The players play for the fans, what do you think football is? If there wasn't anybody watching it, it wouldn't be anything like as successful. It's entertainment. The Allams don't have our support, we've told them that. I think I'm going to have to repeat myself multiple times, but not going isn't going to change anything. An empty stadium is impossible, a half full one just looks bad on us. Even with context, which most of the country are aware of thanks to our protest efforts, the attendances we are getting make our club look tinpot and pants. 25,000 fans chanting Allam out is going to be more effective than 1000 fans doing it. The country is aware that we have more than 1000 fans, the majority of the fanbase is rooting for new ownership. But many fans also want to ensure they give their support to the team. If you think the lads are overpaid mercenaries who aren't worth supporting, don't come back. Because we'll only ever sign overpaid mercenaries. What you mean is, you'll support the team provided that the people at the top are buying players and aren't acting like ****ers. Well, that shouldn't stop you supporting the 11 men on the field and the manager. The team is whoever pulls on the shirt. They're the ones you support. Owners come and go. At some point, the Allam family will kick the bucket or leave, somebody else will come in. Then somebody after that. The club has changed hands a few times since I started going, even in the **** days a boycott wasn't the answer. Yes they're overpaid, but any footballer on more than £50 a game is technically overpaid in my opinion. We've been in the national media spotlight, the media are aware that our owners are ****s as they dealt with them on a regular basis during our Premier League stints. What you don't seem to be grasping is that they CAN'T be shamed into leaving, because they don't give a ****. An empty stadium isn't going to shift them, only somebody coming in and buying them out will do that. If they were overly benevolent and goodwilled, the shame angle might work. As it stands, they couldn't care less. Exhibit A, investment in players this season. They want that parachute money. After that, they'll probably go. There'll be nothing left for them to take and they'll probably/hopefully stop being so difficult when it comes to selling the club. In the mean time, you are free to do as you wish. But coming down hard on people for going to support an under-invested team who must be bottoming out on morale is, quite frankly, low. You said yourself players come and go. But you're living proof that fans are capable of the exact same thing. And that's not right in the slightest.
Great post pal. It’s easy to forget the Dolan years and some time before that, despite some minor glimpses the last 15 years have been hugely positive ones and probably the best to support the club in the terms of success. The frustration now is this is a missed opportunity to pro long the success for years to come, like Burnley and Bournemouth. Unfortunately we might have to go back to the fruitless days for the next ten years or so, now we look for the saviour to take over club, one we looked for in the past all them years in the wilderness!
Good post the club has been in much worse positions then this , verge of non league football, stadium falling down, owners trying to close the club down, even in this situation no one every suggested not going and we still got behind the players, in fact when really in trouble the Cardiff game which could have been our last if Lloyd had his way and Scarborough at home 14k there we actually got more people turning up.
I don't disagree with a lot of what you say and his words are wrong but at least he is doing something. Too many in life in general moan and do nothing about it, if you are going to moan about the owners, their decisions, their stance etc... Do something about it. That doesn't have to be boycotting like me or chill choose your own method. Dbut there have been thousands of fans happy to moan on here (and elsewhere) and do nothing but chant Allan Out. Well maybe if everyone joined in we would have got them out sooner. I agree an all out Boycott probably wouldn't work but if people keep saying that or course it wouldn't, noone has even tried or promoted that. Go to matches, don't go to matches but fans can't moan about the Allams as owners if all they are going to do is sing the odd Allam Out chant.
Doesn’t that work both ways? Fans can’t moan about the Allams if all they’re going to do is not go to home games & call people who chant about the Allam’s “Scabs”? What some people are failing to grasp is that the Allams don’t give a ****. They don’t give a **** about people not going. They don’t give a **** that people who do go sing “Allam Out”. The don’t give a **** whether people buy shirts or a pint at half time or whether people don’t bother. They don’t give a **** about building a competitive team or building any other worthwhile structure throughout the club. They don’t give a **** about bad publicity. They do give a **** about systematically dismantling & destroying the club from the roots upwards. By taking a self righteous attitude against fellow supporters, describing them as “scabs” you’re playing right into their hands. Aiding them in their quest, creating civil war in the roots that they’re hell bent on destroying. Nothing anybody does will change the Allams, they’re blinkered ****s on a mission. Whatever anybody does as a protest against the Allams is an individual choice that is right for them & should be supported by all other supporters & not derided, ridiculed or belittled. Fans should certainly not be labelled, ignorantly, as “scabs” because they elect to take a different route of protest to your own. That’s a pathetic & childish.
True. Equally as bad are fans who boo protestors and who consider themselves superior, and often claim the protestors are to blame for all our troubles, and if only the name change had gone ahead it woukd have led to unprecedented commercial success and established us as a top PL club. The state of the ckub will take some sorting out even when, or if, the Allams depart.
