A messagefrom thedirectors’box

9 November 2026 · Simon Teesdale

After I posted my article ‘A Tifo for an Empty Stand’ on X, Crystal Palace CEO Sharon Lacey got in touch. She said my post was ‘very interesting’ and she’d love to speak to me about it. We had a chat on the phone last week, for just over an hour. I’m not going to second-guess her motivations.

What follows is from memory, so I apologise for any inaccuracies. This is simply my recollection of our conversation. Many points she addressed give a different version of events to those that circulate on social media.

First impressions

She came across as professional, balanced, and genuinely interested in hearing a fan’s view rather than going on the defensive.

She’s a Palace fan and says she has the club’s best interests at heart. I’ve no reason to doubt her. She said she’d read both Tifo articles and liked them. She also thanked me for putting a playlist together, which rather missed the point of the exercise. I pointed out that whilst music has always been a big part of match day, the reason for putting the songs and their associated ‘moments’ together was as a plea to the club to take fans views on board - to allow them to create the atmosphere rather than having it dictated by a PA and a play list.

Key points

• No Americanisation plan. She says there’s no conscious plan to ‘Americanise the match day.’
• Fireworks and light shows. She believes many fans like them, the players want them, and the Premier League and Sky take the show into account when picking games for TV.
• Local and young fans. The club still values local, loyal support and does a lot behind the scenes to bring young fans in, mentioning free memberships and backpacks for selected local school children as an example.
• The Holmesdale Fanatics. She says she loves what they do and the atmosphere they bring, has always tried to work with them, and hasn’t actively sought to push them out, as many people claim. In fact she said she has stood alongside them at matches in the past. She’s in talks with some of them, has asked what they need to make a comeback happen, and expects them back, ‘in a slightly different format’, in Block E soon. She said she wasn’t certain why they suddenly disbanded. I asked if it was because some were banned, if it was in relation to the Marinakis court case, or if it was due to a more general feeling that the club were making it difficult to continue support as ultras. She said she didn’t know.
• Tifos and flares. She’s never stopped a tifo going up. Flares are against the law, so they’re out - although she said she has looked at installing a platform in Block E to allow pyro to be let off safely.
• Season tickets. She mentioned one supporter whose season ticket was ‘paused’ over something ‘threatening’ (IIRC) posted on social media, and said the club is working with them to sort it out.
• Pre-match music. On the two games where the Fanatics asked for the music to be turned off, she says the request both times was for a full 45/50 minutes before kick-off, rather than the 10 minutes claimed on social media. The first was ruled out by UEFA rules/UEFA anthem. For the second, the club felt 45 minutes was too long without music.
• The sound system and goal music. It’s brand new, very loud and hard to balance, and they’ve taken steps to turn it down. Fair enough. She said she has taken on board what I and several others have said about long goal music and they were hoping to change it to a short burst of a few seconds, to then let the fans sing on afterwards. I said I felt this is still missing the point, as it’s not allowing the fans to dictate the atmosphere and often stops chants mid-flow. She said the DJ was outside the stadium, and they were trying to bring him inside so he has a better idea of judging what songs to play based on what’s happening on the pitch.
• Food. They’re trying to work with more local producers at the outlets in the ground - she mentioned chicken ‘from a local supplier’. I suggested more local street food stalls and beers - it gives the impression of generic and corporate, especially pints of Carling. She said they were investigating the possibility of a Boxpark-style food and drink court in the area under the Holmesdale.
• Behind the scenes. She says a lot of small things go on behind the scenes that the club doesn’t make public, partly because putting every little thing out there invites a pile-on. She knows plenty of fans are vile to her and says she’s thick-skinned about it.
• Rail seating and safe standing. Rails in the Upper Holmesdale and safe standing in the Lower are both on the club’s radar, she says, but they’re waiting until the new stand is built so they can get both right.
• The Fan Advisory Board. She pointed me to the club’s Fan Advisory Board, where the Holmesdale Fanatics have a seat alongside CPISA and other supporter groups. She said she’s considering live-streaming the meetings to assist with club/fan communication.
• The new Main Stand. She says work should start this week, and that reports of the build being paused are wrong. She’s conscious of keeping Selhurst’s identity as an old ground, not turning it into a soulless bowl.
• Ticket prices. She said they compare prices with all other clubs and are intent on being highly competitive and not pricing fans out.