While the tube doors open on the Putney Bridge, a rugged scream from “Eaaaaagles” echoes down the platform.
It is just 10 a.m., however the mood is exuberant anticipation for what might be ahead of us. These people could have an unforgettable experience until 2 p.m.
A young couple who has not remembered that there’s a football game while the queue moves the steps to the station at a crabting pace.
Outside within the river café opposite the station output, there are more queues while individuals are waiting for ice passages and croissants. Very fulham.
A tout tries to sell three match tickets to sit down for £ 27 (350 US dollars) within the Hammersmith end. A liner tries to haggle and the tout loses the temperament: “I just told you, no commandment!”
This is just about essentially the most indignant scene that’s observed today (aside from the house fans who insult Calvin Bassey's defense).
After all, that is Fulham, the nicest club of the Premier League and a favourite day for hundreds and hundreds of football fans across the country.
Why? First you’ve got the nearby area. When your route comes from the Putney Bridge Station after Craven Cottage, go down a walk over the river on a sunny spring morning and take a spot of calm and serenity.
Walk along the Thames are a part of the Matchday routine in Craven Cottage (Tim Spiers/)
People sat on benches, the sandwiches food or a crossword in a newspaper. Even the youngsters swimming from Corona bottles are harmless. You can't get that at Millwall.
Then hike through the leaf green bishop park with its mixture of families, small dogs and runners, so many runners.
There is a funfair in the center, and a fulham fan with a skinhead and a Union Jack flag which can be draped around his shoulders (yes, this man exists), while the cones for youngsters who wear roller skates navigates, is kind of an image.
Crystal Palace fans are scattered and proudly wear their red and blue colours. The opportunities for accusations for wearing their shirts, which can be on dozens of terrain within the Premier League and an issue, are minimal here.
For everyone something at Fulham (Tim Spiers/)
You speak of wanting to impose at Wembley on the semi -final weekend. Powerful, but ultimately fair.
You also speak of the indisputable fact that this present day is a really perfect gone. “Fulham away is always on my list for the season,” says Palace Fan Dan.
“It is friendly, the walk to the stadium is gorgeous, they’ve path-friendly pubs and it’s a picturesque soil on the Thames.
“You are probably the most oncoming club for away fans. Well, you have been pretty courteous in recent years anyway because we won a few.”
Until recently, Fulham was so accommodating that they even had a neutral stand through which the fans of home and abroad were capable of sit freely side by side, an idea that was quite unknown in English football.
It is an concept that corresponds to the bourgeois environment: Quiet Streets, multi-million kilos and rowing training for the Boat Race of the Oxford-Cambridge University, which can come here in a couple of weeks. On Saturday there was (at the very least) a famous actor in the sport, through which Fulham fan Hugh Grant gives his support.
The actor Hugh Grant was also present on Saturday to support Fulham (John Walton/Pa pictures about Getty Images
For most history of the association, Fulham has not frightened the headlines of English football.
From 1970 to 2001 they didn’t put the upper flight once. A 14-year stay in the highest division followed under the possession of the previous Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who had now died and was shaped, who sold the club to Shahid Khan.
Under Khan and his son Tony, the deputy chairman and director of football operations, Fulham, after a time of the 2 top divisions, not only develop into a longtime top club, but additionally to a boutique club through which individuals are asked to pay high prices, not only to see a football game, but to enjoy a deluxe experience with a spot where it’s.
There is the £ 120 million Riverside stand that withdraws onto the Thames and the stage is opened on stage. When it is totally finished, it offers a restaurant and seats collapsed from a Michelin star chef, high-end bars (including one on the roof), the restaurant and seats collapsed and a bar behind the shelter in addition to a non-public pool. It is planned to supply an option for the boat there.
“No two visits are ever the same,” explains Fulham's blurb on Riverside. “However, one thing is constant; exceptional service continuously.”
Obviously it won't be low-cost. Only within the Riverside stand for Fulham's next home game against Liverpool costs £ 150. Period tickets achieve the extent of £ 3,000, the costliest non-corporate cards within the Premier League.
Season tickets elsewhere within the stadium can still reach £ 1,024, while the conventional Premier League -Match -Tickets for Liverpool again range between 66 and 106 GBP, with a couple of seats of 35 GBP on the edges of the Johnny Haynes stand.
Exorbitant fees for tickets of the Premier League have gotten increasingly common, especially in London, where Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United demand similar prices for matchday tickets.
There is rather a lot to stomach for the fans they usually tried to listen to their voice, with protests in 2023 and recently within the Manchester United Away within the Fa Cup, a joint protocol with home subjects after they were charged at the very least 52 kilos for a seat. In the games of the Premier League there may be an upper limit for away tickets in all clubs in the quantity of £ thirtieth.
A palace trailer on a successful away day for his club (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
“It is definitely a feeling of feeling escaping from the club,” says Fulham Regular Liam.
“I have friends who can no longer afford to come, but the club goes in a different direction. Fulham used to be for everyone, home and away fans, but it will be much more exclusive.”
The managing director of the club, Alistair Mackintosh say: “When I was talking to Fulham for the first time, I gave me some advice – that Fulham is the type of club that can have a business class or a first class and have fans who turn on an airplane.
“They said to me, this is for some people, but the rest of us want a premium experience elsewhere.
“You may want to have this experience for the strange game and then want to return to your seats.
“I have the feeling that the pricing means that it is something for everyone who is craven cottage.
“But attention is on the top-end price design since it is more interesting than the underside, but our game against Villa is sold out.”
Fulham is a club on the advance and fights for the Champions League football this season.
On Saturday, which begins with one of the most electrifying atmospheres, which for some time in Craven Cottage for their biggest game of the season, a FA Cup quarter-final against Palace-will be the task of transforming Fulham into an association that offers a high-end experience on and outside the field. Without the other, you can't really offer one. Just ask Queens Park Rangers.
Fulham's season sets a comprehensive 3-0 defeat on a knife advantage. Can you now reach the fourth time in your history in Europe from the cup?
These boutique ticket sales can depend on it.
image credit : www.nytimes.com