think the reason I continue to buy the Sunday version of the paper is to read his articles which I largely agree with. He often stands up for the morals in all sports (and I follow all sports) and in football correctly laments at the true reasons behind the failure of our national team and quality of English players: the lack of training pitches and facilities, the lack of school coaches, the failure of the government to see all the advantages that competitive sport can bring to young people and so forth. Unfortunately Jim is fighting a losing battle. His very paper today, and every day, contains stories about the Cartel, in the interests of the Cartel, to protect the Cartel and in turn to protect the sales of the newspaper and therefore its staff. But by doing so the interests of all other aspects of the game are brushed to one side. By doing so his department, along with the rest of the media, is killing the very game that we love. I now don’t mind which of the remaining six teams win the FA Cup but I personally hope for a Barnsley v Bristol Rovers final. What a great day out that would be for both sets of supporters and what a moment in the history of the victorious club. There are ninety two professional football clubs in England and approximately thirty six thousand amateur clubs affiliated to the FA. Football is not about the media, the players, the managers, the other club staff that work in the game, the stewards, the police, the programme sellers, the sponsors, the VIPs, the corporate fans or, to an extent, the new football fan that only watches games on Sky TV. Football is about supporters who follow those clubs, who attend their club’s matches and the joy and despair it brings to them. No matter how large the Cartel continues to grow, no matter whether the thirty ninth game takes place, no matter even whether a European Super League is formed amongst the G-14, football, at the grassroots level, in the lower leagues and in the non-leagues will always belong to the true proprietors of the game, its supporters. On a day like today, when the magic of the FA Cup has finally been revived, it is a truth worth holding onto.

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2^nd March 2008 – Post Cup final Blues

I've just come back from Birmingham. As the late, great, Fred Dowry used to say, it was a great day spoiled by the 90 minutes.

I got to Birmingham and back from central London for £2 return. I arrived at 11am and departed at 7pm. Apart from walking to the ground, seeing the game and walking back again I spent the whole day in the Anchor, one of the best pubs in the country with some of the best beer I've ever tasted. I was joined by some Spurs fans who I know who are just top notch; without the football it would have been a great day.

I'm not one to look at team line ups or individual players. Okay, so we had Tainio, Chimbonda and Kaboul at the back. So what. They're professional footballers. I couldn't give a shit that we had injuries. So does everyone else.

It was an odd game in the sense that Birmingham actually didn't play that well but took their chances. The critics could say that it was the opposite of our League Cup game at home to Arsenal. Whatever; they finished really well and we didn't.

First and foremost is the fact that our players couldn't be bothered today. That was evident from the shocking passing and the fact that we didn't bother to go for 50/50 balls. Win a Cup, the least important Cup we can win, and then celebrate. Big clubs try to win every game and every trophy. Small clubs are content with what they've all ready got. We are, at the moment, still a small club.

11^th November 2007 - Tottenham Hotspur PLC and the Israel trip

“There used to be a football club here.”

We’ve all heard the phrase by Keith Burkinshaw. He said it famously after Spurs won the UEFA Cup in 1984. Since then we’ve won just two trophies. It’s no coincidence that, a year earlier in 1983, we became the first British football club to become a Public Limited Company. Since then every major decision made by three different Boards have been to appease the shareholders over and above the football supporters. This is in great contrast to our rivals down the road. We’re still talking about building a new stadium (or making our current one bigger), Arsenal have all ready built one. We’re still talking about a new training ground, Arsenal have all ready built one. Arsenal (as much as it pains me to say it) play great football and are challenging for trophies again. Spurs football has been inconsistent at best, even in the two seasons we came fifth, and now we’re struggling at the wrong end of the league. Arsenal charge their fans £10 for League Cup ties (albeit with weakened teams), we charge up to £25. Arsenal give their supporters free T-shirts and souvenirs at testimonial matches, Spurs charge their supporters £10 for a meaningless anniversary programme. Arsenal give their manager the time and set-up to get things right, Spurs….well, enough has been written about recent events. I would only comment that in any other professional organisation in a properly regulated industry those at the very top would have been held accountable by losing their jobs. Since the European Cup format was changed to the Champions’ League we have been one of the top twenty richest clubs on earth yet the only club never to have competed in the competition. Sadly, notwithstanding recent expenditure on transfers, the PLC have seemed happy to continue making a healthy profit without willing to take some risks in order to attempt to get Spurs to the next level. That’s what happens when shareholders take priority over fans.

