In the modern era it seems that most clubs are now taken over by someone from a business background, who seem to forget how important they are to a community and the fans.
We’ve seen from recent games played behind closed doors that without fans it’s not as fun to watch, and the game needs to be very careful to not alienate the supporters in the next few years.
There are few sets of fans who have suffered more than those who support Sunderland in recent years, and it’s rare to have that suffering documented by Netflix too.
They’ve plunged through the divisions and were even given a slight ray of hope by getting to the play off final, only to lose the game deep into stoppage time.
Essentially this is a fan base who have shown so much loyalty to their club that you would think they might get something back when times are tough.
Anyone who has seen the “Sunderland Til I die” series will know they focused on the narrative that the locals are not particularly rich, they work hard for their money and the fact they keep putting it into the club should be applauded.
The Covid-19 situation means that plenty of fans will not be able to attend games for a while, so surely the club would refund them for games they have paid for but won’t be able to see? Think again…
Jaw-dropping stance from Sunderland pic.twitter.com/TDRH7dLGUt
— Ed Malyon (@eaamalyon) June 3, 2020
The worst thing about this is you can actually imagine that a lot of the supporters would choose to waive their right to a refund in order to support the club, but they’ve not even given them that chance.
There will be fans who have lost their jobs and will genuinely be struggling to get by at this time, so for a club that wants to be a focal point of their community, this is a monumental PR disaster.