The owners of Liverpool Football Club, the Fenway Sports Group have buckled.
Or so we would be told.
After about 10,000 Liverpool fans walked out of their game against Sunderland, it has apparently prompted the owners to put the fans first – and to shelve plans to launch a £77 ticket.
In truth, Fenway have listened to no one, what they have actually done is throw a damp tea towel over a lit chip pan.
The positive here is that this move proves that clubs do not like bad PR.
But the negative is that ticket prices at Anfield are still stupidly overpriced. Category A game prices to watch LFC play someone decent at home, run from £46 to £59.
Which for an enterprise that was gifted £92m+ broadcast monies this season but is incapable of a winning anything, doesn’t represent good value for money.
The Spirit Of Shankly, the Liverpool action group want more and they’re right to do so.
“We started this process to make football cheaper for all LFC supporters, to make it fairer and to increase access for younger and local supporters. This proposal is not our panacea. More must be done to make football affordable.
However we have always stated that this is a journey that the owners should embark upon and this is a positive step in the right direction towards fairness and away from greed, but it is only one step.”
It’s no newsflash that supporters are being rinsed due to their emotional investment in football.
If FSG or any other owners genuinely gave a damn, they’d get their houses truly in order and sell tickets to fans for a number with a closer baring on their operating costs plus a fair profit margin – on what in any another industry would be deemed an FMCG.
Instead, clubs adopt a policy of seeing what is the absolute maximum they can get away with, augmented by the use of smoke and mirrors.
It’s pertinent juncture in the conversation to turn our attention to the greatest parasites in the equation, here – the players.
While Daniel Sturridge was probably having blood tests in Switzerland to see if he is allergic to any particular type of blade of grass, last night we were treated to a footballing masterclass.
Not by a Premier League side but by a League One mob that appeared to be comprised of part time baristas and some sixth formers.
Saido bloody Berahino deliberately sauntered onto the Peterborough turf, to mark a stark contrast to the energetic bursts, leaps and jogging of his team mates.
‘Look at me, look at me, not at them, look at me’ he silently screamed with every fibre of his being.
His Mickey Mouse performance wasn’t worthy of a bloke in a mouse suit, whose only task was wave a bit and move his head to and fro at a theme park.
The crowning glory of his performance wasn’t actually the moment when he headed the ball wide in front of a largely unprotected goal. No, the best bit was when he scored his penalty in the shootout, went to do his trademark thumb sucking thing – but cut it extremely short as an atom of self respect that he had previously been unaware of in his body, reminded his brain that this was a minuscule token towards his redemption and not an ideal moment for him to bask in his own majesty.
I predicted that Liverpool will be regarded by other Premier League sides as nuts for making this ‘concession’ and that Berahino will get his dream move …but to Liverpool.
