Could This Happen To You?

You will all be aware of the huge decline in Sheffield Wednesday's fortunes and might not be surprised to see that we finished in our second lowest position ever last season, with record losses, record debt and the biggest slide of any professional league club in England over the last 5 years. Two fans who have supported the club for over 35 years each, who are shareholders and who each face near 400 mile round trips just to get to home matches decided to form a peaceful protest group called BLACK BALLOON towards the end of the season and, along with hundreds of frustrated volunteers, organised the distribution of black balloons and red cards at the last 3 home games of the season to show their displeasure at the Board and in particular our Chairman Dave Allen. At the end of the season, the organisers, who were active participants on the owlstalk message board, then compiled a list of 39 questions that they wanted to ask and wrote to the Chairman to discuss those points in a `mature and non-confrontational fashion'. Dave Allen refused to meet with them, despite him having earlier proclaimed a more open culture at the club. Last week, those fans were suddenly BANNED from Hillsborough on the eve of the new season, and the Chairman has indicated that he intends to SUE them for libel because of what was posted on message boards and on www.blackballoon.info. They have received no specific details of any libellous posts and there has never been any warning. Both organisers are professional people who have not been anywhere near as outspoken as others on our board and indeed other boards throughout the country, and indeed often provide good argument and back up for their views. It is a sad day when a football club Chairman threatens legal action against loyal longstanding fans of the club who only have the club's interests at heart. Sadly, it looks like our Chairman and our football club are about to set a precedent here. It is also concerning that deliberate actions are taken against a peaceful protest movement to try to quash any opposition in what appears to be an attack on free speech and nothing but victimisation. Against the principles of natural justice they have had no right of appeal and no chance to put their side of the story like they had tried to do when asking to meet the club in May. Many will feel these actions herald a new low for Sheffield Wednesday, football supporters everywhere and an attack on democracy in general. Additionally the Chairman has also banned the Owls Trust Chairman from renewing his executive box for £16,000 despite our financial situation, banned the Trust CEO from all non-football functions at the club and ordered the Trust to vacate their office at the ground - all since the Trust held meetings with Ken Bates in respect of his interest in the club. The Chairman tried to justify his actions by being quoted in the Sheffield Star newspaper last Saturday as saying 'I'm not having disruptive elements at this club'. The protestors¿ form of disruption is the right of peaceful protest and the right of free speech, so this is an attack on things that we all understand in football, as true fans of our clubs. Where will it stop?

Could this be you that becomes the next victim or could it be this message board? Is our Chairman's action a threat to the relative freedom of speech and debate that has generally existed on football club message boards for a number of years now? Is it right that he has banned 2 very loyal fans for merely standing up to him and for challenging how he was running the club and for trying to organise peaceful protest? How would you feel if this all happened to your club and your message board when all those fans were doing was acting with the club's interests at heart and were prepared to stand up and be counted? As those fans say 'He can ban us, sue us, bully us and victimise us but that will not stop us continuing our protest against him alongside the increasing and vast number of people who have offered sympathy and support to our plight and he will find that we will NOT go away, no matter how long it takes. A few weeks, months or years is nothing in a 35 year love affair and we will still be in love and courting her strongly long after he has been and gone.' Those fans are asking for support of all football fans throughout the country who are equally loyal to their clubs and might so easily have done the same. Imagine if you received this treatment from your Chairman? They are conducting an email petition and asking for messages of support to protestsupport@hotmail.com or alternatively you could go onto the owlstalk message board and post a note of support there. They want to get at least 50,000 messages from true football fans throughout the world to help their cause. Many thanks and bear in mind that you might have to be very careful what you post on here in future as a consequence of this.

Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site?