Argus Letters Page Today

[wellquickwoody]

Anyone else see the letter from the elderly Charlton fan?

At Withdean last week he claims that ALL Charlton fans were subject to a rigorous search procedure by a rather intimidating bunch of stewards. This even included a 68 year old lady he says. I know that anybody could be carrying a weapon etc but surely our club representatives could use a little common sense........maybe not, we are talking about stewards here.

He goes on to mention how he came down for Fans United etc but now feels that our club, or its stewards, have let themselves down in his eyes for making law abiding visiting fans feel less than welcome.

Would our stewards have done this against Milwall or Leeds, will they do it again against Pompey? Is this just another example of why our stewarding arrangements need to be overhauled?

My own last visit to Withdean was tarnished by a numpty steward berating me for standing in the wrong place behind the East stand, and then demanded that I apologise! If it wasn't for my fear of being banned from the club I love I would of told him to f**k off. I do so hope this attitude changes at The Amex

 

[clippedgull]

Yes I saw this and felt sorry for the old guy and indeed the old lady subject to the search. Although we have only one side of the story, it does seem unnecessary to target elderly people.

 

[Notters]

A bit like going to the Valley then.

 

[Notters]

Yes I saw this and felt sorry for the old guy and indeed the old lady subject to the search. Although we have only one side of the story, it does seem unnecessary to target elderly people.

If they searched everyone then they clearly weren't targetting elderly people.

 

[Wilka]

Don't the ultra's in Italy put fireworks in the old ladies bags to avoid being searched.

I'm sure I saw that on football italia back in the day.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Anyone else see the letter from the elderly Charlton fan?

At Withdean last week he claims that ALL Charlton fans were subject to a rigorous search procedure by a rather intimidating bunch of stewards. This even included a 68 year old lady he says. I know that anybody could be carrying a weapon etc but surely our club representatives could use a little common sense........maybe not, we are talking about stewards here.

He goes on to mention how he came down for Fans United etc but now feels that our club, or its stewards, have let themselves down in his eyes for making law abiding visiting fans feel less than welcome.

Would our stewards have done this against Milwall or Leeds, will they do it again against Pompey? Is this just another example of why our stewarding arrangements need to be overhauled?

My own last visit to Withdean was tarnished by a numpty steward berating me for standing in the wrong place behind the East stand, and then demanded that I apologise! If it wasn't for my fear of being banned from the club I love I would of told him to f**k off. I do so hope this attitude changes at The Amex

Searching has two policies - everyone or random. By the sound of it they were searching everyone on this occasion which doesn't seem unreasonable. If it's random then generally they'll pick a number and search that person - so every 6th person for example.

Plenty of places search people - museums, airports, disneyland etc etc etc and yet I don't hear many people complaining then. If they started to exclude certain groups from searching then it would make it a pretty pointless exercise. So we exclude elderly people ( on the assumption we can agree what the cut off would be ), what next ? Women, ethnic minorities ?

If anyone is really that offended at being searched when entering a football stadium then they are probably too delicate to even be watching a game.

 

[empire]

my sons bag gets searched every game and he is just 13

 

[beorhthelm]

if they are searching all Charlton fans, why should the 68 yo lady be excused? Would our stewards have done this for Millwall, Leeds and Pompey? probably.

 

[Box of Frogs]

Male stewards are not allowed to search females so she would have been searched by a female steward. I haven't seen the letter in the Argus but I doubt very much if it was an 'over-vigourous' search.

And yes, in the away end I understand everyone is searched regardless of which team is visiting. Even Leeds and Milwall!

 

[Superphil]

Frankly I don't believe that story, I simply do not believe that every single Charlton fan was searched, that would be a logisitical nightmare and take far too long. Rigerous search, what 20-30 seconds, x 800 fans, it just couldn't have happened, it would take hours to get them all in. Maybe they searched a lot of them, and as has been said, there should be no discrimination. It's a shame they feel this approach has tarnished us, oh well, I'm sure we'll get over it.

 

[Daffy Duck]

I like being randomly searched, especially if the steward's good-looking!!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

A bit like going to the Valley then.

Not at all. The only conversation I had with a Charlton steward was when he came up to a group of Albion fans to tell us that there was a small area by the side of the tea hut where he and his colleagues wouldn't be patrolling to stop anyone who wanted a half-time ciggie having one.

 

[Yoda]

A bit like going to the Valley then.

I wasn't searched when I went in. I've hardly ever been searched at the games I've been to.

