First, let’s sum up the story.
A family, consisting of a mother (supporting the Villa), a father (supporting Utd) and their two young sons, aged 9 and 7 (inbetweenies of both clubs) were ejected from the family stand after the three males celebrated Falcao’s equaliser.
Apparently, a couple of women took offence at this and asked for them to be ejected, which they promptly were, with the reason being that “it might have kicked off”.
Now, I’m no fan of the Villa stewards and even posted about how I got ejected from Villa park for the major crime of having an unlit cigarette in my hand.
In my case, I believe the stewards were pathetically high handed because I’d simply done nothing wrong in the first place.
Admittedly, my response probably didn’t help matters, but when I’ve paid good money to watch my team at home and I’m neither causing any trouble or breaking any rules, I quite simply don’t want to be disturbed by stewards.
So that’s my position as to what I think of Villa’s stewards.
I don’t think I’m alone in that view either, as I’ve heard of many complaints about them.
But this time, I simply believe the stewards called this one correctly.
Even though we’re talking about young kids being thrown out, the simple fact is that the Family stand is for home fans only and they just shouldn’t have been in there, particularly if the Man utd father hadn’t got the nous to tell them not to cheer if Man Utd scored.
Is that harsh and expecting too much of the kids?
I don’t think so, as they obviously knew enough not to cheer when the Villa took the lead.
I quite simply blame the father.
Of course, you have to have a bit of sympathy when you have a family that’s split between clubs, but the only ideal solution is that the home fans go in the home stands and the away fans go in the away stand.
But then, I doubt the Brummie Red would have qualified for an away ticket; even less the 3 required in this case. Which is just tough.
We know there were plenty of Utd fans in the home stands. There always are.
But if you can’t keep your excitement under control, you deserve everything you get in such a highly charged game, in my opinion (not that I condone any violence).
Anyway, I’m particularly interested in what you think, which is why I’ve added the Poll.
[polldaddy poll=8540909]
Well i am utterly disgusted … A family of away fans gets ejected from their seats for celebrating score …? are you fucking serious fellow fans? a sporting event? a Villa game?
a 7 and 9 year old celebrate a goal with their dad in a home fans section of the stadium and the problem with that is that the home fans might be incited to ….what? attack a family of 4? hurl insults at kids ? If a family of 4 are capable of inciting us Villa fans to whatever level of threat you think merited their immediate ejection .. the fault is not with them take a look at yourselves in all seriousness, if you honestly beleive that deep down .. then its time to take your head from your Villa arse for a few minutes and take a look at the real world ..
if we can’t sit in our stadium and let opposing fans celebrate their own team in our section … something is very wrong .. very very wrong .. I have been a villa fan all my life and I love the villa and Villa park, I can’t wait to get back, but there is something wrong lads and ladies if a family of 4 can incite you to hatred or violence for celebrating a goal …
I Have attended many different sports as well as football, including GAA, Rugby, and the most local of local derby games usually ending with multiple red cards and many a fracas ..
but I have never felt the need or urge to react in to the level that would merit the “offending” away fan immediate ejection, nor have i witnessed it amongst fans of those sports to feel justified in ejecting an away fan for celebrating their score in the wrong end.
unacceptable lads .. we are villa Fans but we are human beings first so are all away fans .. even in the face of the sheer, immense threat a dad and his 7 & 9 year old sons can pose …
100% wrong in my opinion to eject them.
Colonius81, my hat comes off to you, using sport to hate is wrong ,the blame Lye’s with the club and stewards ,yes idiotic move by father but to give into uncaring fans IMO bad move by our club.
Lie’s with the club.
Have you ever been to a football game C81?? By your comments it appears not.
Now for a social experiment how about this-
(1) Go out and purchase yourself a brand new Bournemouth FC shirt.
(2) Acquire a ticket for the home end at The Den for Sunday the 28th (or maybe 2 tickets, take friend or perhaps one of your kids?)
(3)Take your seat at the Den making sure to display this nice new Bournemouth shirt for all the friendly Millwall following to admire.
(4)Now this part is little more tricky as it’s reliant on Bournemouth scoring but IF they do you jump up punch the air and celebrate.
I hear BUPA do very good cover for around £70 per month.
LOL spot on BWS.
