Crowd trouble

It may be premature to call it a crisis, but the news that Premiership attendances are down does seem to signal difficulties ahead - though it's worth noting that the gradual rise experienced up until the 2002/3 season was unsustainable.

Birmingham (surprise surprise) come in for a good deal of criticism for charging away fans a whopping £45 for a seat - at least this season Newcastle supporters got, if not a win, then something approaching value for money - and Inspector Sands's Charlton are praised for their policy of offering reduced ticket prices to attract fans and fill empty seats for televised games.

Towards the bottom of the article, Michael Martin of Toon fanzine True Faith offers some laudably forthright opinions on the state of the game: "Football has become a vehicle for turning turds like Kieron Dyer and Paul Stretford into millionaires. Is this the start of a downward spiral? If it means getting shot of the parasites, I hope so".

(Thanks to Pete for the link.)