I couldn't give a stuff what Alan Green thinks, it's my ticket and I'll leave early if I want to

By Ian Winwood

Published 15:15 12/03/10

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The award for patronising berk of the week this Friday goes to Alan Green, the outspoken commentator at 5Live. Commentating on the game between Arsenal and Burnley at the weekend, Green looked around the stadium early doors and was appalled at the number of people who had yet to take their seats.

“I’m sorry folks,” he said, “I don’t get your commitment to football.”

Personally, I couldn’t give a good God damn if Alan Green ‘got’ my commitment to football or not. But if the Ulsterman does care to try and gauge the worthiness of a team’s supporters, here is something he might like to consider.

Fans are the only people in a football ground that are not being paid to be there. The players are being paid, the managerial team is being paid, the programme seller is being paid, so are the stewards, so is the PA announcer, ditto the man dressed up as the mascot and, yes, the people doing the commentating for the radio.

The only people not being paid are those in the stands.

Now, when I go to a game – and I pay for my tickets, I don’t get them for free – I take my seat before the game starts and, no matter how heavily my team are losing (and sometimes they’re losing very heavily indeed) I stay until the end.

But the point is this. It’s my ticket, I paid for it. It’s my seat. If I want to pitch up at half past three and leave at ten past four then I can do that. It’s a free country.

Speaking of free, that’s what Alan Green’s ticket was. And the sound of someone who pays nothing to see games tut-tutting about the habits of those who do rings a sour note, regardless of his argument.