Away fans in home end again

[chesterbells]

A neutral zone doesn’t sound good to me. The only club I can think of who has one of those is Fulham and that’s a trip I rarely enjoy. They’re a nothing club who erected a statue of Michael Jackson.

Rival fans and the media have enough reasons to hate City as it is. A neutral zone just adds to the ridicule.

You say that, but I was in the neutral stand behind the goal next to the away section for Fulham away last year, and really enjoyed the day out. There’s no way the 2 of us would’ve qualified for the away section, so it was a great compromise. There was no sign of bother, but a fair few blues who stood up/cheered when we scored.
We heard plenty of foreign voices around us - London as an international city with lots of overseas workers and visitors who want nothing more than to take in the experience of a PL footy game whilst they are over here. Manchester doesn’t have that on the same scale, but it’s true to some extent.
If our stadium had the capacity, I honestly would not have a problem with it, esp if that was where agencies, prize winners, freebie tickets etc were all placed @Prestwich_Blue

 

[red 2 hats]

Since taking over our owners have done some remarkable things, we now watch football that we of a certain age could only dream about, we have world class players who previously wouldn't touch us with a barge pole, we no longer worry about relegation but which trophy we have the best chance of winning.
But there is a big but, Soriani and co have done their utmost too alienate and piss off a core of our support, yesterday was the first time on this forum that I have criticized our support, even though it's pissed me off for a while.
That clip showing kids celebrating Palaces first goal sums us up as a club, soft underbelly, happy to be mocked by fans and the media, those seats yesterday can be traced to whichever school/organization we gave them too and they should never receive them again, obviously not City fans, contrast that to the school kids sat near me in level 3 south stand for the Atalanta game, sang there hearts out and stayed till the end, future fans in the making.
The day we introduce a neutral section at Eastlands would be the day I stop going, were not fucking Fulham, we have enough City fans to fill the ground if only Soriani and co took local fans into consideration, could you imagine United or the dippers giving away tickets behind the goals in the Stretford end or the Kop to groups of potentially non home supporting fans, never happen and it shouldn't happen to us.

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Interesting read this thread. On one hand there's the usual handful of miserable, moaning fuckers, who don't ever have a good word to say about the club or anything it does and never contribute anything sensible to the debate but are full of hostility nad negativity. I filter those peoples' views out frankly nowadays. On the other hand there's a handful of quite pragmatic posters. I said on Ian Cheeseman's podcast that one of the great things about being on City Matters is that, instead of being stuck behind a keyboard with a fixed view on something, I get to hear and take into account the views of fellow fans, reps and the club. There's no doubt that there's occasions where the club fucks up, including when it's entirely avoidable. There's also occasions when the club does things with good intentions and either doesn't think them through fully or something that probably couldn't have been foreseen happens to screw things up.

I don't have a problem with the basic concept of the club making tickets available to groups, be that schools, sports clubs, universities and colleges, the sports and social clubs of commercial organisations or even the dreaded travel or ticket agencies. My first experience of City was a fre ticket to a reserve game when I was at Primary school. One of my mates is a fanatical Blue who only became one at Manchester University when he lived in Moss Side. Out of those 50, 5 could become season ticket holders of the future and one of the things I'm trying to get the club to do is think longer term about how they'll fill the ground when us older generation don't go any more. So getting non-fans to attend is fine with me in theory.

I also hate the criminalisation of football fans but a large part of that is the confrontational attitude that a minority of fans have towards other fans and this is an example of that. I think I saw that group when I was headed round to my entrance yesterday. There were quite a few of them and they looked to be around Year 6/7. They haven't had the experience many of us have had, standing or sitting with home fans hoping you aren't sussed out or with fights breaking out every few minutes. Back in the 1970's me and my mates were chased out of Upton Park before the game even kicked-off. It wasn't worth the hassle. We may not like it but let's give them some leeway. If they're adults who have knowingly bought tickets in home areas and are taunting our fans then they deserve what they get but these are 10-year old kids. They have no idea of the etiquette of a football stadium and you can't seriously expect a Liverpool-supporting 10-year old kid to sit on his hands when Palace scored. Even if it was explained to them, it's difficult to stop them.

Having said that, it should have been explained to them quite specifically that openly wearing the shirts of opposing teams would not be acceptable and they would risk either being denied admittance or ejected once in. It should be a responsibility of the people supervising them to ensure they abide by whatever conditions are set as part of the arrangement. I really don't want football to get to the point where applying for a ticket becomes like applying for a visa to the USA or Russia and you have to declare what team you or your family support or are subject to background checks though.

