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Liverpool FC fan group organisers on protests and ticket price rises cross premier league
11/04/2026
Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, UK
11/04/2026
Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00Thanks for speaking with us today. It's a complicated issue. Can you put it succinctly into a quick reason for
00:07why we're starting the process today?
00:09The process has come about today because the club has essentially ignored the supporters board and ignored Spirits at Shankly,
00:16which is the official Liverpool Trust.
00:19And then we've also had thousands of people respond to a survey as well to say that if the club
00:23won't listen to us, they won't negotiate with us,
00:25they don't respond to our last letter as well, then the only option really is to start to protest.
00:31And essentially, we ended up miles apart really. I went into the negotiations as part of the supporters board myself
00:38and we were all putting across that we wanted a two-year price freeze.
00:43That was across the league, so all supporters and representatives of Premier League clubs said to their club,
00:48we'd like a two-year freeze and we'd like you all to talk to each other about how you can
00:53end this arms race over ticket prices
00:56and how you can almost maybe cap home ticket prices in the same way that the away ticket prices are
01:02capped.
01:03Instead, of course, Liverpool have become the first Premier League club to announce a multi-year price hike, three years.
01:09And we just think the direction of travel now is, it's a must to have our say back.
01:16And looking at the protests today, obviously you've encouraged fans not to spend a pound in the ground,
01:21no flags on the cot for the foreseeable games except Hillsborough flags against PSG.
01:27What would be the next steps if Liverpool don't come back to the table?
01:31Yeah, so we're hoping that what is something relatively low level in terms of asking people not to spend money
01:37in the ground
01:37and asking for, you know, not to bring flags into the ground, spying cop group,
01:41and not taking all of their flags in there, which is a big part of the flags that you see
01:45on the club.
01:46We're hoping that they listen from there, really.
01:49I don't want to protest, none of us want to protest.
01:51We want to back the team, we want the club to qualify for the Champions League.
01:55We want to do what we always have done.
01:57The thing is, it's becoming more and more expensive to do what we've always done,
02:01and we're worried about the next generation.
02:03So, if they still don't listen to this, this will continue and this will escalate.
02:07Now, how it will escalate?
02:09It'll be up to fans because, you know, we're supportive representatives.
02:13We listen to the fans, we talk to the fans, and we will ask them what they want to do.
02:18So, you know, people talk about when we walked out 10 years ago in protest at £77 tickets at Amfield.
02:24And obviously, about 10,000 people walked out that day against Sunderland.
02:28Now, that took a lot of work to build up to that, and there was a lot of anger, and
02:31that's why that happened.
02:32We've got to test the water all the time.
02:34Is that how people feel?
02:35Is that what people want?
02:38There are various options being discussed and being mentioned.
02:41So, there's walk out, there's come in late, there's stay on the concourse, there's stay downstairs for you'll never walk
02:49alone
02:49and don't be part of, you know, such a big part of fan culture at Liverpool.
02:54So, we'll see, really.
02:55But ideally, what we'd like and what we keep saying is just come back and talk to us again
02:59because three years in particular is unacceptable.
03:03What would be your message to those that say, ah, it's just a quid or two per game, if you
03:09can't afford it, don't go?
03:11Yeah, it's a direction of travel thing rather than people are talking about a quid a game
03:15and people are talking about inflationary rises and things like that.
03:19It's a bit disingenuous of the club to say that, really, because ticket prices have gone up 875%
03:25since the 90s to now.
03:27And if ticket prices had stayed close to inflation, will you be able to get in the Cerny d'Alglise
03:32stand today for £18?
03:34Good luck with that because you won't be able to get in there for that.
03:37So, they've gone up and up and up and up and we're just telling them we want it to stop.
03:41We want it to end.
03:42They're already expensive.
03:44You know, if, as is proposed, it goes up three years running, it could be 3% next year, 5
03:50% the year after, and 5% the year after that.
03:53Now, that would mean £70 tickets at Anfield and that would mean £1,000 season tickets at Anfield.
04:00Now, this is one of the most deprived areas in Merseyside and, for me, people should be able to look
04:06out of these bedroom windows here,
04:08see that ground, and have a hope in hell of actually getting in there and supporting the football club.
04:13And what's happening is, slowly but surely, they're pricing out the communities that actually made this football club.
04:18And that's something that John Henry himself actually said, you know, in the past, that he understands that this is
04:24a different type of postcode area and community than, say, a London club.
04:29Yeah, John Henry once said that, you know, Liverpool can't afford Chelsea and Arsenal prices, and yet we're creeping up
04:35ever nearer to Chelsea and Arsenal prices.
04:37And look, this is right across the league, this is something all football fans should be worried about.
