It’s hard to believe that we are nearly half way through the football season and we hope you are enjoying following your team. Unfortunately we know that for a considerable number of disabled supporters watching their team play live at a game they choose is still not always possible.
This season Level Playing Field has received more complaints than ever about the availability and quality of tickets for disabled supporters. Expectations are higher, disabled people are increasingly prepared to speak out when they feel they are being treated unfairly and we are frequently being asked to mediate when communications have broken down between the club and the disabled fan.
Level Playing Field is often asked to retain the disabled fan’s anonymity and we are happy to do so. We recognise how difficult it can be to bring a complaint – especially when your own club is involved.
One of the most significant increases has been complaints received about the insufficient numbers of tickets available at Away games. It is not uncommon for some clubs (in the Premier League) to only offer Away fans 3 or 6 wheelchair user spaces. Week after week disabled fans are disappointed as they are told the demand has exceeded availability.
We need to know when the Away allocation does not meet demand so that we can feed the information back to the clubs and Leagues concerned. Several Disabled Supporters Associations have started to keep these statistics and are keeping us informed. Unless we feed the figures back to the host clubs, they won’t know just how big the problem is.
Please contact Level Playing Field in confidence by phone : 0208 621 2403 or email : info@levelplayingfield.org.uk