Kevin Whitcher
A friend who attended the Manchester City away game on Sunday relayed to me his account of events at the stadium. To start with, before the game, Arsenal stewards were present and confiscated a number of banners suggesting that change is needed at the club before the fans holding them could enter the stadium.
What is interesting about this story in ‘The Sun’ are the words, “The club insists it is common practice to send a handful of club stewards to away trips to offer to support to travelling players, staff and fans and that no Arsenal employees were involved in the removal of anti-Wenger artwork.”
The photo of a completely unaggressive banner acknowledging the manager’s own message in the pre-Norwich game press conference being prevented from going into the Etihad Stadium by three Arsenal stewards that accompanies this article suggests that this is, for want of a better phrase, bullshit. A number of other banners were also confiscated.
That the club are prepared to lie about the activities of their staff is a very worrying signal given their supposed policy of open-ness with supporters.
There are two aspects of recent events related to fans making their voices heard with their desire for changes at Arsenal. One is that the club is evidently now censorious about supporters expressing views that do not reflect well on Arsenal, in spite of their denial. So even though individuals are paying money to gain admission, they are not allowed freedom of expression (it should be noted that the banners in question taken to the Etihad were to be displayed at the end of the match, so that no-one’s view of the game was compromised). It is beginning to resemble North Korea.
The other aspect is that there seems to be a pattern where the banners suggesting changes are displayed. What starts out as peaceful protest turns into violence when those that do not agree, rather than raise their own banners or chant support for the manager, the board or Stan Kroenke, become aggressive and violent in their determination to get to the banners that they do not agree with. The will to reach them is so great that their behaviour has become akin to those Tottenham supporters that attack Gooners at the Lane. They do not care who gets hurt, and my friend at the game on Sunday described to me how children had to be protected after the match when one banner that did make its way past the security checks was raised. The individuals that wanted to pull down the banner were not fussed that in their attempts to stop the display, kids were in danger of being injured.
The police are not slow to get involved either, as the story in ‘The Sun’ indicates. Arsène Wenger says during every season, ‘Judge Me In May’. That’s an open enough statement that fans are allowed their opinion. Frank Graham travelled to Manchester and expressed his in a non-abusive manner. He believes after this season that it is time for the manager to step down. For expressing that view, police and stewards bundled him to the ground, handcuffed him and slammed his face against the wall, as a consequence of a pro-Wenger fan trying to stop him displaying his banner.
The level of violence being used by those who do not feel that protests are correct has escalated recently because the campaign for change, although coming from different directions and far from co-ordinated, is building genuine momentum. The ‘Time for Change’ protest at the Norwich match received huge publicity and put the concept of fan disgruntlement at Arsenal firmly on the agenda. This in spite of only very limited distribution of the A3 sized banners outside the stadium.
Ivan Gazidis has gone very, very quiet in recent weeks. I seriously wonder if he will attend the annual supporters event at the stadium in June. Traditionally a Q&A with the CEO, it has been announced that he will be limiting himself to introducing the star turn (a former player), but his very presence will almost certainly lead to some difficult questions whether he likes them or not. My hunch is a more pressing commitment will emerge.
These are bad times for Arsenal Football Club. The fanbase is at odds with each other and there is open war in the stands. God alone knows what will kick off during the ‘lap of appreciation’ at the end of the Villa match but I predict that it might not be the kind of scenes the club – or indeed anyone - are comfortable with.
What Arsenal could do is come out with a strong statement indicating that supporters have every right to make their point in a non-violent manner, and that anyone that initiates physical violence on a fellow Arsenal supporter will be in receipt of a life ban from matches, and enforce it using CCTV footage. That would be a start to clearing up the highly toxic atmosphere that seems to be getting more poisonous with every passing fixture.
And it would help if the club were honest and truthful and did not tell lies to the press about the activities of their stewards. A club with a reputation for doing things the right way should not act in this way.
Time for those who make the decisions at the club to start making strong statements that will prevent fans from fighting with each other over a difference of opinion about what is going on at Arsenal, instead of disappearing off the radar.
Over to you Mark Gonella, Communications Director, because I tell you what, this isn’t great PR, and whoever is briefing the national press needs to have a long think about what they are telling them in an age where social media pretty quickly exposes untruths. Feeding the press false information where the treatment of football supporters is concerned is in pretty poor taste in the light of recent events.
Update: My friend at the game has read the above and messaged me as follows: Kids were punched alongside neutrals in the manic Wenger cult drive to grab the banner. The 14 year old nephew of the guy I travelled up with (who is on the Wenger In side of the fence) was hit and is now too scared to attend future away games. He was only standing next to those holding up the banner. We shouted at them to stop but they ignored us. They were crazed maniacs. I got hurt myself as I had to stand in the middle so the kid could get away and got dragged to the ground as they tried to grab the banner. I was neutral - I was not involved at all. My seat just happened to be next to those with the banner.
