Stop Exploiting Loyalty

Get involved – Wolves next home game with Crystal Palace, meet adjacent to the Sir Jack Hayward statue at 4:30 PM to help display the FSA Banner.

The first weekend of the Football Supporters’ Association #stopexploitingloyalty campaign included our fixture away at Brighton. Organised jointly by Dogma (Brighton & Hove Albion FC Fanzine) and Wolves 1877 Trust, supporters of both clubs met at the Prince Albert pub in the city centre where the FSA banner was on display.

Wolves and Brighton fans united

Overall, the weekend went well with banner displays across most Premier League matches.

So, what’s it all about?

This autumn the FSA and our member supporter groups (including Wolves) will be acting against the ever-increasing rise of ticket prices and the erosion of concessionary price options across Premier League clubs. We are seeking to raise awareness of this growing issue and make it plain to both the Premier League and club owners that we intend to campaign against any future price increases and the erosion of concessionary tickets as a collective body.

Our aim is to ensure that clubs, like Wolves, fulfil their own commitment for there to be meaningful dialogue on issues such as ticket pricing (including changes to junior and OAP ticket price options).

‘‘Profit and sustainability rules surely mean the club is forced to put prices up?’’

This is not true and a basic misunderstanding of the finances involved. High ticket prices are not the answer to PSR.

Under PSR Premier League clubs can’t lose more than £105m across three years – but ticket revenue is a relatively small portion of a topflight club’s income (between 7-13%) and marginally raising that figure will do next to nothing to help a club struggling with PSR but it could price out many supporters.

‘‘The English Premier League has a spending problem not a revenue problem’’

No-one could seriously argue that top-flight clubs have an income problem. Football has a spending problem. Their current media deal brings in about £10bn across three seasons – while clubs also generate additional revenue from sponsorship, merchandise, player trading and ticket sales.

‘’The Premier League are creating their own inflationary pressures’’

Collectively Premier League clubs spent a record £2.3bn on player transfer fees in the summer of 2023 and a further £2.0bn in the summer of 2024, compared to La Liga (€800m) and Bundesliga (€830m), the only reason for rising transfer fees are the clubs themselves.

They (Premier League clubs) spend in excess of £3bn on players wages dwarfing the spend of Europe’s top leagues and then top this off with spending over £400m on agents’ fees each season.

Additionally, we have seen the Premier League spend in excess of £40m in legal fees, in 2023, as a result of their own internal ‘member’ actions (Manchester City, Everton, Nottingham Forest).

When all this is taken into consideration it is scandalous that some clubs decided, as Wolves did, to increase season ticket prices by 10-20% as well as taking actions to restrict the availability of concessionary tickets

The message is clear ‘’Stop Exploiting Loyalty’’ match-going fans have had enough.

Get involved – Wolves home game with Crystal Palace meet adjacent to the Sir Jack Hayward statue at 4:30 PM to help display the FSA Banner.

Fan groups across the country join the campaign