It’s Not Christmas Yet

I just spent a long weekend in Norfolk, driving down to the fine city from Glasgow with my partner, Rebecca. Living a long way away from Carrow Road, I usually only get to selected away games these days, but I had ‘treated’ myself to a ticket in the South Stand to watch the lunchtime kick-off against Hull. The mood was sombre even before the match started. The old boys either side of me were already displaying that old English traditional stiff upper lip. No matter what happened on the pitch, they were there to support their team. Of course, we know what happened, and true to form, after a dominant Norwich performance in the first half, Hull scored with their first significant attack, and it felt like the air had been sucked out of the stadium. When the Yorkshire team’s second goal went in, the season ticket holder who had been talking to me throughout the game just stood up and left without a word. And he wasn’t the only one.

The next day, Rebecca and I were at the Forum early to set up a ‘Cutting the Mustard’ stall as part of a Football Collectors Fair organised by On the Stall City, raising money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. You could buy a signed copy of my book plus some of the Norwich City memorabilia associated with it. We had some excellent companions including the Norwich City Historical Trust and a display of some of Billy Pointer’s collection of club shirts, with all those on the day featuring a poppy.

As I chatted to visitors about my book, it was clear that there was a general level of disillusion and melancholy from not only the football club’s performances on the field, but also about the way the club was being run. It became a running joke that people were buying my book to remind themselves of the good old days in the 1980s and 1990s when Norwich City were coping very nicely indeed with the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. Others felt that times at Carrow Road these days reminded them of the dogdays of Glenn Roeder’s unhappy time at the club.

We all felt that, if Norwich City was a business, then it should, at least, be a well-run business: one that looked after its customers, listened to fans, and appreciated that financial decisions had to consider more than solely the bottom line. And, fundamentally, although most thought that Mark Attanassio seems like a decent bloke, they didn’t believe he has got to terms with what’s needed to sort this football club out.

The lack of consultation with fans in The River End before announcing the sweeping proposed changes to their stand was a terrible business own goal. It showed no respect for fans and a complete lack of judgment by those in charge of our club. Selling Marcellino Nunez to our bitter rivals without adequately replacing him showed a similar poor lack of understanding of how this would play out with fans.

‘Cutting the Mustard’ tells how the football business was transformed from a sport based firmly in its community, to a global entertainment product which is driven to maximise revenue from every possible vehicle it can assign a price to: whether that is the stadium, the players, or the fans. When I was undertaking my university research into the commercialisation of football, a respected football commentator said to me, ‘there is no morality in football’. I had collected a series of shirts to illustrate my book as they themselves tell their own story of how football has changed. We have come a long way from having a local double-glazing company as the sponsor of our shirts in 1983. I hate the way football has helped to normalise gambling as an ever-present unpleasant companion in the game these days. My LeoVegas and Dafabet shirts were acquired with distaste purely to illustrate my ‘Cutting the Mustard’ story. When I found on Sunday that I had bought a fake Dafabet shirt on eBay, that somehow seemed totally appropriate. There was no morality displayed here from anyone. That shirt has gone in the bin.

I had hoped to sell a few books for Christmas presents at the Forum – it’s perhaps still a bit early to think about that. But perhaps my best early Christmas gift would be a wholesale rethink of how this club is managed. If you want to remain a successful businessman, it would seem this is something which can’t wait until 25^th December.  Perhaps someone should buy Mark Attanasio a copy of ‘Cutting the Mustard’ as a gift to give him some clues?

If you missed me at The Forum you can buy ‘Cutting the Mustard’ at many good bookshops across Norwich and Norfolk and online at www.robinireland.com.