Total Access, Total Football, Totally Inspiring

As a lot of people know, especially if you have had the “pleasure” of sitting by me at matches, seen me celebrating our goals or seen some of my Twitter rants, I’m passionate about Everton. However, I am also a passionate campaigner about disabled access and facilities, particularly in football grounds. As a result of this, I have come to liaise regularly over the last year or two with an organisation called Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFÉ). CAFÉ works with clubs, supporters and governing bodies with one clear aim in mind – a more accessible and inclusive match day experience for all disabled supporters across Europe. These dealings have also resulted in me becoming a member of their advisory panel along with a number of other disabled supporters from all over Europe.

Ten days ago, in the impressive surroundings of the Stade de France, Paris, CAFÉ held their 2nd conference and I was extremely privileged to be one of the approximately 200 delegates who attended this two day event. Travelling to away games with Everton is something that has become second nature to me now, even going to Europa League games in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, France and Ukraine, but I have never travelled abroad on my own. However, attending this conference was something that I really wanted to do and wanted to do on my own despite being able to take a carer with me if needed, so travelling unaided as it were was not going to stop me. I am determined and stubborn girl when I have my mind set on something! Now I am not saying that this was easy for me, have you tried pushing a wheelchair with a suitcase precariously balanced on the footplates of said wheelchair around various train stations recently? But despite this and the odd hiccup along the way, including unhelpful assistance people at London Euston and a delayed Eurostar train journey due to an unexpected stop at of all places Lille, (any Evertonians reading this, will understand this reference and my annoyance at being here!) I made it to Gard du Nord in one piece and perhaps more amazingly with my suitcase still in one piece too! Here, I was very kindly (and much to my relief as I am not sure my GCSE French would have got me from here to the hotel – “bonjour, je m’appelle Amy, quelle heure est i?l”) met by a friend who works for CAFÉ and despite another slight problem with assistance off a train, a lift that wouldn’t come as nobody had switched it on and a walk to the hotel that may or may not involved us getting a tiny bit lost, I had made it to Paris!

An advisory group meeting ahead of the conference was the perfect start to the event, it gave me the chance to meet some of my fellow delegates from places such as Russia, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Scotland and the Netherlands to speak about their experiences and also how some of them have made changes either at their own club or at a national level. Listening to the achievements made by some of these delegates left me feeling overwhelmed and really excited to hear more at the conference.

The two days of the conference are best described as mind blowing. I all too often feel that I am continually complaining or moaning to my own club as well as other Premier league clubs when I raise issues such as poor access, views and facilities with them. This feeling isn’t helped by the fact I often get poor reasons or “excuses” back from clubs and rarely see changes or improvements made despite encountering the same problems for several seasons. However, here I was in a conference room full of likeminded people who not only shared but understood my frustrations, as they had often encountered them too. It was reassuring to know that I am not the only one who feels this way and not the only one who is trying to make changes. Many people in attendance had gone above and beyond to help make disabled supporters match day experience a better one, some even helping disabled supporters have their first match day experience when they thought they’d could never to go to a match because of their disability. Others campaigning to raise funds to get better disabled viewing areas in their grounds and to make accessible family seating available.  

It was inspiring hearing from Joyce Cook, the managing director of CAFÉ speak, it was like she could read my mind with her thoughts on the whole match day experience for disabled supporters and how important football can be to disabled supporters. Her quote “a game of football, gave me my life back” really hit home with me as I have a similar opinion to this and have friends who do too and it shows why a high quality of access to football for all disabled supporters is so vital because of the difference it can make to peoples lives. You couldn’t fail to be moved by presentations on how audio descriptive commentary at Euro 2012 and the World Cup in 2014 made such a difference to partially sighted and blind supporters. This was best summed up by a quote from Larissa, a partially sighted Ukrainian fan who said that, “Audio descriptive commentary made me feel equal and alongside my fellow fans” – such a powerful statement. The Shippey campaign was another great example of improving match day experience, the hard work of Peter and Kate Shippey has seen a sensory room for supporters with autism at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light been made available. This has allowed their Sunderland mad, 8 year old son Nathan to be able to go to the match in an environment that is safe for him and for other fans who are autistic but who still want to be able to go to the match and support their team like all other fans do. They are now campaigning to get sensory rooms installed in other football grounds and sports stadia. Hidden disabilities such as supporters with dementia and those who are colour blind were also discussed, I found the subjects both fascinating and thought provoking as I am ashamed to say, I never really thought of the needs of supporters who have these conditions. It is now clear to me that people who have hidden disabilities such as these are just as entitled to have a high quality match day experience and hopefully clubs will now start to cater for their needs.

