Chelsea's bad boycott

Going to a football match is now more expensive than it has ever been. Fans pay through the nose to go and support their team, but of course there is a breaking point.

The breaking point at Stamford Bridge happened last week in their Champions League game against Genk – or at least it was supposed to be.

All the talk before the game was about the planned boycott by season ticket holders, who have been upset by a 33% hike in ticket prices in the European competition this year.

Last season, tickets cost £30 for a Champions League game, but this year Chelsea are asking for £40 – and they are set to rise again if the Blues progress to the next stage of the competition.

So, fans decided that they had finally had enough and called for a boycott of the game. It was suspected that a large majority of season ticket holders would not to use the option to buy their seat for the game, but when kick-off time came about the stands were full.

No doubt a lot of Chelsea fans did boycott the game, but with the popularity of the club Chelsea will always be able to shift the unsold tickets to fans who never get the opportunity to go to a game. The fact they gave away 1,000 free tickets probably helped get bums in seats too.

The Blues stormed to a 5-0 win on the pitch, but the stands at times were quieter than those at the Emirates. It seemed as if a lot of the people there were more scenery than actually football fans.

It has been reported that Chelsea chief executives have said that the club can’t afford to keep ticket prices down, so long as the club stays at Stamford Bridge.

This is of course linking in to the fact that Roman Abramovich wants to move the club to a bigger stadium, but Chelsea fans – who own the pitch – don’t want to move. It will be interesting to see how this feud evolves, watch this space.

James Haggis

Comments

[Gary]

After all Roman has done for the club we vote against him. This is embarrassing. I suppose we are going to expect him to put his hand in his pocket again, while we vote against him. Nice one!