A football team isn’t a hobby; it’s a lifestyle.

It’s a Tuesday morning, you look outside, it’s a dark dismal winter’s morning, the rain is hammering against the window, you’re wondering is it all worth it? You’ve taken the day off work (or college/school), just for the undying love you have. Your beloved football team, you know the day is grim outside but that doesn’t stop you becoming filled with anticipation at the thought of watching your team later that evening, knowing that there is every possibility that you could come out on top and come away with three points. On this particular occasion, you’re away from home and you know that the away end is an open terrace, so unless the weather clears up, you’re going to need a pair of goggles by half time. You travel to the ‘foreign’ town, knowing that you’re not welcome there, and you wouldn’t dream of venturing there if your team wasn’t playing. The rain still hasn’t stopped as you get into the ground and within the first five minutes, you’re down to ten men and one nil down after one of the centre halves gives away a penalty and receives a red card for his troubles. It gets to half time, and you’re still one down. Throughout the first half, the away end, despite being dripping wet, has not stopped supporting the lads on the pitch, outsinging the home fans, despite being outnumbered. Second half begins, much the same, your team are constantly under pressure, but the keeper is playing a blinder and it is still one nil as the game enters into stoppage time. Then, in the last minute, a corner. The away support believes, they think this is it, the ball gets whipped in, and there it is, the last minute of injury time the equaliser. The away support is going absolutely ballistic, you don’t care that it’s been raining all game, it’s all worth it now and as the final whistle goes, the players come over and celebrate with you, thanking you for your support. You’re all together, united as one.

That’s how it used to be and FWFIN is sure that many of you will agree that those were the better days, now the enjoyment of the fan doesn’t matter anymore, the game is too over commercialised, and only very rarely will the players thank the supporters now, especially if it was a rainy day as the aforementioned. Players would be more worried about getting into the changing room and getting home to their luxury houses whilst the fans, who have spent their money and put the effort in to watching the team, have to set off home. That’s the problem though; the gulf between the fans and the players in this day and age is ridiculous, some players will earn in a week what most fans will earn in a year. If you go to the top of the scale where you have football players earning a staggering £200,00 a week, that’s more than some people will see in a life time. But hey, money doesn’t rule football, does it?

Portsmouth, Rangers and now Port Vale are three clubs in the last few weeks and months to enter administration, each for a number of different reasons, but why, when there is so much money in the once beautiful game are clubs still able to fall into the red, it’s not right. Football clubs have to be run better, but nothing will be done, until it happens to one of the ‘big boys’ such as Chelsea or Man United. FWFIN can practically guarantee that the authorities would step in if it were to happen to one of the aforementioned and lend them a helping hand. But, because Port Vale are in League Two, they will be left to slip under the radar as it has happened many times before with over clubs.

Fans will always support their club, nothing will change that, but if there’s no club to left to support what will happen? The club will get rebuilt from the bottom and will start again; fans will never let their club die, one way or another. Because, football without fans is nothing.

FWFIN.

Supporters are not criminals.

“Bolton had already come from behind in a lively derby that saw a number of Wigan fans ejected for setting off flares and smoke bombs.”

It’s the same situation as the Middlesbrough versus Sunderland game which was mentioned last week, of which there is a probe into due to a flare was set off and now ‘a number’ of Wigan fans have been ejected from the Reebok Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers, for setting off smoke bombs and flares as the quote says. But why? There is no logic behind it whatsoever, FWFIN understands that is against ground regulations, but so is bringing musical instruments into a ground, but the England band are allowed to go all around the world without any hassle. But as soon as any form of pyro is set off, stewards and the plod feel like that the world is going to come to an end and they have to get people kicked out the ground, or failing that, video evidence will be studied and then whoever it maybe will be nicked further down the line. 

One good point though, is that pyro seems to be getting used more in this country as the weeks go by and I think it will only increase, it’s the same as a lot of other things, things such as the one at the Sunderland game and the few at the Wigan game are covered by the media, but it goes on in many more places, which is kept out of the papers and the media. However, when a European club comes over to England, just take Hadjuk Split as an example, when they played Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, they set off numerous amounts of pyro, but nothing was done, because they were foreign. The commentators will always say how good the support is from European clubs is when pyro has gone off, so why is it condemned so much in this country! 

In modern day stadiums, you have so much CCTV watching you for the duration that you’re in the ground, you feel like a criminal, FWFIN understands that it’s for your ‘safety and security’, but surely that’s why stewards are hired? Just think, your every move is watched, it’s an invasion of privacy, of course people will say, if you’ve got nothing to hide, then there’s no problem. Look at it the other way, you’re being watched constantly, the security team know what you’re wearing everytime you step into the ground, they know where you will be in the stand, who you will be with. 

On a unrelated matter, Portsmouth FC players threw their shirts into the stand housing their supporters away at Blackpool on Saturday as a show of appreciation for the long journey that they encountered for the evening kick off. The players that threw their tops into the crowd, will have to replace them themselves, due to the fact that the club’s accounts have been frozen and the players haven’t been paid for weeks and they will be in court next week to try and avoid a winding up order. They own in excess of twenty million pounds, however, to a club like Man City, it’s just loose change, they could quite easily help them out. As well as Darlington who are clinging on to existence by the skin of their teeth. 

Supporters are not criminals.

Football without fans is nothing.