For a month and the aborted project to create a European Football Super League, not a match has gone by without the English supporters voicing their anger. On Wednesday 18 May, Tottenham Hotspur fans were still asking for the resignation of club president Daniel Levy. Those of Arsenal call for a demonstration, Sunday 23, in front of the Emirates stadium, for the last day of the championship. Their slogan is simple: « Kroenke Out, Fans In ! » (« [Stan] Kroenke [le propriétaire du club] outside, leave room for the supporters ”).
At Manchester United too, anger is overflowing. On May 2, a few thousand supporters gathered outside Old Trafford to demonstrate against the Glazer family, the American owners, accused of siphoning money from the club. A few hundred of them even entered the lawn, forcing the postponement of the game against Liverpool. It was the first time in the history of the Premier League, created in 1992, that a match was prevented following a fan movement.
John Hughson, of the International Football Institute: “We have seen it with the pandemic: matches in empty stadiums cannot last very long”
Among the protesters outside Old Trafford was Geoff Pearson, a passionate supporter, but also a professor of law at the University of Manchester and a leading academic fan specialist in football. “The supporters created what this game has become, he recalls. And yet, today, they are the least important players in the organization of football. “ He warns: “If you take them away, football won’t be the same sport. “
John Hughson, of the International Football Institute, University of Lancashire, confirms. “We saw it with the pandemic: matches in empty stadiums lose their interest, it cannot last very long. “ At the risk, for club owners, of discovering that their investment suddenly loses value. For the protesters, the creation of this closed competition, without promotion or relegation, was proof that billionaires who own their clubs do not understand football culture.
Purely advisory role
In England, the Premier League, the first division, brings together twenty private clubs, which have no obligation to consult the fans, unlike Germany for example, where the latter must retain 50% of the voting rights, plus one vote. . There is also no football regulator. Each team therefore arranges for its own part.
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