Simon Hill
I was involved as a personal individual in organising the protest with representatives of the two fans groups and The Gooner fanzine (8 of us in all). I paid for the print run set up and first 1000 copies of the A3 posters so others could add run on' copies if they wanted and I distributed 1000 with my daughter on the Arsenal tube approach road to the stadium with some help from a friend. I have never done anything like this before.
We carefully positioned ourselves between two parked cars so I had the road on my side and my daughter had the pavement where the stalls all set up on her side (we were by "Sweets, any 2 for a pound"). This spot offered some protection and kept us out of people's way whilst ensuring we were visible and audible to fans walking up to the ground.
We offered free banners and asked those taking them to display them during the 12th minute and at the end of the game and to support the team during the match. We proffered no reasons for the protest nor targets for change and if challenged just replied "it's a peaceful protest sir" or looked to the ground and stayed silent.
We started at 3.50 and finished at 5.15 in time to get to the game having handed out all bar 10 of the 1000 which we took with us to our own seats in the North Bank upper.
During that time, we were largely in good spirits with lots of laughter and banter between us, in no large part due to the Arsenal Gentleman's poster proposals but we held short of singing the "I'm the Arsenal War Chest” song. The happy faces together with the fact it was a white haired man with his pretty young daughter made us very non threatening.
What struck us both afterwards was the fear. We all know 50%+ of our crowds are the over 45's and the vast bulk just strolled by and gawped or pointed and chatted blandly.
I had a banner hung round my neck and received 7 or 8 very strong verbal assaults including one from a group of eight or so I just avoided looking at and stayed quiet until they had passed. At that moment I felt like John Snow in Game of Thrones and feared I would go the same way...My daughter had 4 or 5 foul verbal assaults and one man who screwed a poster up in to a ball and threw it in her face. Our friend from The Gooner had his box of banners kicked in a couple of times during the 30 minutes or so he spent helping us on the exposed pavement on the other side of the street.
People were clearly scared to take them and even though I said “free banners” people kept asking how much they were. Often if 2 or 3 came to get a banner for themselves or their friends, others quickly joined in so 20 or 30 banners would go in seconds and then nothing would go for minutes at a time. People swept in like schoolboys buying condoms at a chemist or a gentleman buying a top shelf magazine and were quick to come and go, clearly nervous. That said we often had verbal support with no taking of a banner.
The bulk of the takers were 16 to 24's and under 16's with their dad. The other third were the full cross section of match goers; older people, young couples, older couples, overseas fans and quite a few away fans, even five city fans attending the game in a corporate box but proportionately, we were missing the over 45's.
Inside the ground, the mood was good but there was a lot of empty seats (5-7000 maybe) that I would like to claim as protestors as the bulk of my friends who are season ticket holders have been boycotting games since the Swansea debacle in silent protest as what else can they do....
At the start of the game we gave 6 of our last 10 posters to immediate neighbours and during the 12th minute protest we all sang “Arsenal we love you”, both protestors and those who did not approve alike. The “One Arsene Wenger” chant that followed was sung and booed in equal mix to my ears but we didn't join in for either side nor did we join the muted boos at half time, many of which seemed to emanate from the “One Arsene Wenger” song singers....
At half time and during the second half, the Arsenal Gentleman's Giroud poster attracted much attention as dear old Oliver proceeded to head and knock the ball in any direction but at said goal and prompted one wag to suggest Mesut should borrow the ref’s spray can and spray up a helpful arrow on the grass for your man. In short, the mood remained light.
That said, if Norwich had managed to get any of the goals they deserved I suspect the mood would have turned rancid very fast. The crowd was very edgy for the last ten minutes after Alexis was substituted and stormed off down the tunnel but thankfully Cech stayed strong and we won..
As to the impact of the protest, well before the Club and media look at the number of banners held up in silent protest and think, “oh, they don’t want change”, can I just emphasise:
• We are a nation that don’t do protest, especially an individual protest with banners surrounded potentially by hostile non-protestors. These sorts of protests are normally mass groups and the domain of Trade Unions, students and passionate radicals. It is not the British way to hold up a banner and draw attention to oneself and there was a real sense of fear emanating from many of those who did choose to get involved. So don’t think the silent majority are all on the Club’s side.
• Those 5000 empty seats are a protest too. A protest from fans so disheartened at the prospect of effecting change at their Club that they have done the only other thing open to them and elected to boycott games (either reselling their seat on ticket exchange, or not and leaving it empty)
• Only 3000 banners were printed up for distribution. If there had been more to give out, and the distribution points publicised in advance, I suspect there would have been more held up.
