Overseas Gooners’ Opinions Are Worth As Much As Local Fans’

Twitter is the source of inspiration for most of my blogs and articles, it’s a veritable cornucopia of opinion and raw material to expound upon, debunk or generally muse over. Today it has inspired at least four different articles, although given my schedule (work, DIY, getting the garden ready for my son’s 2nd birthday party on Sunday, taking my son out to the aquarium for his birthday tomorrow – which also happens to be mine if you want to buy me a present, and baking his birthday cake – yes, I know, I’m an all-rounder, a bit of a catch really) I’ll be surprised if I get beyond this one.

So, yesterday, REDAction – the guys behind many admirable efforts to improve the atmosphere at the stadium including those wonderful bag displays – put out a tweet poll asking for opinion regarding introducing a drum to the North Bank. Unsurprisingly, this has divided opinion but as such polls are wont to do, it also brought out the worst in some of our fans. Some of the reactions were abhorrently xenophobic, borderline racist and elitist.

Post code elitism is one of the things I hate most about Arsenal Twitter, it’s up there with “I go every week mate, what about you?”. Passion and affection for Arsenal cannot be quantified by location, nationality, financial contribution or age. Going for 30 years doesn’t make you more passionate than someone attending for the first time – if that was the case the guy sat a few rows down from me at Swansea would have had to be in a coma to be showing less passion than the three guys in their 50s/60s next to me who I only realised were still alive at half time when they had the temerity to complain about the atmosphere at the ‘soulless bowl’.

Better than overseas fans? Not for me. No better, no worse.

I have examples for location, nationality and financial contribution as well. They are, of course, just anecdotal but what solid evidence is there to the contrary?

I am not a season ticket holder but I am a match going supporter who tends to sit in the North Bank when I go. Personally, I hate the idea of a drum. I think it’s gimmicky, will draw attention to just how bad our atmosphere can be at times and is the start of a slippery slope. You have a drum and before you know it you’ve got an entire brass band and you’ve become the English national team.

That said, I don’t think my vote on the issue should carry as much weight as someone who goes every week. I think it’s a complex subject and a Twitter poll can’t do it justice – and to be fair to the REDAction guys, they appreciate that it’s not the best way to gauge views.

Now, please don’t mistake the above for me agreeing that guys in Africa, Asia, America, anywhere else beginning or ending in a vowel or any country that isn’t England or living anywhere further than 1m from the Emirates aren’t allowed to have an opinion or their opinion counts for any less.

Many analogies were used by those accused of being prejudiced in their views to try to walk back what they said which only served to dig the hole deeper but here I go with one of my own. I believe a good analogy would be planning permission for a new building. Where you live, what you do etc does not exclude you from having an opinion on the design of that building but when it comes to getting permission it is the locals who will be consulted. As someone who occasionally sleeps over next door to where the proposed structure will be built I don’t get a vote but I can still tell my friends who live on that road what I think. They may disagree but that’s their too bad.

Now let’s say that this new building is going to be a club. Those closest to it really should have their concerns weighted above those of someone who lives at the other end of the street – they will be the ones who will have the music pumping through their walls loudest after all.

Someone who lives in another town can say it brings the area down and that is a valid opinion but should they get a vote? No, I don’t believe so.

And that is where this all blew up. People confused votes with opinions because a Twitter poll is open to anyone. Guys voting from 1000 miles away may affect the result but it’s a Twitter poll! It’s not a democratic vote with a legally binding outcome. It’s a f*cking Twitter poll.

To hijack it and make it about nationality or anything else is Thundercuntery of the highest order. To suggest that someone is not allowed their opinion because of where they live is ridiculously backwards. Are these people so dimwitted they don’t realise they can just dismiss the opinions of others? Surely it takes less effort and is less likely to cause a furore to just say “thanks for your opinion but I think it’s bollocks” than to actively advocate the limitation of the right to an opinion.

Just because they’re not in the stadium now doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future and that is why they are perfectly entitled to their opinion. If there was an actual vote or survey however, then of course that is best limited to the current occupants of seats at the stadium.

For what it’s worth, I think the drum is a bad idea but if those closest to where it will be are okay with it then my opinion doesn’t really matter that much. I’ll still have my opinion but it will have been ignored and that’s fine with me. After all that I am going to finish with an ironic “keep your bigotry to yourself, you fuckwits”.

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