Supporting your local team

As many people who read my blogs will know, I follow two football teams. I know for many that is hard to comprehend, but for me the logic is simple. I became an Everton fan when I was seven. I didn't really choose to be an Everton fan, I tend to think I was chosen. I watched Match of the Day, saw Everton beat Liverpool 1-0, got very excited that the glory hunters at school would be very upset if I went in on the Monday morning saying I supported Everton, and that was that. the added bonus that as a seven year old Everton was easy to spell and I liked blue was an added attraction. However, as I got older, particularly entering my late teens, I could see what a major asset it is both financially and culturally to have a thriving local team who represent Norwich and Norfolk as a whole, and so after several years of casual attendance at Carrow Road, in 1992 I became a season ticket holder. And not for one moment have I regretted it.Although it is odd when Everton play Norwich to find myself supporting Everton, but those occasions (sadly) are not as common as they were.

So with Norwich announcing season ticket prices for this year will increase by about £1 a game, people really ought to be proud of what their local team have achieved. Okay, we're in League One, but to get 25,000 fans regularly, to get this consistently and to know that Norwich really could sell 30,000 tickets if they had the capacity really says a lot about the community feel of the club and the feel good factor that having a winning team can engender in the local community.

Last year, when bottom of the Championship, Norwich still had 25,000 people at the games, a point often ignored by the media, when it should be noted that Leeds had 22,000 fans last week and Charlton just 17,000. With a so called big club like Middlesbrough getting only 18,000 in the Championship, its about time people started to realise that actually Norwich realy does have the potential to be a bigger team than many so called big teams.

Some fans don't deserve Premier League football

I am not one of those fans who believe "only the big clubs should be in the Premier League", after all, smaller teams deserve time to get up to the higher echelons of football and develop a fan base. However, there are some teams whose fans really do not deserve Premier League football.

Yesterday less than 20,000 people turned up to watch Blackburn play at home to Fulham. now granted, this was not the umber one game of the day, even on a day when only five matches were being played. But for less than 20,000 fans to turn up on a warm day (the weather might have been an excuse on a bad day), is appalling.

Blackburn have been in the Premiership for all but one season since the league started in 1992 and during that time they even won the league. I might point out that Norwich yesterday had more than 24,000 people at a Championship match and Norwich actually have 20,000 season ticket holders and a waiting list too !

As I said, some fans don't deserve to have the likes of Robinho, Ronaldo, Deco and Yakubu visiting them every week.

It reminds me of an old joke.

I phoned up Ewood Park to ask them what time the Blackburn match was due to start. They responded "What time can you make it ?"