I value football because it can aid social cohesion and help avoid a them‑and‑us mentality. As Adrian Chiles said on Saturday Live, football is one of the few places where a bin man and a QC might sit and talk together on an equal footing. It is also a wonderful distraction from everyday concerns. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Football Supporters’ Federation
Stolen or sold?
I just came across a Twitter account called Sky Stole the Soul. I like the alliteration and sympathise with the sentiment but it is not strictly true. Sky didn’t steal the soul of football; they bought it. Continue reading
Too soon to panic
It wasn’t the best start to a season but it’s too soon to look at the league table and panic. It’s true that we are only out of the relegation zone on alphabetical order; Birmingham, Blackpool and Leeds all lost by 2 goals and occupy 20th, 21st and 22nd places. But it is only one game and there are 45 more to play. At least Birmingham had enough players to put on the substitutes bench, which is more than can be said of poor old Blackpool. Both the Guardian and Joey Barton have predicted that Birmingham will be the bottom team in the Championship this season. I find this strangely comforting as I don’t have much confidence in their ability to predict. Continue reading
Still looking for a silver lining
I’m not going to comment on what has gone on in Hong Kong and what it means for the future of Birmingham City. There’s no point in me writing about the Hong Kong happenings because anything I could produce would be mainly a rehash of what Daniel has put on Often Partisan1 and you’d be better off reading it there. And I’m not writing anything about the future of Birmingham City because I have no idea what will happen next but continue to fear the worst. Continue reading
Silver lining
There’s no doubt that there’s a huge cloud over Birmingham City; The Two Unfortunates described it as “at ticking time bomb”.1 But I caught a glimpse of the silver lining at the game yesterday. Continue reading
All together now
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about football in the last few days. I went to the Supporters Summit1 on Saturday and to an associated workshop on Supporter Liaison Officers (SLOs) on Friday. On Sunday I went to the Blues Trust Open Meeting. I don’t have time to write about all the ideas that are buzzing round my brain at the moment so I will just note some of the things that stood out. Continue reading
Fan power
I have been thinking about people power since the Big IF rally last Saturday. As I wrote in my last post1, I was more impressed by the 45,000 people who turned up in Hyde Park than I was by the big names on the stage. Yes, it helped to have Bill Gates as a speaker but it wouldn’t have been impressive without the crowd, people who had put aside their differences to work together on one issue. It set me dreaming about what could be achieved if football fans could set aside rivalries and unite to fight for the future of the game we love, if Birmingham City fans could march alongside Villa fans to protest about the problems caused by foreign owners who don’t listen to fans. Continue reading
Travelling support
Semi-final weekend has set me thinking about Birmingham City’s semi-final in 1956 and about away games in general.
Safe standing
I prefer to sit down at football matches. I stand up for the exciting bits but I don’t want to stand for the whole game. However I think that fans who want to stand up should be allowed to do so and I’d rather they stood in a designated standing area than in front of me. (At away games I always seem to end up standing behind very tall men, waving their arms around.)