A reply to Alistair Mackintosh: what it really means to be a Fulham fan

Alistair Mackintosh has continued to affirm how out of touch he is with Fulham fans like you and me. In a Daily Mail feature on the new Riverside Stand this week, Mackintosh claimed, “At other clubs you hear the c-word – here the c-words are champagne and caviar”.

This is my response to you, Alistair. Let me tell you what it means to be a Fulham fan – and let me tell you, Mr Mackintosh, the ‘c-word’ is used plenty at Craven Cottage; we increasingly use it to refer to you.

Fulham Football Club, London’s original, has been built on the people that Alistair Mackintosh seems to despise, for 146 years. Fulham’s lifeblood, despite its affluent placement on the banks of the Thames, is hard-working, ordinary people. I speak from experience; as a season ticket holder at the top of H5, we are so far removed from the luxuries of caviar and champagne.

I work a minimum wage job, my dad’s a taxi driver, and we live in a North London flat. My wage, my dad’s wage, and our free time are built around Fulham Football Club. It is our escape from the gruelling realities of everyday life.

Being a Fulham fan is a story of loyalty, of passion, and of a love of the beautiful game that has brought people together for hundreds of years. It’s certainly not popping champagne corks, eating caviar, and sitting on a padded seat in silence. FFC is about growing up standing on the Hammersmith terraces, giving it large, before making the journey down its gentle incline, or across to the wooden seats of the Johnny Haynes stand in the years gone by.

Players, managers, and owners come and go, but the Cottage remains the same. The feel of the old school stands and the seeing of the same faces every week are what make it home. Despite denials from our CEO, Fulham is grounded on a sense of belonging, a feeling of community, and a common goal between people from all walks of life. Anybody who has ventured to where Alistair never has – the back of H4 and H5 – will tell you that it can get as rowdy as any section in English football. I implore Mr Mackintosh to perhaps make the journey up to where we sit one day. Maybe he can really discover if the ‘c-word’ is used at Craven Cottage.

Ordinary, hard-working Fulham fans – the vast majority of the fanbase – feel as if Fulham’s soul is being ripped away. From increasing matchday ticket pricing and a stubborn unwillingness to improve any Hammersmith End facilities, to the being forced to listen to somebody who has no idea about what makes our club what it is, talk about it and our fans like we’re customers in Selfridge’s, is infuriating. Mackintosh’s recent quotes are just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s clear what Mackintosh wants to mould Fulham into. The passing down of the club from generation to generation is what Mackintosh and co. want to stop. He sees the Cottage as more of a networking venue for the rich and famous. The stereotype of a Victoria sponge-slicing affluent fan is one that many Fulham fans play into out of self-awareness and humour, rather than an admission of truth, but it’s an image that Mr Mackintosh wants to preserve to keep his elitist empire on the rise.

It has become clear that fans like myself are no longer wanted at Craven Cottage. Mackintosh is slowly getting his wish. Fulham is becoming sanitised; marketed towards tourists. With fans from North End Road replaced with passing visitors with no interest in Fulham Football Club.

‘Ali Mac’ should know he, and the Khan family he serves, are mere custodians of FFC. Treating the hard-working real Fulham fans as second-class citizens will end in disaster for his regime because when the Premier League football stops, we will be the ones left on the terraces.

So, Mr Mackintosh, I urge you to not to ignore this club’s proper fans in favour of these yuppies that will line the club’s pockets and give you a fat bonus. You have no idea what it means to be a Fulham fan, because trust me, we aren’t all blessed with your level of wealth. We work hard for our money and come to the Cottage to escape and vent our frustration.

Don’t take that away from us.