Rusthall Seagull
New member
Hi all
I received this e-mail this morning from a good mate of mine who is the individual involved. He has asked me to post this on his behalf as he is not a poster on this site.
Im totally gutted for him as I think most of you we be as well:
Firstly, let me introduce myself as the 1901 member who has received the exclusion from the Amex, as well as not being able to purchase away tickets via the Club until the end of season 2012/2013 football season. At the end of this season I will then be invited to attend a meeting with the Club’s management, If these management officials then deem it ok for me to attend Albion home matches I must first sign a code of behaviour document before being allowed to attend. I will try to condense this as much as possible but as you can imagine it isn’t a one liner so please bear with me.
I have supported the Albion from a young age, have attended home and away matches since 1985 and have been a continuous season ticket holder for 24 years, missing some 10-15 home matches in all that time, including Gillingham and Withdean and I have never been ejected from any ground.
The incident as some people on here have rightly mentioned has not been fully and accurately reported on this forum site. I do not post on NSC and have registered for the sole purpose of setting the story straight now it is has been leaked and is out in the open. I would like to add that I did not wish for it to become common knowledge as currently I am following appeal procedures with both the Club and the Football League (FB). It has also transferred into and is affecting my work, having been called into the boardroom of the professional firm I work for....twice. Further damaging posts from people not knowing the facts, making assumptions and accusing me of using this site to rubbish the Club should realise I simply want the opportunity to set the record straight whilst I appeal the exclusion. I have had to start a new thread as to date many messages on a number of threads have been posted.
To summarise the events on the night in question, I attended the stadium, went to my lounge and had a couple of beers, I then went to my seat to soak up the atmosphere. I did not notice the Palace fan until their first goal, he appeared to celebrate but I wouldn’t say over the top at this stage, and of course many Brighton fans reacted badly to this, but I would say all restrained themselves correctly and the matter passed. My seat is approximately 12 seats to the left and one row behind so I was within close proximity to see but not so as to be able to hear.
It is not for me to judge if the 1901 area is a corporate area, an area with hospitality or just a fancy seating area for Brighton fans. I personally consider it a home end but fully understand how the 1901 members may wish to use their seat for Clients and such like. It was never indicated to me at any stage however there would be away fans sitting in these areas, some might say it is naïve to think that, but hey I was surprised to see a Palace fan there, considering our rivalry.
I didn’t notice any serious problems until their second goal, where the Palace fan had stood up and turned around and faced the Albion fans with both hands in the air celebrating, he was clearly goading the home fans and was aggressive towards the person sitting directly behind him. This clearly resulted in aggression and witnessing such incidents in the past was surprised in didn’t deteriorate into violence. The Stewards were called to the Palace fan and words were exchanged on 2 separate occasions, but he was not removed, I was surprised to see him celebrate again even after the Stewards first visit.
The game finished and I left my seat and headed towards my lounge, I took the route I often take which is along my row, it was clear and the flight of steps to my right were also clear as many people had left early. As I passed behind the Palace fan, I ask him “Are you the Palace fan”, he ignored me so I asked again, he then replied “f##k off”. Now I noticed he was with a woman and a child, I told him that when you are in the home end you show some respect to home fans. This was no different to the 1901 email that was sent to members earlier in the day, this was the first time the Club had commented on away fans being present in 1901 areas. The woman next to him shouted he’s done nothing wrong. The next thing was that 2 individuals from the back of the stand had arrived in front of me, they were aggressive and one referred to me as “Brighton” and the other appeared to be a Brighton fan. The aggression at this stage was by directed at me, these 2 individuals were not privy to my conversation with the Palace fan beforehand. One of the individuals raised his hands towards me, now I am pretty certain that most people’s natural response would be to defend themselves, which I did by pushing his hand away and moving back. This was the only physical contact other than to tap the Palace fan on the shoulder to ask him my initial question. Of course at this stage my voice was raised.!