Despite all this I try not to get involved in club politics and instead stay focused about events on the field only. However when Spurs played Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel two days ago at the time of writing Tottenham Hotspur PLC crossed another line; it tried to fleece its own supporters once more and this time blatantly lied about the reasons behind it. As much as it genuinely pains me to write anything negative about the club (not through fear of retribution but through guilt over criticising something I love) it is something that has to be done so all supporters know what has happened and where they stand although, sadly, this piece will have little if any future effect. At the end of the day we as supporters will, despite our moans, still turn up week in week out. The club know this and whilst they may read and take note of any criticism they will turn a blind eye to it safe in the knowledge that supporters’ money will keep rolling in.

On Tuesday 9 October the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage was made. At approximately 13.00 Spurs officially announced the group stage fixtures on their web-site. Many Platinum members, including myself, then booked up flights to Israel within minutes in order to get the best possible prices. Supporters did this because, as part of the Terms and Conditions of the One Hotspur Platinum membership, fans are guaranteed match tickets for European away matches where the number of allocated tickets is less than or equal to the number of platinum members who require a ticket. Given that the Bloomfield Stadium has an official capacity of 15,700 and that there is a UEFA requirement that away supporters are allocated a minimum of 5% of the stadium capacity, a minimum allocation of 785 tickets were on the cards. As the club have declared a maximum of 500 platinum members for this season all supporters in this group assumed that they would be guaranteed a ticket. Not only this but gold and silver members with high numbers of loyalty points also assumed they would be guaranteed the remainder of the tickets and indeed those tickets that platinum members would decline; thus numerous gold and silver members also booked up trips within minutes of the draw being made.

At approximately 17.00 that day Spurs put an announcement on their web-site stating that “the Security of our travelling fans is of paramount concern and takes priority - we shall therefore not be able to offer a match ticket only option [for this game].” (The time that the article appeared on the web-site was actually 16.52 although the article itself had a time of 15.52 which itself was misleading). Nothing is certain in life until it happens and extraordinary circumstances last season caused our tie against Feyenoord to be postponed. Many supporters, including myself, lost flight money to the Netherlands by booking straight away and, according to the club, “Our long-standing advice is NOT to book any travel before full match details are confirmed. This hasn’t changed from last season – and will not change this season. Your Feyenoord experience is probably the best example as to why.” On both counts I disagree with the club. Firstly I believe full match details are the date, venue and opponents (although kick-off time is subject to change) and no more. Whilst allocations always have to be subsequently confirmed UEFA have set guidelines in advance of the whole competition starting and only circumstances that may involve these guidelines not being met should cause supporters to be wary. Secondly, as explained above, supporters will always book up as quickly as possible in order to save money on flight prices (which go up not only as other supporters book but as other members of the public book trips to the same destination). Therefore, bearing this in mind, I believe it is the club’s responsibility to inform supporters of any potential issues with the fixture or ticket allocation in advance of the fixture being announced. There was ninety minutes between the draw being made and the exact fixtures being calculated. An announcement in that time to the effect that supporters should not book up any trips to Israel were we to play Hapoel Tel Aviv away until a further announcement is made due to security concerns would have sufficed.

The next day hordes of e-mails were sent to the club from supporters who had all ready booked flights complaining as to the timing of the announcement as detailed above but also questioning what the safety and security issues were. It is entirely possible that UEFA delegates informed Spurs that there may be issues surrounding this particular fixture. However four thousand England supporters went to Tel Aviv in March without any security concerns or any restrictions put in place. There has been no advice from the Foreign Office for UK citizens not to travel to Tel Aviv or to take precautions when doing so. There have been no recent security concerns at any Israeli football match. There have been no recent restrictions or concerns for other British clubs playing European ties in Israel. It is well known that Tottenham have a large number of Jewish supporters (largely due to the club being based in an area with a large Jewish population); however that, in and of itself, would not result in a greater security risk without direct evidence to the contrary. At the time the club produced no evidence of any security information and I’ve yet to see any subsequently.

By lunchtime on 10 October an e-mail was sent to all Platinum members. “The Club sympathises with the situation those supporters are now in and recognises that the desire to follow the team to all matches home and away, and the presumption that tickets to all matches are as One Hotspur Platinum members always available to them, means that supporters in this group are more likely to book travel without waiting for full match details to be confirmed by the Club…However, following further discussions with our safety and security advisers this morning, we will, subject to full flight and accommodation details and valid passport details being provided to us, clearly showing non-refundable flight and hotel confirmations, make an exception to the policy set out in yesterday’s announcement. This exception will be made for One Hotspur Platinum members only.”

