Saturday, May 10, 2008

Back To The Grassroots

Watch any archive footage of Anfield in the 60s, 70s & 80s carefully & you'll notice the number of boys in the crowd with their older male relatives, not just fathers. In the mid 80s it was possible to stand on the Kop for £3.00 (about £15.00 in today's money). Today's Anfield crowd has an average age of 43 & it's rising; younger supporters are conspicuous by their paucity.
It's against that demographic backdrop that AFC Liverpool has been formed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/08/1 ).
David Conn reports in his Guardian piece, "AFC Liverpool [is] a supporter-owned club with 500 members and rising, recruited an experienced non-League manager, Derek Goulding, and held trials on Monday to which 300 hopeful players turned up, eager to be part of the inaugural season."
AFC Liverpool was formed in early March by a Liverpool FC fan & Kop season ticket holder Alun Parry. He denies that the club has been formed as a response to the Hicks/Gillette/DIC soap opera, stressing it is because of rising ticket prices at Anfield, which deter younger fans from attending. However, it is all of a piece. Whoever succeeds in the Anfield boardroom war will expect a return on their "investment", meaning, inter alia, higher ticket prices.
The AFC Liverpool website has a distinctly retro feel (www.afcliverpool.co.uk ).

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