Liverpool must listen to fans over tickets, says Roy Evans

The Football Supporters’ Federation plans to convene a meeting of supporters from all 20 Premier League clubs in the next week to discuss the feasibility of a mass walkout. With their recent experience of orchestrated protest and a social media savvy that must make every Premier League PR team blush, they enact their mobilisation strategy and 10,000 head for the exit.

“The situation for the fans at this moment is not too easy”, the manager continued. Can you imagine how good the exposure for the Premier League would be if the teams came out and said every ticket at every stadium was being frozen?

While a widespread walkout may be hard to achieve, the FSF has also called on frustrated fans to air their grievances with the clubs’ sponsors, as many at Liverpool have done with Subway. One of the obvious sources of revenue they can manipulate is the cost of a match day ticket.

On Saturday, Liverpool fans stood and sang, calling the club’s owners greedy bastards and saying enough was enough after news was released earlier in the week that the club was raising top tier tickets to £77 next season. But while there is a never-ending hoard waiting to snap up any spare or leftover tickets, and if you cancel your season ticket, one of the thousands on the waiting list will step into your shoes, there is no sign of this ending any time soon, and it is the reason why clubs will always have all the power.

On the wheel spins – a cycle of cynical complicity – as premonitions of English football’s bubble bursting are dismissed as misguided prophecies of doom because we pay.

West Ham are cutting their season tickets by about 50 per cent half and Liverpool are increasing their most expensive tickets from £59 to £77. Fans who want to win would justifiably, riot. I can understand why they are furious. The implications for football fans around the country could be massive.

There was talk of how much it meant to the players after their 3-1 win over Manchester City as they celebrated together on the pitch before going to enjoy the moment with their supporters.

Chief executive Ian Ayre has defended the proposed price increase, arguing it relates to only a few tickets and claiming the club offer plenty of value for money in other areas of the ground.

We need to see more leadership from the Government, more leadership from the Premier League and more leadership from the clubs themselves.

The gulf between fans and the owners of many clubs is growing, particularly in clubs owned by individuals without a connection to the local community. No, probably not. Chelsea charge me £55 and I still go, but it doesn’t make it right.

Say what you like about the importance of fans but without them, football becomes 22 players running around a pitch and nothing more.

But Owen, who scored 118 goals in 216 appearances for Liverpool between 1996 and 2004, believes supporters of other clubs will be eager to voice their frustration as well.