Tottenham Hotspur is in some hot water with their supporters due to the north London club changing the kick-off time for their home fixtures against West Ham United, leaving many supporters out of pocket.
Spurs’ match against The Hammers, which occurs on March 20th, is now scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. kick-off because Sky Sports were left with a hole in that time slot when Liverpool and Manchester United could no longer take place.
The match was originally scheduled for 2 p.m., and supporters were already angry that the Premier League. The league had failed to announce the first rescheduled 2 p.m. Sunday kick-off time for the West Ham game within six weeks of the fixtures, a deadline agreed with the Football Supporters Association.
The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust (THST) told the Daily Mail that it has asked the north London club to investigate reimbursing affected fans, though Spurs has no agreement to that. Furthermore, compensation for fans is believed to be highly doubtful.
“A lot of people in football still seem to think it’s 1952, and all match-going fans live beside the stadium. Many Premier League clubs have fans coming from far further afield,” Martin Cloake, co-chair of THST, said. “To move the fixture twice at short notice is totally unacceptable and proves that the tail wags the dog when it comes to TV and football.”
“We are asking the club for compensation, but we are getting the usual stonewalling. We know that there is a business deal with broadcasters which brings masses of money into the game, but the clubs have merely thought “how much money can we get from the deal?” with no thought for supporters.”
Really? I mean a 2.5hr delay to kick off is not the end of the world, I went to the Everton match that got rescheduled from a Saturday afternoon to a poxy Monday night and there was no hoo-ha about that bloody inconvenience!
Stupid comment from THST as well.