Latest cfcuk Fanzine Article (137) from the CSG
Well Done Chelsea FC !
Following a lot of criticism from Chelsea supporters in this country and after some dialogue with both the CSG and other fans organisations, it’s very pleasing to report that Chelsea Football Club have now allowed supporters to have their photos taken with both the FA Cup AND the Champions League trophy. Not only have they permitted this but they are also allowing it FREE of charge!! It’s nice to start this article with a positive story and say a big well done and thank you to those at the club who gave permission.
If only the same sort of praise could be given to the club’s official travel provider, Thomas Cook who continue to charge high prices for day trips for our Champions League away games in Denmark and Italy and, at the time of writing, have not offered any travel options for the most difficult to access match in Ukraine. A case of thinking there is not enough profit to be made from the trip to Donetsk? Out of the three away games the one in Ukraine is the one that Chelsea supporters could do with a hand to get to and hope that TC could come up with something at a reasonable cost, we live in hope.
It was great to see such a good turnout of Chelsea supporters for our opening league game of the season at Wigan and it was the first time we have sold out completely up there for a couple of years. The fact that the Chelsea allocation was sold ten days before the game seems to indicate that tickets for our matches will be shifting quicker than ever this season.
Both the Reading and Newcastle home games sold out a few days before kick off but the Stoke and Norwich games have sold out between three and four weeks before their dates. Signs, perhaps, that our Champions League success has made Chelsea an even bigger box office draw? The acid test may well come at the end of September when, on either side of the Stoke game, we have two more matches at home against Juventus in the Champions League and Wolves in the League Cup. If both these games sell out in quick time then we have truly arrived!!
The CSG continues to hear of more and more supporters booking their trips to Japan for the World Club Championship in December. We hope that sooner rather than later the club will release details of what sort of ticket allocation we can expect for our games in Yokohama. When Manchester United played in the competition recently they received an allocation of approximately 1300. Chelsea are guaranteed to play two matches in the competition and travelling supporters would appreciate the knowledge of going all that way with tickets in their luggage. Football is very popular in Japan and the games will almost certainly sell out.
Following the annual jolly for UEFA that surrounds the European Super Cup match, it’s hoped that it will more become more fan friendly and affordable when the show goes on the road beginning with next years game in Prague. We can only hope that arrangements to get people away from the stadium after the game are superior to those in Monaco where supporters of both Chelsea and Atletico were stuck in the local station for a long time and coupled with the alcohol ban in the area and a very poor performance on the pitch made for a bad day and evening for Chelsea fans.
Details have now been released by the club for this years consultative fans forum. As expected the club have made changes to the format of the forum and disappointingly they have decided to decrease the meetings from four to three for the season. They have also increased the number of domestic and overseas official supporters’ clubs representatives on the forum despite the fact that the club meet with them on a separate basis. It could appear that they are trying to get more “club friendly” reps on board who are less likely to criticise the club when necessary?
To finish how we started with some more praise for the club with the recent news that next years supporters’ football tournament at Cobham will take place in the summer, following the cancellation of this year’s one due to the club having other commitments. Well done and thanks once again to Graham Smith and Chelsea FC and we hope that the tournament in 2013 will be bigger and better than ever.
Posted by Clff Auger – CSG Juvenile Rep
Article from the latest edition (132) of the cfcuk fanzine
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