By Tony Attwood
As you have probably seen reported, Arsenal are about to be fined for not selling 1000 upper-tier tickets to Manchester United supporters for the FA Cup match last January. The reason was that it is singularly unsafe for people to stand upstairs because of the low wall preventing people in a crush, falling down onto the level below. But the football authorities care little for the safety of fans, and so are pressing ahead with the charge. Manchester United are seemingly complicit in this decision to override safety in favour of crowd numbers.
Arsenal, of course, have already been “fined” to an extent in that they earned nothing from those unsold 1000 seats, thus losing maybe £50,000 or more.
Now it could be argued that the rule clearly says that away clubs in the FA Cup are entitled to 15% of the stadium, and Arsenal should have realised that this could include an unruly mob. Or Arsenal could have employed additional safety staff – although attempts to get the ManU brigade to sit down upstairs could itself have been extraordinarily dangerous.
In fact, instead of the 15% ManU could claim, they actually got 7,956 downstairs tickets, including 78 wheelchair tickets, which is a little under 2% short of what the rulebook says. The argument made is that Arsenal should not have sold all the downstairs seats to Arsenal supporters, but then that would have allowed Arsenal and ManU supporters to be within touching distance, which really isn’t a very clever idea. I think for the ManU away support, the generic phrase “a bunch of hearty roughs” might be applied, but of course, they can argue “the rules are the rules”.
Part of the problem is that, although technically, persistent standing is not permitted anywhere in Arsenal stadium, the rule is not enforced in any way at all downstairs, which rather makes a mockery of the regulations, where everyone has a seat and virtually no one uses it.
It must also be remembered that decisions as to exactly how the stadium can be used are not just down to Arsenal FC, for there is also a Safety Advisory Group, which includes representatives of the Metropolitan Police and the Ambulance Service, and they can each override decisions that the club wishes to make. It is not at all unlikely that it was the police that instructed Arsenal not to sell the seats in the upper tier to Manchester United supporters who would be most likely to stand during the game, which could certainly have been a hazard.
Indeed, the question arises – if the police say “no” to selling tickets to Manchester United fans in the upper tier, is it reasonable for the League to fine Arsenal? The argument could, of course, be made that more space should have been made available down below, but with those tickets sold to season ticket holders, I am not sure that is viable either. As it was, some Arsenal supporters were moved away from their usual seats just to accommodate the demands of Manchester United.
Meanwhile, on a different matter, Arsenal’s injury list is getting to be on the dangerous side with the club now lying third in the injury table, with only Chelsea (11 men out) and Tottenham (7) having more players unavailable at present. This is, sadly, exactly what happened last season, as clubs from the lower reaches take the approach that a) they can’t be Arsenal fairly and b) the referees tend to be rather relaxed about fouls against Arsenal men. Only Chelsea and Tottenham have a higher number of men out.
The question is, of course, also one of how big the squad is in the first place. Although the media always talk fo the 25-man squad, in fact most clubs have larger numbers than this, as only players aged 21 or over are counted.
Arsenal in fact, do have a 25, including players of all ages, and only Aston Villa, Fulham and Everton have smaller squads. But when we look up the table, we can see Sunderland at the top with a 36-man squad. Of the clubs looking to challenge for a European place, Chelsea are top with 31 players, while Tottenham have 29, Newcastle 28, and ManC and Liverpool each with 26.
Transfer Market’s table shows Arsenal as having the most valuable squad in the Premier League – they calculate it at €1.33bn. As you might expect, Manchester City and Liverpool are chasing behind with squad market values at €1.23bn and €1.12bn respectively.
But of course, market value does not equate to league position or ability. Chelsea are in fourth, and Tottenham fifth, with Manchester United down in sixth.
However, what I found especially interesting was the fact that the total market value of the Arsenal squad was shown in the TransferMarkt table as being double (yes, double) that of Newcastle United – a club placed seventh in the table based on market value.
One other point that is of a little interest in the TransferMarkt table is the issue of “foreigners” I may have missed their definition of “foreigners” and I am not sure if it means non-Englsih, or not qualified to play for England, or non-British, but whatever the approach, Arsenal have the lowest number of “foreigners” among the big clubs at 17. ManC are second on 19 and Liverpool third on 20. Tottenham have 23.
And while mentioning the noisy neighbours, the market value of their squad is given by the site as being just two-thirds of that of Arsenal. I guess top players just don’t want to go there.
