Slaven Bilic: Don't turn football into a game just for 'polo, caviar and champagne' lovers

SLAVEN BILIC led the charge as Premier League bosses urged clubs: Don't fleece the fans.

The West Ham boss warned football had to remain affordable for families, insisting: “It’s not polo.”



Watford counterpart Quique Flores went even further and claimed supporters should be let in for free rather than pay the £77 Liverpool were trying to demand for top matches before fan power forced Anfield owners into a U-turn.

Bilic said: “I understand football clubs are businesses but I saw a great picture with one lady at Anfield holding a banner saying ‘I’m not a customer I’m a fan’.

“So you have to find a balance, especially in the Premier League when you are getting lots of money from TV and sponsorship. Tickets should be a good price for the fans.

“It's not polo, it's not golf and it’s not a sport for the upper class.

“It's the most popular sport in this country and it shouldn’t be a privilege for a family to go and watch it. It should be affordable.



“If you go to the shop and want to buy caviar and champagne it should be expensive but bread and milk should be cheap. It should be like that with football.

“We are a good example, the board and club are progressing in that way.

“Clubs need money but not from tickets. As far as I know, clubs are not living off of ticket sales. They have much bigger income from other things.

“I think a balance can be found to keep fans happy — otherwise we will have empty stadiums.

“We should keep the fans happy not only with the quality of the game but also with the price of tickets.

“We are not talking about an expensive night at the theatre. This is not Les Miserables, this is football.”

Watford manager Flores added: “For me, I’d let the fans in for free. If not, cheap.

“I don’t understand why football is so expensive for people because it’s great for the fans.

“But football is becoming more and more of a business.”

Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew says club owners have to be careful they do not alienate their hardcore fans in the bid to please football’s more middle-class fans.

Pardew said: “The chief execs have to run football clubs and look at the bottom line.

“But the owners of Premier League clubs — and we have a lot of foreign owners — need to really consider carefully that they don’t lose the core supporters.

“They could think it’s just the product on the pitch that makes the Premier League what is it — but it isn’t.

“It’s the atmosphere. It’s the drive from those core supporters that makes the atmosphere and the game unfold the way it does.

“You won’t have those dramatic finishes, those edgy games, those really conflicting games that we have without them. They are the main ones driving it.”

Palace are freezing the price of general admission season tickets and are also open to relocating fans elsewhere in the stadium who cannot afford to renew their season tickets following a 47 per cent price hike to 200 directors’ box tickets.

Pardew added: “You don’t see too many lawyers or doctors in the corporate areas moaning too much, and they get the best service in the world, so our corporate fan has nothing to worry about.