Si's article for The Gooner

Euro Budget

Anyone who caught March’s edition of WSC would have seen the article by Ian Plenderleith titled ‘Just the Ticket’.
The nature of the piece was about if you the loyal supporter of your chosen club were being fleeced by rising admission prices in the UK there is always a choice, or a change of scenery.
The article noted for example that Juventus’ Serie A matches cost in the region of £6.80 for a ticket. Compare that to the Premier league, no, never mind the Prem, what about league 2, where (at Orient) it costs a tenner for a bloody child/OAP ticket and £16.00 for full whack!
Yes, London is a more expensive city to live in than Turin, so we expect prices to be higher, this is only relative, but Orient costs more than ‘the Old Lady’ of Italy, what the hell is going on?

In 2003/2004 I was so peed off with not being able to get a ticket, never mind the cost of one that I decided enough was enough (for one season anyway) and decided to get a season ticket to watch another club.
My family club is Orient, but I wasn’t going down that road again (too many suicidal tendencies) so I decided to head for the continent. Besides watching another English club would have felt like turning the wife over at pyjama party sleepover and going with her bessie mate.
I’ve always paid close attention to Serie A, especially Lazio and watching all of their home games in the eternal city was a very attractive opportunity. Attractive but expensive when it comes to accommodation on a fortnightly basis. Rome’s accommodation budget was going to eat into my beer money and if I was going to leave my good lady wife once a fortnight to jet off somewhere I had to make the most of it and drink my weight in alcohol. It is nothing against my dear wife of course; I just loved to get bollocksed.
I have in-laws in Western France, in Nantes, the old capital of Brittany so I looked them up and talked to them about the possibility of me crashing on their floor once a fortnight and to my surprise they were well up for it. My brother-in-law proved the perfect host as we had both large beer consumption and footy in common.
The club’s league form was very inconsistent, but they had great runs in both of the cup competitions; making the semi-final of the Coupe de France and the final of the Coupe de la Ligue in Paris.
I learnt loads about Breton culture, ate like a king, drank like Oliver Reed and watched some great football all at an affordable price.
At one game in the Stade de la Beaujoire (Nantes’ ground) the fans went on strike, (all over France for twenty minutes the ultras of each club would not cheer or watch the first twenty minutes of the matches played that day) against their club’s management regarding how they the working and paying fan were being treated by big business football. Only in France would a football fan go on strike, but it makes you realise that we are in charge of our own destinies if we join together and say ‘no’ to sky-rocketing prices each new season. The previous season at Nantes, fans were so disgusted at the raising of ticket prices they demonstrated within the ground and the next home game tickets were reduced.
Our clubs would have laughed at us, then watch us lap up the chance to become a member and still not get tickets. Dress it up whichever way you want it’s a fleecing. I refuse to pay an annual sum for a credit card thingy which has no credit on it whatsoever.
I’m not saying anyone should stop supporting their beloved club, even if we tried most of us couldn’t and I’m not saying go to watch Nantes for a season either (that would be madness), but a change of scenery and the chance to be treated with a little more respect is priceless. Go to a place where watching football is still a right not a privilege, because in London no one can hear you scream.

Simon Rance’s book ‘The FC Nantes Experiment’ is available from play.com and amazon.co.uk