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to be made from this sport, and that perhaps those on the
doorstep of the club were no longer their
prime audience. (In fairness, this was no overnight realisation,
and football had been moving in this
direction pre-92, but perhaps the birth of the Premiership
serves as some sort of watershed.)
As more and money was (and is) pumped into the game, it moves
further away from the community
basis. Players earn more in a week than many fans will earn in a
decade, and perpetuate this gulf by
appearing more and more out of touch with the average fan whilst
clubs see fans as consumers
rather than a valued part of soul of the club. The matchday
experience is all about exploiting the
attendees for all their worth rather than facilitating an
enjoyable day out, whilst endeavours within
the community seem more like nods to bygone years than genuine
philanthropy. If one compares
the matchday experience and prices to the non-league game where
prices structures are in place
purely to keep the club afloat rather than make a profit from
the fans. The community aspect is both
more central, and better expressed amongst lower league clubs.
In many ways this is purely practical
as community it naturally easier to build between smaller groups
of people, but from both what Ive
observed, as well as collected through a recent research project
there is more of an effort within the
club hierarchy to maintain the historical community. In many
cases the community endeavours are
spearheaded by the manager, who sees their remit as bigger than
just on the field matters, but
instead as an ambassador for the club as whole. This is yet
another mirroring of the punk movement
where the lead singer could also the bands main promoter,
flyering, sticking flyers and fanzine
wherever they could find space.
In some cases, (such as FC United of Manchester and
AFC Wimbledon) the importance of community is
written in the very charter of the club. Perhaps these
two are the best examples of punk clubs within this
country. Both were set up as a mark of protest, or
reaction, to something that had happened to the club
they were previously connected to. This parallel with
punks heyday seems to stand-out, and whatever ones
view on FCUM, they must be applauded for doing
something about the issue impacting them.
Both these clubs share an affinity with perhaps the ultimate
punk club, St Pauli. In the mid-80s the
club shifted to take a firm position against the right-wing
nationalists and hooligans prevalent in the
football culture that surrounded them. Their remit has since
winded to tackle homophobia, racism
and sexism. Perhaps more than any other example, this is a punk
football team, one that is at odds
with the world around it and fighting the problems that it sees.
Joe Strummer would be proud, if he
cared about football.
Perhaps the man that encapsulates this more than anyone is the
great Danny Baker. Here is man
who was there in the middle of punks heyday, a man rooted in
musical folklore (despite not actually
killing Bob Marley), but a man who, more than many still carries
that punk aesthetic in his approach
to football. Danny is clearly a man who loves football, but a
man who realises that football is not
about money, but about an entirety of experience, the little
things that no-one notices (or one fans
wooden bow tie ) are equally as important as the 30 yard
screamer. For some reasons in the midst of
a world where football is defined by how close one is to a
Champions League place, or the contents of
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a clubs bank balance, the fact that Danny is still given a
platform to talk about the soul of the game
is reassuring. Punk was about maintaining the ideological heart
of music, in reaction to the world
around them and whilst Baker doesnt hold firm to an ideology,
his undermining of the norms of the
game that we are bombarded with, are certainly punk. Thoughts
remain with Danny.
It is the re-discovering of the previous ideology and life of
the game that marks this shift of fans
flocking down the league. Both myself and the editor of this
site have found ourselves watching far
less of our previously-beloved Villa to find a non-league
alternative, whilst blogs such as the Real FA
Cup and The Ball is Round are evidence of fans of clubs using
the internet to document a rediscovery
of the joys of lower league football. In fact the internet as a
whole mirrors the subversive
documentation of Punk. Many of our footballing fanzines (which
inspire so much of our great
football writing) were born or inspired in the Punk era and the
use of the internet reflects this and
allows space for further inspiration and challenge amongst this
growing community.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this comparison, is how this
ends. We see punk slowly dying
around us, and its not just with former punks advertising dairy.
Bands that would describe
themselves as punk play stadiums, old timers who wanted to smash
the capitalist system reform for
the money, and modern day alternative artists sell out their
songs for X Factor finalists to make
Christmas Number 1s, and yes, Im looking at you Biffy Clyro.
This is not to point fingers, but to
highlight that the world we lives in swallows up all that is
alternative, and yet has impact, and
packages it neatly into something commercially viable. Is there
a non-league equivalent, someone
that takes this alternative, community filled expression of the
game and transforms it into
something palatable to wider society? Worryingly I believe we
are beginning to see this. The new
ownership at Crawley has come in, with mysteriously sourced
money, and have begun to throw their
weight around in a way that we are more familiar with amongst
teams in a higher division. There are
also new foreign owners at Croydon (taking advantage of the
situation involving their previous
owner and cricketing match-fixing allegations), proof that small
corners of the our punk, non-league
game are being corrupted. In reality, this isnt a surprise. If
punk shows us anything its that our
culture will suck up and squeeze the life out of anything
alternative if it allows the opportunity to
make a profit. Let us just hope that Crawley proves the
exception rather than the rule. Punk lives on,
but This website is advertising butter, Im out.