04:42Price rises are being announced at Everton, and I've had Evertonians already talk to me about, could we protest together?
04:49Now, we know that that kind of thing doesn't happen every day, so to even be talking about that tells
04:54you where people are at.
04:55You know, Arsenal next season are introducing a new category of ticket pricing, A+.
05:01If they were to get to the quarterfinals of the Champions League next year, there will be a normal seat,
05:07no hospitality, no food, drink, normal seat through a turnstile, £168 for one game.
05:15Now, you know, what is that? It's becoming, they're charging for an experience, you know, rather than, they're exploiting loyalty.
05:22They're not, they're taking the game away from the people who have passionately supported their football clubs for generations, from,
05:29you know, mother to daughter, from father to son and so on.
05:32They're breaking that bond, and it will just become another entertainment product.
05:37They're taking away, potentially, what is special about English football.
05:41What would you like to happen next?
05:44What I'd like to see now, hopefully, is that Liverpool can be sensible about this and read the room.
05:49I don't think they've read the room so far.
05:51I don't think Billy Hogan read the room by sending out an email to everyone before this match today.
05:57And the people I'm speaking out to today, when I'm giving out leaflets and giving out stickers and everything else,
06:02are telling me that I'm doing good work, that they want me to keep doing it, they want me to
06:05keep pushing,
06:06and they want us to fight for the future of football.
06:08So I want Liverpool to recognise that, talk to us, and realise in the support they've got for this football
06:14club,
06:14it's something very special, and they don't want to kill that.
06:26So how much is a couple of quid per game, per second, worth to Liverpool over the course of a
06:32full season?
06:33Yeah, so we asked directly of the finance director of the Liverpool Football Club in the meetings with the supporter
06:39board,
06:39putting the ticket prices up by 3% in the next year, what's that going to raise for the football
06:44club?
06:45And the answer was £1.2 million.
06:46Now, when you're seeing executives at the club with 7% and 8% rises to their huge salaries,
06:53and when you're seeing squad players that are barely getting on the pitch at times on huge salaries too,
06:58I don't think it's beyond their minds to think of other ways that they could make £1.2 million for
07:04the club.
07:04And in fact, we presented other ways too that we said, is there not something you could investigate around,
07:10could you almost have a fan sponsorship?
07:13And could that brand benefit from the fact that they're keeping ticket prices low?
07:18Now, they've kind of listened to us on that, but not really.
07:22It all just seems very strange.
07:24I mean, one other point I'd like to make is, I actually said to them,
07:27why can't you use the name of Liverpool for a good thing and go to the Premier League,
07:32sit down with your counterparts and propose a home cap and propose an end to all this?
07:38Now, they promised to do that, but then on the other hand,
07:41they're putting ticket prices up for the next three years.
07:43So on the one hand, they agree there's a problem,
07:45and on the other hand, they're making it worse.
07:50First of all, introduce yourself.
07:52Sean Lawless, part of Spying Cop 1906.
07:55And what is it that Spying Cop 1906 do?
07:57So the Spying Cop 1906, we're a group of like-minded lads
08:01who go to the match most weeks.
08:03And what we're trying to do is just carry on the traditions
08:05and the cultures and the principles of what we've been passed down to us.
08:08So a lot of us have been brought up,
08:10whether it's our dads, our granddads, our mums, our nans,
08:13have come to here over the years and seen many, many things
08:16and many things that you could write a book about.
08:18What we're trying to do and trying to instill is into the current culture
08:21of fans being able to carry on these traditions,
08:24but also when we're gone,
08:25we want these traditions passed on to fans.
08:27I hope to be, when I'm 10 foot in the grand,
08:30I hope that these fans carry on these traditions
08:32when it's 2070, 2080, 2090,
08:35and people can keep the ball rolling of what's been going for generations.
08:39And your concern now with the news of the three-year price hike
08:43is that these traditions won't be able to carry on?
08:45Well, you're looking at even people who go to the match now
08:48and I look at the demographic from 10, 11 years ago when I started going
08:52and there's a lot of people who used to be able to afford to go on this grand.
08:55They can't now, whether they've got kids or there's other things,
08:58but it's because of the price hikes that they've done since.
09:01It's not even an option if it's a hobby.
09:03People say, oh, it's a hobby.
09:04It's not. It's a way of life.
09:06It really is to people.
09:07People work Monday to Friday, they graft,
09:09and they're out left for that.
09:10It's a Saturday to come here with like-minded people,
09:12go to the match, go to home,
09:14have a beer before the match, meet the friends.
09:16It's a social experience as well as going to the match.
09:19And I think people have been very naive of going,
09:21oh, well, it's just 90 minutes of football.
