I am genuinely dead confused at the reactions from so many posters here about what they think the action should or shouldn't be, or what it should've been instead.
Some saying "9 minutes is not enough", some saying it's too much. Some saying "why don't they do banners", "they should do something outside the ground that doesn't obstruct the team", "this is the wrong time/match", "I'm waiting to see if my seasonticket goes up", or "it's only about viagogo there are bigger issues" etc.
From the very start of the season, groups like 1894 and the fans' foodbank have been fighting for better treatment of the City family as a whole. Before the first game of the season we had the atrocious disabled parking charges, that they fought against and made the club U-Turn.
Throughout the season we've seen things like Manchester based fans being called "1%" by the chief marketing officer, groups of people in Barca shirts at Anfield and then a week after the club promise it'll never happen again, we see a group of men in Real Mallorca colours at Ipswich! All this at a time when it's never been harder to get away tickets.
Weve then seen the disgraceful way the club has ignored open letters from all the fan groups on pricing, and left City Matters hanging for 7 weeks for a ticketing meeting they'd promised in 7 days. A meeting that only materialised after Thursday's viagogo announcement and the immediate backlash to that, caused or not.
So then the comments about the tactics of the protest. People saying why not banners? We did banners a year ago! 1894 put up a "RECORD PROFITS, RECORD PRICES, STOP EXPLOITING OUR LOYALTY" at home vs Arsenal after yet another price increase, what did the club do? Tear down the banner, chase the 1894 members down the concourse and took their accreditation. We've tried banners, the club control what gets in or out of the ground and they'll just get us banned.
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Some people have also said that it should be done outside the ground. Well the foodbank group have been doing banners outside the ground multiple times this season, and 1894 have held banners at away games, in solidarity with fans from across the country, in the #StopExploitingLoyalty campaign which has two main aims - reduce/freeze the cost of tickets, and protect Junior? OAP concession rates. We're any of you who are saying this protest needs to be outside at any of these displays? They were all shared on socials.
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In fact, the foodbank lot even went to Anfield with a banner and held it across the away end, for a solid 10minutes. The scousers have been supportive from the start, and they recently won a brilliant freeze in both STs and general admission. Liverpool also won a reduction in ticket prices back in 2016 when they did a concourse boycott, so who is to say these things don't work?
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City fans even got one up during the return fixture the other month, but the upstanding gentlemen at GMP tore it down for no apparent reason.
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And let's be honest, City fans haven't exactly got a big track record of protesting anything this millenium, so it makes sense to do something a bit smaller before we try anything like a walkout, which some people have called for here. If people are complaining about 9mins at kickoff, what makes you think we're ready to try a walkout when a match will already be underway?
The discontent this season has been massive, multifaceted, and really disappointing to experience. Knowing our own club doesn't listen, and largely doesn't even care, is depressing. I grew up with Junior Blues, thinking that it was one big family. That has eroded badly in recent years when it became clear that the ruthless chase of the profit margin came above all else. This protest is obviously not just about viagogo, it was clearly just the last straw for many supporters. Everyone can see it.
There are two options for protesting tomorrow. If you can't bear to miss 9mins of a game tomorrow (even to protect being able to afford to watch 90mins next season), then come and join us at 7pm by the Colin Bell stand. If you're not sure about it then come and talk to the organisers - who are just regular blues like all of us, who deeply care about this club.
We all have the option here to make a bit of a stand and make our voices heard, even if it may seem to no avail. I don't want to live in a world where we don't believe we can change it for the better. City fans boycotting the Community Shield in 2023 made the FA change a kickoff time for the first time in history. City fans doing a fundraiser for disabled fans this year made the club U-Turn on malicious parking charges. Football supporters united across the country in 2017 got the £30 away cap introduced. We can do things if we just try.
Please try and support in some way tomorrow, we're all doing this for the next generation of Blues who can't even get in the ground anymore.
Keep the faith. CTID.
