Away fans in the home areas of Craven Cottage have been a hot-button topic for Fulham supporters for several years. Since our return to the Premier League in 2022/23, the issue has been one that has seen the level of our stewarding and approach to fan engagement by the club a subject of regular discussion in the Fulham Supporters’ Trusts meetings with the board. So allow me to shed a few crocodile tears and give the club some credit where it is due as I tell you the sad tale of Simon Ritter of Newcastle United fanzine, The Mag.
Ever since appearing on Chronicle Live’s Everything is Black and White podcast with Andrew Musgrove, my phone’s algorithm has fed me a fair amount of Newcastle United-related content. Much of it is instantly forgettable, as you would imagine, and some rather funny, like Shearer’s moping over the 3-1 defeat at the Cottage. Today, we reached the sanctimonious level of content.
Simon’s Sad Tale
Recent retiree Simon had, not for the first time, bought a ticket to watch his beloved NUFC at Craven Cottage in the home end. When dear old Simon, who lives in West Sussex like me, gets into his stride, he makes a valid point about the tyranny of trying to get an away ticket for his club (solidarity there, brother). Still, he then discusses his previous trip to the Cottage, the FA Cup 4th Round match in January.
Simon takes the time to make a snide comment about us not selling out the £40 tickets for that match, which misses the point that the match was being boycotted over ticket prices, much like the £71 ticket he purchased to watch last Saturday’s game. Simon relates how the Fulham supporters he spoke to raised their annoyance at the club’s ticket pricing before he questions our club’s relevancy in our “overlong history” that is without much silverware. Our dear recently retired Simon is not old enough to have witnessed Newcastle’s most recent FA Cup win in 1955, but he may have been about for their triumph in the mighty Intertoto Cup, which Newcastle won four years after Fulham.
Regardless of the relevancy debate, Simon’s point is that after buying a £71 ticket, the club contacted him to say that as he was clearly not a Fulham FC supporter, after a check of his socials, the club would cancel the ticket and refund the payment.
Cometh the hour cometh the Supporter Relations Manager
Cue the outrage from Simon! How dare little old, unsuccessful, small club Fulham refuse him entry to the home end to support the away team?! Simon misses the point about what “general sale” means, but fair play to him, Simon is clearly nothing but tenacious in his desire to return to the Cottage. Simon fires off an email outlining his annoyance with this “disgraceful decision”. Email sent, he then jumps on the phone to the club to demand to speak to Nicola, the Fulham FC employee who sent him the email reminding him of his lifelong allegiance to the away team when he was refunded for his ticket.
This Nicola is likely Nicola Walworth, Fulham’s Supporter Relations Manager. Even in the best of times, this is an unenviable job when the club clearly wants to welcome fans paying £71 from further afield than Simon and me down here in leafy Sussex.
I will let you pop over to The Mag’s article for the full recounting of Simon’s self-entitled discussion with Nicola if you can find the text amongst the bombardment of Adsense-inserted advertising, but the crux is towards the end.
In short, Nicola, who wonderfully kept referring to Simon as ‘Mr Ritter’ much to his annoyance, said that (quoting Simon’s article here) Fulham “would never knowingly sell a ticket in the home sections to an away fan.” Simon’s incredulous response was to ask if the club would prefer the seat unsold, to which the answer, quite rightly in this case, is yes.
Simon’s temerity here is that he believes that there could not be a hit of trouble at “little old Fulham” because, well, Fulham. This is a naive statement that misses the point of the effect away support celebrating their team in home ends has on those around them. Yes, the bad old days are, for the most part, behind us, thankfully.
However, while Simon may have sat quietly for Harvey Barnes’ goal at the start of the second half, many others in the recent past have not shown such restraint. The entitlement on display here would be mostly amusing if it were not such a regular issue for those who can watch our team at home regularly.
Fulham are actually trying to address the issue
The important takeaway from Simon’s article is that the club is making efforts to stem the sale of tickets, whatever the price, to purchasers who clearly are away fans. Simon’s catty comment about the ticket office staff having the time to check sales misses the point he’d only bought two tickets for Fulham matches, both against Newcastle. Even the most straightforward ticketing systems can flag things like that to enable the Ticket Office team to run such checks (comment with my day job hat on).
While Fulham’s board will continue to welcome “Tourist Support” from abroad to fill the seats at the Cottage for the foreseeable future, it is encouraging to see that, in one case at least, away fans are being spotted and their tickets being refunded. Simon, though, will be trying other means to get around the club spotting him in future. Good luck to him and his increasing efforts to watch Fulham at Craven Cottage. We understand why he would make the effort to watch football in such a wonderful place.
So, well played, Nicloa and the hard-pressed but always helpful Fulham FC Ticket Office team. We here at Fulham Focus appreciate your efforts and the tangential enjoyment of Simon’s disappointment.
You can watch more Geordie tears in the extended match highlights below.
