Swansea City will travel on Friday to play Hull City in an early kick off the next day (12:30pm) at the MKM stadium. Hull are based within the East Riding of Yorkshire. The old medieval wool port with far better access since the building of the Humber bridge in 1981 has housed a football team since 1904.
Near rivals are Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe United.
British politician and philanthropist, William Wilberforce is from the city, he passed away in 1833. He stood alongside the English working class and resisted taxes on the poorer families of the area. The other sport played in Hull is rugby league which stretches back to 1882 (Hull Kingston Rovers) and could be considered the bigger sport in the area. Hull FC hold the title of oldest rugby league club in the city, founded in 1865. Both football and rugby league has fluctuated in popularity over the years, Hull FC and Rovers are Super League sides at this moment in time.
Hull FC RL games when played at the MKM (Hull FC share the ground with Hull City) have attracted bumper crowds. For Hull City their biggest attendance was just after world war 2 when fifty thousand crammed into Boothferry Park for a game against Rotherham United that Christmas in 1948. In football rivalry terms the Swans and Tigers had a fierce rivalry over around five years from the very late nineties into the early part of this century. The latest issues between the fans came about outside the MKM last year when both sets of fans clashed after two Swans fans were isolated and attacked by fifteen to twenty Hull fans.
We covered a brief report of this rivalry last year.
The conclusion to this rivalry back then was in 2002/2003 when a large number of Swansea City supporters turned up on a council estate in a pre arranged meet. After that, let us just say Hull didn’t fancy the rivalry to continue. Still boys will be boys eh ?
Of course this weekends fixture is for the hardy fan, the Swans will leave the city very early in the morning on Saturday. Hardy souls indeed, and when you look at the distance, it’s a real issue that Swansea face for each away game, not just this one.
Plymouth away, Sheffield United away, Sheffield Wednesday away have all been midweek fixtures so far this season. Now we have Hull City away which without traffic should take eleven and a half hours to get there and back. It will be a lot more you can wager that. That’s driving from Swansea (return) on the busiest driving day of the year. How thoughtful of the EFL ! At least try and manage one of the clubs with the highest distances to travel more fairly. These midweek fixtures and now this one presents an inconsiderate and shocking state of affairs for fans. Are the EFL trying it on ? It’s no good stating we all have to play these fixtures, but midweek or on the busiest day of the year ?
Or you could travel by train ? The £73 reduction is a split ticket but even this ticket and the split reduction ticket come with disruption warnings and a bus connection. (See below) Fancy it ? You could have a week in the sun for these prices. Yes, there are discount cards, but how many people have them ? Or can afford the extra cost ? We are talking about fans from an economic area that is suffering.
Madness.
There is very little done to aid the football fan these days, and we include footballers on huge wages as well. It is rare if at all we see the travelling fan thought about by the players they travel vast distances to watch. New board member, Jason Cohen paid for some Swans fans taxi fares to Luton and back the other week, and was at the game against Sunderland last Saturday. Despite people talking about his low net worth, he is one of the main influencers on the Swans board. The club also have some incentives in place for January games which is welcome. But asking for some consideration by the EFL for Swansea City and a couple of other affected sides seems impossible. So, as a result we see these ridiculous fixtures continue to affect travelling fans. And Swansea have a very loyal fanbase. However, asking them to travel nearly six hundred miles for a 12.30pm kick off on the busiest Saturday of the year, and a few days before Christmas day is absurd and very questionable.
It’s not as if this is a one off this campaign. It’s actually thirty five percent of Swansea away fixtures this season, and of course we haven’t even included Derby away in midweek. Nobody is looking for favouritism or any advantage but all we have here is disadvantage. The human touch for those engaged in these Championship fixtures, and it isn’t just Swansea City is left wanting. The EFL have no idea the lengths fans go to across the country every week. It’s another example where the supporters come a distant second, and the clubs rely on their genuine support no matter the time, weather or distance.
For the many of you travelling on Saturday remember, it’s about you as well.