Saturday

[mdetaylor]

Managed to oversleep and therefore the decision of where to go was made for me as Stockport was out of range.

 

Got to Luton station to find all points north were impossible to reach thanks to Midland Mainline.

 

Spent 20 minutes being abused by Thameslink staff for having the cheek to ask for a refund so not best pleased.

 

Found out at 2:30 due to a waterlogged pitch that the trip to Sheffield would have been futile - mood improves.

 

Watched egg chasing - mood improves.

 

Constant updates from Edgley from only Yorkshire Branch present.

 

Not suprised to hear about the stewards as I have seen them in action before without the excuse of asking people to sit down. Have seen many more than 6 thrown out before so clearly the stewards are forgetful or liars.

 

Mood went down hill as goals started to go in.

 

If it had been for foul and abusive then then the police would have been far more interested as this can be an offence under the various football supporters legislation that exists (and as I expect there had been some alcohol consumed I assume they would have been more interested in drunken misbehaviour). The sit down or get out is a particular favourite of league stewards.

[Colin Zeal EFM]

The police were not interested at all. They said themselves that it was out of their hands. They knew the stewards were way over the top.

 

I think we hold the record (6 ejections) for this season. Unfortunately, it's not an "all-time" record!!

[Laz]

Same thing, albeit a different scale, at Kingstonian. However, I would like to know if they are obligated to compensate those they eject without reason. If we all club together on this, we could possibly take some legal action, possibly a small claim. MDT, what do you think?

[mdetaylor]

My initial thought would be that as the police so helpfully pointed out as the ground is private property then they can do what they like (reserve the right to refuse admittance etc.)

 

This is the same as a pub, you could buy a round and then everyone could be thrown out for no reason without compensation as it is priavte property. If they gave reasons that were discriminatory when removing fans then possibly you would have an action but the cost/benefit would make most people not bother.

 

They will say that they also reserve the right to remove anyone who is in breach of the gound rules which will as you know be posted somewhere in the ground.

 

In any case they will not be liable to compensate as they can probably remove people without reason (private property etc.)

 

However if there has been threats of and/or the use of violence by a steward then the stewarding company may offer to refund the tickets to avoid bad publicity (if any police saw this incident then they would have to investigate it if a complaint was made although this is probably taking things a bit too far.)

 

As the stewards are I assume contracted out by the club then the club may as a gesture of good will offer to refund the tickets of those removed if enough evidence is provided that nothing untoward took place (I know that Sunderland did this in a play off game when a number of Sheff U fans were removed by the police/stewards for no obvious reason).

 

So after all that there is unlikely to be any cause of action against the club/stewarding company as they can pretty much remove who they like from private property but a well worded complaint that the day was spoilt may get a refund.

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Can someone find out and post the stewarding company's address on here!

[Colin Zeal EFM]

The stewards are employed by Stockport County - they're not a hired security firm.

 

As for the East European steward who thumped Sherwood. He was not sacked, nor ejected. He was in the centre circle after the game.

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

well considering he was the only person who instigated any violence, he must be sacked, if we'd done that I should imagine we'd been arrested.

[Laz]

Surely, the assult on JS is a criminal act. There were plenty of witnesses. So why doesn't he nip down to the Police Station and report it?

[SteveP]

There was some rather funny goings on at Aldershot with us this season and some stewarding which was non too smart. I have learnt some useful stuff about complaints though...

 

If there was an issue with the stewards then maybe some of those, non-involved fans who had clear sight of what happened write a statement of fact based upon what they saw and what they heard. Such statements need to be without opinion or any bias and only state facts.

 

If your Supporter's club are in aggreement that it was wrong to eject your fans, then the best course of action is for them to gather statements and write a letter to St. Albans FC. The club should then write a letter to Stockport. If this happens then your complaints are backed by both the supporter's club and the football club, so it's not just coming from Joe Bloggs who happens to have a vendetta against Stockport County.

 

However, it sounds like the stewarding in general was just plain over-pedantic, with the possibility that in one specific incident there was a total overreaction. The reason I say over-pedantic is that the rule is that you have to be seated and if you do not sit then you are breaching the rules. Remember how Man Utd were threatened with the closure of one of their stands because people were standing in seated areas??

 

Common sense doesn't really come in to play in these type of complaints, simply put if you stand where seats are they are probably within their rights to eject you, no matter how badly they handled it.

 

But the assault case could have credence if your man really wants to take the time to chase it up.

 

Hope that helps.

[GHA EFM]

Would the assault have been caught on CCTV??

[EFM's Librarian]

Just a quick point. I had a word with the beardy steward at half time. His comment regarding the idiot with long hair who hit JS went something like this, "oh don't worry about him, he's got a bit of a fiery temper, but he hasn't done anything like that for a couple of years!!"

So they employ stewards who are known to have a bit of a fiery temper and have been known to be violent?!

I was also very dissapointed to be told that a couple of city "fans" had commented that the stewards had done a good job and these "idiots were always causing trouble at city!"

I wonder which part of the ground these "fans" usually stand in?

[Northern Monkey]

In the fizzy "Pop"ular stand I bet. I wonder if it was the elderly 'gent' who at the end of the game helped the stewards control a lad (about 12) ? who had perched on the barrier. his actions warranted the abuse he got back, probably moan for next 5 years. Our elder population lack insight to EFM,

[GHA EFM]

The elderly 'gent' was rather heavy-handed in the way he went about his actions. For some reason he insisted everyone stand about a metre back from the perimeter wall. Haven't got a clue why he did so, and what it would've achieved had anyone listened to him but still.