When the Premier League’s latest TV deal was announced last month, various interested parties perked up their ears. No doubt players and agents were salivating at the thought of £5.1bn trickling into their pockets, but they were not the only people in the game to see the potential uses for all that money.
Fans campaigned for lower ticket prices; employees at Premier League clubs called for the introduction of the living wage; and anyone involved with grassroots football was hoping the money would be passed from the Premier League down through the Football League and to the smaller clubs around the country.
Another interested party should be added to that list: disabled football fans. Only two Premier League clubs, Swansea City and Leicester City, are currently providing the number of wheelchair places that have been recommended by the Home Office. And fans who make it into grounds are often given a substandard service.
As David Bernstein, the former FA chairman and current president of the Level Playing Field disabled supporters’ campaign group, put it. “Disabled provision lags behind the work against other forms of discrimination and it has been very, very hard going to get the clubs to comply. The clubs don’t do it because disabled provision costs money, and they raise the issue of having old grounds. But given the money at the top of the game now, this is indefensible.”
The clubs most certainly have the money, but the fans are still left wanting. Disabled supporters are being placed with home fans at away matches; they are being put behind other fans, where they cannot see the action; and they are being placed behind pitchside cameras that block their views. In short, they are being given an inadequate service by clubs who have no excuses.
If you use disabled facilities at sports events, we want to hear from you. Have you been stuck behind a cameraman or a group of standing supporters at a match? Have you experienced good service or a blocked view? Have you struggled for tickets? Let us know in the comments section below or by sending us photographs of your restricted views via our GuardianWitness app.
