Southampton supporters have been up in arms of late about away fans in home areas at St Mary's, now the club has issued a statement to the fans about the measures it is taking and what it is doing in Block 1 in the Itchen Stand.
If there is one criticism that can be aimed at Southampton Football Club it is that it has consistently failed to communicate with it's own supporters over the past few years.
It has been good at issuing PR blurb about it's abysmal choice of kits this season, but in talking plainly to the fans and addressing their needs it has fallen down.
One prime example is the issues surrounding Block 1 in the Itchen, the club's own Saints Voice set up a few years ago to talk to the club and then communicate with the fans has failed miserably, that is not the club's fault, their intentions were good, the problem has been that with one or two notable exceptions aside, those on this panel have not understood the role that they are there to play, nor have they been visual to supporters to allow the fans themselves to get them to lobby the club on the issues.
As I said that is not the club it self's fault, but they have been slow to recognise at least publicly how inneffective it has been and remedy that by communicating with the fans not only directly but more often.
That has lead many to believe that Saints are unaware and doing nothing about the problems it currently has in it's own stadium, this is far from the truth and back in August i met with the club and communicated on this site some of our discussions, but they themselves said little and this riled up the fan base more . You can read this article using the link below.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/58226/saints-looking-for
The big issue for many is away fans in home areas, in essence this is a problem that has always been there and in truth is difficult for the fans to stop, to be blunt if you are an away supporter in a home section you have usually got there by one of two means, the first is that you have been bought a ticket by a Saints supporting friend or the second you are on the club's data base, perhaps because you live locally.
Personally, I don't have an issue with an away support getting a ticket in home areas as long as they comply with the unwritten code of a travelling football fan, that is if you have to sit in with the home fans, you don't wear any colours, you are not vocal in supporting your team and you don't stand up and cheer if and when they score.
If you comply with that then probably no one will know who you support and you will watch the game peacefully and without the fear of ejection, indeed those next to you will probably not be bothered even if they find out you support the opposition.
The issue is with those who make themselves known and they fall into two categories, those that know the score and like to make a scene and those who don't usually go to a game and are unaware that these days you can't just wear your colours in home sections, in short they are armchair fans taking a rare chance to see their team.
But those in glass houses should not throw stones, when we travelled to take on Wimbledon in a do or die game to stay up in May 1999, we took over Selhurst Park, although we had 10,000 tickets officially, the other three sides of the ground were full of Saints supporters who made themselves known throughout the game.
To a lesser extent in May 2011 when we travelled to Plymouth, despite the rest of the ground being full of empty seats including blocks next to the away section, they refused to sell us extra tickets for a game that eventually did secure us promotion to the Championship, we had a lot in the home sections that day, those that did reveal themselves were attacked in some sections and others stayed quiet.
We didn't complain about away supporters in home sections back then, we glorified it.
The issue though is usually only with the Big Six clubs although rarely with Manchester City funnily enough, they are the ones with the fans a little more locally to us, although Everton have also been a problem in recent years.
The problem has been made worse by the impression that Saints are doing nothing to stop it, truth is they can usually do little before the event other than refuse entry to those wearing shirts and as i say that is usually the armchair fan who lives locally and takes his son to a game with their Chelsea shirts on etc, most are in hiding till their team score and then bedlam takes over.
To be fair in most parts of the ground they are removed without much fuss, the people are not aggressive and the worst they leave to is a bit of verbal abuse.
But for those who inadvertently get tickets in the Northam or more recently the Itchen North, they have found a much warmer welcome and there has been some disorder take place.
Now however the club has spoken out about the issues it has faced and what it has been doing to tackle them.
"We, along with all Premier League clubs, are aware of ongoing issues surrounding away fans trying to access seats in home areas.
"All ticket sales are subject to checks to look at postcodes of purchasers and throughout the sales journey, we have prevalent messaging that tickets are for home fan use only.
"This has been highlighted even further this season and we have several games where tickets are only available to those with previous booking history.
"However, we are also mindful these parameters restrict legitimate new Saints fans from attending these games.
"We have increased awareness and trained staff to be extra vigilant on this issue.
"So far this season we have ejected over 120 fans within the stadium itself, and there has also been a number of fans turned away when collecting tickets.”
This is good news, however the 120 ejected highlights that for all the precautions the club does take, they are ultimately never going to be able to prevent every away supporter entering the ground, lets be blunt here, these are probably those that have got their tickets from Saints supporters themselves and to be honest it is a sign of the times that this cannot be done, although these times have been with us for many years now.
The club have also commented on the issues that have led to the closure of Block 1.
"The measures taken in Block 1 have stopped the issues of movement towards opposition fans and associated behaviour, which the Safety Advisory Group are satisfied with.
"This solution will remain in place for the foreseeable future whilst the club considers alternative measures so that we can look at re-opening the block.”
This is a more serious matter as i alluded to back in August, whilst can see why many would consider this in the main just creating atmosphere, it has led to more worrying issues and the Everton game that saw almost 30 missiles thrown between Block 1 and the away section was not about the odd away fan in home sections.
Yes the Everton supporters responded with enthusiasm and could be held equally to blame, but the ground Safety Advisory Group who licence the Stadium are not quite seeing it that way and perhaps rightly so, they see it as something that could lead to serious injury.
From this perspective I know the Police and club itself have worked hard to sort the issue out, neither wanted the closure of Block 1 or indeed block 2 and as i mentioned in ky article back in August were working hard to find solutions, sadly the Everton game was a step too far and the club had to act, in truth it has been proactive rather than let the Safety Advisory Group be reactive,