\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen the Holmesdale Fanatics say they are planning something, it is usually worth paying attention. The receptionist at Uefa\u2019s headquarters in Nyon looked bemused when presented with a suitcase full of fake bank notes last month by members of the Crystal Palace supporters\u2019 group. They claimed it represented the \u201ccontradictions of their supposed \u2018fundamental values\u2019 of integrity and fairness and the reality of their business methods and general conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n Uefa has said it followed the correct procedures after its club financial control body demoted Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League because they were deemed to have broken multi-club ownership rules. But for the HF, it was a call to arms.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a situation like this, where we and our family members feel there is something unjust happening to the club, we have to act quickly,\u201d says Mickey Grafton, a founder member who also helped organise a protest outside Selhurst Park a week earlier attended by hundreds of fans.<\/p>\n An HF delegation, having also delivered a letter to Uefa\u2019s president, Aleksander Ceferin, demanding the club\u2019s reinstatement into the Europa League, headed to the headquarters of the court of arbitration for sport in Lausanne, where Palace\u2019s appeal against their demotion will be heard on Friday. The result is due the following Monday. \u201cThe protests against those responsible will continue,\u201d the HF said.<\/p>\n Palace have been drawn to play in the Conference League playoff round against the losers of the Europa League tie between Fredrikstad of Norway and Denmark\u2019s Midtjylland, with the first leg scheduled for Selhurst Park on 21 August.<\/p>\n Officially formed in 2005, the HF has grown into one of most influential supporters\u2019 groups in the country after playing a leading role in protests outside the headquarters of Lloyds Bank in 2010 when Palace were facing liquidation after being placed in administration.<\/p>\n The hand-painted tifos they produced for last season\u2019s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa and the final against Manchester City \u2013 which it proudly emphasised involved at least 120 group members and were funded by fans \u2013 caught the eye of the wider football world. One depicted two young supporters celebrating a Darren Ambrose winner at Old Trafford in 2011 with their late father and the message: \u201cWembley will shake and it will be beautiful\u201d.<\/p>\n Anyone who has attended a Palace game at Selhurst Park or on the road in recent years will attest to the frenzied atmosphere created by the black-shirted group, who are not afraid to do things differently and take their inspiration from Europe\u2019s \u2018Ultra\u2019 culture.<\/p>\n <\/span>Members of the Holmesdale Fanatics on their way to Nyon.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Holmesdale Fanatics<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge collective \u2013 that\u2019s what English football has lacked if you compare it to the rest of the continent and beyond,\u201d Grafton says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have organised fan groups and as a result fans lose out. If you have organisation, you can have unity and through unity you can stop things like this happening. You can stop injustices and you can stand up for the values that made football so attractive to people. [If] constant profit and greed is pushed above all else then you end up in the state of the game in England today, which is not pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n This takes a great deal of planning, with Grafton saying he and some of the group\u2019s other main organisers are \u201cvery close to being sacked every day\u201d. He says: \u201cIt comes at an expense. It becomes your life and you\u2019re willing to do that for a football club because there are these values in modern life we think are worth preserving. They\u2019re hard to find in modern life, let alone modern football.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>HF made a tifo for last season\u2019s FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City saying \u2018Wembley will shake and it will be beautiful\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in a individualistic infatuated modern world that\u2019s materially rich and often quite socially poor. Themes like identity and belonging that so many people would find very normal around the world or in the past of this country are somewhat lacking. The football club and this group gives that in abundance. Those are partly our motivations.\u201d<\/p>\n Previous HF banners have criticised the Premier League\u2019s decision to permit Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment fund to buy a majority stake in Newcastle and taken aim at the increasing number of early kick-offs. They have also never been afraid to call out issues on their own doorstep. In January 2023, when the then co-owner John Textor completed his purchase of Lyon \u2013 a move that appears to have cost Palace their place in the Europa League \u2013 a banner said: \u201cMulti-club ownership. Stock market gambling. Textor, we don\u2019t trust you\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say that over the last 15 years, the Palace fanbase have gathered around issues of protest,\u201d says Grafton. \u201cThe culture of Palace has changed. We\u2019ve grown up with ideas about football as the group has grown. The social aspect around football is almost as important as football itself and if football loses that or it\u2019s allowed to be discarded, then it\u2019s just 11 blokes on each team kicking a ball around.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been little sign of other Premier League clubs following the HF\u2019s example although there is an emerging Ultras scene in Scotland. \u201cEnglish football culture is stagnating,\u201d says Grafton. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing happening on the terraces and there hasn\u2019t been for 25 years. It\u2019s time for change. But it has to be grassroots-led. Too many teams in the Premier League are imitating it from a boardroom level \u2013 a COO will give the green light to a printed banner that gets put in the ground for them to hold up. What we do is totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the Holmesdale Fanatics say they are planning something, it is usually worth paying attention. The receptionist at Uefa\u2019s headquarters in Nyon looked bemused when presented with a suitcase full of fake bank notes last month by members of the Crystal Palace supporters\u2019 group. They claimed it represented the \u201ccontradictions of their supposed \u2018fundamental values\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[4559,7627,3728,2171,7625,337,7628,7626],"class_list":{"0":"post-13964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-authorities","9":"tag-crystal","10":"tag-fanatics","11":"tag-fight","12":"tag-holmesdale","13":"tag-life","14":"tag-palace","15":"tag-palaces"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}