Proper Football

We believe this will resonate with supporters of many Premier League clubs who have had enough and have even stopped going. Disgruntled Crystal Palace fans have announced a pre-match protest ahead of their Premier League game against Liverpool on Sunday 8 November. The Palace fans' protest is not about results or performances on the pitch. It is about the club's current strategy, which prioritises tourists & short-term profits over loyal, match-going fans. There is a growing disconnect between the club & its supporters. The fans are the backbone of the football club, & they do not accept the current direction that the club is taking, selling its soul in the process. Should we at any point find ourselves in the second tier of English football, the club will regret prioritising tourists over a sustainable plan to grow the Crystal Palace fanbase with South Londoners. WHY THEY ARE PROTESTING. TICKETS Match tickets costing up to £70 are pricing out local supporters, particularly young South Londoners. Additional charges, including £50 to share a season ticket, put profit before loyalty. MATCHDAY EXPERIENCE Selhurst Park is losing its identity. Loud commercial music, club-funded displays, pyrotechnics and manufactured entertainment are replacing the authentic atmosphere created by supporters. RESTRICTIONS. The club continues to restrict fan-funded banners & displays, while refusing requests to allow supporters to create their own atmosphere without music drowning them out. RAIL SEATING. Eight years after the club backed safe standing, there is still no rail seating in the home areas of Selhurst Park, preventing the growth of a sustainable singing section. DEMANDING CHANGE. Despite the club enjoying its most successful period, many supporters feel increasingly disconnected from Crystal Palace. We want affordable football, a vibrant Selhurst Park, safe standing, freedom to support our team and a long-term strategy that puts South Londoners first. This is not Crystal Palace. We are a fanbase who have historically created our own atmosphere. The club has lost sight of what made us special in the English game, of what our unique selling point was, & the club has destroyed it. THE FANS ARE THE CLUB. * Speaking as a Palace fan myself, over the last ten years, I've slowly fallen out of love with football — or, more accurately, what the Premier League has become and have been getting a proper football fix by going to non-league. My love for Palace has never wavered, but I have to admit that loyalty & emotional connection have been severely tested. The last two seasons gave me renewed hope. For a while, it felt as though the passion, excitement & belief had returned. But looking back, perhaps those moments of joy merely papered over the cracks in what has become an increasingly strained relationship. To witness Palace finally lift silverware was a dream come true, and that's what makes the current situation so difficult to comprehend. We should be on top of the world. Yes, performances on the pitch haven't been great lately, but football has always been about more than results. It's about belonging, identity, community and that unbreakable bond between a club and its supporters. Yet, instead of riding the crest of a wave after one of the greatest periods in our club's history, so many supporters seem to feel disconnected, disenfranchised and increasingly alienated from the very club they've devoted so much of their lives to. That should be setting alarm bells ringing. Because when supporters who have stood by their club through decades of disappointment, heartbreak and adversity begin to question their connection to it, something is fundamentally wrong. The saddest part isn't that we're struggling on the pitch. It's that, even after finally achieving everything we once dreamed of, something about the club we love no longer feels quite the same. #CPFC  #CrystalPalace #PremierLeague @HLTCO @soberich