I guess they want an empty stadium. This is how they get an empty stadium.
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Charlton blackmail fans with ST to stop dissent
- Thread starter brightn'ove
- Start date
brightn'ove
cringe
- Thread starter
- #42
It's easier to sell with nobody inside it.
According to Reddit, it's already been resolved without a contract thing being signed. That's good news but quite the blunder on Charlton's side.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
I wonder how long till the Albion tries something like this ? Anyone who criticises anything about the club is on the list. All the clubs want is happy clappers putting up with all the rip offs and rubbish and never voicing an opinion that is not in line with who runs a club
Silent Bob
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
- Dec 6, 2004
- 22,172
Social media screening is not uncommon, usually it's businesses screening potential employees. It is extremely sinister though.
It is, on Twitter at least, hard to get it to work accurately though. There must quite a few John Smiths who follow the Albion, and selecting the correct one will be tricky. You can solve this by, for example, asking people to link their social media accounts to some sort of club account (their ticket account for example), saying that it will allow the club to "Enter you into new competitions!" or the like. I don't think you can search Facebook or Twitter by email address, although Facebook may still let you import your address book, which may give an avenue.
Social media screening of employees is easier, as they normally either hand over their account details or are connected to other people at the company.
Whatever the outcome, it really does show both a deep misunderstanding of fans and their loyalty to a club as well as a total lack of comprehension of social media and how quickly this sort of thing can be spread over the internet.
Seagull1989
Well-known member
- Oct 31, 2011
- 1,204
This is horrible. Why are the club spying on their fans social media sites. I'm pretty sure he hasn't done anything illegal. There is no way I would renew my season ticket. I would turn up to the meeting and tell him this in person.
Spying??
If people write stuff about a club on twitter, using the club's hashtag, it is designed to be seen and read by all interested parties.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,327
STH should make a 'mutually agreed appointment' and then attend with a solicitor and a full complement of journalists in tow.
blockhseagull
Well-known member
Well of course it matters..... But if you say it wasn't anything illegal or libelous then it seems well OTT.
I wasn't sure if he had posted something regarding the pitch disturbances last season and had been identified as one of those that had organised it
According to the news item on the charlton website it was a letter to one individual. Hes attended the meeting along with a rep from the supporters trust and apologised for his behaviour. Has been handed his season ticket and as his apology seemed sincere he hasnt had to sign the behaviour contract.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/12/charlton-athletic-letter-forcing-fans-social-media
A Charlton fan who was threatened with having his season ticket withheld unless he signed a contract preventing him from making “derogatory comments” about the club, says he has “had enough” of the way he and his fellow supporters are being treated.
The fan, who had been involved in protests against the way the club has been run under owner Roland Duchâtelet, received a letter from Charlton last week stating that unless he signed an “Agreed Behavioral Contract” governing what he said about the club, he would not be issued with his season ticket. The fan then met with the club, who withdrew the threat and ultimately did grant him a season ticket, but only after he apologised for comments made on social media.
The letter, posted on Twitter by another supporter, was written by the club’s duty safety officer, Cliff Eager, and noted that “certain comments made by you on social media websites by yourself have been not particularly constructive” and that “as a result we it has been decided that your season ticket will be allocated to you, in person by myself at the club by mutual appointment...”
It continued: “I need to advise you that the granting of your season ticket will be ‘conditional’ and subject to you signing an ‘Agreed Behavioural Contract’ (ABC) which will request that you refrain from posting derogatory or inflammatory comments regarding the Club or people representing the club in the future on any social media websites, or carrying out any other form of behaviour that could be deemed to be of an anti-social nature.”
The comments made by the fan, on social media and captured on camera at the Valley, contained profanities but are not thought to be defamatory in nature, and indeed the club have not claimed as such.
“I’ve been gobby, but that’s nothing unusual for football fans and was nothing that anyone else hadn’t said on Twitter,” the fan, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian.
“They said I was being inflammatory, but inflammatory is inciting violence or hate; all I’ve been saying is we want our club back. I wasn’t going to put it online - my friend put it up, but it needs to be out there, how they’re destroying the club that we all love.”