Hearing about how important and vital pro-active disabled supporters groups are both at club and national level was of major interest to me. Surely it makes sense for clubs to hear direct from those supporters who do have disabilities on what clubs can do to help their disabled supporters enjoy their match day experience? DSG’s are the perfect opportunity for this, clubs needs to utilise the expertise and experience of these fans. Listening to Michal Fitas from Klub Kibicow Niepelnosprawnych (KKN), the disabled supporters association for Slask Wroclaw, which is the biggest disabled supporters association in Poland, was amazing. He explained how they regularly have in excess of 200 disabled supporters attending home games (the majority of Premier League grounds have around half of this number attending, some even less) and how as part as the CAFÉ week of action total access, total football held in April of this year, he was involved in helping over 1000 disabled supporters attend a game between Slask Wroclaw faced Lechia Gdansk. What was even more impressive about this feat was that it was all arranged in around 3 weeks!

If these presentations were mind blowing enough for me, we also heard about the new UEFA Club Licensing criterion, requiring clubs to appoint a Disability Access Officer – perhaps a new job for me, I could do with a career change! How UEFA are planning on making EURO 2016 the most accessible and inclusive tournament for all disabled supporters, with increased facilities at grounds and also better infrastructure in and around the ten host cities, which is just as important to fans with disabilities as the stadiums themselves. Although me being me I am little doubtful over elements of this and I am thinking that I may email UEFA with my thoughts and concerns about this, this is how inspired and brave I am now feeling! 

The best bit of the conference for me came when Cathy Long, Head of Supporter Services at the Premier League was on stage discussing the pledge made by all Premier League clubs that they would meet the minimum standard of requirements as set out in the Accessible Stadia Guide by August 2017. I even got to ask a question, like I was going to miss this opportunity!! Even though I had to react quickly and change the question I wanted to ask as David Bernstein, CAFÉ chairman, actually got in with it before I did! So after an extremely quick rethink I got to ask “Given the relatively short timescales the majority of clubs have to make such massive changes in order to meet this pledge, I hope quick fixes that ultimately won’t make things any better for disabled fans won’t be made just to make sure the deadline is met?” This seemed to go down well with the panel and I was told that my point was very valid as after the Taylor Report, grounds were adapted quickly and often the needs of disabled supporters were not taken into account and this must not happen again. I may actually know what I am talking about after all and not be that professional moaner that I feel I am. I’m a bit cynical if this pledge will be met on time as I know the large scale changes a lot of the Premier League clubs will have to make to become compliant having visited them all over the last few seasons. Nevertheless it was good to hear that at least the Premier League are aware that disabled supporters needs have been overlooked for some time and are aiming to put this right.

After being nervous about going to the conference on my own, not knowing how I would cope with travelling and generally getting around, I’m so pleased that I overcame these nerves and with a little bit of help on occasions from my friend and his colleagues, I managed to do it and I am so glad I did. The conference was everything and more that I thought it would be. I went through a series of emotions whilst there, but the main thing it left me feeling was inspired. As Joyce Cook so eloquently said “we are football supporters, first and foremost” and as I said at the beginning of this piece, if you’ve seen me celebrate any Everton goal (which nearly everyone must have done if you watch Match of the Day!), you would know that I am an Evertonian before anything else, I am just one who happens to be disabled. This does not mean my match day experience should be any different than that of any of my friends or other supporters. Thanks to the CAFÉ conference and the work they carry out and also that of Level Playing Field too, hopefully soon, all disabled supporters will be able to have a fully inclusive match day experience and will be known as just supporters because as Joyce says that is what we are.

 

Going the match, it really shouldn't be this difficult!

I am an Evertonian and I go the match, it is I do and I what I love doing. Being an Evertonian and going the match is really quite important to me as it kind of makes me forget for a bit one major but quite significant thing about my life - that I am disabled.

When I’m at the match or talking about Everton, I am just the same as every Evertonian, someone who just wants to go the match and support the team like so many other fans do, not a girl with Osteogenesis Imperfecta and a wheelchair user. I hate missing matches - I mean genuinely hate it - I have literally begged, my mum and doctors to allow me to go to games before. I am not someone who can watch us on the TV, it is hell on earth for me to do that, so much so that my brother has refused to watch a televised Everton game with me again after Krasnodar last season. This is why I have to follow us home and away!

Some of the best and most amazing friends that I have, I’ve come to know through going to the match. I sometimes think the only thing in life that I am good at is going the game and supporting Everton. But there are times when I wonder why I bother going to all the effort, time and expense that it takes to go the match. This is not because of the form and the performances from my team (though don’t get me wrong, they have tested my patience many times throughout the seasons and there’s been plenty of times where I have never wanted to see them ever again). The reason is purely down to the inadequate and appalling facilities that disabled supporters have to endure at quite a lot of grounds.

