The Premier League's ‘existential moment' and how fans aim to force change

Independent

27-05-2025

They are images from the season that should be as celebrated like a goal.
On the weekend of 2 November, fans at nine Premier League games got together to hold up Football Supporters' Association (FSA) banners imploring the game to 'Stop Exploiting Loyalty'.
That went even deeper a month later, as rival fans at Liverpool v Manchester City and Manchester United v Everton held the same banners across opposing ends. All 20 fanbases demonstrated in some form.
'I've never seen anything like it,' says Gareth Roberts, spokesman for Liverpool supporters' union, Spirit of Shankly.
What stands out is the unity. The 2024-25 season might well be a watershed for English fan culture, and consequently the game. It has seen more supporter demonstration than any Premier League campaign outside the Super League.
Nineteen of 20 Premier League clubs raised ticket prices last season, for an average rise of 6.7 per cent. Something is finally starting to give. At last year's FSA AGM, Spirit of Shankly put forward a motion for a concerted campaign. 'We needed to do something,' Roberts said.
'This is an existential moment,' Andy Payne, joint secretary of Hammers United, added.
While ticket pricing is the most immediate and tangible problem, it is really just a manifestation of something bigger. That is the lack of influence fans have over decisions.
A pricing problem, then, is really an ownership problem. The entire issue is an articulation of the tension between social institutions that have grown out of communities, and actors who just see them as something that can be capitalised from, be that for profit or politics.
Maybe the biggest illustration has been United supporters and their push to 'get the green and gold out when they're losing'.
'It's loudest with ticket pricing but the Glazer issue was always in the background,' says FSA Premier League network manager, Thomas Concannon. 'It ties much of this together.'
A new supporter energy can also be seen at England's most dominant recent force. Manchester City's ownership may have given the fans everything on the pitch, but unthinkable price rises have thinned loyal support in the stands.
Ticket prices are not just about cost, after all, but the corrosion of communities. Concessions are declining. Many clubs are seeking to bring in minimum attendance requirements, or else fans lose season tickets.
'It's this chipping away at culture all the time,' Roberts says. 'The Kop is aging.'
The FSA are consequently working on three main streams: pricing, concessions and engagement. Concannon describes the last element as 'dire', especially with how prices are announced without consultation. One of the most common explanations that advisory boards receive is PSR. Supporters attending are directly told 'you want to see the best players, don't you?'
'Not at the expense of being able to afford watching them,' Roberts counters.
It illustrates the nonsensical wage race for clubs, with expenditure on wages quickly rising to £2bn more than any other European league. That has gone up by half a billion since Covid.
Concannon bemoans a disconnect: 'It's why education is so important. Clubs are spending £400m on agent fees, yet somehow it's a 5 per cent increase on someone's ticket that's going to fix it?'
It is instructive that leagues with more fan-owned clubs - like Germany and Sweden - see the healthiest wage-to-turnover ratios in Europe, at under 60 per cent.
This ultimately comes back to what clubs are for. An increasing strand of owners don't see them as primarily serving their communities. There is growing suspicion that hierarchies want to gradually do away with season tickets altogether and sell one-off seats for hundreds of pounds, in the way American sports do. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters denied this on the eve of the season, but club actions illustrate a direction of travel.
'We suspect they want a different 61,000 every week,' Roberts adds.
All are keen to point out this isn't about excluding foreign fans, and refuse to use the word 'tourist'. It is simply protecting communities around football.
There is also the classic problem of observance and late-stage capitalism. Many fans would pay £400 for one ticket to experience the atmosphere but the atmosphere diminishes with every new fan joining for the day.
The cost of following football - especially on trains or in Europe - is 'astronomical', as Concannon puts it, with Bilbao's Europa League final was a case in point
'It's not just the ticket price, it's the broadcasting times, the late announcement of fixtures,' he adds.
Loyalty is being exploited with the emotional connection starting to be expressed in a new way.
'There's an air of solidarity,' Payne says, with mobilisation between groups now fundamental to progress.
'Normally these fan groups would ignore each other and wouldn't really back each other's campaigns,' Concannon explains. 'On this, they're working together a lot. It is actually reminiscent of the Super League again.'
Payne describes that unity as 'the highlight of the season'.
'A lot of powers don't think we'll do that. They always try to divide and conquer. The clubs are concerned.'
Roberts describes how the FSA WhatsApp group is alive with ideas, right up to picket lines. The introduction of the independent football regulator adds another layer of pressure for clubs to engage properly. And it is working.
Right now, while five clubs have put up prices for next season, seven have frozen them.
'The rest are still waiting,' Roberts says, 'but it's good progress when you compare it to last year.'
So, it is a sign of football's problems there has never been more fan protest. It is also a sign of fan culture's strength there has never been more collectivism. That might be the main legacy of 2024-25.