IT IS THE first home game back of the Premier League season. Supporters flood to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium to watch a new era of football unfold under Ange Postecoglou, and should be heading inside early for a pie, a pint, and to soak up the atmosphere. 

Instead, fans of all ages gather outside of the ground on Tottenham High Road, collectively demonstrating in an attempt to force change. Their message to their club is clear: stop ticket price rises and stop exploiting the loyalty of fans.

The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect individuals and families across the nation, and post-Covid, people are understandably excited to get back to doing the things they love. However, due to noticeable price increases, more and more football fans are giving up their club memberships and match-day tickets, as they can no longer afford it. 

Research on the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust’s (THST) website shows that match day ticket prices have increased from between £3 and £15 for Category B and Category C games, and between £10 and £17 for Category A games, raising the top price for a single match to an astonishing £103.

The trust says it was not consulted by the club about these changes until they had been made, leaving them with no choice but to oppose the plans, and take more direct action.

In order to be able to secure a ticket to most matches, fans must now acquire a One Hotspur membership, which gives you priority match ticket access ahead of general sale (tickets usually sell out before this). An adult + membership is £55, and £25 for under 18s. That means if you are a family of four, you’ll have to spend £160 each season before you’re even able to get a ticket. 

Anthoulla Achilleos is a local who has a deep knowledge and understanding of Tottenham Hotspur and its fans. Her day job involves working in the healthcare sector, and she has been involved with THST since February 2019.

Achilleos has been a key figure in the Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign, and spoke to the Morning Star about its aims going forward: “The end goal is three things really. One is a complete full reversal of the match day price increases. They [the club] did not need to do this. The amount they are making from it is absolute peanuts, but as you can see here today, it hits the fans the hardest.”

“The other thing we want is a genuine commitment to speak to fans and speak to all of the fan groups about coming up with a sustainable, fair ticketing strategy going forward — that’s including a concessionary policy that everyone can afford to come and see the team that everyone loves.

“And the third is no increases for the 2024-25 season. We are concerned that these increases are going to then hit the season tickets that were frozen last season.”

Despite a solid turnout of fans respectfully airing their concerns, a number of “ENIC out” supporters attempted to crash the protest with chants about Spurs chairman Daniel Levy. They appeared to be looking for trouble, rather than supporting the fan protest taking place. 

Achilleos was keen to separate their campaign from ENIC out’s cause: “This is a very clear singular issue that we want to get behind, this is very clearly about ticket pricing. There’s a lot of opinions on ownership and the way that the club is run, and they are all valid [opinions].

“I just think it would be difficult to come to a specific compromise on that as a trust at the moment. This [protest] is something that has a clear strategy and clear aims, and I think this is achievable, and that is why we are sort of separating from that, in order not to take away from the concerns people have about the club.”

In terms of what action will be taken next, there was talk of a peaceful protest where fans will refuse to enter the ground until 15 minutes into the chosen match. This type of protest will have a considerable effect on the atmosphere and the morale on match day, seeing as the 12^th man is sometimes just as important as solid tactics — football doesn’t exist without supporters. Club loyalty matters.

Achilleos stressed that this is not an individual issue, and that fans across the nation should support each other to campaign for fairer pricing.

She said: “This is across the whole board, and a lot of trusts are actually coming together to talk about this. You’ve got a movement at Fulham, you’ve got a movement at Wolves, and you’ve got a movement at West Ham about it. 

“I think this is a really strong indictment for them, to actually do something similar, and I’m really hoping that this sparks something across the Premier League, because it is an issue where clubs are just exploiting fan’s loyalty by putting up prices every year, and its unnecessary.

“We are all fans at the end of the day, whoever we support it doesn’t matter. This is something that affects everybody and everyone is getting priced out with these inflated costs that are going on in modern day football. It’s very clearly an issue and it needs to be addressed somehow.”