Half Time - S26

[Ben4BCFC]

Not keen on starting rumours or drumming up trouble, but anyone have more of an idea of what went on in S26 at half time? Lots of whispers and rumours going round that sound pretty unsavoury but was hoping some maybe able to confirm that everyone was safe and okay? Noise around me suggested a young lad and his Dad were caught up in everything and a few said the young lad in particular got hurt. Hope that's not the case on what was otherwise a top night.

[Ray White]

Heavy handed stewarding?!

[ZiderEyed]

I thought there was a stokie in there. Would like to know, would rather it doesn't marr the night.

[Ronnie pickering]

I was sat a few rows behind, it was a stoke fan, starting abusing the referee after a few 50/50s went our way. few guys called him out and he lifted his top up to reveal crouch 15 on the back. Bit of a strange one 

[MrBibs]

Seemed to be a lot of anger directed at a steward in blue?

[shelts]

I could see lots of people out of seats and lots of stewards 

[Baldyman]

I was in s24 and saw a guy being dragged out by 3 stewards in caveman style. No idea what he did but I think his young lad was with him and was upset by what happened . He didn't seem hurt though. All kicked off after that with plastic bottles being thrown at the stewards ! 

[Lrrr]

If it was a Stoke fan why get a ticket in the home end when they had plenty of room? 

[cider head]

Was just told the following by a few of the lads I know who normally set up the flags:

"Apparently a kid got pushed off his chair by a steward and the dad laid the steward out and then police and stewards rushed in and dragged him by his neck" 7/8 stewards on this one guy then loads got involved.. Steward number 13 in a blue jacket was allegedly the cause. A woman who said about it. He's a bouncer and by all accounts didn't have a clue how to handle football fans. A complaint/comment needs to be made about over the top stewarding... All should be on cctv.. The bloke who was kicked out was with his 9/10 year old kid who has a learning disability. He was shit scared by all accounts and a elderly lady was fuming about the treatment he received. There is a over the top steward one with glasses spent the whole game wandering about directing stewards into the crowd and the slightest thing, he does it all the time.

A chap who does the flags spoke to Dave storr at half time. He said the bloke was detained and they were waiting for the police and if any of his stewards did anything wrong he'd investigate the same as if it was a fan..

So we shall see..

[Up The City!]

33 minutes ago, JamesBCFC said:

I was in S25 but at HT I had gone over to S22 where my season ticket was last year to have a chat to the people I used to sit by.

Could hear chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning" at (I assume) a steward.

By the time I went back it had all calmed down.

This kind of goes with what I was told. Apprently a City fan sang "who's the manual manipulator in the blue" aimed at a Stoke player. A nearby Steward, wearing blue thought it was aimed at him and the bloke and his young son were dragged out of the ground.

[RedLionLad]

19 minutes ago, Up The City! said:

This kind of goes with what I was told. Apprently a City fan sang "who's the manual manipulator in the blue" aimed at a Stoke player. A nearby Steward, wearing blue thought it was aimed at him and the bloke and his young son were dragged out of the ground.

Great description......and SFW

 

[wendyredredrobin]

So the steward will be charged?

Sacked?

I guess not.

[HLR]

4/5 Stewards manhandled chap out of ground with excessive force, leaving his 10 yr old kid who has learning disabilities on his own. Reason for this all unfolding is because kid had feet on chair during first half. His old man was told 'you can move somewhere else in ground or we are going to kick you out'... Before he has chance to even reply, one steward basically grabs him & then other high viz friends join in pulling this guy from all angles with brute force out the stand.... Kind of beggars belief to be honest. All whilst this poor kid is screaming his lungs out because his dad is being aggressively dragged away for no reason. Not one stewards came to check kid was okay  & it was up to a few of us that know the dad and kid to make sure he didn't get hurt in ensuing chaos etc - even though the stewards in the section know full well this kid cones with his dad and was now left alone. The force used by the stewards was way over the top and they didn't follow any kind for duty of care, this poor kid is very upset by all accounts. I spoke with Dave Storr and multiple stewards during time it was all kicking off and have insisted that they review CCTV ASAP - Dave told me that they would do so in due course. I want to get this in here before people start adding to thread with second guesses etc. 

