Apology to the club

meldrew said:
I don't mean clear my name, I accept the ban although excessive.

It's the stories being published saying I'm the one who's attacked the player. Also the lies in court from the prosecution saying I taunted the players and fans.
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I feel for you mate, emotions can get the better of anyone.

As someone who has worked in media for 30-odd years, I can only give you a view from my perspective.

I have worked with people who have had their name wrongly smeared, including my own, and see it through a personal prism.

Pride, ego, everything comes in to it, all in a vacuum.

Unless this will now cost you your job or hurt your family, sometimes the best policy is to wipe your eye and accept the scales are tipped against you on this occasion.

Anybody who knows you well enough will not care and those who might, you will be forgotten about very quickly, as harsh as the latter sounds.

I have had a few writs through my career, people brazenly denying the truth in a story, chancing their arm for an out of Court legal settlement, knowing an organisation won't/can't reveal the source.

It burns inside to know you are being wronged, but the people who know you have your back and also your truth.

The punishment is excessive and you have been made an example of.

Your biggest loss is the long ban from City, not your reputation because life quickly moves on and nobody gives a fuck about you, aside from the people who love you.

It is all very personal and raw for you, but I would say give it a few weeks and see how things settle down.

Don't throw good money after bad, take the injustice and get on with your life and sorting out a decent IPTV provider.

Sorry again, bud.
 
Sorry, still not clear to me whether @meldrew was the fan filmed at the south end of the stadium, and clearly visible on a mobile phone in the Villa away section (and honestly it looks to me as though he is taunting that section, although plenty of that was going back and forth during the match, as it always does), or whether he is the guy filmed from CB lower tier at the north end of the stadium, being escorted by three stewards to get back into his seat before a fourth person, in a suit and obviously working directly for the club, intervenes. May not make any difference, because you're simply not allowed to invade a pitch under any circumstances while a match is going on, for obvious reasons. But let's face it, it's not exactly the same scenario.
The flares were fucking stupid! Supposing one had hit any player (on either side)? Supposing the match had been abandoned? Supposing the ref had taken all the players off for ten minutes, thus completely breaking our momentum? Supposing City had been deducted three points in punishment. Wouldn't be just a lark, would it?
As for what happened after the final whistle — there have always been pitch invasions. The only time I took part in one was at the very end of the season, I was at the very front of the Kippax, I must have been about fifteen, utterly meaningless match in April 1970 against Sunderland (which we lost 1-0!). We'd all got soaked by one of those sharp April downpours, and I thought I'd have a bit of a runaround to get a bit dry. Glad to say that my feet once touched the Maine Road turf. But a bit thick of me, really.
I hope we can all agree that none of want to go back to the days when, as on the continent, a high wire fence surrounds every pitch in the Premier League.
 
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Sorry, still not clear whether @meldrew was the fan filmed at the south end of the stadium, and clearly visible on a mobile phone in the Villa away section (and honestly it looks to me as though he is taunting that section, although plenty of that was going back and forth during the match, as it always does), or whether he is the guy filmed from CB lower tier at the north end of the stadium, being escorted by three stewards to get back into his seat before a fourth person, in a suit and obviously working directly for the club, intervenes. May not make any difference, because you're simply not allowed to invade a pitch under any circumstances while a match is going on, for obvious reasons. But let's face it, it's not exactly the same scenario.
The flares were fucking stupid! Supposing one had hit any player (on either side)? Supposing the match had been abandoned? Supposing the ref had taken all the players off for ten minutes, thus completely breaking our momentum? Supposing City had been deducted three points in punishment. Wouldn't be just a lark, would it?
As for what happened after the final whistle — there have always been pitch invasions. The only time I took part in one was at the very end of the season, I was at the very front of the Kippax, I must have been about fifteen, utterly meaningless match in April 1970 against Sunderland (which we lost 1-0!). We'd all got soaked by one of those sharp April downpours, and I thought I'd have a bit of a runaround to get a bit dry. Glad to say that my feet once touched the Maine Road turf. But a bit thick of me, really.
I hope we can all agree that none of want to go back to the days when, as on the continent, a high wire fence surrounds every pitch in the Premier League.
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The most stupid thing of all was the clowns throwing smoke bombs on the pitch at 2-1 and 2-2 when we were still chasing the result and Villa were desperately trying to run down the clock. Absolutely fucking brain dead
 
LongsightM13 said:
The most stupid thing of all was the clowns throwing smoke bombs on the pitch at 2-1 and 2-2 when we were still chasing the result and Villa were desperately trying to run down the clock. Absolutely fucking brain dead
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Dons Kevin Keegan style wig....

