Our Government hated football fans in the 1980s, and they’ve got the same contempt for us now – Simon Carter

To admit you liked football in the mid-1980s was a good way to identify yourself as some kind of social pariah.

All these years on, I have (somewhat reluctantly) come to the conclusion that the current Tory Government is contemptuous of us as well. How else can you explain the continuing ban on supporters attending games in the top six tiers of English football?

Since early July, I have been able to visit pubs and restaurants. Since late July, I have been allowed back into the gym.

If I wanted to, I could have attended events at the Kings Theatre. I can go online and book tickets for the Dick Whittington panto in December (each performance limited to a socially distanced audience of 400).

I can book tickets for events taking place at the Chichester Festival Theatre, which will be performed in front of a capacity of just under 50 per cent. Bars and cafes will be open there as well.

I can book tickets for events at The Spring Theatre in Havant and The Groundlings Theatre in Portsea, and of course the Royal Albert Hall is reopening for concerts soon. Crowds of over 3,000 - all no doubt using public transport - will be welcomed.

All that is Good News, and I hope the arts and culture lovers respond by snapping up all the available tickets. I hope they all have a great time, and I hope they’ll spare a thought for the tens of thousands of football lovers who are being denied doing what they enjoy. I doubt it, though.

So, 400 people in the Kings Theatre, but not a single football fan allowed into Wembley - capacity 90,000 - for last Thursday’s England v Wales international.

Not one supporter allowed into Manchester United’s Old Trafford - capacity 75,000 - but 3,000 allowed into the (indoor) Royal Albert Hall. I could go on, but I’ve made my point.

A petition aimed at changing our inept Government’s mind regarding football fans at ‘elite’ stadia quickly gained the 100,000 signatures it needed to spark a Parliament debate. But a lot of damage has already been done.

I have previously mentioned in this column the farcical fact that Havant & Waterlooville (sixth tier of English football) are grouped together with the Premier League clubs as ‘elite’ sport. Hawks - whose weekly player wage bill was around £7,000 last season - are lumped in with clubs who pay their superstars hundreds of thousands a week.

Probe deeper and the farce becomes ever more evident.

Hawks have to play their home matches behind closed doors. But Portsmouth’s Women’s team, who are playing their home games at the same ground this season, are allowed a maximum crowd of 600 for their opening match, rising to a maximum of 1,200 for subsequent fixtures. At the same ground, lest we forget.

Hawks have yet to receive any Government financial aid, but everywhere you look bills need paying. The cost of referees and linesmen for their first three home games of the new season, for example, will be over £1,200.

The club - and others like them - have done everything they have been asked by Government in recent months with regards to making their grounds Covid-secure. Theatres have no doubt done exactly the same, but at least they can now welcome back some crowds. At least they can have some income for their indoor events.

So go on, tell me - tell me I’m wrong. Tell me our Government aren’t favouring their own - the Royal Albert Hall-going culture vultures - over football supporters. Tell me I’m paranoid, that their policies are based around a heady cocktail of science and common sense. Tell me why football grounds should remain empty while you can go and shout ‘he’s behind you!’ at Dick Whittington.

Tell me why I can go to the Westleigh pub just outside Havant’s ground and watch (indoors) a stream of a home league game, but I can’t stand in the fresh air 10 metres away and watch the game actually taking place.

Please, I’m not joking here. I would love to know why I, and others, can’t do that when we can do so many other things indoors. But you probably can’t tell me, because it doesn’t make any sense to you either.

And meanwhile, our football clubs - bedrocks of communities for generations - struggle on having to pay wages and bills with no income through the turnstiles.

There are more important things in life than watching football games, I get that. If we couldn’t go to pubs, restaurants and theatres I’d have no complaints either. But that’s not the case, so I’m left to believe our Government simply don’t care about our national sport ….