Arsenal supporters were today urged to back their Leicester counterparts in protest this weekend, as football fans nationwide continue to vent their fury over the influence of television companies and spiralling ticket prices, reports the London Evening Standard.
Leicester supporters' group Union FS are planning to boycott the first five minutes of Sunday's game at Emirates Stadium to highlight their dismay at the decision to move the kick-off from Saturday afternoon to Sunday at midday with just three weeks' notice.
And fans' group REDaction have called on the home crowd to display a similar show of unity.
A statement read: "As we all know, our match on Sunday against Leicester will be televised by Sky Sports. As we also know, they decided this with just over three weeks' notice — causing many fans on both sides to need to rearrange travel, or in many cases to lose pre-booked transport or accommodation.
"This kind of thing happens too often — match-going fans are treated appallingly, both by clubs (who continually increase ticket prices, despite the huge and growing TV revenues flowing into their coffers); and TV companies (who move kick-off times at short notice and stage games at times that are good for TV viewers but bad for the match-going fan).
"Leicester City supporters' group Union FS are planning a protest during Sunday's game. They are asking Leicester fans to boycott the first five minutes of the game — to make the point that without fans, football doesn't make a good TV show. We ask Arsenal fans to show support for their protest — on an issue that affects fans of all teams.
"As with all protests of this type, none of us has any idea how successful it will be. Liverpool's walkout last weekend was a huge success but it will be difficult to ask Leicester fans to miss the first five minutes of a table-topping clash. Nevertheless, if you see something happening around the five-minute mark, this is why — so please support it, as we did so well when Bayern Munich did similar."