From When Skies Are Grey:
Fulham FC: historically a yo-yo team acquainted with all four English professional divisions, this west London club currently play above that status thanks, largely, to the munificence of multi-millionaire foreign ownership.
Being a rich man’s plaything is hardly going to generate good will towards a football club though.
Nor is any sympathy vote coming from the fact Fulham’s top-flight attendances are massively inflated by Premier League tourists from Australia, South Africa, the United States and Asia, as well as by home-grown soccer browsers from across the metropolis.
However, what softens the focus where Fulham are concerned, in the eyes of many neutrals at least, is their stadium. Craven Cottage makes them, at first glance, a good old-fashioned football club. It affords Fulham a worthiness they don’t necessarily merit as a Mohamed Al-Fayed sporting project.
Where this relates to Everton is in the benefit of having a stadium that appeals to the soul of the football fan. Because any ‘ah’ factor that Craven Cottage imparts can be multiplied several times over in the case of Goodison Park. And in the modern context of so many identikit new arenas, to call home a ground that breathes history, tradition and atmosphere can be a major advantage.
A bit harsh, I think.
The only thing that has inflated Fulham’s home attendances of late has been the hard work of Fulham’s marketing staff and a fairly progressive ticketing policy. I haven’t spotted loads of Aussies (and being half-Kiwi I’ve got a good ear for an Antipodean accent) around the ground lately, but if there are thousands of them coming now it might be prompted partly in the arrival of Mark Schwarzer. Fulham do have a South African as well as a couple of other first-teamers from Africa and their American fanbase has been growing ever since the arrival of the American David Beckham.
There are a couple of remarks about Fulham’s largesse under MAF, whose millions fuelled our rise from the old Second Division to the Premier League. It bugs me that people conveniently forget that he bought a club on the way up as Fulham had secured the future of the Cottage and gained promotion the season before he bought them off the Muddymans. Nobody remembers that he got his first major decision, dumping Micky Adams in favour of Ray Wilkins, wrong. Yes, Al Fayed’s has been a key factor in Fulham’s revival, but it isn’t the only one. Money doesn’t guarantee success – and he hasn’t been pumping it in with regularity in terms of player acqusitions since he fell out with Jean Tigana.
Fulham’s heritage is often mentioned in the same breath of Craven Cottage, which is understandable, given that the ground features one of Archibald Leitch’s creations in the Stevenage Road stand (now named after the club’s finest player Johnny Haynes). But Fulham’s history is not just limited to our ground. There’s Haynes and a host of other fine players from the 60s and earlier, the fact that we’re the oldest surviving side in London and remain the humble club by the Thames: not pretentious and always friendly to the visitor, though not too welcoming on the pitch given our much improved home form.
The thing the writer omits in his haste to talk about how Goodison Park might be the English enquivalent of Fenway Park is Fulham’s recent business tie-up with the Fenway Sports Group, of which we’ve heard very little of late. Still very interesting to see how others see us though.
Not tourists – we live here!!! Lots of Aussies (me), Kiwis and Safa’s live in and around Fulham. Most of us love live sport and have always gone to live football (Aussie Rules, Rugby League or Union) so it is only natural to head down to the Cottage. We go to a Fulham game because we can get tickets (as opposed to the dark side down the road) and next thing you know we all have season tickets and are as fanatical as the bloke who grew up round the corner.
Thanks Lamby. That was a point, given my heritage and my friendly Australian neighbours, that I wanted to make but missed off my original piece. Nice to know that you’re enjoying coming to Fulham.
Take no notice, please, of any percieved belittling of FFC. It’s just jealousy. We’d love a rif=ch bugger to buy us out so we could come close to cracking that Sky 4.
Oh wait. ; ‘Not quite rich enough’ I hear you say? Well ditto, in Spades. Most sane Evertonians admire what has happened at Fulham, just as we admire what the Kenwright – Moyes regime has achieved at Everton. We both follow ‘small clubs’. We both know there ain’t too much spare cash floating round, we both admire very astute managers, and we both love the stadia our teams play in.
