LIVERPOOL FC’s recently announced trips to Thailand and Australia, as part of the 2013 pre-season Tour, are good news for many fans abroad and for the club.
Some Brits might bemoan the players’ long travel hours, jet lag and mediocre opponents as not being ideal preparation for the new season but I am not one of them; we need to see the bigger picture.
Firstly, this will be just part of a pre-season program where our final games approaching the season kick-off will be much nearer to home, with plenty of time given for recovery and re-acclimatisation.
Secondly, our Thai and Aussie fans deserve this.
Thirdly, fans in neighbouring countries will have the opportunity to travel a shorter distance to see the Reds (e.g. the Melbourne Cricket Ground holds 100,000 and fans from across Asia will help fill the stadium).
Fourthly, in order to continue to grow our revenues, to have more money to spend on players, we need to engage with our existing fans in more meaningful ways, and add new fans to our already wide following.
Unfortunately our fan-base in the UK does not have the bandwidth to grow significantly in the short term. It would of course increase if we were more successful, as new fans are invariably created as new trophies capture the imagination, but for the most part fans in the UK already have their allegiances, with the Premier League and Football League strongly subscribed.
We don’t want Anfield ticket prices to rise much further but we do want more money to spend on players. Good new sponsorship deals have helped in recent years, but as our recent accounts have showed, our finances are still far from prosperous.
Liverpool were last in Thailand in 2009 (2013 will be our fourth trip since 2001) and have never been to Australia. Apart from the many expat Scousers already down under, our fan base there grew in no small part due to the very successful stint of Craig Johnston (he who designed the original Predator Boot) in the 1980s and the less successful stint of Harry Kewell (he who perpetually suffered injuries and flattered to deceive).
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It is strange indeed that a country that is presently 39th in the FIFA rankings (and has often been lower) has provided two European Cup winning Liverpool players.
Apart from the financial benefits this trip will bring, there are footballing ones too. New LFC players, and some of the younger players coming up from the academy, won’t know what’s hit them when they arrive in Bangkok.
The scale and passion of our fans abroad can really bring home how incredibly privileged our players are to play for such a huge club. Fans in Asia often wake up in the very strange hours of the night (or morning) to catch Liverpool games and then go to work the next day.
It is tough to support a club you love from afar when you can’t just hop on a bus to make it to Anfield, or turn on Sky or ESPN on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I’ve experienced this myself when I had to work abroad during my career, the ache you feel for your team is akin to heartbreak. Our fans in Asia and Australasia have a form of dedication all of their own.
The full pre-season schedule is yet to be announced, so we don’t know who all our preparative competition will be. In our last pre-season, being in the United States didn’t preclude us from playing Roma and Tottenham, so perhaps we may also play a challenging opponent or two who are also on their pre-season tours abroad.
With this season having little left to play for, I can’t help but already be casting an eye towards next season’s preparations: which new players will make the trip, which existing players will no longer be here and indeed whether Brendan Rodgers will still be in charge.
There are many questions that will be answered in due course; the only certainty is that many of our foreign fans will have a great time.
You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
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Big lfc fan from sydney.
Great article very true, it’s very hard supporting lfc from here..
Watching games at 2am finishing at 4am sleeping and waking up at 7am.
Tough life but I do it every week without fail. Can’t wait to see them in Melbourne.
Glad you liked the article. It’s definitely tough supporting from afar, but despite the difficulties it’s always worth it (even if we’re having a poor season like this one).
No offense to our American supporters but at least the Thais are real fans , not like the plastic american ones last year
Liverpool should be visiting the Asian countries and others countrys where we have a lot of support
It made me sick last summer watching the American ‘fans’ cheer equally for a liverpool goal and for the opposition when they scored
They didn’t deserve to have Liverpool tour. And I bet you they bought damn all merchandise
I ever saw one clown wearing a man u shirt cheering madly when Liverpool scored. They just don’t get it
Like I said no offense – I’m sure there are some genuine good American fans …but most are not
For me all fans are welcome, but I think in general there are a lot more people new to football in general in the States so there’s a learning curve there. I lived in States for a bit and there are definitely many passionate, smart fans over there but I agree we have a lot more experienced fans in Asia.
I just thought last year was wrong. Denying millions throughout the world the opportunity to see their heroes – for the sake of a few , who…lets be honest here – don’t really care that much
I agree. There are many other better places to go than America. We certainly have fans over there, particularly in the East Coast (expats, Irish communities etc.) but much larger fan bases elsewhere. Also, in terms of new ‘markets’ for new fans there’s also many better countries or even continents (when did we last go to Africa?) . American fans in general have their first loves with NBA, baseball & American Football. USA trip was just about FSG new ownership wanting to connect with Red Sox. I don’t think we’ll go back there for many years now.
There again this Summer. 😀