This present season our emotions never changed as abruptly, as hectic, as monumental as they did during the last 15 minutes of the CL match between Liverpool and Arsenal. In the dying seconds of the match one of us received an SMS from a friend who is an Arsenal supporter. He made it very clear that if you did not see the injustice of it all, you should rather take up a non-existing interest for women’s curling. The hellish pain this person went through, a Liverpool supporter could surely not understand.- By Daniel Kjelstrup(me) and Jarle ReinertsenWe have not won the league since the Fire of Ålesund, and in light of this an Arsenal supporter found it the right point in time to teach a Liverpool supporter what real pain is? It is during times like these that we think it is necessary to stop for a minute to reflect a little on the ownership situation of our club.
PossibilitesWe can only sell our inheritance once, chanted Rick Parry. The DIC process had matured over time, at least that was the impression Parry and Moores wanted to give. The scepticism only increased when Gillett kicked into gear right before the finish line, in the form of a dark horse by the name of Hicks. Could this possibly turn out okay?
These two gentlemen charmed us with their random promises, futuristic stadium plans, but the only thing that was carried through, if we do not count the Torres signing, was a quick due-diligence and some club emblems on cowboy boots.
In spite of bombastic speeches, two gentlemen had been brought in in record time. The uncertainty of whether or not they had understood the depth of their investment was there. The apprehension originated from the fear of the Americans thinking they had bought a brand name, and not a football club - Liverpool Football Club. They had experience from American teams, but over there the owners can just move the whole lot to a different city if they feel like it. So is not the case with our club.
Leadership Liverpool has tried a two-fold management once before. Evans and Houllier reigned together for a short period of time. A shared responsibility of the sporting side of the club did not work, which the board took the consequences of. A board that consisted of, amongst others, Moores and Parry. At which point in time did they think that a form of management that did not work on the sporting level would all of a sudden work on the administrative level? It is frightening how quickly this experience was labelled as worthless and fair words about inheritance were sacrificed on the altar of the dollar. It did not seem to matter much after all, as long as one was sufficiently paid.
Anyway, this is not the most interesting issue. If we stop at the model of management that Liverpool is run by, we stop at the core of this protest action that will take place in Oslo in August.
When Rafa is looking for players he does not give a damn whether the player has a household name or not. He does not go after player names, but the qualities of the player. We have a manager who loves the possibilities that a player gives, but maybe the most important is the mentality of the player. He must be a winner who really wants to play for Liverpool. With this approach we have seen a Liverpool team with an indomitable ”never say die” attitude.
It is disturbing that we are probably not going to win anything at all unless the administrative management also holds the same winning mentality. We rely on such a ”never say die” attitude also in the board room. Notorious PR stunts do not help much. A Texan who keeps saying he will Hicks things does not help much. Two managers who have not spoken to each other for a long time do not help much, nor have they wanted to sit next to each other.
Unnecessary statements in the media have created chaos in the board room, a divided management, a source of concern for supporters and not to mention a Rafa who does not feel safe in his position.
“A pity that the media does not focus on our fantastic sporting results” said Carra at the time of Liverpool ‘s great mid-season. The owners are simply taking the focus away from what is the most important. As Shankly so nicely put it:
“At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques”. Why is this also not the case at the present day? The reporters now say they communicate better with each other. Surely that’s not asking too much. We will not win the league with such a playground mentality in the board room.
One night in AugustWe think there are many reasons why the supporters are discontented with Gilette and Hicks. For some it may be the lack of player signings. For others it may be the uncertainty associated with the stadium, but for us the main reason is miss management. No matter what the reasons behind the dissatisfaction are, that it is in fact present has fully surfaced in the last couple of weeks.
Ever since the very idea of a protest action was launched on kopforum the response has been tremendous. A group was founded on Facebook, fast approaching 300 members. The feedback we have received through different channels in Norway, but also from Liverpool, shows that such a protest is justified. People in Liverpool write:
-You are spoiling us rotten.
Imagine, finally we have the possibility to show that we, the Vikings, are not weak. In contrast to the Americans, we care, and we always have. Traditions, solidarity and humour have made Liverpool’s supporters world famous.
We want our beloved club back.The only complaint has been whether or not match time should be used for such an action. We understand the scepticism when it comes to taking time out of the match itself for such a protest. We are also aware of the fact that it exceeds the minutes used to honour the 96. However, this is, after all, an insignificant friendly match, in another country. A small country which, fortunately, is inhabited by nearly 30,000 Liverpool supporters. Now, none of us have any ambitions of taking on the role of an instigator. The point is that it’s high time to stand up and say that enough is enough. To succeed it is imperative that this action uses valuable match time.
We hope as many as possible will support this action. We hope to see many of you at Rockefeller and we hope to see many of you at Andys before the match. Most of all, we hope that VG Nedre and the rest of red Ullevål speak with Liverpool’s voice throughout the match, but also with one voice the first ten. This is because Hicks and Gillett have spent over 1 year proving that they are totally incompetent as directors of a football club. They have shown us what real pain is like. Maybe it’s time someone introduced them to women’s curling?
Programme:When this is done we also have a secondary responsibility to give our team extraordinarily singing support both during the match and beyond, but also during half-time.
Inside the stadium, we do as follows:
1. We hang our banners up in good time before the match begins - they hang throughout the match.
2. We sing non-stop for 10 minutes the following songs
Song 1:Lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzw1pB0PtbwThey don't care about Rafa!
They don't care about fans!
Liverpool Football Club -
is in the wrong hands.Song 2:Tune: "We've won it 5 times"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClLrwE3__1Y&feature=related
Get out of our club.
Get out of our club.
You lying bastards,
get out of our club!We end this protest action sequence by going directly from “get out of our club” to “we won it five times” (sung to the same tune).
When the protest is over we will sing "the usual" songs until overtime. Here is a list of the most commonly used songs:
http://liverpool.no/forum/t/2624.aspx3. 90 mins +: YNWA
Rules during this protest action:-Pyro effects should
NOT be used
(fireworks etc.).-Burning of banners shall not occur.
-Remember that we represent Liverpool FC.
-Otherwise, keep it the Liverpool way!
We encourage everyone to bring their own effects, like banners, scarves and flags.
We will meet at Andys in Stortingsgata before the match to create a good atmosphere!
Welcome!
-I'm out-
