Leeds fans short-changed by Pompey KO time

Yorkshire Evening Post

Leeds United supporters have been dealt a bad hand with TV scheduling once again following the change of date and kick-off time for their trip to face Portsmouth.

Transcript

00:00I struggle to understand why they've had to choose that specific time to broadcast that

00:10match because it shortchanges everyone who's going to that game.

00:14They've had a meeting and in that meeting someone has suggested that time and either

00:19they've all kind of looked at each other and not said it or someone said oh might be a

00:24bit difficult for Leeds fans to get there or they simply don't care but none of those

00:30are acceptable scenarios.

00:33Football's supposed to be for the fans, it's clearly not for those who pay huge sums of

00:38money and take huge amounts of time and dedicate themselves to travelling away.

00:44Let's have it right, they know they have a captive market with Leeds United because they

00:48know that Leeds United are going to sell out their allocation.

00:51They know that even if Leeds fans from Leeds boycotted the game there'd be enough southern

00:56based Leeds fans to fill that away end a few times over, more than a few times over and

01:03people who don't get the chance to get away tickets would snap them up.

01:08They know that Leeds fans are going to go in numbers, they know that Leeds fans create

01:11an amazing atmosphere when they go and they are playing on that and profiting from that.

01:19They're exploiting it, they're exploiting loyalty and the EFL and the broadcasters are

01:26showing a flagrant disregard for the very people this game is supposed to be about.

01:33Everyone says football's for the fans, fans are the most important but they're not being

01:38shown to be.

01:39They're being shown to be a complete and utter afterthought and in this case it is one of

01:43the most egregious examples we've had this season.

01:49Along with dropping out that oh and by the way we're going to now start to release the

01:52broadcast fixtures on a weekly basis rather than giving you the notice that we have previously

02:00given this season but Portsmouth away at 12 on a Sunday is just, it's unforgivable and

02:10unfortunately we have arrived at a point where football supporters as a whole, whether this

02:15is through the Football Support Association or whether it's through individual trusts

02:21and supporters groups coming together and making something happen, we have reached a

02:26point where they do need to do something and maybe what it's going to take is a boycott.

02:31Maybe it's going to take an empty away and maybe it's going to take a game being delayed

02:37because the fans aren't in, because the fans are stood outside waiting for 15 minutes before

02:41they go in, in the knowledge that yes well maybe they'll start without us and maybe they'll

02:45miss a goal but there won't be any noise if there's a goal and they'll have to explain

02:50that or they'll have to pipe in noise or they won't be able to show the stands because the

02:54stands will be empty.

02:57It's going to take something like that and you look at other leagues in Europe and fans

03:02that simply wouldn't accept this and they seem to have a lot more agency, a lot more

03:06skin in the game when it comes to how the game is run.

03:10I feel like supporters in this country, the game's being run roughshod over the top of

03:15them and I feel like somebody needs to do something and it's just, I don't know who

03:21leads that but if everyone's going to be this upset and complain about it then don't accept it.

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