Birmingham City – The FSF’s April Newsletter

After our own club is the full football family, here is our new Vital Football feature.. the FSF’s Newsletter.

FSF’s April Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Football Supporters’ Federation’s monthly round-up of the most interesting supporter-stories that caught our attention.

Thanks to Vital Football for offering us this space – for those who’ve never heard of the FSF we represent more than 500,000 individual and affiliate members throughout England and Wales. We campaign on issues like safe standing, ticket prices, and help fans with all manner of issues. Got a problem? Get in touch?,

Anyway, April was a busy month with fan boycotts a major theme. Up at St James’ Park Newcastle United fans are seriously unhappy with Mike Ashley’s ownership and tens of thousands boycotted their home match against Spurs. Fanzine editor Michael Martin explains why, here.

Liverpool fans were also up-in-arms at ticket prices: specifically Hull City’s decision to charge them £50 for a visit to the KC. A hastily arranged protest by FSF-affiliates Spirit of Shankly was hailed a “massive success”. Hull City fans themselves were also pretty ticked off with their club’s lack of transparency over what they’d spent their Away Fans Initiative on.

But the award for “Angriest Fans of the Month” probably goes to Blackpool supporters, and who can blame them? The Oyston regime has taken to suing its own fans, so watch what you`re saying, but suffice to say fans want to see the back of the Oystons – find out more about their “Judgement Day”.

We also told the sorry tale of two QPR fans who had to resort to taking their own club to court, after some terrible treatment at the hands of QPR stewards. They won thousands in compensation thanks to the FSF – Watching Football Is Not A Crime!

You might have noticed it’s election time too – we covered all the party manifestos here, including the curious Ukip commitment to abolish the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. We also backed the Vote Football website which gives fans the chance to lobby their MPs. JUST DO IT!

Also, we announced that we announced that this year’s Supporters Summit, jointly hosted by the FSF and Supporters Direct, will take place in Manchester on Saturday 18th July 2015 (10am start). It’s totally free, so if you want to help change the game for the better, we hope to see you there.

Chris Summersell from Level Playing Field tells us that though much progress has been made for disabled fans in recent years, many disabled fans are still left frustrated by lack of access. Here he urges fans to get involved in the groups week of action… Level Playing Field`s Weeks of Action 2015 campaign is now in full swing but it is not too late for you to get involved with this annual initiative … – See more at: www.fsf.org.uk,

West Ham United have announced they’ll reduce season ticket prices when they move into the Olympic Stadium (2016/17), as a result of the Premier League’s new and improved TV deal. Here’s the FSF’s take… Since the announcement of the Premier League`s £5.14bn domestic media deal in February – with another £3bn expected from foreign sales – we`ve consistently argued that clubs should use the money to reduce prices for home and away fans. – See more at: www.fsf.org.uk, Maybe more clubs will take this initiative and maybe more fans need to force their clubs had to TAKE this initiative!

On Friday, British Transport Police (BTP) convened a “summit” to address football related disorder, anti-social and racist behaviour by fans on the rail network. Here our caseworker Amanda Jacks responds to claims that thuggish behaviour from football fans is widespread on British trains…

The BTP’s summit was covered extensively by the media with BTP Chief Constable Paul Crowther announcing that ‘casual, thuggish behaviour happens weekly on trains across the country’ and encouraging people to tell all about their experiences. – See more at: www.fsf.org.uk,