Give me the world’s smallest violin

I don’t know about you but I am sick to the back teeth of football supporters who bleat constantly about how they are being ripped off by UEFA, the airlines, hotels and, presumably burger vans, as they seek to attend the two European football championships that are being competed for by ‘English’ clubs. “They are ripping us off,” they complain, to which I am always tempted to reply, “No one is forcing you to go.”

I am not an active supporter of any of the flour clubs in the final, although I very much like Liverpool for reasons I am not entirely sure about. So, I ventured to their website and took a cursory glance at how tickets for their Champions League final against Spurs could be obtained. To paraphrase, don’t bother applying unless you have been to every single Champions League fixture, home and away, this season.

It strikes me that the only people who will be eligible and indeed able to buy tickets will be the more affluent supporters. Your average punter probably finds it difficult enough to afford a season ticket, never mind travel regularly on expensive flights, stay in expensive hotels and buy expensive tickets. And there’s eating and drinking on top of that. While I admire and pity the more obsessive supporters in roughly equal proportions, I find it hard to feel sorry for them if they are desperate to get ripped off.

My solution is simple. If you don’t want to get fleeced, then don’t go. Watch it on telly instead. And just remember that every single supporter who allows themselves to be ripped off provides ample justification to those doing the ripping off to do the same thing all over again next year.

The trouble with that argument is that some fans will always take the place of those who either cannot afford to be ripped off or those who can, but choose not to be.

When millions of people, including children, live in poverty, and scratch around food banks in order to avoid starvation, I am not going to shed a tear at people who wallow in a pool of self-pity as they pay over-the-odds in order to get to a football match. Give me the world’s smallest violin. It won’t make me cry.