09:22It isn't. It really isn't.
09:24It's more than that than people.
09:26And if you'll use that, that literal phrase,
09:30it's more than, it means more.
09:33Yeah.
09:33But now, it's being used almost against the fans.
09:39Well, if it means more, then protect it
09:41instead of parading it around for a pound of notes.
09:43That's the bit that really frustrates me.
09:45Because even you're looking at people on social media,
09:47and everyone's entitled to their own opinions.
09:50But the one thing I would be saying is
09:52be wary of knowing the facts with these opinions
09:55because people go, oh, well, it's only 3%.
09:57Well, it isn't.
09:57There's potential for it being 13%.
10:00And then you go, well, in three years' time,
10:01do you think Liverpool are going to stop
10:02if inflation goes up, if the price of things goes up?
10:06There's a cost of living crisis
10:06that's been going on for a number of years.
10:08So the people then think the club are going to stop
10:11at that point. They're not.
10:13It's the whole classic line.
10:14Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.
10:15And that's what they're trying to do right now.
10:17It's not just the case of, oh, it's 13% or it's 3%.
10:20It doesn't matter about percentages.
10:22It's about going forward.
10:23It's the long term of this.
10:24Because if they win this,
10:25it's the knock-on effect of what will happen
10:27to match their culture, match their traditions.
10:29And the amount of faces that you recognise around the grounds.
10:32They'll diminish.
10:33They really will.
10:34It's not just a political problem, is it?
10:36It's about football, Premier League problem.
10:37No, well, it's a problem across the board.
10:39Like, you look at Everton's release yesterday.
10:41So some of Everton's season tickets are going to just under 10%.
10:44And, I mean, unfortunately, I've got a few friends
10:46who are Evertonians, and I'm speaking to them yesterday.
10:48And they're almost in their mindset
10:50that it's a bit like normality
10:52because they've moved grants.
10:53And it's like, I was saying to them,
10:55it's not for you to then pay the cost of this new grant.
10:58It really isn't.
10:58They shouldn't be getting forced into a corner to go,
11:01oh, well, we've got nicer concourses,
11:03nicer beer options, nicer food options.
11:05Why should you have to pay for it?
11:07Their margins, sorry, our margins are this.
11:09Their margins are like that.
11:11And then they have the audacity to go,
11:12well, we need to do this, we need to do that,
11:14we need to do that.
11:15We make enough sacrifices as is.
11:17So, to then try and stretch that even further
11:20is just, it's a disgrace, quite frankly.
11:22And the decision, you know, collectively
11:25from Spankoff is to remove the flags and the banners
11:28today for the Seabull,
11:30except Hillsborough Bonds against PSG.
11:33Is that something that you're very happy
11:35to continue doing and that you'd escalate it from there?
11:38I'd certainly say it's not something we're happy to do.
11:41It's not one we've went,
11:42oh, happy days, we're made up for this.
11:44We're not.
11:45We're good to be doing this,
11:46but we don't feel like,
11:47we mentioned in the statement,
11:49we don't feel like we've been left with any other option.
11:50As I said to you before,
11:51Liverpool are quite happy to parade us and the likes
11:54for a palm note and go,
11:56this is, welcome to Anfield, this is Anfield.
11:59But then, trying to protect what we are.
12:02They've shown that they haven't got any intention
12:04of doing that.
12:04So, by removing what we bring as a visual,
12:07we'll then show, this is your future cop.
12:10And the future cop will be thanks to their greed
12:14and them trying to make more money when they don't need to.
12:17They've made record revenues,
12:19they've made 8 million in profit.
12:20So, to then sign and squeeze an extra 1.2 million out of people,
12:24and granted, not all that will be profit,
12:26but you're going,
12:27so what gain is that figure that they'll make?
12:31Because all you're doing is grieving people,
12:33and you've put people in a corner
12:34where, as the reaction is based off surveys,
12:38based off meetings, based off calls,
12:39they've had enough.
12:40They're sick to death of it.
12:41Go on the match and be sure,
12:42there's a lot of people coming today,
12:44we should be prioritising going.
12:45Liverpool should be in a push for Europe,
12:47we're still in the European Cup,
12:48granted hard asking the week,
12:49but we should be prioritising them things
12:52and backing the team
12:53and being able to get behind that.
12:54Of course, we'll get behind the team,
12:55as we will do,
12:56minute one to minute 90,
12:57as we always do,
12:58but that should be the priority.
13:00People shouldn't be having to
13:03use their time and utilise all their spare time
13:05for protests and all the politics around football.
13:08The logistics of football already take over,
13:11the politics shouldn't have to,
13:12and that's why we've took the stand that we have.
13:15Copy?
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