THE mass protest against ticket prices by around 10,000 Liverpool FC supporters last weekend seems to have struck a chord with football fans up and down the country.


Around a third of the Anfield faithful walked out in the 77th minute of Liverpool’s Premier League match against Sunderland in protest at proposals by the club’s American owners to price the best tickets for next season at £77 a match.


The size of the protest, the media coverage it generated, and the reaction among supporters of other Premier League clubs prompted a total re-think of pricing strategy by the Anfield hierarchy, with ticket prices now frozen for two years.


The protest certainly struck a nerve among football fans, and there is now talk of a mass day of action across Premier League grounds.


As people who know me will testify, I support two football clubs – Liverpool and Newport County (and I list them purely in alphabetical order).


That’s because when I first became interested (immersed might be a better word) in the game as a pupil at Fairwater Juniors in Cwmbran in 1976, Kevin Keegan was my hero and County were the first team I saw play live at what was then Somerton Park.


Not much has changed since, although Kenny Dalglish quickly usurped Keegan in my affections.


As a football fan, I can safely say the cost of watching the sport – at almost every level – is far too expensive.


At Premier League level, ticket prices are out of control.


They are driven by greed rather than competitive pricing.


The biggest income streams for clubs at the top end of the game are television rights, sponsorship, merchandise and hospitality.


From next season, Premier League clubs will be benefitting from a record £5 billion TV rights deal.


Yet that money will be spent on ridiculous transfer fees – we will undoubtedly see the first £100 million footballer in the next 12 months – and huge wages for players rather than passed down to loyal supporters in the form of ticket price reductions.


There is absolutely no doubt Premier League clubs could well afford to price match tickets at £25 and under.


Sadly, it will take supporters staging regular high-profile protests and boycotts like those seen in Liverpool and Dortmund over the last week for anything to change.


If you missed it, Borussia Dortmund supporters boycotted the first 20 minutes of a cup match this week and then bombarded the pitch with tennis balls.


And this in Germany, a country that is widely perceived to have the best ticket pricing structure in Europe.


The further down the leagues you go, the cheaper ticket prices become.


And yet many smaller clubs rely massively on match-day income to survive.
Newport County are a prime example.


They do not own their own ground, they do not benefit hugely from sales of food and beverages, or from hospitality and events.


For a club like County, ticket prices are a vital source of income.


Other clubs in League Two survive on smaller crowds, but do far better from non-football events and hospitality because they own their own stadiums.
Morecambe are the prime example of this.


But how do the big clubs get away with overpriced ticketing policies?
Loyalty is the answer.


If your regular petrol station starts putting up its prices, you are likely to look elsewhere for your fuel.


If the football club you support does the same, you don’t go and support another club with cheaper prices.


Clubs have a loyal audience and they are ruthless in their exploitation of that loyalty.


The only way that will change is through the kind of rebellions we have seen in the last week – but they will have to become bigger and more coordinated to have a real effect.