Note that the last sentence was highlighted by the club. Whilst this was a small victory for Platinum members this made a mockery of the club’s original announcement regarding safety and security. To clarify: Silver, Gold and Platinum members are all season holders but platinum members are also away season ticket holders (having paid for all away tickets at the start of the season). However many silver and gold members also attend all or most matches; the only difference between them and platinum members is that the latter pay a lump sum at the start of the season whilst the former spread their expenditure throughout the year. Thus the club, in an instant, split supporters into two groups for two illogical reasons. The first was that Platinum members were now safe and secure enough to travel independently whilst gold and silver members still needed the safety and security of the official club trips. This, in itself, is nonsensical. The second that Platinum members were thus able to obtain official away tickets through the club but Gold and Silver members could not even if they had booked flights. Numerous Gold and Silver members had many more loyalty points and had been to many more games than some Platinum members but, officially, could not obtain tickets because they did not pay the club a lump sum at the start of the season.

In correspondence between the club and its supporters the club stated that official packages and flights would be “competitive in relation to the current market.” Late on 10 October the details were announced. The club broadly offered three different packages: a flight only package without accommodation for £379, a flight with one night’s accommodation for £429/£445 (3/4 star hotel), and a flight with two night’s accommodation for £519/£539 (4/5 star hotel). (A VIP package was also available for the match including a match ticket. However these match tickets were in corporate sections of the grounds and so did not affect others). I paid £335 for in-direct flights for two nights. It was possible to book direct flights for as little £300 and the average price (according to www.travelsupermarket.com on 10 October) for direct flights to Tel Aviv for two nights (7 to 9 November) was £400. I paid £15 a night for accommodation and many others paid £30 a night or less for theirs. Thus to some the club’s prices were reasonable, to others extortionate. However the question was then raised as to why the club were selling flight only options in which supporters could book their own accommodation, or even selling packages that involved overnight stays at all when “the Security of our travelling fans is of paramount concern.” How could the club look after fans’ security if they were allowed to roam freely throughout the country? It was thus obvious by this stage that official trips were only organised for finanical reasons. Spurs had signed an agreement with Thomas Cook at the start of the season to provide a number of official packages through them for European away trips. These were cancelled for our first trip in Cyprus due to the lack of interest from supporters when these trips were made optional. Thus Spurs saw what they thought was the perfect opportunity to make them compulsory this time around using the simple idea that Israel is known as a volatile country and thus they could play the “safety and security” card to squeeze every last penny out of supporters who all ready pay some of the highest ticket prices in Europe. Thankfully they did not realise that the supporters, far more experienced in travelling with Spurs than any club official, saw the ploy and, in many cases, decided to book their own trips regardless.

On Thursday 15 October tickets in the remainder of the ground were put on general sale through an Israeli equilavent of Ticketmaster. As detailed on the official Hapoel Tel Aviv web-site Spurs supporters were able to buy tickets through them in the “neutral section” (Gate 8) located next to the Spurs part of the ground. As confirmed to me by the ticket agency and other Spurs supporters anyone was able to buy a ticket through the agency for collection in their central ticket office in Tel Aviv or at the ground on the day even if the registered credit card address was an English one. Thus no Spurs supporter was obliged to purchase an official package to obtain a ticket, information that Spurs declined to pass on. As the Tel Aviv web-site is only in Hebrew many Spurs fans would not have come across this information before purchasing official Spurs packages. When questioned Spurs commented “we advise supporters not to purchase tickets elsewhere in the stadium and to consult our web-site for official ticket information.”

By Tuesday 30 October, one week before the match, forty seven supporters had booked the official flight only package. On this day Thomas Cook cancelled this particular trip because they felt that was not a sufficient enough number to run a chartered flight. The following day, Thursday 1 November, they cancelled the flight with two nights accomodation package for the same reason although the number of people who booked were just into three figures. Again common sense comes into play. These days modern planes hold three hundred passengers on average. If Spurs were only awarded seven hundred official tickets and numerous Plantium members had booked their own packages then it was never going to be possible for Thomas Cook to fill three planes and highly unlikely that they would get near filling two. Instead all Spurs supporters booked on the cancelled packages were offered the choice to go onto the flight with one night’s accomodation package. This in some cases meant that these fans had to pay more money and in most cases involved changing their accomodation, their days off at work and their social commitments at a week’s notice. Whilst all these annoucements were made to supporters independently and not through any official channels Thomas Cook realised that even putting everyone on one plane still wouldn’t fill it. Thus, whilst other supporters packages were being cancelled, Spurs put an official update on their web-site on 30 October advising that a limited number of Israel packages were available on general sale. This meant that any person, Spurs supporter or not, could buy a package to Israel and a ticket in the official Spurs end at a few days notice. I’m sure those Spurs fans who booked on the official package for safety and security reasons were very pleased to here that anyone, including a would be terrorist, could sit next to them in the stands. Of course even here the club still managed to get their communication channels wrong by announcing that all packages were still available whilst at the same time contacting supporters individually to cancel those said packages.