On the other hand I am sure that some of those who boo-ed have now switched sides and joined the anti Allam brigade. Everyone has their own line in the sand.
"A boycott is an act of voluntary and intentional abstention from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons". Not going to matches because of the actions of tbe owners seems to match most criteria there. Of course some won't be going because they are PL fans, others because the football isn't good, others are fair weather fans. Some because the atmosphere is crap, some because the "matchday experience" is crap. Others, particularly families, because of pricing. Myriad reasons. An absolute plethora of them.
Not going because you disagree with the actions of the owners, or as a protest against their morals or ethics meets the definition of a boycott. Though other factors play a part in many deciding not to go to home matches.
Ah so all those years of **** crowds at BP was just a boycott and we would have had 30.000 at every game. Got ya
As I said, myriad, indeed a plethora of reasons for different people not going. The particular individual who posted is not going forveasons which meet the criteria of a boycott. Sorry if that is a bitbdifficult to grasp. We wouldn't have had 30,000 at BP in the **** years as BP didn't hold 30,000 by then and in any case we hadn't averaged 30,000 or over since the early 1950s in the days there wasn't much to do in Hull.
Not going to games is an individual boycott if you went previously & the reason you don’t currently go is as a way of protesting the actions of the current ownership. The owners would only be aware that individuals were boycotting, as a way of protest, if each & everyone of those boycotting wrote a “private & confidential” letter directly to the owners & associated staff & sent them to their addresses prior to each game that they were boycotting. Assem Allam Gibson Lane, Melton, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, England, HU14 3HH Ehab Allam Kc Stadium, West Park, Hull, United Kingdom, HU3 6HU Victoria BeerCock Kc Stadium, West Park, Hull, United Kingdom, HU3 6HU Ann Holland Kc Stadium, West Park, Hull, United Kingdom, HU3 6HU I’m sure there’s more ... If there’s 10,000 people individually boycotting & each write a minimum of 4 letters prior to each game they are boycotting then there's the opportunity to turn their boycotts into a lot of childish fun every other week.
I grasp it very well thanks. A boycott of a football match is meaningless. Now boycotting the game but turning up and marching to the Allams house and protesting is a good idea. Just not going is not even a **** idea, it's just ****.
My first game was Scarborough (a friendly I think it was, although their fans weren't too friendly...) . To a 5 year old, it looked full (although it probably wasn't). I didn't go for a few years as my Dad couldn't take me so I went to Ferriby with my Grandpa. I started going for real in 1997, which I think was the year Doncaster went down. That's when I started taking supporting City seriously. I remember nearly being hit by a brick on the way to Sincil Bank. Throughout all those crappy times, there was such a sense of unity among the fans. It didn't seem to matter who the opposition was, everybody just seemed to enjoy going to the football, whether it was home or away. At school there were no other City fans, everybody was Leeds, Liverpool etc. But it didn't really matter to me. The thought of staying away must have seemed almost alien to some. And when the club was on its arse, everybody rallied around to help it. I know it's a different battle now, but as you said, we're probably going to have to go through the motions to get back to where we were. Portsmouth dropped right down, tore the club apart and started again. They now play in League 1, but they're near the top this season and they get 18,000-20,000 fans a game. Their fans didn't boycott, they took action and rescued the club (I know they were close to going bust so they got it on the cheap, but still, action instead of inaction). We all want the same thing, that much is clear, but emptying the stadium I don't think is an effective way of making a point, nor does it do the lads on the pitch any favours. The owners have divided the fans and that's the worst possible outcome we could have imagined.
Ehab is well aware of my boycotting I have told him to his face, he didn't give a ****. I am well aware my boycotting doesn't have any impact on the Allams as I have said. I went to school with a number of the family and was friends with some, they all know about my boycott and every time they posted on LinkedIn I reminded them, but it got me nowhere and they still didn't give a ****. The same way I had a go at anyone who said they worked for Hull Tigers, still got me nowhere. However, I am not giving another penny to them, so people can say what they want about me boycotting and claiming it's not me supporting the team are wrong, I will go every away game this year (Bar one) and that is my way of supporting the team. 'Emptying the stadium' as someone put it won't improve the Allams situation but it would at least show we have principles and we won't allow the owners of our club to take advantage of children and pensioners love of Hull City. I agree someone should never call someone a scab (I never said I agreed with that) similarly people shouldn't be little those who boycott. It works both ways. The day they leave I will buy a season ticket/membership card and I will travel the four hour round trip to go to every home game. Just had enough of people belittling people who are boycotting as people who just don't want to go. No, I have principles that I am going to stand by. I am idealistic and probably one of very few people who puts their principles and beliefs ahead of going to watch a football team they love.