 

[keaton]

The pre-entry grope is the only reason I go to Withdean.

Sadly since i've repeatedly told them this, they hardly do it anymore.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

It often seems a strange way to treat paying customers and what exactly are they looking for anyway?

Besides, if she was going to throw something from the away end then she must have been built like a shot putter!

 

[clapham_gull]

Very odd that you get searched before entering a football ground.

You can take in a flask but not a glass bottle, women won't get bottles of perfume confiscated and they can't take coins off you.

At high profile museums, art galleries and airports they are looking for bombs, but I can easily slip in a pen knife to slash a grand master if I was that way inclined.

To an extent we are okay with that because we know it has something to with our safety. At Withdean I don't feel particularly threatened that someone in the away end has managed to slip in a Can of Coke.

I love the expression on the stewards faces when I take something in that's odd but not forbidden. Last home game I had a load of Indian spice mixes for my brother.

It's a hang over from the bad old days of football violence, but the fans have paid their part of the deal - losing the terraces and paying much higher prices to sit down in a safer but sanitised version of the national game.

It's really time the football authorities and clubs started acting in a reciprocal manner and grew up themselves. It belongs to a different age unless particular intelligence suggest otherwise. At our club I'd imagine it very very rarely does.

 

[Foolg]

Very odd that you get searched before entering a football ground.

You can take in a flask but not a glass bottle, women won't get bottles of perfume confiscated and they can't take coins off you.

It belongs to a different age.

At high profile museums and art galleries they are looking for bombs, but I can easily slip in a pen knife to slash a grand master if I was that way inclined.

I love the expression on the stewards faces when I take something in that's odd but not forbidden. Last home game I had a load of Indian spice mixes for my brother.

Agreed, its getting stupid. Another situation you didnt mention which annoys me is the bottled drinks situation, although not at Withdean, it pisses me off when buying a bottle of coke/fanta so on that you immediately have the lid taken off and taken away from you. As you say, whats the difference between me taking in a metal flask and a coke bottle and lobbing it onto the field of play, in fact the flask would probably be worse.

That letter seems fair enough, however don't see what he's chatting about regarding fans united. Being searched at a football match by stewards means that your opinion of the club has altered, seems OTT from my perspective.

I got into an arguement the other week at Saints away, because i wasnt allowed to take a phone charger into the ground, having stayed at a mates the night before. It was described as "having the possibility of being used as a dangerous weapon" or something along those lines. Pathetic.

 

[Jimbo.GRFC]

It often seems a strange way to treat paying customers and what exactly are they looking for anyway?

Besides, if she was going to throw something from the away end then she must have been built like a shot putter!

I must be ugly,,,I can honestly say that I've never had the Withdean "Grope"

 

[clapham_gull]

I got into an arguement the other week at Saints away, because i wasnt allowed to take a phone charger into the ground, having stayed at a mates the night before. It was described as "having the possibility of being used as a dangerous weapon" or something along those lines. Pathetic.

It's laughable.

My late elderly father (in a wheelchair at the time) had a bottle of water confiscated when trying to enter Withdean. He was diabetic, was always thirsty and didn't want to pay the ridiculous inflated prices inside.

He did get an apology later, but the very fact that such a rule exists is beyond belief.

Then again I did get told one game to sit down (wait for it) in the disabled area. It was raining and we got all the wheelchair users pulled back under the butchers canopy and the "helpers" stood at the back. We were "caught" on CCTV and had to leave the person we were looking after and sit in a plastic chair on the running track in the rain.

Must point out it wasn't the fault of the stewards (who were told to pass on the message) who were frankly embarrassed. Neither was it the fault of our safety officer, who apologised afterwards.

A mistake by somebody, but something that is always going to happen within an environment of stupid silly rules that exist in a different age.

 

[Jimbo.GRFC]

I must be ugly,,,I can honestly say that I've never had the Withdean "Grope"

Airports is a classic example when taking of personal belongings, where do they actually go ? Definitely not in in an incinerator, Gatwick is a prime example, when checking through security their job is to take as much as they can from you and within eyesight into the big bucket it goes. As a regular traveller, Having had my Brut confiscated I questioned a very loose lipped member of security about the bucket of toiletries and perfumes that were now overflowing. Allegedly they were destroyed however Air Stewardesses I know have the contents were duly shared with each shift member of the security staff. On one occasion, I got busy and bought a bottle of after shave and took it back to security to ask for it to be screened to ensure I could fly with it....Its all a con !