Potential Match Boycott

[Antynwa]

Now I know this has been done to death, be it as a side discussion or what not. But one of the key obstacles I've heard branded about is 'notice', well how much notice do you need with no fixtures being announced.

 

I think it's time to play hard ball, without going into the ownership issue. We have 3-4 months until the season starts, and the fixtures haven't been announced yet, and hopefully no one in their right mind would have booked flights or what not for the opening weekend without fixtures.

 

Surely now, this is the time IF the Yanks are still in ownership come August to get the ball rolling.

 

We have time, we can give fans notice and we can work hard on this. I know season ticket holders will be hit the hardest with this idea, but hopefully they would be willing to sacrifice 90 minutes for the club.

 

What are your thoughts, given the current situation and given the potential for publicity?

 

SOS can have billboards in Liverpool 'No Sale, No Fans'.

 

It's just an idea.

[zigackly]

I know a few people on here have been boycotting matches since they started loading debt on the club, but at the end of the day that's an individual choice.

 

It should not be beyond us to manage a mass boycott for one game though, even if it's doomed to only have partial success. I think for it to register you would want at least 10% of the seats empty for a game that would otherwise have sold out.

 

Given the amount of people who are desperate for tickets, getting people to stay away without buying one will probably not work, so it's a symbolic gesture in that we probably won't deny them money. In my opinion you either need people to buy tickets and return them at the last possible minute, buy tickets and not turn up, or perhaps best of all, turn up and have a mass walk-out as soon as the whistle goes.

 

If it's a televised game the impact will be better.

[jon lad]

'No Sale, No Fans'

Liverpool Football Club

is in the wrong hands

 

I was thinking exactly along the same lines. Now is the time for a major assualt on these dicks. A match boycott of the first home game at least and the first home televised match (should we be on the box at all next season) is an absolute must. I am seriously considering jibbing off the whole season if G & H are still in charge. Now is the time for mass action not fretting over our players ridiculous contracts and media speculation. Protests at any pre-season friendlies are also opportunities not to be missed so more images of banners etc are broadcast worldwide by LFC TV who wont be able to edit out our songs and choose camera angles for the post match re-run they usually seem to do.

Also, i think we should create G & H awareness stickers and distribute them far and wide and encourage people to put them on all the replica shirts in shops across the country and rbs bank machines hopefully educating more of our "ho hum" fanbase to the plight of LFC.

[Antynwa]

I'd like to see SOS's input into this, they have 5 weeks until the fixtures are announced and 5 weeks to conduct a feasibility study.

 

It's always been about conjecture and rumour, if SOS can turn around and convince people who would be behind this boycott that it can work, then it will work.

 

I think now is a better time than ever to do something about a match boycott.

[jon lad]

Have all the supporters clubs been consulted by SOS regarding a match boycott? Surely if they managed to persuade the vast majority of them to agree to boycott one match this would have the biggest impact as you would potentially have blocks of empty seats as opposed the a sporadic sprinkling around the ground. Letters should be sent to all the supporters clubs encouraging them to join in and take action.

[Horus]

I think at the moment the problem we have is that if we start the season playing the famed 9-0-1 "hoofball" formation we played most of last season, then there will be empty seats anyway.

 

The main issue with this is that the press won't even look at the ownership issue as a potential reason. It will be down to the footie we're playing under Rafa.

 

It would need to be widely publicised as a battle against the owners and not against the dire football on offer.

[JohnnyH]

Maybe the fans could tie scarves together and form a manned ring around the entire ground with "No Sale, No Fans" banners. They'd get shifted by the police of course and no fan should be expected to resist the polcie, but as a photo op it might work.

[Original202]

When was the last time a big club failed to have a full house for the opening game of the season? It doesn't happen. End of season games can often be dead rubbers and people stay away, especially if the football on offer is poor.

 

If we could get 10 or 15 thousand fans to stay away from the first home game of the season that would make the headlines.

 

The opening game is normally one full of optimism, in terms of making an impact this one is one to target.

[PaulMcC]

I might boycott UEFA Cup games.

[Paco]

I'm not against this idea, my problem is that the majority of Liverpool fans will never read this. It's great the likes of Maddock and Brian Reade are mentioning Spirit of Shankly and the fans efforts to remove the owners. More Liverpool fans will read about this in the paper but how do you reach the ones who don't read the mirror? Billboards are a great idea, what about good old fashioned graffiti - put the writing on the wall somewhere everyone can see it, chain ATK and Dougie Do-Ins to the Shankly gates like Hungry Homer in the simpsons when the 'topes were gonna be sold to the Albaquerque. It's clear that more has to be done off the forums becuase the message isn't being heard by the majority of fans.

[RedBrian84]

I know a few people on here have been boycotting matches since they started loading debt on the club, but at the end of the day that's an individual choice.

 

It should not be beyond us to manage a mass boycott for one game though, even if it's doomed to only have partial success. I think for it to register you would want at least 10% of the seats empty for a game that would otherwise have sold out.

 

Given the amount of people who are desperate for tickets, getting people to stay away without buying one will probably not work, so it's a symbolic gesture in that we probably won't deny them money. In my opinion you either need people to buy tickets and return them at the last possible minute, buy tickets and not turn up, or perhaps best of all, turn up and have a mass walk-out as soon as the whistle goes.

If it's a televised game the impact will be better.

 

 

I'm a fan of that option, providing of course that the fucking media don't portray us as walking out on the team because of a bad patch or something like that. It irks me that the media seem to be giving United brilliant publicity for their green and yellow scarves (the Beckham 'incident' and there's a few adverts on telly that show fans wearing the scarves, one of which has the narrator saying "show your true colours" or something like that) so we need to do something that will get the mass media onside, no matter how fucking loathsome they are.

 

Some sort of Lord Treismann-style sting would be outsanding on the two yanks, I wish that could be made a reality.