Tottenham Hotspur fans make their feelings known during their game
Tottenham supporters will carry on their ‘ENIC Out Levy Out’ protests ahead of the Liverpool game
Two events will take place in and around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday that perfectly capture a culture war that is threatening to break out between the club and supporters who believe they are growing in number.
At 3pm, an hour-and-a-half before kick-off against Liverpool, a group of Tottenham fans will gather outside the St Francis de Sales Church – opposite the club shop – for what has been billed a “fan protest against ENIC”.
Protesters will hand out balloons with the slogans “ENIC Out” and “Levy Out” to fed-up fans, with the idea of them being released in the 24th minute against Liverpool in recognition of ENIC’s 24-year ownership that has yielded one trophy.
The trophy drought stretching back to 2008 remains a sore subject, but it is by no means the only issue on a list of complaints held by supporters who have run out of patience.
Those who question the motives of chairman Daniel Levy will not look much further than the giant blimp of the Young-hee doll from Squid Game that will also appear outside the stadium on Sunday to underline their belief that football has become part of an entertainment empire for ENIC.
Tottenham this week announced a partnership with Netflix for the promotion of the new season of Squid Game that will, according to the club, see “the infamous Squid Game guards roaming the stadium in their pink hooded jumpsuits for photo opportunities and a giant blimp of the Young-hee doll appearing outside the stadium”.
Jamie Coughlan, a Tottenham fan who attends most home games and was a season ticket holder at the club’s old White Hart Lane stadium, is one of the organisers of the protest.
“I am at the point where I am completely ‘Levy Out’,” said 28-year-old Coughlan. “I understand that he has done enormous things for the club on a business and commercial side, but the focus always seems to be to generate money, rather than to win on the football pitch.”
Daniel Levy looks on from the stands at St Mary's Stadium
Daniel Levy has been accused of ignoring Tottenham supporters
That view was echoed by a supporter with experience of working with the club and Tottenham fan groups, who preferred not to be identified.
He said: “You walk down the High Road and on the side of the shop there is a massive NFL sign and a massive Formula One sign. Football’s a business and most people get that, but I also see the identity of the club slipping away. We can’t just sit here and let them strip away what Tottenham Hotspur is to its supporters.”
Complaints regarding the commercialisation of football are not confined to Tottenham in the Premier League, while dissatisfaction over ticket prices and concessions has also stretched further than North London.
According to Transfermarkt, Tottenham have spent around £500 million on transfers from the summer of 2022 to the present day, which is only less than Chelsea and Manchester United over the same period.
But the transfer strategy and wage bill, which is estimated at being significantly smaller than many of Tottenham’s rivals, is an area protestors and fans want to see change in.
That view is clearly not confined to the stands, given Cristian Romero’s remarks about Tottenham needing to imitate Sunday’s opponents Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea for which he later apologised.
Head coach Ange Postecoglou said: “Are we going to be a club that spends a billion pounds to buy ready-made players? No, we’re not. There are very few of those. There are ones that can do, but we’re not one of them. So that’s the reality.
“When you are paying for ready-made players, as we did for Dom [Solanke], there’s a premium. Do we go for somebody else who is ready-made? We could have done, but I think it would have been one of those stories where I’ll be 70 years old and I’d be saying ‘you know what, I could have signed Archie Gray’...and Archie Gray ends up being the player we know he’s going to be.
“Moving forward, we probably need to err on the side of getting a little bit more experience, just to help the group, because we’ve got very few at that kind of sweet spot in terms of ages.”
Those unhappy with ENIC and Levy believe they are being ignored, despite Tottenham’s creation of a Fan Advisory Board and a fan forum held with Levy, head coaches and captains of the men’s and women’s teams for 250 balloted supporters to ask questions.
Levy will be forced to listen
It was at the last fan forum that Levy responded to a question about how he deals with criticism by saying: “I have a very thick skin and I just ignore it.”
Previous protests against him and ENIC have fallen flat, but the supporters and groups Telegraph Sport spoke to this week believe this time may be different, and Coughlan has promised to keep organising events until Levy is forced to listen.
“We plan to protest as much as possible and keep growing naturally,” said Coughlan. “We’ve definitely got Wolves planned. And we will aim to bring this to every home game as much as possible until something changes or until the concerns are recognised.”
Coughlan stressed that the protests he is organising are peaceful and non-abusive, and he feels the victories over Southampton and Manchester United, in which fans outlined their feelings about Levy in a Dejan Kulusevski song, prove they should not impact Postecoglou and his players.
Tottenham fans protest against the club's ownership
Tottenham fans are frustrated by the club’s trophy drought
Postecoglou said: “I think the path to success is a lot smoother when everyone is aligned, absolutely. When there is discourse, invariably it affects the way forwards. But at the same time, we live in a world where people are allowed to express their feelings.
“We’ve just got to make sure we go out there on Sunday against a top side and put on a performance where our fans are focused on what’s happening on the field.”
Aside from protesting peacefully, Tottenham supporters who want to be constructive in their calls for change have written a “Spurs Charter” to set out principles they believe the leadership of the club, ENIC or otherwise, should follow.
“There seems to be more traction behind these protests,” said the source with experience of working with Spurs fan groups and the club. “It’s not necessarily a full-on, everyone wants Levy out, although that seems to be increasing.
“‘Levy Out’ can mean different things to different people. It’s a collective frustration and we want to say something. If the only thing we can say is ‘Levy Out’, then a lot of them mean Levy Out – but some mean ‘Levy listen’ or ‘Levy change’.
“The Spurs Charter is something fans can back whether you are ‘Levy Out’ or just want something different for the club. It’s also potentially something for an investor or prospective new owner to look at and try to leverage support from.”
‘Fans are actually coming together and are broadly aligned’
There is said to be day-to-day dialogue and regular meetings between Tottenham and fan representative groups, although support of events and initiatives such as tifos and flags at home matches and a dedicated singing section for home cup matches have brought their own issues.
It was in the space of a week, earlier this month, that the Return of the Shelf atmosphere group, which has approximately 1,600 members, voted to step away from working with the club, while the founders of Spurs Song Sheet and THFC Flags stood down and released statements outlining their frustrations.
A spokesman for the atmosphere groups said: “We’ve been on a long journey, some of us four years, some of us around two years and we just believe there’s a number of issues with the way the club is run. It felt like the club was paying lip service to us rather than focusing on delivery.
“It feels like for the first time in many, many years that fans are actually coming together and are broadly aligned with a common narrative. It’s not as abrasive, or just screaming ‘Levy Out’ with no real thought. It’s ‘we are all unhappy’ and ‘we want change’.”
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