Cod Almighty | Diary

Football without supporters is just balls

15 October 2018

Trentside Diary writes: So on Friday we were weirded out knowing that all those teams around us would be playing while we kicked our heels and tried to find something else to focus on at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. This would be worse than the close season. Everyone else would be keeping the momentum going, and Town had only just got into gear.

We then learned that Mansfield had found the time to arrange a friendly. While some thought this wasn't a problem, others got themselves quite irritated on social media.

I couldn't rouse myself to get too worked up initially. But then on reflection perhaps this is symbolic of how little respect many clubs have for their own supporters, let alone those of other clubs. A change like this is very frustrating for fans. Away matches are planned with mates and family, train tickets purchased or transport arrangements made.

Anyone who has ever tried to get to a Mansfield game from Grimsby by train will know it's at least two changes. Doable on a Saturday but not on a weekday evening. I can't help wondering when the request for the postponement was made, and known about by Town. Town announced it on Monday, less than a week before the match. Surely the call-up of players came some time before that.

With three players called up for international duty (never thought I would ever type that) the Stags had the right to request the postponement. Nobody is quibbling about that, but then to advertise their alternative match as "Mansfield Town's first team will play away to Birmingham City in a behind-closed doors friendly" wasn't very considerate. Perhaps they could have announced "the remaining players will play a friendly" because if it really was the first team, they didn't need to mess anyone around and could have just gone ahead with the match against Town.
To me it is just one more example of clubs not caring about supporters.

Anyone watching or listening to the Croatia v England match on Friday evening wouldn't need convincing of how important the supporters are to a game. To be fair, anyone who regularly goes to matches, rather than watching them from their armchair, knows that already. The Premier League doesn't understand it because it gets so much of its income from selling the viewing rights abroad. They don't care about the fans who turn up. They know that for many clubs, if some fans stop going, there are more waiting in the wings to snap up their tickets.

However, for many Football League clubs, the fans are their lifeblood: in support, creating an atmosphere, and with the money they spend on tickets and in the ground. Many clubs would do well to remember this.