Month: August 2019

Posted on

Fans for Diversity Awards

Nominations close this week for the inaugural Fans for Diversity awards, which will take place at the conference on 20th September in London.

They’re looking for recommendations of fan groups or initiatives that have done great work on diversity or inclusion – particularly in Leagues One and Two, Non-League and the Women’s game, but they want to hear about good work at all levels.

The nomination process is short and painless, and can be completed here. And yes, you can nominate yourselves – don’t be shy.

If you’d like to come along to the free event (they’ve got 200+ registrationsso far) it’s being held at Amnesty International’s HQ in London on 20th September, from 12pm to 4pm. You can sign up here.

Posted on

I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You Q&A

HCST caught up with former Trust Director and author Greg Whitaker to find out all about his new book…

1. What was the inspiration to write your memoir on football?

My main inspiration was Nick Hornby. Last year, I read his fantastic football-inspired memoir Fever Pitch and it struck a cord with me. I knew I’d never be able to write a similarly original book with such mass appeal. However, I thought I could give it a go. The past 20 years of Hull City’s history has been remarkable, but it’s been a story which had largely gone unrecognised in terms of the national interest. I thought if I could combine the story of the club’s dramatic rise – from bottom of the Football League to European football – with my own changing relationship with the modern game I love, there might be an interesting story in there somewhere. Luckily a publisher agreed!     

2. Tell us about the book?

I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You offers a personal, heartfelt yet tellingly critical survey of the changing world of football fandom. It provides an emotional insight into the modern game from the perspective of a bona fide fanatic who has experienced all the highs and lows of football’s last 20 years. With City at its core, I started writing this book for selfish reasons – almost as a form of cathartic therapy with the aim of better understanding my changing relationship with football, love and my hometown club. Yet, I hope the reader may be able to take something greater away from my story. While the memories I write about are clearly very personal to me specifically, I hope the exploration of the transforming face of football, and in turn my own changing relationship with my own passion, is relatable and at least of some interest to other fans.

3. You ask the question has our love of football developed into an addiction? Did you find the answer?

I like to think an answer to this question was broadly reached. Of course, the subjective and divisive nature of modern football dictates I would be foolish to give a certain answer one way or the other. However, readers of the book will likely be able to tell which side of the argument I eventually come down on.

4. Why should our members purchase a copy?

The book tells the story of a once fanatic football, and specifically Hull City, supporter who is now questioning his love for the modern game. The HCST was set up as an organisation designed to protect and represent loyal City fans in the complicated and murky world of modern football. I know I am not the only one who, despite still being fanatical about their football team, finds themselves dreaming and yearning for past days. Days when you were a fan because you loved football and your club unconditionally, and not just because it’s become a habit you cannot break for a fear of missing out on an unlikely return to the glory days. I know many members of the Trust feel the same way and I’d like to think my story rings true  with a lot of these fans. 

5. Where can fans purchase a copy?

‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love  With You’ is available in all good bookshops – WH Smith, Waterstones, Blackwells etc. It is also available online on Amazon or direct from the publisher’s website at pitchpublishing.co.uk. 

6. Hull City play a huge part in the book, when and how did your love for the tigers develop?

As I describe in some length in the book, my love for City started when my dad first took me to Boothferry Park in 2001. City were playing Halifax Town and our 3-0 victory represents the first live football match I ever witnessed. From then on I caught the bug, barely missing a home game for the next 15 years. I’m lucky enough to have witnessed City’s most successful ever decade during this period, but I’d like to think I’d have turned up regardless. Something happened on that cold autumnal day in 2001 and I’ve never looked back. Supporting City is a habit impossible to break. While the recent few seasons have seen me stop attending Home games all together, the love for the club has never diminished. I cannot wait for the day the club is under new ownership and I feel I can comfortably return to the KCOM as a week in, week out regular.  

7. What are your thoughts on City at the early stages of a new season?

I’m quietly very impressed with the start we’ve made. Another summer of complete upheaval and a spate of unproven players did have me worried, but I think we’ve found a good young manager in Grant McCann. That being said, I would take 21st place if it was offered now. Anything other than relegation would be a success in my eyes. Championship survival and a new ownership would prove a dream season for me. 

8. Can you name an all time Hull City XI? 

I’ve been incredibly lucky as a City fan, seeing some of the best players in the club’s history. I think I’d go with a diamond formation – 41212:

Myhill

Rosenior, Turner, Maguire, Dawson

Ashbee,

Barmby, Elliott

Geovanni,

Windass, Hernandez 

9. What lies ahead? Will there be more books? 

I love writing and am now fortunate enough to do it as a full time career. I’d like to think I certainly will write more books in the future. Will Hull City or football be the subject once again? Who knows? 

10. Finally if you could re-visit one Hull City match, which would it be and why?

Without a shadow of a doubt it would be Sheffield Wednesday away in December 2004. There were 8,000 travelling City fans in the Leppings Lane end that night, (depressingly a number not far off our average home attendances this season) and I was lucky enough to be one of them. After 19 years in the bottom division, it seemed like City’s biggest league fixture in a generation. Thanks to a Barmby screamer it was a night to remember. In the future, if I could experience a City atmosphere even half as good as the one that night I’d be a happy man. Incredible match.

Posted on

England’s Greatest Defender – Alfie Potts Harmer

Hull City Supporters Trust are pleased to assist with the book launch on Friday 16th August, 6:30pm at Waterstones in Hull City Centre.