[Ashton98]

48 minutes ago, HLR said:

4/5 Stewards manhandled chap out of ground with excessive force, leaving his 10 yr old kid who has learning disabilities on his own. Reason for this all unfolding is because kid had feet on chair during first half. His old man was told 'you can move somewhere else in ground or we are going to kick you out'... Before he has chance to even reply, one steward basically grabs him & then other high viz friends join in pulling this guy from all angles with brute force out the stand.... Kind of beggars belief to be honest. All whilst this poor kid is screaming his lungs out because his dad is being aggressively dragged away for no reason. Not one stewards came to check kid was okay  & it was up to a few of us that know the dad and kid to make sure he didn't get hurt in ensuing chaos etc - even though the stewards in the section know full well this kid cones with his dad and was now left alone. The force used by the stewards was way over the top and they didn't follow any kind for duty of care, this poor kid is very upset by all accounts. I spoke with Dave Storr and multiple stewards during time it was all kicking off and have insisted that they review CCTV ASAP - Dave told me that they would do so in due course. I want to get this in here before people start adding to thread with second guesses etc. 

That same steward kicked a 14 year old out for standing on the stairs 5 minutes before kick off. The steward was looking for trouble the whole game. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Wow. I saw it from afar but this sounds not good.

Ok I heard something slightly different but I guess it's wrong what I heard. Was told some people were trying to get into Heineken Lounge but hearsay?

The rest all makes sense but Heineken Lounge seemed to crop up in one or two places also.

Why do we have bouncers doing stewarding anyway? The two are different skillsets- not saying impossible to do both,  but generally the two shouldn't mix- wasn't that a key part of the cause of the aggro at West Ham at the start- first half- of last season?

[Phantom]

The simple answer to anyone with any grievance etc is to contact Amanda Jacks by email at  info@fsf.org.uk and ask for the FSF's assistance in taking this matter further

She has been very vocal in the last couple of weeks about the constant mistreating of supporters by stewards

 

[The Fat Controller]

Isn't there a club rep for stewarding on here? 

[Phantom]

18 minutes ago, Chris_Brown said:

Isn't there a club rep for stewarding on here? 

Not according to this, but note it is relevant to last season https://www.bcfc.co.uk/fanzone/supporter-groups/fan-advisory-network-fan/

[NOTBLUE]

The next those apes get heavy handed,everyone,and I mean everyone,get your phones out and film it,post it on here,Julie H and club officials will see it,and action will be taken,or perhaps not.

[Redtucks]

10 hours ago, Baldyman said:

I was in s24 and saw a guy being dragged out by 3 stewards in caveman style. No idea what he did but I think his young lad was with him and was upset by what happened . He didn't seem hurt though. All kicked off after that with plastic bottles being thrown at the stewards ! 

What by the hair?????

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, JamesBCFC said:

There was definitely a rush from some fans towards the Heineken area, but it looked to me that some of the stewards had retreated that way. 

Cheers. That explains it.

Generally, it's funny really- I commented just a few days ago that I thought our stewarding was now amongst the better ones, and now this happens. First time in a while we've seen fan/steward aggro down there. Was the one- bouncer?- who was heavy handed regular and in that section especially? Sounds like he was not and that's asking for trouble IMO.

[HLR]

6 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Was the one- bouncer?- who was heavy handed regular and in that section especially? Sounds like he was not and that's asking for trouble IMO.

The bouncer is never positioned in this section, he was walking round like he owned the place from the get go and was particularly abrasive with many fans. Blue steward 13 that has been referred to also decided he thought it would be a good idea to get up in my face personally and aim a very aggressive tone and stare at me. Standing over me, staring me out when I've done nothing wrong did make me laugh - all I did was question his colleagues as to why they thought it was acceptable for four or five stewards to aggressively man handle a man that had done nothing wrong, in front of his kid... Don't think Mr blue jacket was overly keen on the fact people were calling out their actions....He very quickly scuttled off after this and didn't return.... 

[Mr Popodopolous]

4 minutes ago, HLR said:

The bouncer is never positioned in this section, he was walking round like he owned the place from the get go and was particularly abrasive with many fans. Blue steward 13 that has been referred to also decided he thought it would be a good idea to get up in my face personally and aim a very aggressive tone and stare at me. Standing over me, staring me out when I've done nothing wrong did make me laugh - all I did was question his colleagues as to why they thought it was acceptable for four or five stewards to aggressively man handle a man that had done nothing wrong, in front of his kid... Don't think Mr blue jacket was overly keen on the fact people were calling out their actions....He very quickly scuttled off after this and didn't return.... 

Didn't sound like a regular- he should if he had any good sense have followed the lead of regular stewards in there.

A certain % of bouncers are knobs in all honesty. You get some who are a good laugh, a fair few who are probably ok but certain quotient are just knobs. Sounds like he was bang out of order from the off.

They (bouncers) don't like scrutiny, questioning actions either that's for sure. Not suitable for football in most circs.

[cider head]

Looks like they took the chap towards the Heineken lounge.

