By Omar Moore
You Orns!
Football clubs are nothing without the fans.
Outside the financing sources for a Club it is the fanbase that provides the combined economic largess that elevates and solidifies the fiscal fortunes of a Club. Merchandise, season tickets, concession stands are sources of fan spending power that are integral to a football club’s bottom line and solvency. Watford FC supporters have more power than they realize. Watford fans have economic power and must utilize it if they wish to see change at a Club that is now clearly not being run in the best interests of Watford town, the fanbase or the Club itself. The power of economic withdrawal is the most effective tool Watford FC fans have: to affect a Club’s bottom line.
The condition of the relationship between Watford Football Club and its fanbase has deteriorated over the last few seasons as some promises made by Club officials have not been kept and alienation of some Watford fans ensues. The Watford men’s first team, seemingly talented on paper, has been woeful the last two seasons. Communication from Watford FC to the Watford FC fanbase has broken down and at times been poor. The atmosphere at Vicarage Road Stadium, aka The Vic, continues to toxify as performances by the men’s first team decline or are non-existent.
Last Friday, Ismaila Sarr, scorer of nine goals so far this season for Watford, was greeted by boos by some home supporters when he was introduced as a substitute. In that same match goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann lost control of his temper and his flying kick caught a Huddersfield player late in the match and Bachmann was sent off. He refused to leave the field, throwing his some of his goalkeeping apparel on the pitch. A Watford physio had to restrain Bachmann and usher him off the pitch.
Perhaps the worst and most disturbing moment for Watford FC during Friday’s home defeat to Huddersfield was what happened in the stands. A Watford FC fan with a “Pozzo Out” banner was ejected from The Vic. The banner met Watford FC specifications and was free of offensive language. Yet on video footage dispersed on social media stewards could be seen violently wrestling the banner away from the supporter. This disturbing aggression and censorship meted out against a peaceful fan who merely expressed his frustration with a Club that has declined in its approach to some Watford fans marks a troubling episode at Watford FC, which self-proclaims as “The Original Family Club”.
The incident described here demands constructive action from the Watford FC fanbase. The social media venting (healthy or unhealthy though it may be) cannot and will not be enough by itself to affect change at Watford. Concrete non-violent action, peaceful action must suffice. Watford FC owner Gino Pozzo, scheduled to appear at a forthcoming supporters meeting, is running a Club whose financial shape is not the best. Questionable decisions have been made in spite of that financial shape, which only adds to the urgency that fan action requires. The language most understood by any business owner is the language of money. If Watford FC fans tomorrow stopped buying Watford kits and other merchandise and declined to renew season tickets and stayed home and watched the team on television, Mr. Pozzo would receive the message more loudly and clearly than anything else.
To reiterate: Watford FC fans have much more power than they realize and there are several different sensible strategies beleaguered Watford fans can employ. If Watford FC fans don’t wish to stop spending money with the Club they love it is incumbent upon them to offer constructive suggestions, solution and ideas on improving the Club. Venting as any football club fan does is important and easy. Offering solutions and constructive ideas and engagement is much harder. Some Watford fans are rightfully so upset that their best idea means that in order for change to come at Watford FC the owner has to go. The question in such a scenario however, always and forever remains: if Gino Pozzo leaves, who is coming in to take Watford FC over? The financial problems will remain. Furthermore, the culture of the Club will need to be transformed — and that won’t happen *overnight* either.
Peaceful protest must also remain a viable option for Watford FC fans who have had enough. Whether it is the economic withdrawal discussed earlier or the silent protest with properly specified and non-offensive language on banners, Watford FC fans who want a change in culture at the Club must be an integral part of that change. Whether home or away, fans must let it be known in a peaceful, passionate and respectful way that they are fed up with the declining fortunes, poor performances, broken promises and hostile treatment of some members of the fanbase.
Something must change. And Watford FC as a Club, an organisation and a going concern must confront itself. Gino Pozzo will hopefully take that first step in the aforementioned upcoming meeting — and Watford FC fans must offer suggestions for change. In these final few games of another toxic season Watford FC fans must be unafraid to come up with constructive ideas for change — and should continue to engage in economic protest and/or peaceful protest at The Vic, outside The Vic and at away games, including today at the CBS Arena in Coventry as the men’s first team takes on Coventry. These methods are further confirmation that Watford FC fans love this Club and are willing to hold the Club to account in order to save it from ever more troubling calamity.
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