Now come on lads, you’re taking about someone that’s escaped from a Looney bin to do that, I admit we have football fans in all clubs that think the guy in a different shirt is the enemy, where are they in Afghanistan for their country, or is it to dangerous to do that, there’s men and there’s boys. Why make a shirt a gun.ffs. let’s see compassion in the game, in 1980s Aston Villa was voted as the most behaved club in the country, now you want it to be Green Street 3.
Bill there will be always rivalry in football,obviously someone took a dislike to the celebrations.these fans were obviously extracted for their own safety,we don’t know if there was some nasty banter before this & it could of got out of control.so for the sake of this family a riot could of been avoided you never know.that’s football for yer.
Giddy I understand only to well the pitfalls in crowd controls I did calm the holtend in the 70-80s down their was steward’s picking fights for fun ,not saying them stewards was, but saying it could and should have been dealt better, yes safety is Major factor ,but also see the other side of life, ie kids marked in seeing what went on at 7_9 years old by being ejected because of his silly stupid dad ,it was wrong in my book.
What a sensible comment. Some football fans need to change their ways. Its called a family section for Villa fans only-why?. Why cant a father go in their with his family and support a opposing team without the home fans sulking. Young fans should be brought up to mix with other fans and get on and be sporting
See Gabby’s red card overturned but they’ve charged Villa with failing to control their players (or something to that effect). What a load of tossers – the ref gives out a sh*t decision and our players are supposed to meekly retire 10 yards – give me a break! It seems that they are determined to nail Villa with something. If we were a Manc side or Chelsea or one of the Sky darlings……..? I’m going before I say something which gets me banned!
yeah i agree, saw this story earlier, asking players not to debate a awful decision is hard, fine villa by all means, aslong as they fine all teams weekly, cos all teams do this. if i recall the spuds game, were spuds players surrounded the ref, also according to friedel they talked about winding benteke up at h/t isn’t this worse. or young admitting to guzan, he fouled gabby. basically the refs should be fined for being conned
Happy Christmas Nath.
merry christmas giddy 🙂 have a great day 🙂
It sounds like the stewards behaved like arseholes, which isn’t a surprise. However, like it or not, football attracts a lot of complete fucking idiots. Kids or not, it wouldn’t have taken much for a twat Villa fan to lamp the ManU fan and then the lads would have been stuck in the middle.
Right decision. Wrong way to eject them. They should have been gently escorted to a more suitable part of the ground.
No they should not! Home seats are for home fans, very few football clubs have a neutral zone and there is a reason for that. You can’t have different rules for different age groups or circumstances, the stewards may have handled it poorly (based on the fathers story) but were completely right IMO to eject them. If you’re an away fan and can’t get tickets in the away end you know full well the chance you are taking by sitting in the home end.
To simplify things, all tickets should have a disclaimer stating that any fans in wrong end may be ejected if stewards see fit.
Jaymo83, its a family stand fgs you would be lead to think could be safe, but anyone with sense would think twice and not take the chance, again you don’t hate someone because he’s the opposition ,well I don’t, I’ll joke with them and take it from them, what my grievances are no compassion to a fellow human, you wouldn’t walk past a injured person that needs help now would you, them two kids will now be like the yobs of today because someone didn’t use his brains.
if it had kicked of with these kids present do you think the same media muppets would of been slagging off the stewards for not preventing a possible flash point i do know if it was the villa fans being ejected from the theater of knobs it wouldn’t have made the local freebe paper
What would your team be for tomorrow?
Guzan
Hutton Vlaar Okore Clark Cissoko
Agbonlahor Delph Sanchez Grearlish
Benteke
Fairplay riddog you must celebrating krimbo day early mate,we ko on boxing day.get it down yer 😀
OK, Merry Christmas all, from Bill,
Get it down yer BILL happy krimbo mate.
On the point of ejecting fans……….1970 we were at the Blues…me and father on the Kop with the riff raff……we managed to calmly celebrate our 1st goal but let rip when the 2nd went in………surprisingly no one attacked us and no yampy stewards around in them days…. a 2-0 win and we all went home happy…me and me dad anyhow…lol
Fast forward a lot and I was in the Doug Ellis Versus Palace (think…it was match Staunton scored direct from corner)) and people trying to get in their seats….but one bloke and his son were in wrong ones and would not move…even though it belonged to an elderly bloke who could just about walk…..guess wot …the stewards found HIM another seat without chucking the obnoxious twat out.