This is not the first time stewards have been looking to wind things up for the sake of it going back to the time in the Atyeo with the same set of stewards.

@Mkelly @AdamB I hope this gets looked in to and the stewarding in this area gets a reassessment as it is supposed to be a more relaxed attitude..

 

 

[KevP]

17 minutes ago, cider head said:

Looks like they took the chap towards the Heineken lounge.

This is not the first time stewards have been looking to wind things up for the sake of it going back to the time in the Atyeo with the same set of stewards.

@Mkelly @AdamB I hope this gets looked in to and the stewarding in this area gets a reassessment as it is supposed to be a more relaxed attitude..

 

 

And please give us some answers as to what happened/will happen......or not. And if not,  why not ? 

[chalky]

I'm glad one poster on here clarified what actually happened. I was reading the first few replies and was sure they were wide of the mark.

i watched this unfold from the next block along at half time. I also saw in the first half stewards speaking to him on a couple of occasions. I said it looked like they had an issue with his child standing on a seat. At half time it was clear to me they had arranged a team to ask him to leave for not following the (unreasonable) orders. They were trying to usher him out and it was clear he was not going, they then used (in my opinion) reasonable force to eject him. How else could they get a grown man to leave who didnt want to? I'm not sticking up for the stewards here. I take issue with the pathetic reason for why they were trying to eject him.

i was angry with what I saw so I went over to make my feelings known about how stewards treat the fans. I asked one why he had been ejected, he gave me 2 reasons, the First was foul and abusive language (which we all use) and I won't repeat the second as it was probably a lie and it's not fair to allege that to a fan who can't defend himself. However, it wasn't for his kid standing on a seat..

The reaction after was a bit of a shame - throwing plastic bottles (although harmless when empty and no bottle tops) isn't going to do the (great) area that we have got going this season any favours and could lead to more over zealous stewarding.

As someone said this is supposed to be a relaxed area but the stewards aren't reflecting this.

[Mr Popodopolous]

On the stewarding thing, still maintain ours not too bad. Despite last night.

Some examples of other clubs- these are from Twitter, via FSF Fair Cop:

 

 

Those 2 are same game/incident I believe. Wolves-Forest.

As well as the well documented stuff at Bournemouth, Stevenage lately.

Also another example of someone drinking in view of the pitch being charged, criminal record.Also another example of someone drinking in view of the pitch being charged, which I now cannot find. These are all recent examples since the start of the season.

Believe me- we don't have it so bad!

[Phantom]

46 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Believe me- we don't have it so bad!

I'd disagree @Mr Popodopolous those other examples were all actions by home stewards on away fans

The problem being discussed here is a home steward on a home fan - to me they should be used to dealing with specific supporters groups, these people need to remember they are STEWARDS and not SECURITY GUARDS which sadly many of them seem to believe they are.

I've read on message boards for other clubs that one of these days supporters are going to turn on these stewards who use excessive force - that day won't be far away, and knowing how people are in general once it happens once it won't be long before it happens all other the country. As in the picture above there is no justifiable reason for anyone to be physically man handled in these instances

I wonder where the steward would stand if someone went for an assault charge against someone as above (there are other pictures that are even worse on that incident, but being kept on mainstream media as legal teams are involved_

[Phantom]

14 hours ago, Ronnie pickering said:

I was sat a few rows behind, it was a stoke fan, starting abusing the referee after a few 50/50s went our way. few guys called him out and he lifted his top up to reveal crouch 15 on the back. 

This sounds like there was more than one incident?

 

14 hours ago, Baldyman said:

I was in s24 and saw a guy being dragged out by 3 stewards in caveman style. No idea what he did but I think his young lad was with him and was upset by what happened . 

 

13 hours ago, cider head said:

The bloke who was kicked out was with his 9/10 year old kid who has a learning disability.

 

6 hours ago, HLR said:

4/5 Stewards manhandled chap out of ground with excessive force, leaving his 10 yr old kid who has learning disabilities on his own.

So a young lad with learning difficulties is stood on a seat?,

Situation gets out of control, before we know it his dad is being taken out of the ground?

I would ask serious questions about why a Chief Steward was not making sure this vulnerable child was left behind - there is a clear duty of care being missed here 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Ashton98 said:

That same steward kicked a 14 year old out for standing on the stairs 5 minutes before kick off. 

Why would someone be "kicked out" for standing on stairs before the kick off?

(I'm guessing you must know him to know he was only 14)

[Mr Popodopolous]

24 minutes ago, phantom said:

I'd disagree @Mr Popodopolous those other examples were all actions by home stewards on away fans

The problem being discussed here is a home steward on a home fan - to me they should be used to dealing with specific supporters groups, these people need to remember they are STEWARDS and not SECURITY GUARDS which sadly many of them seem to believe they are.

