Paul Kennedy (left, standing) on Liverpool’s Spion Kop in 1994, when a season ticket cost VNĐ5 million, 410 per cent less than it does today. — Photo courtesy of Tony Hall

Paul Kennedy

I was given my first ever season ticket to Liverpool FC as a birthday gift in 1984. At that time, it cost my parents around 50 pounds, that’s about VNĐ1.5 million, give or take a few thousand đồng.

There were obvious increases season after season, and the last season ticket I purchased cost me 150 pounds ten years later, somewhere in the region of VNĐ5 million.

The same ticket for next season at Anfield is VNĐ24 million, which, compared to the one given to me on my 11th birthday, is an increase of 1430 per cent.

It's fair to say that the experience, facilities, safety and a whole host of other match-going aspects have changed remarkably in the past 40 years compared to when I stood on the terraces with 20,000 or so others.

Liverpool’s increase in ticket prices for next season is 2 per cent. Which in the great scheme of things isn’t really that much.

That aside, many supporters were not happy with the price hike.

So much so, they voiced their anger last week when Liverpool played Atlanta in the first leg of the Europa League quarter finals.

Fans were told not to bring flags to the match, something unheard of for a crunch European tie.

Instead of the colourful banners you normally see at these games, there was just one. It read: “NO TO TICKET PRICE INCREASE”.

Now there’s nothing wrong with voicing opinions, and nothing at all wrong with making your feelings known to the powers that be running Liverpool Football Club.

But on the night, Liverpool lost. Heavily. Beaten 3-0 by the Italians leaving them with an absolute mountain to climb in the return leg in Bergamo.

By the time this column is printed, smart-money says Liverpool will have been knocked-out of the competition. I know nothing is impossible in football, more so I’d say when Liverpool play in Europe, but it will take a miraculous turn-around for the Reds to progress.

It begs the question, was the Liverpool performance in the first leg hampered by the lack of flags and banners you would normally associate with a big European tie?

I’ve friends who attend the matches regularly, and one told me this week that although the atmosphere was unusually subdued, he felt it had no bearing on the result.

Atlanta were good, Liverpool bad. Simple as that.

He also pointed out that a shot across the bows on ticket prices is always worth it even if the increase - in isolation - doesn’t feel unreasonable.

Maybe, by the time you read this column, Liverpool will have achieved the unthinkable and turned the tie around. I can only hope and pray.

If not, then I wonder if the people responsible for the ‘no flag’ protest last week, may think twice about similar action in the future. — VNS