Further fast forward and I had queued up almost all 1st half to get in to Doug Ellis for semi in inter-toto cup (that ticketing fiasco)with my young son and this mate then they decided to open up lower North stand so everyone rushed down there and we were met wit ha barrage of stewards blocking our way inside the turnstile area……they grabbed me and flung me to the floor…all my stuff – tickets,credit cards and glasses went everywhere and as I wrestled with the woman steward as I tried getting things back a load of others set on me…..They were marching me out when I pointed (calmly..not) out that it would be their responsibility for the 2 young lads at the match and to get them home……guess wot they let me in….and the reason they give for all this was that I had a cap on my plastic coke bottle….as I say twats…… PLUS SIDE …for all the ticket fiasco was we had free tickets for the final ….4-1 winners.Last thing we have won I think.
Man utd fans…all they had to do was warn the dad and move him to a different place…even in same enclosure.
The stewards at Villa are idiots and have been for a long time. Although a lot of it might be down to the agenda that they have been given.
On another note, am I the only one who is a bit gutted that Gabby’s suspension was overturned? Him being out would have meant that Lambert would have had to change the ridiculous formation we have been playing, it also may have give Grealish a chance to get a start. And Gabby hasnt done much to justify his place lately.
Personally, I would love to see us try going to a more orthodox 4-4-2:
Guzan
Hutton Okore Vlaar/Clark Cissokho
Bacuna Sanchez Delph Grealish
Weimann Benteke
I reckon Gabby’s done more to justify his place than Weimann, although I’d rather see Weimann played as a central striker. I’d also like to see a more traditional 4-4-2 with wingers and like the sound of your selection.
Merry Christmas boys and girls of the claret and blue persuasion! Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may relegated!!!!! 🙂
I was a lone Villa fan in the manure section at Wembley stadium when we won the Carling cup 3:1, many eons ago.
And what a game it was!
It was tough holding back throughout the game and when our goals came my delight was more than obvious to all around me. There were no spiteful, cowardly, old hags calling for the stewards.
What has happened to good old-fashioned rivalry? Why do we need to hate our opponents?
I blame the old hags… Hoping of course that no one reading this is married to one of them… 🙂
It’s sport, not war.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to you all!
I have enjoyed reading all the posts over the last couple of years. While I rarely comment, I do read with enthusiasm.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YOU VILLANS OUT THERE,GET IT DOWN YER FOLKS HO HO HO.
Cheers Giddy, same again have a goodun mate, Villa for the cup. Ho ho ho.
1-6 VILLA stick it up the taffs HO HO.
Happy Christmas to all Villa fans. Now chilling out after cooking lunch for the family. Hope you all had a great day. Villa to win tomorrow 2-1
Merry Xmas to one & all utv
Benno’s selection above includes Weimann in place of Gabby. This is Lambert’s dilemma. More often than not forwards drift to one side of the pitch or the other when they are not concentrating. Benteke and Gabby both drift to the same place on the left, Weimann to the right. However both Benteke and Gabby can hold the ball up if they receive it with their backs to goal, Weimann cannot do that.
So for balance Benteke and Weimann is better, but all keeper’s punts and long balls forward have to go to Benteke, which make it easy for the defenders to put double coverage on him. If Gabby is on in place of Weimann there are two players who can hold the ball up and double coverage of the two is impossible, but Villa have no right sided attack.
OLL you are forgetting our new total football style so we don’t hoof it forward any more 😉
On a different tack. january is almost here. Apart from HNY to all Villans, the other subject is who would we like in the transfer window? I saw a rumour about Januzaj being linked with PSG. He would be an interesting loan move. OK I know PSG (and Paris!) would be a much bigger draw, but he would probably get more pitch time at Villa, and Van Gaal doesn’t use him much.
Who would you like to see down at VP?
Januzaj would be a good loan signing. Honestly have my doubts PSG would want him on loan, they’d sign him permanently if anything, or just go for someone else better. Read links to Inter and Everton, especially the latter. But he is the kind of loan signing that could make a difference to us.
Van Gaal, ⏰ couldn’t resist that DSVilla, I know many big names are about to move from the likes of Man C, Chelsea, and a few more, me it still has to be a midfielder come striker, then who going from Villa park? as you say only days away.