Charlton attempt to 'ban' United supporters

moshpit77

from football365.com

Charlton are to attempt to ban Manchester United fans from the Valley after claims a female member of staff was sexually assaulted and a steward was injured during Saturday's 3-1 defeat.

A male United fan was arrested and charged with sexual assault on Saturday afternoon, and spent the weekend in police custody - one of six away fans arrested.

Charlton chief executive Peter Varney said: "I think, when we see the reports from the police and the local authority, it will leave us with little alternative but to refuse to sell tickets to Manchester United fans for future games at The Valley."

The female member of staff had been helping disabled fans in the away end and was in the area to the rear of the stand when the assault is said to have occurred.

Varney added: "I have never heard of anything like this at a football match before, and we would like to thank those Manchester United fans who witnessed it, and came forward to make statements to the police."

Three of the six arrested were fans who encroached on to the pitch after United's second goal, when scorer Ruud Van Nistelrooy headed a group of United players towards the visiting fans to celebrate.

This led to a large number of United supporters surging forward, causing a metal gate to break and crushing a steward.

"I'd rather have the away end empty than run the risk of further incidents like those we saw on Saturday," said Varney.

I can't really see this happening. I'm sure the Premier League can conduct an enquiry and saction United in some way, but are Charlton actually allowed to dictate whether or not away supporters can get tickets? I thought all clubs were obliged to sell a certain amount of away tickets for all games.

wheres me jumpa

"and we would like to thank those Manchester United fans who witnessed it, and came forward to make statements to the police."

i think based on that comment alone this would be very unfair.

Kingp35

moshpit77 wrote:

I can't really see this happening. I'm sure the Premier League can conduct an enquiry and saction United in some way, but are Charlton actually allowed to dictate whether or not away supporters can get tickets? I thought all clubs were obliged to sell a certain amount of away tickets for all games.

Not 100% sure on that but I know that at some Leeds home games this season away fans were not allowed to attend

Benedict XVI

Back in the 80's Luton (then in Div 1) had a ban on away supporters.

Necronomicon

Well they've tried everything else to beat United, might as well try to drain them of support:rolleyes:

Nunu

wheres me jumpa wrote:

"and we would like to thank those Manchester United fans who witnessed it, and came forward to make statements to the police."

i think based on that comment alone this would be very unfair.

Yes, I totally agree. What a hypocritical statement. He says, "I think, when we see the reports from the police and the local authority, it will leave us with little alternative but to refuse to sell tickets to Manchester United fans for future games at The Valley."
He then goes on to praise those very same fans in the words you quoted.

To be fair though I think he was just jumping the gun in response to the shocking incident of a steward being sexually assaulted. That is truly despicable and he has to be seen to be forceful in his condemnation of it. There's no chance of Utd fans being banned, even he knows that.

BKtje

Ban that fan of course but it would be very harsh to blame them all for that incident...especially since others helped with the enquiry. Regarding the gate...build a stronger gate as passionate fans will always try to get near the objects of their joy.

SteM

United fans seem to have something of a reputation at away grounds. There have been quite a few clubs that have cut down the amount of tickets that they'll sell to United over the past few seasons.

cournioni

SteM wrote:

United fans seem to have something of a reputation at away grounds. There have been quite a few clubs that have cut down the amount of tickets that they'll sell to United over the past few seasons.

That is mainly because they usually stand up at most away grounds. At the moment they are only allowed 1,500 into the Riverside because they won't sit down. Other reasons would be because some fans would run onto the pitch when United score (usually at Villa Park ).

The cut down on away tickets hasn't been for anything of this nature though.

gracehopper

United travelling supporters are class, i 've been to Old trafford many times and watched United in other english grounds a few times villa park, anfield etc and the support when united play away is brilliant and most of the time better than the home support, when i was in anfield the united supporters were louder than the liverpool fans, then again they did have something to sing about Ha Ha Ha....

SteM

PORNAPSTER wrote:

That is mainly because they usually stand up at most away grounds.

I know that yeah.

Dcully

then again they did have something to sing about Ha Ha Ha

Nothing to sing about in a while tho,Pool fans have

gracehopper

Dcully wrote:

Nothing to sing about in a while tho,Pool fans have

Yeh, Being the 9th best team in england at the moment is really something to sing about

mchurl

gracehopper wrote:

Yeh, Being the 9th best team in england at the moment is really something to sing about

sounds pretty good to me:p

Chucky the tree

gracehopper wrote:

Yeh, Being the 9th best team in england at the moment is really something to sing about

Nah, We prefer singing about being the best team in Europe.