Fulham's charity run gaffe exposes our loyalty points problem once again

Sammy says the club's decision to bundle West London derby tickets with a fun run shows the club is still tone deaf when it comes to match-going fans.

On Monday, Fulham announced a new charity 10k run connected to Fulham Pier.

Personally, I think I’ll pass; I did a marathon once and I honestly think I’d rather re-watch all 19 of Scott Parker’s home matches in the 2020/21 season then do anything like that again.

However, maybe I should reconsider, as part-way down the article it explains that there is a matchday package. For this, not only do you get discounted access to the run, but you also get a ticket for Brentford v Fulham.

Now, tickets being part of Foundation events are nothing new. The charity cycle rides to Southampton and Nottingham Forest in recent years have included tickets for those who participate. These events are great ways of connecting the fanbase and raising money for a very worthwhile cause. The Foundation do excellent work on a daily basis in our community.

However, Brentford is a different kettle of fish entirely. Every season this is by far and away the most oversubscribed away game of the season, where the allocation could be filled two or three times over.

There is some small print to suggest that there is a limit to the amount of Brentford tickets available, but for me this doesn’t really matter. Even if it was just 10 Fulham fans who are denied a ticket, then that’s not an acceptable situation.

As is often the way, I don’t think there’s malice to this decision, it’s just clear that the people in the club making these decisions are not in tune with fan sentiment.

The FST has this morning said they are taking this matter to the club, stating:

“We support all initiatives to raise funds for Fulham FC Foundation, but strongly disagree with using difficult-to-get tickets to away games as incentives, bypassing the loyalty points scheme.”

Loyalty points

For me, the biggest problem is the club does not adequately reward or incentivise those that follow the team religiously week upon week.

Fulham’s loyalty point scheme has needed an overhaul for years, in fact, it is four years since I wrote this article about it on Fulhamish. It’s incredible how nothing has changed.

Five measly points were awarded for travelling to Manchester City on a Wednesday night and five points were also awarded for trekking it to Sunderland without any direct trains from London. Given that Brentford is one of the few games that actually requires loyalty points, to give away tickets to anyone who does a fun run is a bit of a slap in the face.

I’m not going to re-write the article that I’ve linked to above, because pretty much all the points I made back then are exactly the same. The system massively favours those who have had season tickets going back to when the scheme was launched and it’s almost impossible for young/new fans to catch up.

The most mind boggling stat is still true, you could go to every game for five years home and away, but you still wouldn’t be anywhere near the top bracket.

And I can hear some of you saying now “but it’s only Brentford and sometimes Bournemouth that you need them for”. Now, personally, I don’t think that matters, but fine if you think that way.

However, Fulham might (I said might) qualify for either the Europa League or the Europa Conference League next season. If we were lucky enough to do that the scramble for tickets at certain grounds would be huge. Zrinjski Mostar’s away allocation for example (where Crystal Palace played last week) is just 490.

While Fulham fans can probably stomach missing out on an annual trip to the GTech, the idea that deserving fans might miss out on rare European away days is probably less palatable.

I understand these things take time to implement, but the club needs to sort this out now while they have the chance.