Directly afterwards, a young steward arrived and said that I had seen me run at the Palace fan aggressively, which was completely false. I offered my details up straight away when asked and then proceeded to the top concourse with an older more senior Steward to take my details down. At this stage 1 of the 2 individuals who had approached me had now appeared at the top where we were standing and had started shouting at me again from behind the Stewards back. He shouted that I was a disgrace and that he would get me banned.
About 2 minutes had passed before the first younger Steward turned up now accusing me of assaulting the Palace fan. Passers-by heard this and immediately offered up their details as they had seen what actually happened. The older Steward turned down his details at this time.
I was allowed to go, which I did, I went to the North Stand where I had another couple of beers before heading to the station.
I honestly, couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the letter and read that the Club had accused me of assaulting the Palace fan and then poking him in the face as well as assaulting one of the two individuals who the Club said were there to assist and prevent me from carrying out further assaults on the Palace fan.
Now, I immediately phoned Richard Hebberd the morning I received the letter as I was shocked and disgusted by these assault allegations and left him a voicemail message. I received no call back to what I considered a very serious allegation. The following Monday morning I tried ringing Mr Hebberd, but no response. The only time I managed to get through is when I changed from my personal mobile to my work mobile. We discussed the matter at length and he told me he considered it an open and shut case. He mentioned an off duty Policeman had witnessed the assault, I asked how a Policeman witnessing an assault of this degree would not have arrested me there and then. I told Mr Hebberd all we had to do to clear this mess up was to view the CCTV and it would clearly show me not assaulting the Palace fan, but there is no CCTV of the incident. No CCTV of when the Steward was called twice to that area, no CCTV of the assault and no CCTV when I was having my details taken down in the minutes after the incident. I find this strange.
I have since requested many times meetings with the Club through Mr Hebberd, I have provided the Club with 5 signed witness statements of what actually happened and have send and left messages for explanations/ clarification on my exclusion, am I to continue to pay my membership fee, can I sell my seat on an individual game basis, can I sub-let my seat, would my seat be vacant or do the Club plan to sell or seat people there……none of these issues have been responded too. To date, I have received the exclusion letter and 2 emails and responses from the Club do not reflect what is stated within the Club’s customer charter. To make matters much worse my membership card has been deactivated and does not work, the card also has funds on it which I cannot access and the Club continue to take £92 out of my account each month.
As mentioned previously, the matter has now transferred into my professional work. I sit at the Amex with one of my Firm’s Partners, who is a lifelong Albion fan as well as a major Client of our Firm. Keeping this quiet, especially now I have missed 3 home games has become impossible. Unfortunately, both the Partner and the Client had left and missed the incident, however being called into the boardroom to explain this has damaged my personal character, my professional integrity and jeopardising my future prospects at the Firm.
The letter I received from the Club was also c.c’d to Sussex Police, I find this strange as the exclusion from the Amex is a civil matter not a legal one, this in my opinion has also been detrimental to my character.
I consider myself a diehard fan that has committed everything to the Club, be it finically, through support or on the many occasions where marches, letter writing, partitions etc, were required to help in doing my bit to save the Albion and get us to the Amex.
I feel I have been treated very unfairly by the Club, not even being given the opportunity to present for my side of events. However, it is heartening to read many supportive comments and posts on the 1901….your thoughts so far thread, as well as reading some of the peoples statements of what they witnessed happened during the incident, none of which mention an assault of either the Palace fan or the individuals who came down. For these posts I am very grateful.
The FL are currently reviewing my appeal and have given me a deadline of 7th December 2011 to come back to me after contacting the Club, there is another 2 home matches before this decision deadline. As mentioned, I have attempted to keep this matter between the Club and me, but now it is out and I can’t dialog with the Club, the FL have been contacted.
There are other issues that have also been ignored by the Club which cannot be covered here, apologies for the illiteracies but I have thrown this together before I start work I probably won’t respond to question as I don’t used NSC nowadays, last time I used it was the old message board in the 90’s where the threads just fell of the bottom on the page never to be seen again. If you managed to make it this far……well done and thanks for taking the time to read.
if this is true, PM me and PDF me a copy of the letter pls
