A group of Southampton fans have decided that there will be protests held before this Saturdays game against Hull City, January 17th.
The protests are happening due to the fans being unsettled with the current ownership, Sports Republic, who acquired the club in January 2022.
Sports Republic took over as the club sat 14th in the Premier League, after a century consistently in the top flight of English football.
Since then, Southampton have experienced two relegations, including the clubs lowest ever Premier League points tally of just 12.
Four years after Sports Republic bought the club, Saints sit 15th in the Championship, under their second manager of the season, Tonda Eckert.
Saints fans believe that change is needed- and do you blame them?
“I have never had any plans of selling the club,” Solak said.
“We have quite a few very exciting projects.
“I might invite some partners to join me if and when we are promoted to the Premier League, because I think we’ll need maybe more [investment].
“But selling was never on my mind, I was thinking much more about this 10-year project of how to develop the club commercially and financially so it is more robust and less dependent on TV rights deals”, said owner Dragon Solak in an interview with the BBC.
It is obvious that Sports Republic leader Dragon Solak has a lot of love for Southampton Football Club, but the decisions made by his employees has left his business to be questioned by the Southampton fanbase.
Solak recently said “Honestly, if I at any point truly believe that I am the problem for the club, I will put the club up for sale,” when speaking to The Echo.
This quote has resurfaced plenty of times, causing Saints fans to hope that protests will show the fans viewpoint that Sports Republic’s ownership is the problem at the club.
Saints fans have decided that the protest will take place at 2pm near the Ted Bates statue, a famous landmark outside of St Mary’s Stadium.
Southampton fans have also suggested to boycott the first 12 minutes of the game against Hull, with each minute representing each point in the previous Premier League season.
Saints fans are urging that fans who believe in the movement to take part, which would include not spending any money inside the stadium.
The potential protests have been circulating on X, but we will only see just how serious Saints fans are on Saturday.
