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Worzel Gummidge To The Lane

By The Boy -

There appears to be a genuine sense of right and wrong about the THST these days. Real purpose.

About what, 7 or so years ago, when I first became aware of the Trust – it was a pompous zombie. A secretive kabal of undead stuffed shirts, scoffing free sandwiches, swallowing anything THFC offered them.

The emphasis was entirely upon the pompous zombies telling people, other fans, that they were …Trust Board Members. Tin pot.

But that was then. These days, there is air of inclusiveness and dare I say it, transparency about their work. We now get a website that is neither steam powered or password protected and there is a social media presence clearly designed to promote engagement.

And never a better time for such a positive thing to exist. 13 years of ENIC have achieved financial stability in a space where financial common sense is not so much scarce, but actively sneered at.

And so here’s a question for you. When are we going to stop wheeling out the phrase (and variants thereof) “Doing a Leeds”? When are we going to wake up to the fact that’s simply a device to scare. Not a valid piece of guidance.

The mumbled threat of Spurs disappearing down a financial sewer without ENIC is at best disingenuous. At worst, it’s the the stick of choice we use to collectively beat ourselves into free thinking remission.

When is okay for us to stop accepting being ripped off and palmed off, and consider that the world isn’t a black and white place, and there are actually shades and hues? That there are a myriad alternatives to plodding along to no good purpose, other than installing a Bond Villain in the Board Room?

ENIC as a business, have brought stability, which equates to saying they have been extremely competent. As a business, they have made very few errors, protected the brand, acted with caution and generally ‘done all right.’

But what of as a football club? How has that panned out? I’ll tell you. They have been neglectful.

When it comes the coexistence between THFC and the fans, the relationship has rather ironically mirrored their one with Real Madrid.

There’s that great moment in ‘Love Actually’ where the Prime Minister gloriously denounces the US President. It’s rather apt to paraphrase it in this case.

I love that word “relationship.” Covers all manner of sins, doesn’t it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship; a relationship based on the President Investment Company taking exactly what he it wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, erm… Britain the fans.

…a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the President Investment Company should be prepared for that.

And bulling is none too strong a word. That is precisely what is happening here. And so, let’s substantiate that. On the 26th of February, the THST are taking the issue of StubHub to All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse. The aim of this is to make amendments to the Consumer Rights Bill. The desire is to tighten the regulations on the re-sale of tickets.

The accusations against StubHub are watertight. We’ve debated them to death on here, but in a nutshell, the model in the US doesn’t translate to the Barclays Premier League, at all. And sadly, the facility has been abused.

Some sellers are simply offsetting the cost of their initial outlay, and others are flipping, which is to say they buy a ticket at face, only to resell for a profit. We had a poll on here. Those in favour of leaglised touting were outvoted.

The whole practise is insidious. Fans ripping fans off, whilst all the while THFC take their cut. For a second and sometimes, for a third time. At the time of publication, the cheapest seat available for the North London Derby on the 16th of March is £124.20 for a seat with a face value of £46. There are 251 more expensive options available to choose from.

I must add, for those of you who like a laugh. The THST announced their intended storming of Parliament today. The same day that THFC did a massive mail out to all it’s members, current and expired. You couldn’t make it up. Vlad The Impaler had a more attuned PR department.

And so to the Supporters Consultation Document (don’t groan, you may well not know what is about to be shared).

So THFC got a third party to mail out a consultation document.The document never reached most of the members as it most emails divert emails like this from unknown senders into a spam or junk file. As a result, only 11,500 responses were returned.

The document was a loaded deck. It didn’t ask you if you wanted the Y word banned; which is a pretty curious omission, given that the whole point of the thing was to establish whether it ought to be or not!

So, the unrepresentative sample group of responses are safely garnered in. But are they released?

No they are not. Why not?

Well, 3 Spurs fans were arrested and charged with  using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress. They currently are awaiting a court date.

THFC have decided not to disclose the findings of their document until after the 3 fans, have stood trial. Yet it is my understanding that all 3 have been issued with indefinite banning orders by THFC.

This of course, whilst actual anti-Semites still routinely go about their hate business every time they play us.

To recap then. We have a company running Tottenham Hotspur Football Club that says it condemns ticket touting, but champions secondary ticketing. One that actively seeks to undermine the atmosphere at home games with not just over the top stewarding, but by requesting additional police officers to attend games.

We have a company running Tottenham Hotspur Football Club that keeps recruiting managers and then firing them on a cyclical basis. They are great at getting a DVD out, a whizz at selling advertising space on shirts. They are devils for getting above market rate for players. They are unrivaled at selling players full stop.

But what are they actually doing for the football side of the business? Until the cycle is broken, we’re going to trapped in this rather shabby feeling Groundhog Day.

We’re being bullied.

Don’t unthinkingly respond to this blog with “so what do you want?” or “careful what you wish for.” I want considered opinion. Not one liners that would be more at home in a fortune cookie.

Are you familiar with the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London? It goes that should they ever leave, the tower will fall. I hate to break it to you, but it’s a harmless piece of fantasy. In fact, Raven George was dismissed for eating television aerials, and Raven Grog was last seen outside an East End pub. The tower is still there.

13 years the ENIC ravens have been at The Lane. If they were to fly, it stadium wouldn’t crumble. In fact, the only only broken brick might be caused by a new stadium finally being constructed.

In ENIC’s wake, there would be no pestilence or famine; rather a solitary league cup and a Sainsbury’s.

Get Worzel Gummidge in.

 

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