I will bring this up. I want to be assured that the club's processes and procedures are robust enough. A "neutral zone" is a good idea but would that stop people moaning? If the North Stand extension is built and incoporates safe standing, there will have to be a major re-configuration of seating areas in the stadium and I'm sure that'll produce some moaning. Personally I thought the club handled the Tunnel Club situation badly and had a number of robust conversations with them over their attitude to people who were forcibly moved. I would hope lessons will be learned from that and situations like this

I'm quite happy to pm you the details of where they were from if you are prepared to to push it through City matters

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Since taking over our owners have done some remarkable things, we now watch football that we of a certain age could only dream about, we have world class players who previously wouldn't touch us with a barge pole, we no longer worry about relegation but which trophy we have the best chance of winning.
But there is a big but, Soriani and co have done their utmost too alienate and piss off a core of our support, yesterday was the first time on this forum that I have criticized our support, even though it's pissed me off for a while.
That clip showing kids celebrating Palaces first goal sums us up as a club, soft underbelly, happy to be mocked by fans and the media, those seats yesterday can be traced to whichever school/organization we gave them too and they should never receive them again, obviously not City fans, contrast that to the school kids sat near me in level 3 south stand for the Atalanta game, sang there hearts out and stayed till the end, future fans in the making.
The day we introduce a neutral section at Eastlands would be the day I stop going, were not fucking Fulham, we have enough City fans to fill the ground if only Soriani and co took local fans into consideration, could you imagine United or the dippers giving away tickets behind the goals in the Stretford end or the Kop to groups of potentially non home supporting fans, never happen and it shouldn't happen to us.

I agree with you to an extent but what I don’t understand is how we can’t fill the Family Stand with City supporting families. Thats especially the case if the Family Stand has been halved to only include North Stand Level 1.

 

[give it to gordon]

To be honest we are still travelling up for the utd match but I feel uneasy about the possibility of utd fans being around us. I know I shouldn't as it's our home match but like I say 80% of the games I have been to this season we have had away fans around us

 

[chesterbells]

To be honest we are still travelling up for the utd match but I feel uneasy about the possibility of utd fans being around us.

Good lad :-)

 

[peoffrey]

You say that, but I was in the neutral stand behind the goal next to the away section for Fulham away last year, and really enjoyed the day out. There’s no way the 2 of us would’ve qualified for the away section, so it was a great compromise. There was no sign of bother, but a fair few blues who stood up/cheered when we scored.
We heard plenty of foreign voices around us - London as an international city with lots of overseas workers and visitors who want nothing more than to take in the experience of a PL footy game whilst they are over here. Manchester doesn’t have that on the same scale, but it’s true to some extent.
If our stadium had the capacity, I honestly would not have a problem with it, esp if that was where agencies, prize winners, freebie tickets etc were all placed @Prestwich_Blue

It’s a hollow temporary stand in a ground that should have been demolished in the 1970’s. Brentford and QPR (and even Chelsea) are real West London clubs. Fulham less so.

A neutral section at City would be unsegregated and allow perhaps 3000 rival fans to purchase tickets in our end. I can’t think of one positive outcome here when Liverpool or Spurs take the lead. Imagine a European night with Napoli or Galatasaray. Carnage.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

OK,so let me ask you something without coming across as being a twat (for a change)

I,amongst plenty others (including on here) voted for you to be our representative,as a seasoncard rep,this is happening far too often,and things will turn in the stands,that's the point you need to be making,or are you just a figurehead who got lumbered with this gig ?

Will your voice be heard,and if so,to the right people ?

Having your opinions is one thing,having your voice is more to the point I'm thinking here,this is meant to be serious stuff,not Twitter banter surely ?

I said I'll bring it up. It's happening too often. My own brother's seat was put on Ticket Exchange for the derby and was sold to a rag. But there's no guarantee that the club will do anything or that anything they do will be 100% effective. It could be that it's our own fans selling some of these tickets. Everyone is quick to defend the Facebook page but what safeguards do they have against away fans buying tickets? Or on here?

At the same time there's people on the Madrid thread saying they'll get tickets in the home area. Can't have it both ways.

 

[chesterbells]

It’s a hollow temporary stand in a ground that should have been demolished in the 1970’s. Brentford and QPR (and even Chelsea) are real West London clubs. Fulham less so.

A neutral section at City would be unsegregated and allow perhaps 3000 rival fans to purchase tickets in our end. I can’t think of one positive outcome here when Liverpool or Spurs take the lead. Imagine a European night with Napoli or Galatasaray. Carnage.

Sure, i take your point about the quality of the construction of the stand, and even your criticism of Fulham as a club - tbh, all I know it was still a great day out.

As to trouble, maybe it does kick off a lot there, eg when they play rival London clubs, but I didn’t see it when I was there. I wouldn’t imagine committed City fans in there If there was capacity elsewhere in the ground, instead it would be for neutral/guest/away use, and flagged up as such.

 

[peoffrey]

Fulham fans don’t sit in the neutral end. 6000 Arsenal or Chelsea will take it. Seems such a counterproductive idea.