The fan, accompanied by the chairman of the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust Richard Wiseman, met with Eager and Mick Everett, the club’s head of matchday operations, expecting to be presented with the contract, but there seemed to have been a change of heart about placing restrictions on his statements.
“I expected to walk in there, they’d have the contract laid out and that would be it,” he said. “I said I didn’t want the meeting to be mentioned, but they’ve [made it public] now regardless. I was going to take the contract away and take legal advice, but instead they gave me a telling off.
“I apologised for whatever was said, but at the end of the day they shouldn’t be sending these sort of letters. I am sorry, but I haven’t signed any conditions. I said I wanted to record the conversation so it was clear what had been said, but they said no.
“I don’t care what they do now. I’ve had enough of the club and how they’ve tried to treat me, and every other supporters. Let them do what they’ve got to do. I can still travel to away games. They can’t ban me from away games – I haven’t committed a criminal offence.”
It would appear that cooler heads prevailed between the writing of the letter and the meeting. Nevertheless, this represents another example of the troubling attitude the club has taken towards its supporters, and how they seemingly initially tried to threaten the fan into staying quiet. Protests against Duchâtelet and chief executive Katrien Meire were a feature of last season, as supporters disrupted games by throwing objects onto the pitch, held up banners and even conducted a mock funeral procession to the Valley, mourning what they perceived to be the death of the club under the Belgian.
The club were relegated to League One last season, after the sale of several key players and an erratic approach to their managerial position. In Duchatelet’s two-and-a-half years at the Valley, Charlton have had six permanent managers, taking in two spells by Jose Riga and the sacking of club hero Chris Powell. Fans were also unhappy after Meire compared them to customers of a restaurant or cinema, and seeming to mock the way they ‘cared’ about the club.
In March, Duchatelet released a statement on the Charlton website in which he accused fans of wanting the club to fail, seemingly an attempt to place the blame for some of their woes on the supporters. In the wake of the statement, the club’s head of communications resigned.
Charlton issued a statement on Friday in which they confirmed the meeting had taken place, and that they “called the meeting to explain the Agreed Behavioural Contract process with the individual and the reasons behind it. It was emphasised that the meeting was not due to any involvement with supporter protests, but solely in response to his continuous, personal behaviour and abuse.”
The statement continued: “The individual met with Head of Matchday Operations Mick Everett... and recently appointed Duty Safety Officer, Cliff Eager... During the meeting, the level of abuse, which the individual has since voluntarily removed from their Twitter account, was discussed. The club also discussed the video footage, after which the individual apologised on several occasions for his behaviour and assured the club that he would not continue to engage in an abusive manner…
“The meeting ended amicably and, as he appeared sincere in his apology, the club handed the individual his 2016/17 season ticket and he was not asked to sign an Agreed Behavioural Contract.”
Wiseman, who accompanied the fan, welcomed the reversal of the club’s position, but was concerned that the threat had been made in the first place.
“The crucial thing is that the club appeared to have rethought the contract idea and it was dealt with informally and satisfactorily,” Wiseman told the News Shopper. “Having said that, the email was alarming and naive.
“The supposed contract regarding particular comments and behaviour that was originally asked to be signed is pretty broad. When I read the letter I thought it was another own goal. It was a naive letter for sure.”
A Charlton fan who was threatened with having his season ticket withheld unless he signed a contract preventing him from making “derogatory comments” about the club, says he has “had enough” of the way he and his fellow supporters are being treated.
The fan, who had been involved in protests against the way the club has been run under owner Roland Duchâtelet, received a letter from Charlton last week stating that unless he signed an “Agreed Behavioral Contract” governing what he said about the club, he would not be issued with his season ticket. The fan then met with the club, who withdrew the threat and ultimately did grant him a season ticket, but only after he apologised for comments made on social media.
The letter, posted on Twitter by another supporter, was written by the club’s duty safety officer, Cliff Eager, and noted that “certain comments made by you on social media websites by yourself have been not particularly constructive” and that “as a result we it has been decided that your season ticket will be allocated to you, in person by myself at the club by mutual appointment...”
