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The final frame was a collage of pictures, half of whom were current players and half were fans, the clear message being that those in the stands were equal to those on the pitch.

The clip also featured a banner, hung over one of the tiers of the Etihad, which read “We’ve seen things they’ll never see”, lyrics from the Oasis song “Live Forever”.

The banner highlighted in Manchester City’s recent season ticket promotional video (Manchester City)

We mention this, because one of the official reasons that City put forward recently for removing a banner hanging from the second tier that read “Record profits but record prices — stop exploiting our loyalty”, before their game against Arsenal, was that they had a policy of not hanging banners from the upper tiers of the Etihad during matches.

There was then a dispute for the following home game against Aston Villa, when 1894, the group responsible for that banner, claimed they were prevented from doing their planned displays, while City insisted this was not the case.

Like the Holmesdale Fanatics, the Liverpool fan groups Spirit of Shankly and Spion Kop 1906 withdrew the banners and flags that are usually so prominent at Anfield from the Europa League game against Atalanta, in protest against another rise in ticket prices and the club’s apparent failure to consult meaningfully with the fans about those rises.

“We are disappointed in the football club’s decision towards ticket prices for 24/25,” said a Spion Kop 1906 statement.

Unlike the club’s own approach, this has been agreed in consultation with other fan groups.”

Banners at the Kop were removed by a fans’ group in protest at the club’s ticket prices (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Even in Germany, where many English fans cast an envious eye because for the most part fan protests are not stymied and they do actually affect change, there is a line.

In 2020, a game was effectively halted because Bayern Munich fans held up a banner insulting/protesting against Dietmar Hopp, the Hoffenheim owner and benefactor whose money had taken the team into the Bundesliga and was a rare exception to the ’50+1? rule.

Clubs will use banners and displays and tifos on their social media feeds, making the stadium look like an exciting place to be: ‘Wouldn’t it be brilliant to be in the middle of all this next time: step right up!’

Sometimes it’s even more direct than that: as in the City example, clubs will routinely use pictures and footage in their marketing material when it comes to season ticket renewal time, a direct invitation for you to give them your money, so you can see why those fans get irritated.

It’s not as if the fan groups that put these displays together are looking for any financial recompense or any special treatment, but it is a source of irritation and there is a sense among some (although not all) groups that they are being taken advantage of.

Clubs have fan liaison officers who will work with supporters groups on many different things, but in-stadium displays are a big part of that.

Relations have crumbled at more than one club over something as ostensibly petty as the access to storage facilities for the flags and banners between games.

Protest banners can jar with a club’s corporate culture (Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)

Football clubs are many different businesses rolled into one: they are sports clubs but also hospitality companies, charities, community organisations, events spaces, among others, and you can include public relations agencies in that too.

Their priority is to project the most positive image of themselves possible and that doesn’t include being visibly criticised or contradicted by their own fans.

City’s ticket price increase would be worth around 0.25 per cent of the club’s total annual revenue.

There’s also the guilt-trip element: the underlying message or implication often seems to be, “We want to be able to afford those nice new players, but if you’d rather have your banners…”

The point is that clubs trade on the authenticity of their fans and their fan culture but, in some cases, forbid authenticity when it is expressed in a way that is either critical of them, is negative in some other way or harms their commercial interests.

The relationship between football and fans is one-way in so many aspects — ticket prices, kick-off times, replica shirts, moral questionability of commercial relationships, the number of subscription services that we are asked to sign up for just to watch games on TV — that you would think clubs would at least allow us to display our dissatisfaction without too much censure.

(Top photos: Getty Images/Sam Lee)


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