Liverpool’s owners recently decided it in the midst of a terrible season and with Champions League qualification on the line, it was worth the risk of making the mood around Anfield even worse by announcing not just a ticket price increase for the 2026-27 season but to committing to price increases in the season’s beyond that.
For the club, eking out a few extra million in ticket sales is a drop in the bucket compared to other commercial revenues, all of which count on an impassioned Anfield to increase
their value. Whether you’re talking broadcast fees, merchandise sales, or finishing in the Champions League places—all count at least in part on a loud and impassioned Anfield.
For the fans who regularly attend matches, a ticket price increase can mean going to fewer—or making sacrifices elsewhere in order to continue to support the club.
This short-sighted extraction capitalism mindset, one that seeks to extract maximum value from every avenue while ignoring longer-term second order consequences to do so and treating human beings as little more than expendable wallets is perhaps the defining feature of the late-stage capitalist hellscape we find ourselves in.
Soapboxing aside, though, let’s circle back to those second order consequences. Like the inevitable pushback from fan groups that today sees an announcement that supporters on the Kop will be putting their flags away following next week’s match against Paris Saint-Germain.
That flags will continue to fly on the Kop through next Tuesday is only due to that match being when supporters pay their respects to the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. And even then, while the flags will fly through next Tuesday, this conflict between the club and its most loyal backers is likely to further sour the mood for Saturday’s match against Fulham and Tuesday’s Champions League second leg tie.
Some fans with an interest in licking boot will, as always happens in a case of protest and pushback against corporate greed, decry the potential damage the decision by supporters to pack their flags away will do to the team’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League or staging a comeback against PSG.
The reality, though, is that the club knew this was the likely outcome of their decision. And if they didn’t, the people who made these decisions are frankly too stupid to be in the positions they are to make these decisions.
The club chose a potential extra million or two annually from ticket revenue. In exchange for that the support will be worse, the mood will be worse, and Liverpool’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League or coming back against PSG will be worse. Good job, Fenway Sports Group. Good process.