On Thursday 1 November and Friday 2 November supporters who had orginally booked onto the flight with one night accomodation package were contacted independently. Originally these supporters had booked to go out on the morning of the game, Thursday 8 November, and return on Friday 9 November. For reasons that are still unclear Thomas Cook changed the departure flight to Wednesday 7 November and returning on Thursday 8 November immediately after the game. Thus these supporters too had to change their travel plans and personal commitments at the last moment. Therefore the only supporters travelling on an official package who did not have to change their travel plans were those who booked up the packages on general sale at the last moment. 

Having given Spurs my travel details to Israel I was expecting two tickets for the match to be sent to me in the post. A day before I flew out, three days before the game, they had not arrived. I contacted the club and it appeared that they had “forgotten” to post them. I went to collect them from the ticket office just before my flight. Numerous other Platinum members were in the same situation. It seemed that Spurs were too pre-occupied in organising (or otherwise) their official packages to worry about those supporters who attend the majority of matches and I would suspect that some fans would have had to try and obtain duplicates on the day of the match.

On the night of the game four Tottenham stewards were present for our safety and security. In previous European trips over the past two seasons up to sixteen stewards have been present. I did not see a single policeman present inside the stand at all. As Spurs had indicated tickets were not available on the night for sale in the official Spurs section although approximately two thousand were present elsewhere in the stadium. The Spurs section was in fact three quarters empty but fans in other sections of the ground were denied entry to the away end. I would estimate that there were another five hundred Spurs fans in the “netural section” to the right in Gate 8 and also quite a few in the main stand to the left. Indeed Thomas Cook officials who stood in front of me in the away end had numerous unsold tickets in that section but refused to sell/exchange them with other Tottenham supporters. Perhaps the biggest irony of all is that Tottenham were officially offered one thousand five hundred tickets in the away end for this match but only took half that number to sell on their official packages. Thus instead of having 1,500 Spurs fans in the away end (the majority of whom could have booked their own flights), Spurs fans were postioned all over the stadium, meaning friends were split up, our support looked a lot less than it was for the watching world and most crucially of all, many Spurs fans stayed at home thinking they wouldn’t get tickets whilst our end was virtually deserted on the night. The line is crossed when fans cannot travel to watch their team due to the sheer greed of their club.

Tottenham’s next trip in Europe sees us play Anderlecht in Brussels on 6 December. We have been given an allocation of 1,480 tickets. There are no issues for platinum members on this occasion although sending all platinum members an e-mail about the game on 5 November and giving a deadline of 9 November to reply if necessary when most platinum members were in Israel at the time again reeks of incompetence. Minutes after the draw was made flights to Charleroi just outside of Brussels were available from £40 return and return tickets on the Eurostar direct to Brussels were available from £60 return. 2,000 people applied for this fixture and the club have announced that only supporters with 465 or more loyalty points will be able to get a ticket which, on face value, appears fair. However the club are also selling official day-trips via Thomas Cook involving a £70 return coach or a ludcriously priced £200 return flight. While the communication from the club is unclear at present it appears that anyone who purchases an official package will automatically be given a ticket unless “demand exceeds supply” although the club have not clarified how many packages are on-sale. Crucially they have not mentioned whether tickets for the official packages are taken from our official allocation; without any information to the contrary I can only assume this is the case. Thus it appears a fan who hasn’t been to many games can obtain a ticket by spending a lot of money with the club and, in so doing, deny another supporter, who has been to many more games, a ticket. It shows that Spurs have learnt nothing whatsoever from the Israel debacle.

Rumours are abound that Daniel Levy and ENIC are looking to sell the club in the coming months when a share preference/issue scheme come to fruition and that all recent decisions made are down to greed in order to get the profits and share prices up. Whatever the reason every decision made, whether big or small, in Levy’s reign (in the main also just like his two predecessors) have been for the benefit of Tottenham Hotspur PLC instead of Tottenham Hotspur FC. As a supporter of the second and as someone who will never hold shares in the first I for one would like to see the back of Levy and ENIC as quickly as possible. We need to get a chairman and an organisation in who care about the football club whilst, at the same time, realising that taking the football club up to the next level will also help the business. In the modern era of football though one can only shrug the shoulders and hope for the best.

9^th July 2007 - The Cost of Football 

This article is dedicated to the memory of those most loyal Tottenham supporters who are no longer with us. By their loyalty and dedication over many decades of following Spurs they have inspired others (including myself) to follow in their footsteps. By their genuine warmth and affection they have secured a place in the hearts of many forever.

