Yeovil Town FC have released the following insulting statement regarding the Yeovil Town v Leeds United home fixture in April - which we got hold of through the admirable Somerset County Gazette (see our comments below the statement):
“The fixture attracted a record attendance at Huish Park and represented the most demanding test of resources and procedures since our FA Cup Third Round match against Liverpool in 2004.
“Leeds United have the sixth largest supporter following in the country, but due to the size of our ground and the accompanying segregation issues the club was only able to provide the visitors with 1,600 tickets.
“This scenario risked a substantial number of Leeds fans attempting to purchase their tickets in “home” designated areas.”
“At a very early stage, it became apparent that a few tickets had been purchased online by people residing at northern addresses.
“Although this did not necessarily mean that the buyers were Leeds supporters it raised sufficient concerns for the club to introduce a robust policy for the sale of tickets in relation to this fixture.
“Thereafter no tickets were sold to people living outside of designated local post code areas and purchasers were limited to four tickets per person.
“Many prospective purchasers were refused the opportunity to buy tickets because they were unable to convince staff in the ticket office that they were Yeovil Town supporters.
“Despite these efforts a number of Leeds fans were evident in the Cowlin, AgustaWestland and Carlsberg stands.
“In the majority of cases these fans conducted themselves in a perfectly acceptable manner.”
“However, there were also other contingents that were determined to infiltrate the “home” areas and behave inappropriately.
“We apologise to any Yeovil Town fans whose enjoyment of the game and the occasion was impaired by the presence of these particular fans.
“Although the review of operations has highlighted areas where improvements can be made in managing the safety and security of our fans for any future high profile match the stewards and police must be commended for the part they played in containing the potential trouble makers and thereby preventing any serious disorder.
“Most of all however, the club would like to praise and thank the Yeovil Town fans for the considerable restraint they showed in the response to the intimidation generated by the small minority of Leeds fans intent on causing disruption.
“The police intelligence officer has informed us that Yeovil Town fans are amongst the best behaved in the Football League, home and away, and that is something of which we should all be proud.”
The statement omits to mention there were no arrests and only one Leeds fan was ejected for “poor behaviour”- so why all the fuss? Perhaps because a few home fans used to decades of the three-digit, non-league crowds couldn’t stand a bit of away vocal support? What the hell is the club talking about, “police must be commended for the part they played in containing the potential trouble makers and thereby preventing any serious disorder“. Did I miss a mounted charge by the police; helicopter-borne SWAT teams sliding down ropes to take out Al Qaeda-trained ring-leaders and sleeper agents planted in the home crowds in Leeds shirts? Of course not, it was a below average football match, played in front of sections of a crowd that were clearly overly sensitive; the Leeds fans wanted to watch the game and the Yeovil fans objected to their presence - just who has the mental problem there? The whole statement is self-congratulatory bullshit and police arse-licking from beginning to end.
The record attendance on the night was nearly double the average attendance at Huish Park - perhaps all this could have been avoided if they had allocated more tickets to the Leeds fans who take thousands to each away game instead of allocating them to glory-hunting locals who hadn’t attended a game since the Liverpool FA Cup tie?
But Yeovil listened to police advice didn’t they? They changed the date and reduced the allocation to Leeds fans - and what happened - Leeds fans did what was necessary to attend this game. Any Police force in the country could have told Somerset & Avon Police that would happen - their “football intelligence officer” should be fired. The fans that “infiltrated” (oh, how exciting!) the home stands were Leeds fans based in Somerset and its surrounding counties - see the comments to our previous story.
So its OK for people to live in Yeovil but NOT to attend the local football ground? A Yeovil-based Leeds fan couldn’t go with his Yeovil supporting mates to stand together to watch the game because it spoilt the game for some sensitive, Yeovil, knuckle-dragger who wants to be able to hurl abuse at the away fans but is too scared to do it if one is stood next to him? Oh yes, let’s make a public apology to that moron.
If the club feel so strongly perhaps they should invest in their ground? A ground capacity of ten thousand in the third tier of professional football in the 21st century is a joke.
Perhaps the Football League should start placing minimum capacity requirements before allowing clubs to be elevated from lower leagues? Even Rugby League is introducing a 12,000 minimum capacity for its grounds, and the SPL did it years ago - that requirement even prevented Falkirk from being promoted because they could not fulfill it.
After all, by artificially depriving the away team to bringing along its supporters is gaining an unfair advantage isn’t it? When Yeovil play at Elland Road 100% of their average home gate could attend - but when Leeds trail down to Yeovil only 6.4% of Leeds average home crowd can attend.
Yeovil were also allowed to move this fixture to a Friday night to dissuade Leeds fans from attending - again as this could have been a decider for the play-offs, where in the Football League rulebook does it say that Leeds United can be disadvantaged because the opponent can claim that their local police can’t cope with away fans in numbers?
If that is true then the League should throw them out. We’re not interested in quaint footballing backwaters that cannot cope because their police force consists mainly of sheep and members of the local Darby & Joan club. We’re talking about a world-wide professional sport here, a multi-million pound business where the customer is meant to be king and all teams play each other on a level playing-field - that’s what the 15 point punishment was about, supposedly to ensure other clubs were not disadvantaged by our wiping out debts - if you accept that, then you have to accept that matches (e.g. Yeovil and Bournemouth) cannot be changed to purposely disadvantage the supporters of another team - thereby giving an advantage to the home team.
It’s time the Football League took back control of its matches from the police. What other entertainment industry would allow the police to say when and where its events take place, and who can attend and in what numbers. The police then have the gall to charge football clubs extra for policing their matches when the clubs are already paying commercial rates to the Councils!
Leeds fans are many and they spend a fortune travelling the country supporting their team - if the Football League had any intelligence it would realise that they are customers for it’s product and try to engender more like them at other clubs so that average attendances of less than five figures become just a sad memory. No doubt Mawhinney will issue a press release soon pointing out how well they have done because League One attendances have risen by X% year-on-year. The truth is it happened in spite of Mawhinney, in spite of the Football League, in spite of the police, in spite of the cowardly clubs and the Friday night/Saturday lunchtime kick-offs - it happened because of Leeds United.
Other fans chant - “you’re not famous anymore” - but they fail to see that we don’t need to be, we have our own fans who can pack Elland Road; who can set the season’s highest attendance for the whole Football League; who can set nine of the top ten League One attendances at home; who can set the season’s highest attendance at twenty other League One grounds this season; who can set an average home gate higher than a quarter of the Premier League (and that’s without the fans of Manchester United, Liverpool, Man City, Everton, Arsenal et al to boost the figures).
And yet the powers of the Football League think it is their interests to allow other clubs to denigrate the support offered by Leeds United fans all across the country and to place obstacles in their way at every turn. Shame on you Yeovil Town and shame on the Football League.
