Ange Postecoglou says overseas fans who have only just started supporting Tottenham have as much right to tickets as loyal locals who have been cheering on the club for decades.
Postecoglou’s comments follow controversial plans to increase season ticket prices for next season by six per cent, and scrap concessions for the over-65s The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has written to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters asking for support in its opposition to the plans.
‘The fact that a fan of 30-, 40- or 50-years loyal support will now never be able to buy a season ticket at a senior concession rate is disgraceful and unacceptable,’ the letter said.
Those affected fear they will be replaced by ‘plastics’ – a derogatory term indicating supporters with fat wallets but minimal emotional attachment to a club – or ‘tourists’ – affluent overseas fans.
Tottenham manager Postecoglou made it clear he wanted loyal locals to carry on being accommodated – ‘I want Spurs supporters in the stand, I don’t just want anybody’ – and the Australian also launched a passionate defence of the overseas supporter.
Ange Postecoglou has responded to Tottenham’s controversial plans to increase season ticket price by six per cent
![There has been widespread criticism of the club's decision, with the Supporters' Trust branding it a 'disgrace'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/16/07/82536805-0-image-a-2_1710573502295.jpg)
There has been widespread criticism of the club’s decision, with the Supporters’ Trust branding it a ‘disgrace’
![Postecolgou made it clear he wanted local loyals to be accommodated as well as fan from around the world](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/16/07/82536815-0-image-a-4_1710573702310.jpg)
Postecolgou made it clear he wanted local loyals to be accommodated as well as fan from around the world
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‘I’ll tell you why – I’m probably ‘plastic’ and ‘touristy’ because I was coming from the other side of the world really passionate about football and if I could get access to see a Premier League game that was the world to me,’ he said.
‘This football club has supporters all over the world and I think we should always be able to accommodate them.
‘It doesn’t make them any less passionate and it’s really disrespectful to call fans who are willing to go to the expense of coming halfway round the world that.
‘You don’t know how passionate they are about their football club. Maybe they have only started supporting it in the last two years – but that doesn’t diminish who they are.’
Postecoglou confirmed that Radu Dragusin, the January signing from Genoa, will make his first Premier League start at Fulham on Saturday, replacing Mickey van de Ven in central defence. Van de Ven is expected to have recovered from a hamstring problem by the end of the international break.
![Tottenham's game against Fulham comes almost a year after former manager Antonio Conte (pictured) launched scathing attack on his team](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/16/07/82536809-0-image-a-3_1710573571665.jpg)
Tottenham’s game against Fulham comes almost a year after former manager Antonio Conte (pictured) launched scathing attack on his team
![Postecoglou was quick to shut down any talk of Conte in the build-up to the game with Fulham](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/16/07/82536817-0-image-a-5_1710573762962.jpg)
Postecoglou was quick to shut down any talk of Conte in the build-up to the game with Fulham
The game comes almost a year after Antonio Conte, the previous manager, launched a furious broadside against his players following a 3-3 draw at Southampton.
Conte branded them ‘selfish’ but most have flourished under Postecoglou, who said: ‘I didn’t need to look into the past or what happened last year, or the year before or what happened the last ten or 15 years.
‘All I needed to see from the day I started was how people evolved in the environment I set.’
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