This came to me via a MCFC loop news letter, has anybody heard about this?
REQUEST : FOOTBALL FANS UNITED
I received the following from a fellow blue and believe we should all support this.
I am writing to every decent Club forum in the UK regarding this issue of national flags being banned from the Emirates Stadium by Arsenal FC Directors, we are aiming to get a 20,000 signature petition from fans of not only our club but from all decent football fans that are fed up with being dictated to by fat cats on the board, we have had a good response from Glasgow Rangers fans regarding this issue and I am therefore now going to ask our friends at Manchester City to help us in our quest, the issue is: on Saturday 16th December 2006, Arsenal Football club implemented a ban on not only home supporters but all visiting supporters going to the Emirates Stadium asking them not to display national flags within the stadium, this includes the cross of St George and the Union Flag.
As working class people and lifelong football fans, who pay the players wages through over inflated admission prices, we have had enough of being told what to do and having the enjoyment of the game taken away from us, by corporate busy bodies.
We respect that we are a club supported worldwide by people from different ethnic backgrounds and cultures, but the fundamental issue is, that we are a British club. Arsenal FC is a British institution, we haven't sold out to Russian, American or Middle Eastern billionaires and we should be proud of that fact.
To ban all national flags from the stadium, It seems to us as though, that through this decision, the club has been hijacked by the virus known as "crazy political correctness", that is sweeping our country, we think it is a ludicrous decision by the club to ban fans from displaying flags that show our national identity.
We have been informed that the flag that caused offence, was that of Northern Cyprus, which understandably is offensive to our Greek Cypriot supporters, however would it not make more sense to ask the owner of the flag to leave it at home of face ejection from the stadium, rather than punishing the whole of our support and all visiting supporters?
It is an age old tradition of the game to have flags and banners and the spectacle it provides and addition to the atmosphere can be amazing.
It costs not only individual supporters, but the supporters clubs in the UK and also around the world, a lot of money to have these flags made/customised to include the club names and emblems stitched into them, we are proud to show off our flags and banners when we travel abroad, fans from other clubs have their photos taken with us and us with them, so what happens now? Opposing European clubs come to The Emirates and are told sorry but your national flags are banned? What happens if we stage another international friendly, is the ban lifted then?
This decision stinks of another step to total corporate take over of our club and there is a similar scene around the country, a blow to fans like myself that have been going to football for over 30 odd years, slowly but surely, everything we came to love about our beloved game is disappearing.
We ask you all collectively as football fans to get together on this and sign our petition which will be presented to the club when we reach the 20,000 mark, we hope to try and make them see sense and change their minds, as we are certain that there will be many more complaints against this decision than those for it.
We hope you will join us in this and thank you for your support the petition can be found on the link.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/flagsafcIan Ferguson (ian at aim-knowledge.com)
