WELCOME TO 21st CENTURY FOOTBALL . . .

Life’s no’ fair and doesn’t often offer something for nothing . . .

Now, while not for a minute do I expect those pearls of wisdom to put me in the running to be the City of Discovery’s answer to Confucius, for season ticket holders of Dundee and United right now they might just strike a chord.

At Dens and Tannadice this season there have been several initiatives that have seen supporters get in for reduced prices or, in the case of kids at Dundee, free.

That, perhaps understandably, has led to a degree of disquiet among some of those who last summer paid to see their teams for the whole campaign.

These people are the diehards, the ones whose cash keeps the clubs in business — in Dundee’s case that was quite literally what happened last year.

As a rule, they are the supporters who follow their team every week, through thick and thin, and for whom the only incentive needed to go along to watch are the words “game on.”

Yet, when there is a chance to see a match for free, or a few quid less than the normal gate price, these most loyal of punters as the very people who, courtesy of that earlier financial commitment, miss out.

That does not seem fair and for one good reason — it isn’t.

However, before any of these hard-done by fans fall in behind me for a protest march to Tannadice Street — this isn’t an attack on those at the helm of the Dark Blues and Tangerines.

What it is, though, is a welcome to football in this the 21st century.

However harsh the schemes we’ve seen here and elsewhere — and that will continue at Dundee for the game against Livingston tomorrow — may seem on regular fans, they are necessary for clubs battling to survive the harsh economic realities of modern professional football.

Clubs need to maximise income, and that means getting as many people as they can get through the turnstiles.

If that, in turn, means that, in the hope of some of them becoming paying regulars, people who do not normally turn up get in free for a game or two, then that’s the way things have to be.

What it is no longer likely to mean is cut-price entry for those who are counted on to attend every week.

Their reward, hopefully, will be days like last Sunday when United demolished Aberdeen and, hopefully, via another two visits to Hampden before the season is out.

Prolonged participation in the SPL would also be nice, as would the odd public thank you from chairmen and their boards — something, in fairness, the two Dundee clubs are not slow to do.

Most of all, the reward these fans can get is their clubs’ survival and the knowledge it is down to them parting with their hard-earned cash.

PREDICTIONS

Dundee v. Livingston — HOME; Dunfermline v. Hearts — AWAY; Kilmarnock v. Aberdeen — HOME; Motherwell v. Dundee United — DRAW; Rangers v. ICT — HOME; Hibs v. Celtic — AWAY.