"I'd love it" if those responsible were traced and banned
 
LongsightM13 said:
The most stupid thing of all was the clowns throwing smoke bombs on the pitch at 2-1 and 2-2 when we were still chasing the result and Villa were desperately trying to run down the clock. Absolutely fucking brain dead
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Can only imagine their thought train. "Der, I've bought em now, we're probably not gonna win so I best use em to get mi money's worth". Dumb cunts
 
Go and support a local non league team for 4 years :). No one there will care if you have a banning order or not!

Funny story, we had a left back at Guiseley a couple of seasons ago. He signed for Chesterfield in the national league but they released him and he played 0 games. Turns out he was banned from all professional football stadiums so wouldn't have been able to play at half the grounds.
 
A bit of advice for the OP (although he probably won't want it from me).

This isn't entirely over yet as the club have to decide if they want to impose an additional ban. They will be reading this thread and they may conclude that you are feeling more sorry about the penalties imposed by the court than the damage you caused the club and act accordingly.

Stop being aggrieved at what was said in court as no-one outside of this thread will remember it already and move on. Hopefully the club will decide you have had sufficient punishment and won't add to it. Life goes on and far worse things happen.
 
If I was in your shoes right now its the injustice that you were involved in the Robin Olsen saga and riling up their fans which would hurt. So if you were absolutely not involved in any of these two points then I’d want to appeal. Even if your ban wasn’t reduced at least it would look favourable on your side to getting back in with the club when your ban expires.

@meldrew sorry I’m not sure how you set up a go fund me page.
keep talking, keep your chin up.
 
Tim of the Oak said:
I wonder how many Blues have got their mates banned by invading the pitch after getting match tickets from friends?
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I once got a ban letter from City for being kicked out at the swamp for doing aeroplanes - I didn't even go to the game!
Was sorted very quickly and didn't miss any games.
 
Keke Rosberg said:
If I was in your shoes right now its the injustice that you were involved in the Robin Olsen saga and riling up their fans which would hurt. So if you were absolutely not involved in any of these two points then I’d want to appeal. Even if your ban wasn’t reduced at least it would look favourable on your side to getting back in with the club when your ban expires.

@meldrew sorry I’m not sure how you set up a go fund me page.
keep talking, keep your chin up.
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I would definitely get in touch with Amanda Jacks at the FSA, very experienced in court appearances and appeals. Its free so @meldrew has nothing to lose. Certainly it would appear the Olsen ‘assault’ which he had nothing to do with and the whole media landscape around pitch invasions and assaults at other grounds has informed a partial injustice in terms of the sentence and the length of the banning order. Even just getting it reduced to three years would be well worth the punt
Banning orders don’t apply to non league, they are not designated games. But they do apply to England games, he may well have to report to a police station etc during the world cup in January
 
You know, the technology for facial recognition is available and already widely in use in China (especially against the Uygurs and Tibetans, thought I'd get that in!). Now we're not in a totalitarian state like that, thank God, but nearly every single person that's in that shot of the destroyed goal at the South Stand end could be identified, recorded on software, and then banned by setting up the same facial recognition miniature cameras on every turnstile. It could just beep loudly, and block. Would be as easy as pie.
Think about what you're doing next time, guys… We're going to be winning other trophies, for sure.
 
It will never be seen this way in the eyes of the law but out of a crowd of 50k+ there was always bound to be one who lost the plot to some extent, in my eyes an understandable reaction having spent the majority of the season in a highly pressured situation, goaded from most angles.
 
You could rename this tread… Awful legal advice from people who don’t have the first clue what they’re talking about. ( With a few exceptions I’ll add )

I don’t want to be left out so I’ll give my best advice also.

Mate, if you throw a single penny more, or waste another minute of your life on some futile attempt to “clear your name” or looking at appealing this, you are without being rude, a fucking idiot.
 
marco said:
time to move on for the OP, put your collar up with a hat and sit in the top tier of the east stand for a few seasons ;-)
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Just pick the right hat so you don’t look too conspicuous.
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Put it down to experience mate, you pled guilty because you were guilty, I can understand you wanting to put the shit being written about you to bed but I’d leave it and move on. You will always have that moment of pure joy and a few months down the line you won’t look back on the experience so negatively…
You owned up and took your medicine, that shows character to me… I would have pled not guilty and said sweet fuck all on here :-)
 
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