Fulham fans face furthest travel in Championship for festive football
Fulham fans will travel the furthest of all Championship fans to follow their team over the festive period, according to research released today by the Football Supporters’ Federation.
Slavisa Jokanovic’s side have been handed away games at Cardiff City on Boxing Day and Hull City on December 30th – meaning that Fulham fans will travel 748 miles to see the Whites in action and spend an average of £368 supporting their side, according to the data compiled by Virgin Media for the FSF. The EFL’s festive fixtures mean that Fulham will be playing away on Boxing Day for the fifth successive season, with the home draw with Southampton in 2012 being the last time Craven Cottage hosted a post-Christmas fixture.
The Fulham Supporters’ Trust have regularly raised this matter regularly with Fulham Football Club, the EFL, other football authorities and the local police, especially as Chelsea receive priority in terms of fixture selections. The EFL had previously said that they would take into account the feedback from fans ahead of allocating the festive fixtures, but Fulham fans face the third longest journeys of any team in the country over the Christmas period.
Trust communications officer Dan Crawford said: ‘Fulham fans have had to travel to Boxing Day games for the last five years. This season’s trip to Cardiff is only made possible for most fans by Fulham’s free coach travel and is followed by another away game at Hull City. Such scheduling at Christmas is another unfortunate example of the fans being taken for granted by the football authorities’.
The FSF’s chief executive Kevin Miles added: ‘Despite money being tight around this time of year, supporters will be travelling up and down the country over Christmas and New Year to back their teams in remarkable numbers once again. Away fans are a huge part of our match-going tradition and that shouldn’t be taken for granted, so clubs and sponsors can and should do more in making football as affordable as possible.’
