Steward abuse and standing

[Bowman's Quiver]

Some of the abuse I've seen dished out by some people to Stewards over the last few seasons has to be seen to be believed. In every case they've only been doing their job and in some cases the Stewards involved were women who looked absolutely terrified by the confrontation that they found themselves in the middle of.

The club is absolutely right to support the Stewards to the hilt where they are doing the job for which they've been trained but be equally prepared to crack down on them when they overstep the mark. Bullies on either side shouldn't be tolerated.

However, those rules have to be seen to be applied evenly between both home and away supporters or the club will never get the compliance of the offenders in the East Stand.

[Dirk Gently]

The approach to away fans is also different - they are apprehended individually in the concourses where possible, and are being expelled from the ground - in ever-increasing numbers this season. But the stewards' strategy is to do things quietly without lots of fuss.

Details of the fans are then passed to the away club for potentially banning or removal of travel concessions, as well as the reducing of away allocations for the clubs involved. Realistically, that's all they can do.

For home fans, it's much easier - they can easily be banned. And so the club will take the easiest course in this and ban people.

[LimpBiscuit]

Can a steward be banned for persistent standing or obstructing the view of others?

Stewards persistently stand in the gangways, causing bottle necks and congestion at half time. One steward on B17 last week, walked up the steps to row HH and then sat in the aisle for 5 minutes, on more than one occasion.

He was asked to move a couple of times so people could get down the steps.

I was not so polite. I told him to move because he was obstructing the exit from the row of seats I was sat in. I also told him it was pretty stupid to be sitting in the aisle as well as being potentially dangerous.

Will I get banned for not saying "Please"?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Does anyone remember Coventry away at Highfield Road a couple of seasons ago when the stewards started forcefully removing Reading fans who were standing up. All hell broke loose and it caused more problems with Reading fans trying to fight the stewards. I am sure others on here can list other occasions when this has happened..

they weren't thrown out for standing. They were thrown out for hurling abuse at the Coventry fans in the next section, after moving to those seats for that very purpose.

[Jerry St Clair]

What an outrageous statement from the club.

They give us evidence from a spurious Fair Pleay League as justification.

Will they accept evidence from StandUpSitDown that standing is safe? of course not because they'll choose not too.

[Dirk Gently]

What an outrageous statement from the club.

They give us evidence from a spurious Fair Pleay League as justification.

Will they accept evidence from StandUpSitDown that standing is safe? of course not because they'll choose not too.

Absolutely nothing to do with the club - they have to enforce the terms of their licence, set by the Football Licencing Authority under the auspices of DCMS. They have no choice in the matter.

[Skin]

every seat in the house has a perfect view of the pitch.

CORRECT

Standing up does not make a better atmosphere FACT.

INCORRECT

[Skin]

All this on the very day the FA charge the club with failing to control their players and officials.

The irony...

[shadesrwrf]

I was asked at the senior management meeting today to pass on a message to all fans of Reading

So that's HobNob covered. What about the rest? Will the club be putting something in the next programme? Seems a shame that STAR have to be the mouthpiece of the club on this issue.

[noise]

here i just came out with my fair play league based on what i think

reading 1st -most fair

ok enough nonsense

[orange]

Some of the comments on this thread look like theyve come from people who care more about the club than thier own rights part of the problem is that the bloke in charge of the stewards (clive doyle) is a bully and a pillock. Whats wrong with standing anyway? What a fuss over something so easily solved.

[Jerry St Clair]

Absolutely nothing to do with the club - they have to enforce the terms of their licence, set by the Football Licencing Authority under the auspices of DCMS. They have no choice in the matter.

Accepted.

But the club's seem content to use a spurious league table to crack down on fans, whilst refusing to, at least support, the standupsitdown campaign in the face of large amounts of evidence.

[alad]

I'd like to hear the clubs view on how it's safe for people to stand in the ground for a concert but if people stand up during a game it's suddenly unsafe.

The 'unsafe to stand in a seated ground' arguement is possibly the most ridiculous arguement ever. If it's safe to jump up and down when a goal is scored how is it unsafe to stand up for quiet periods of play? I'm not saying every single person should stand up but there should be a choice. I think you'd find that 8,000 plus fans would prefer to stand up for every game if they had the chance.

It's time a club had the bottle to go to court and challenge the health and safety regulations that state standing for sustained periods is unsafe.

[southbank1871]

Info:

I have managed to find out how this works. Every set of supporters starts off with 5 points and then up to 5 points can be deducted or added by the premier league official present at the match for good or bad behaviour. Deductions are made for "persistent foul and abusive language" "persistent abuse of the official's decisions" "persistent aggressive or threatening conduct towards opposing fans." (sound familiar?)

You gain points by doing things like giving verbal support to your own team in an acceptable form, whatever that is (probably not involving eating dogs i would have thought), and for recognising opposition's outstanding play. The winning set of supporters at the season's end gets £20,000.

This has got to be a wind-up surely?

[STAR Liaison]

I was asked at the senior management meeting today to pass on a message to all fans of Reading

So that's HobNob covered. What about the rest? Will the club be putting something in the next programme? Seems a shame that STAR have to be the mouthpiece of the club on this issue.

At the meeting it was agreed it would be put in the match programme and the OS but as I posted here while they were still in the meeting, you heard it here first.

[alad]

Possibly the most absurd thing I've ever heard.

[STAR Liaison]

I'd like to hear the clubs view on how it's safe for people to stand in the ground for a concert but if people stand up during a game it's suddenly unsafe.

I know this is something a lot of people feel strongly about but it is not the club's decision. As has been said earlier if you disagree it would be more effective to campaign for changes in the law rather than telling the club to break the law just because you disagree with it.

STAR is going to send represntatives to the next Safety Advisory Group meeting and we have been told that we will get more insight into the constraints the club has to work under.

[Schards#2]

As long as STAR are thrown the bone of being able to bolster their membership by gifting royalty points by the club, they will be the club's mouthpiece and dutifully peddle the club line whenever told so to do.

[shadesrwrf]

As long as STAR are thrown the bone of being able to bolster their membership by gifting royalty points by the club, they will be the club's mouthpiece and dutifully peddle the club line whenever told so to do.

Have to say I'm with you on this one. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth when STAR are apparently so closely aligned with the club on this issue. I joined STAR for the first time this season, sadly it seems it'll be the first and last.

[Platypuss]

I'd like to hear the clubs view on how it's safe for people to stand in the ground for a concert but if people stand up during a game it's suddenly unsafe.

I know this is something a lot of people feel strongly about but it is not the club's decision. As has been said earlier if you disagree it would be more effective to campaign for changes in the law rather than telling the club to break the law just because you disagree with it.

STAR is going to send represntatives to the next Safety Advisory Group meeting and we have been told that we will get more insight into the constraints the club has to work under.

Is it not an accepted tenet that justice must be seen to be done?

As I said earlier, if RFC are worried about compliance then they must be seen to be acting equally against both away and home fans.

Until this happens then RFC will fail to gain acceptance and will increasingly lose trust.