If it isn’t Everton, I can’t think of a club I’d rather crack it than Fulham
Nancy – Everton are not, and never have been a ‘small club.’ I am not an everton fan but to call them this is very disrespectful, to their history and their sizeable attendance figures.
To the op – I don’t believe the piece from the everton website is belittling fulham, rather celebrating the fact that we have a fantastic, unique and ‘pretty’ stadium, unlike the soulless bowls we see up and down the country. Whether we like it or not, we are where we are down to the investment from MAF, and I am pleased he came to our aide when we needed him most.
p.s – We do have a lot of tourists visiting us, heck, we even have a neutral section of the ground. Why would we have this if we were not profiting from ‘passing trade’ so to speak?! The guy who says ‘we live here!’ Good for you, the more matchday income we can generate from anyone who has a love for sport and wants to spend their hard earned on fulham is fine by me. No need to be so touchy though, if you live here you’re not a tourist, that much is obvious, so there was no need for the comment really was there?!
Nancy (if that is your real name!): Thanks for the kind words about Fulham. As I commented on WSAG, Moyes has done a terrific job and Kenwright, though I know some Evertonians snipe at him for underinvestment, has helped to stabilise the club.
Jon Boy: There were a couple of snide digs at Fulham in that article – ‘playing above their status,’ ‘rich man’s play thing,’ ‘Mohamed Al-Fayed’s sporting project’ and the suggestion that any ‘any “ah” factor that Craven Cottage imparts can be multiplied several times over in the case of Goodison Park’. Then there’s the predictable crack about our support.
As for Lamby’s comment about being Australian and supporting Fulham, he’s entitled to say that. He’s a citizen of the Commonwealth and therefore able to live here – and even qualify through residency should he wish – and I think his main point that his love of sport, engrained in the Australian pysche, prompted him to search out a football team to watch. I certainly don’t think he was being touchy.
Are we not playing above our status? Having only played 12 seasons of top flight football before our premier league debut in 2001, does that not indicate where we have come from, where the majority of our history lies? I am sick of the attitude of the new fulham fan. We as a club, have become arrogant. Drunk at the mearest sniff of success. When you have supported the club for as long as I have, having taken in some of the worst games in the clubs history, it makes you appreciate where we are, but also allows you to be mindful of what could happen, because it’s happened before!! All the statements in the article are true, whether we like it or not and I think this touchy arrogance is blinding you to the simple facts.
I think he is being touchy. You do not need to repeat what he’s said by the way, that will be twice the same stupid point has been made!! Just to clarify HE LIVES HERE, HE IS A CITIZEN, NOT A TOURIST, THEREFORE THE ARTICLE IS NOT TALKING ABOUT HIM, HENCE HIM BEING TOUCHY!! Hope we are clear on this now and no repeating of basic facts is needed.
I read the WSAG article and I’m an Evertonian but I had to read your reply and I honestly don’t think it was a dig at Fulham. I don’t think you’ll find an Evertonian who has a problem with Fulham.
I thought it was more about our new stadium shenanigans and the fact that both Everton and Fulham are mixing with the top teams in what away fans loving refer to as “shitholes”.
Sorry to keep infesting your board, but Jon Boy, you just didn’t get the Rafa reference, now did you? Well, why should you I suppose. You’ve always got Harrods. Go have a nice afternoon tea.
And Pablo, they might call it a shithole, but most awayers love the place precisely because it IS a proper football ground. Just like I really enjoy Craven Cottage. Unlike, for example, the Theatre of Screams, or Pikey Bridge. The RS may find this out if they ever do build the IKEA stadium in Stanley Park.
Rave on Fulham, I think most of us like you
It wasn’t meant as derogitory. I love Goodison Park in the same way I imagine Fulham supporters love Craven Cottage. I’d take it any day over City of Manchester stadium, Emirates, Old Trafford…
I’m saying it doesn’t matter what away fans think, we’re up there with them in what THEY describe as shitholes…
Nancy drew – Nope, missed that one i’m afraid. Although why you are attacking me after I defended your club, and the original article is beyond me :-\