It continued: “I need to advise you that the granting of your season ticket will be ‘conditional’ and subject to you signing an ‘Agreed Behavioural Contract’ (ABC) which will request that you refrain from posting derogatory or inflammatory comments regarding the Club or people representing the club in the future on any social media websites, or carrying out any other form of behaviour that could be deemed to be of an anti-social nature.”
The comments made by the fan, on social media and captured on camera at the Valley, contained profanities but are not thought to be defamatory in nature, and indeed the club have not claimed as such.
“I’ve been gobby, but that’s nothing unusual for football fans and was nothing that anyone else hadn’t said on Twitter,” the fan, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian.
“They said I was being inflammatory, but inflammatory is inciting violence or hate; all I’ve been saying is we want our club back. I wasn’t going to put it online - my friend put it up, but it needs to be out there, how they’re destroying the club that we all love.”
The fan, accompanied by the chairman of the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust Richard Wiseman, met with Eager and Mick Everett, the club’s head of matchday operations, expecting to be presented with the contract, but there seemed to have been a change of heart about placing restrictions on his statements.
“I expected to walk in there, they’d have the contract laid out and that would be it,” he said. “I said I didn’t want the meeting to be mentioned, but they’ve [made it public] now regardless. I was going to take the contract away and take legal advice, but instead they gave me a telling off.
“I apologised for whatever was said, but at the end of the day they shouldn’t be sending these sort of letters. I am sorry, but I haven’t signed any conditions. I said I wanted to record the conversation so it was clear what had been said, but they said no.
“I don’t care what they do now. I’ve had enough of the club and how they’ve tried to treat me, and every other supporters. Let them do what they’ve got to do. I can still travel to away games. They can’t ban me from away games – I haven’t committed a criminal offence.”
It would appear that cooler heads prevailed between the writing of the letter and the meeting. Nevertheless, this represents another example of the troubling attitude the club has taken towards its supporters, and how they seemingly initially tried to threaten the fan into staying quiet. Protests against Duchâtelet and chief executive Katrien Meire were a feature of last season, as supporters disrupted games by throwing objects onto the pitch, held up banners and even conducted a mock funeral procession to the Valley, mourning what they perceived to be the death of the club under the Belgian.
The club were relegated to League One last season, after the sale of several key players and an erratic approach to their managerial position. In Duchatelet’s two-and-a-half years at the Valley, Charlton have had six permanent managers, taking in two spells by Jose Riga and the sacking of club hero Chris Powell. Fans were also unhappy after Meire compared them to customers of a restaurant or cinema, and seeming to mock the way they ‘cared’ about the club.
In March, Duchatelet released a statement on the Charlton website in which he accused fans of wanting the club to fail, seemingly an attempt to place the blame for some of their woes on the supporters. In the wake of the statement, the club’s head of communications resigned.
Charlton issued a statement on Friday in which they confirmed the meeting had taken place, and that they “called the meeting to explain the Agreed Behavioural Contract process with the individual and the reasons behind it. It was emphasised that the meeting was not due to any involvement with supporter protests, but solely in response to his continuous, personal behaviour and abuse.”
The statement continued: “The individual met with Head of Matchday Operations Mick Everett... and recently appointed Duty Safety Officer, Cliff Eager... During the meeting, the level of abuse, which the individual has since voluntarily removed from their Twitter account, was discussed. The club also discussed the video footage, after which the individual apologised on several occasions for his behaviour and assured the club that he would not continue to engage in an abusive manner…
“The meeting ended amicably and, as he appeared sincere in his apology, the club handed the individual his 2016/17 season ticket and he was not asked to sign an Agreed Behavioural Contract.”
Wiseman, who accompanied the fan, welcomed the reversal of the club’s position, but was concerned that the threat had been made in the first place.
“The crucial thing is that the club appeared to have rethought the contract idea and it was dealt with informally and satisfactorily,” Wiseman told the News Shopper. “Having said that, the email was alarming and naive.
“The supposed contract regarding particular comments and behaviour that was originally asked to be signed is pretty broad. When I read the letter I thought it was another own goal. It was a naive letter for sure.”