Would non-disabled supporters continue to go to games, especially away games, if their view was blocked by other supporters due to poorly designed seating areas? Many of which probably looked really good to architects when the stadium was empty but are ultimately not fit for purpose on a matchday. Would they continue to go when they then get told part of the reason why you couldn’t see is not because of this, but because of your own fans? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told that my view was blocked as my club sold all its allocation of tickets and our fans stood up. This is a reason I will never accept – it shouldn’t matter if they stand or not, or if we have 300 fans there or 3000.If it wasn’t for big screens at grounds there are times when I would hardly see a thing all game.

Would others continue to go if they couldn’t see the pitch and have missed seeing goals scored because of photographers and cameramen “just want to have the best view to be able to get the shots they need”? Surely it is important that the fans in attendance want the best view themselves? The best part of going to the match is being with your fellow supporters, yet sadly, this is not something that I can do at every ground. No away fan supporter should have to sit in the home end, but if we want to go to certain games, we have no choice but to do so. Imagine going to your local derby game, the biggest game of the season and having to sit in with your rival fans? This has happened to me for 12 seasons now and shows no sign of changing any time soon. This sounds dramatic I know, but I kind of dread us winning the derby at Anfield as I will not enjoy it anywhere near as much as I should do as I am not with the rest of our supporters.

At one ground a couple of seasons back I suffered abuse from home fans for celebrating our goalkeeper saving a penalty. It was a truly horrible and upsetting experience. To be told “you shouldn’t be sitting here, you need to get out” "Get over there with the rest of them" amongst other cruel and nasty comments made by people who really should have known better is something I never expected to happen at the match. Through no fault of mine or any other disabled supporter, we are in home ends, so therefore does that mean we not allowed to celebrate when things go our way? One of the best things about being a football supporter is the emotional side to the game, you sometimes just get lost in the joy and excitement of celebrating a goal, a great save or a missed penalty, and you just react instinctively. Well I do anyway, and why shouldn’t I? If the rest of our supporters could be exuberant at seeing that penalty being saved, why couldn’t the disabled supporters in the opposite side of the ground have the same levels of enjoyment? Isn’t that what football is all about? Not celebrating our goals that day was one of my biggest ever regrets. For those of you who know me, you would know how hard not celebrating those goals would be for me, I shouldn’t have let the home fans win, but I did as I didn’t want to risk being made to leave the ground like other disabled fans were that day for doing exactly what I didn’t do. I have not enjoyed us winning a match quite like that day.

I also hate not being able to see my friends and family at games, but at some grounds being able to this completely impossible, the only way I can see my mates on these match days is if I happen to bump into them on the way to and from the ground from the coach or car park - hardly very inclusive. Sitting with your mates or family is an option that is very rarely open to disabled fans. I’d love to be able to take my nephew to the game when he's older but as it stands at the minute, this is not something I could do as there is no accessible seating in the family enclosure.

I like to think I am as independent as I can be despite my disability, and don’t like asking for help from others. But going the match is something that I would never contemplate doing on my own due to not being able to get in or out of some grounds without assistance (the hill to exit one ground is that steep, non disabled fans would struggle walking up it, let alone push up it), get food and drink because the concourses are either inaccessible for not practical for wheelchairs, and in some cases I need a companion with me just to tell me what is happening on the pitch because I literally cannot see it. If I can go to work on my own, go shopping on my own, go to the cinema on my own, shouldn’t I be able to go to the match on my own if I wanted to? I am lucky that I can easily book leave from work for away games but I rely so much on family and friends being able to come to away games with me. If they couldn’t, I wouldn’t get to as many games as I do. If I knew I could manage at aways on my own, I would have no hesitation in going to them without having to take a companion with me.

This isn’t just a moan about other clubs either, as my own club are just as much at fault and I don't hold back criticising them just as much as I do with other clubs. They could do much more to make things better and easier for disabled supporters, as can the majority of clubs. I genuinely feel a lot of clubs have no real understanding of disabled supporters, they have no comprehension of the difficulties faced by disabled fans. Things like getting tickets for games - allocations of tickets, particularly for away games, are so small (unfairly so when you look at the capacities of some of the grounds). Getting to and from the games - transport is not always very accessible, this is only for domestic games. European away games are even harder to plan for. Only for us to be met with more obstacles once we get into the ground that really shouldn't exist if clubs put some consideration in to their disabled facilities. It would be so easy for me and other disabled fans to not bother going to certain games knowing full well the difficulties we’re going to face, but why should we have to pick an choose what games to go to? If I want to go the game, I should be able to go without having to consider can I see, who can come with me, is there transport available. I just want to go as many games as I can whilst I can. 

I sincerely hope with the announcement made from the Premier League last week that improvements will be made that will enable all disabled supporters to have an inclusive matchday experience like our fellow supporters do, because when all is said and done we are supporters too and should be treated as such.