I've read on message boards for other clubs that one of these days supporters are going to turn on these stewards who use excessive force - that day won't be far away, and knowing how people are in general once it happens once it won't be long before it happens all other the country. As in the picture above there is no justifiable reason for anyone to be physically man handled in these instances

I wonder where the steward would stand if someone went for an assault charge against someone as above (there are other pictures that are even worse on that incident, but being kept on mainstream media as legal teams are involved_

First one was a home supporter according to the account I quoted. Most are away supporters, granted. However I am fairly convinced ours are still some of the better- or at least by no means the worst.

Agreed on this. Stewards and not security guards- it's why I said a while ago that IMO stewards as one of the qualifications, criteria if you like should have experience as a fan to help guide them best how to handle them. Ideally not a bitter local rival either as they may act nitpicking just because they can, to antagonise and taunt- which inevitably would eventually kick off. That one in the blue jacket in S26 definitely isn't a steward though, he's a security guard for sure.

Agreed, no excuse for excessive force. Headlock with several stewards around in addition? Ridiculous. It can turn, which it is why it is important to weed out or as a bare minimum, redeploy to less people oriented duties- guarding gates- those stewards who display excessive force. That one in the picture is acting completely inappropriately.

It's assault surely? Don't see how it could be argued otherwise.

FWIW, I think the stewards had the right to stop him standing on the seat, but the way in which it was done caused plenty of needless aggro.

[Phantom]

100% agree with everything above @Mr Popodopolous

[NOTBLUE]

I was just wondering if the video footage can be obtained through the freedom of information act,if so perhaps the fsf could get involved and try and get hold of it.Does anyone know if this is the case.

[Natchfever]

I believe if all last nights incident is true, and I have no reason to assume otherwise, the club is walking on a somewhat of a tightrope  if it isn't careful. It has a duty of care towards people in the stadium, and if these incidents are being reported and not acted upon (and I dont just mean sacking the individual) then there is a risk of disorder where the stewards are likely to suffer physical harm, or the club is sued, or most likely both.

[Ashton98]

2 hours ago, phantom said:

 

Why would someone be "kicked out" for standing on stairs before the kick off?

(I'm guessing you must know him to know he was only 14)

Well he looked about 14 and because in the singing section there was not enough room for everyone to get a seat so some people chose to stand on the stairs and he said he couldn't so he got chucked out. I find very weird that they will not have anyone on the stairs but will happily have 3 people to 1 chair.  Both as dangerous as the other 

[RedM]

Small point just for clarity. The Heinekein Lounge is the big room under the screen between the South Stand and Lansdown stand. The Heinekein sign isn't actually over that room, but over 2 other rooms between the Dolman and the South Stand.

I guess lots of you realise this but for exiles etc it probably helps.

[RedM]

15 minutes ago, Ashton98 said:

Well he looked about 14 and because in the singing section there was not enough room for everyone to get a seat so some people chose to stand on the stairs and he said he couldn't so he got chucked out. I find very weird that they will not have anyone on the stairs but will happily have 3 people to 1 chair.  Both as dangerous as the other 

And equally baffling is that we cannot possibly have the lights dimmed during the match as the rake is too steep yet allow standing 3 to a seat. WTF

[Bazooka Joe]

I saw this from S23, which isn't close enough to be aware of the facts. However, from there it looked very heavy-handed and because of that it incited those near-by.

Presumably, the stewards are trained (and encouraged) to handle "difficult/unruly" people without undue force and diffuse situations.

Some of them need to be re-trained and/or replaced.

If not, its only  a matter of time before things get ugly and someone gets seriously hurt.

 

[BobBobSuperBob]

2 hours ago, NOTBLUE said:

I was just wondering if the video footage can be obtained through the freedom of information act,if so perhaps the fsf could get involved and try and get hold of it.Does anyone know if this is the case.

Freedom Of Information of zero use here unfortunately

 

[CiderCraig]

19 hours ago, Baldyman said:

I was in s24 and saw a guy being dragged out by 3 stewards in caveman style. No idea what he did but I think his young lad was with him and was upset by what happened . He didn't seem hurt though. All kicked off after that with plastic bottles being thrown at the stewards ! 

Probably just horseplay, but I bet it will probably result in a stewards enquiry anyway. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2017/09/free-cup-tea-watching-football-not-crime/#.WcJW5DUAV6A.twitter

Not about City but this is a good listen. I mean it's not 100% accurate but it talks a lot of good sense. Very accurate in fact.