We’ve all been asked the question. Work colleagues, friends, partners, family; one or all have posed it at some point in our lives. Why do you do it? Why do you go to all those games? Surely you haven’t got the time? Surely it must cost you a fortune? We know they’re right. It does. But we still do it anyway. The irrationality of football fandom is perfectly straightforward to those of us that do it and makes no sense at all to those that don’t.

Some of us though have been asked the more difficult question. How much does it actually cost, in real terms? When asked this question most of us mutter something about the cost of our season ticket. Depending on who we support the response will either be something like, “oh, not as much as I thought then” or “blimey that’s a lot, I don’t know how you do it.” Either way the inquisitor walks away content in the knowledge that they have the answer, content that they have found something out about the football supporter. In reality they will only have been told a partial truth; the real cost, as we all know, is so much more. For the 2007/2008 season I will aim to quantify the amount that I spend on football during a year, as much for my own interest as anyone else’s.

I don’t think the final amount will be that which the “average” football supporter spends. On the football supporting spectrum I’m more towards the extreme end than most, yet many others will spend much more than I over the football year. I don’t even think it will be a reasonable guide to the amount that I spend year in year out. Spurs are in Europe again which will obviously cost more than many previous seasons and yet, due to my own financial situation, I will need to save money in ways that I haven’t previously (for example, by getting coaches instead of trains to domestic away games). Even so, I believe the final total will be more than I (and many others expect) and more than I have estimated to be the true total in previous seasons.

I believe that there are broadly three types of football spending and the question I have to ask myself is whether to include them all in this article.

· Direct Costs – These are costs which have to be accrued in order to attend the football match. The cost of the match ticket is the most obvious example. Another is the cost of a train ticket purchased for the express intention of travelling to or from a match. All these costs will be included in this article.

· In-direct Costs – These are costs which arise during the course of a football trip but do not directly affect attendance at the game. For example, a round of alcoholic drinks before the game or the cost of a programme from the game. Some may say that these costs have nothing to with the actual football at all. Others would suggest that, were I not to attend matches, I would spend my money on items or consumables such as these anyway. I disagree on both counts. Drinking beer before and after games is, for me personally, an essential part of the social fabric of football; it’s all part of the football day. We all have to eat and drink but, when not at football, I tend to try and eat at home as much as possible in order to save money. Yes, that is partly in order to save money to spend at football but that isn’t the point. Were I not attending a match that kicks off at 12.45pm I wouldn’t be in a café near the ground at 10am having a fry-up. Indeed I wouldn’t be having a fry-up at all (I don’t eat breakfast at home). Therefore I am going to include these expenditures in the final reckoning.

Associated Costs – Most of my football trips start and end at home. Thus any money I spend in between leaving my house and arriving back again when on a football trip could in theory be detailed here. However that shouldn’t necessary be the case. I could for example buy a present for someone, or see a tourist attraction, whilst at a football match abroad. This falls into neither of the above categories and, while the expense would not have occurred were it not for the trip, it has nothing to do with the game at all, and nothing to do with the match day experience either. Therefore these costs will not be included.

The above isn’t black and white. Does a session in a pub with other Spurs fans the night after a game in a foreign location count? Probably. As the old saying goes I’ll take it one game at a time.

Having decided what should and shouldn’t be included I’ll now break things down into various categories. For each category in each match the amount shown will be to the nearest fifty pence. Where costs are accrued outside of the UK the amount shown will be based on the approximate exchange rate at the time. 

· Match Ticket – The cost of admission to the stadium. Booking fees, card fees, etc. will be excluded (most fees can be avoided if tickets are bought in person so, in most cases, the fees are avoidable). Where a match is included in the home season ticket the cost shown will be £29 (the amount of the season ticket, £609 for me in the South Lower, divided by the total number of games it covers, 21 in total). Where a match is included in the away season ticket the cost shown will the face value of the ticket plus £2 to account for the away season ticket service charge (as an average of the £35 it costs over the 21 games it covers).

· Programme – The cost of the glossy brochure available at most games; I collect one from each. At some foreign stadiums programmes are not available and thus I get teamsheets instead. These are of course free.

· Travel – The cost of travelling to or from a game both directly (e.g. a train to Manchester on the day of Manchester City away) or in-directly (e.g. travelling from one city to another as part of a pre-season tour abroad).

· Accommodation – The cost of staying overnight in order to attend a game both directly (e.g. the night before Everton away in mid-week) or in-directly (e.g. as part of a three-day European away trip).

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