A few words from the author below…..

I first heard about Neil Franklin from my Grandad, who started attending games at Boothferry Park before the start of the Second World War. Franklin joined Hull City in February 1951, upon completion of a four-month ban handed to him by the F.A. He stuck around in East Yorkshire for the next five years, playing in fewer than half of all the club’s games during that period due to a series of chronic knee injuries, but still standing out as the finest centre-half in the country and a total anomaly in the Second Division when fit.


Some time later, after I finished school and began writing about football as a potential career, I founded my own website called A Halftime Report. In the crowded world of football writing and sports journalism, A Halftime Report sought to be a source for all things weird and wonderful from football’s past, focussing and quirky and lesser-known tales from the history of the sport. I was reminded of that centre-half Grandad had told me about years ago, and began taking a closer look at Neil Franklin. The story seemed tailor-made for the site, and in the summer of 2015 I published an article entitled ‘A Career Destroyed in Six Matches’, looking at Neil and his misbegotten move to Bogota in 1950.

Pretty immediately it became one of the most widely-circulated pieces I had written, and a staff member at Stoke City even got in touch to say their chairman Peter Coates had read the article and wondered if the club could share it on their official website. Neil Franklin, it transpired, was Mr Coates’ favourite player when he first started attending games at the Victoria Ground. Although the article got a really warm response, there seemed to be a general thirst for more. You can never fully do a story justice in a 1,500 word article, but on this occasion it felt as though there was an awful lot more there just waiting to be unearthed.

Lots of people remarked that the story would make for an interesting film or book, and whilst I had no idea how to make a film, the idea of writing a book about Neil Franklin began to fascinate me. I spent a couple of months gathering up information and decided there was more than enough there to justify writing a book, but after months of unsuccessfully trying to contact the Franklin family I began to give up on the project. In January 2017, though, thanks to a combination of my girlfriend and Pete Smith at the Stoke Sentinel, I managed to get hold of Neil’s son Gary Franklin.

Two-and-a-half years on, it would be fair to say the process hasn’t exactly been painless, and there has been more than one occasion in which I thought it still wouldn’t happen. I’m delighted that the book is finished now though, and finally arriving on people’s laps ready to be read. The story of Neil Franklin is genuinely one of the most interesting and intriguing that I have ever come across, and it seems bizarre to me that over 20 years on from his death and 70 years on from when Neil was at the peak of his footballing powers, this is the first time his story has fully and comprehensively been told.

Posted on

Board Update

The Trust would like to an announce the following update on its Board members.

Firstly we would like to thank Richard Mathers who departs as Secretary. Richard has been Secretary for over 3 years and has worked tirelessly on various Trust projects whilst also being the key person in making sure the Trust’s rules and policies are adhered to. Richard has also gone to extraordinary lengths to attempt to communicate informally with the club over the past year.

Also departing the Trust Board are Ian Bunton and Bobbi Hadgraft. Ian has played an important role as part of the finance and membership working groups over the past 18 months whilst Bobbi has represented the Trust on local radio and social media.

All three depart the Board with our best wishes and we would like to thank them for their efforts on behalf of members and the wider fan base.

There are however three new faces joining the Trust. Firstly Jean Cannon will take over from Richard as Trust Secretary. Mike Raynor and Matthew Frampton also join the Board as co-opted Directors. We would like to welcome our new Board members and look forward to working with them.

We continue to work with the FSA who are pressing the EFL to seek dialogue with the Club on behalf of HCST, seeking acceptance of our reasonable compromise to allow Directors to participate in formal meetings with the Club and represent our members.

We also continue to work closely with the FSA on both National and International campaigns as well as ensuring HCST are represented at FSA meetings where we play an active role working with other affiliated supporters organisations, as well as being represented at their EFL Supporters Engagement meetings.

Posted on

Match Day Ticketing Prices

The Trust have been contacted by a number of our members asking for our views on the new MatchDay Ticketing Prices.

We would make the following observations:

We still have no concessions for Disabled fans as there were in 2010… – this issue is a priority for us and we will continue to challenge the club on it.

The Match Day Ticketing Price scheme seem very complicated to understand – compare this with other clubs pricing models which are very straightforward..

The price of a Match Day card is very high – we understand that under EFL rules the club must make a ‘charge’ for these cards, but to encourage casual fans wouldn’t it be better to price them at a nominal £1?

We welcome the return of ‘concessions’ but are concerned at the pricing for Juniors in areas other than the Family Stand – why can’t the Junior pricing be reflected in all areas? – For example it will cost £36 for a 2 year old to sit with their parents/grandparents in W5 against Reading… How does this pricing model compare to the ‘2010’ model which we were meant to be returning to?…

The pricing structure also has an impact on Away Fans – already a number of Blackburn fans have said that they will not pay £18 for small children to go to a Tuesday night game which will be shown on Sky. Ryan Hildred, a Blackburn fan has written to us with his thoughts – The full email can be read here. It will be a shame to see an empty North Stand after all the hassle involved in moving our fans out of there for the new season..

In relation to Item 5 we have recently written to the club regarding a pricing cap of £30 for away fans – similar to the cap imposed in the Premiere League which has recently been extended to cover the 2020/21 season. This is part of a wider campaign by the Football Supporters’ Association under the banner #AwayFansMatter.