Why the case of the banned Sunderland season ticket holders shows just how little society thinks of football fans

By Brian McNally

Published 14:12 04/12/09

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Football fans remain one of the few sections of English society presumed guilty until they can prove themselves innocent.

The ongoing saga of a group of Sunderland season ticket holders banned from watching their team at the Stadium of Light is a situation that should concern every supporter in the country.

The fans have had their season tickets suspended on "suspicion" of being involved in post-match trouble in Newcastle on August 8 but nearly four months on none of them have been charged with any offence.

And with their bail being extended until December 21 they will be locked out of the Stadium of Light for the forthcoming matches against Portsmouth and Aston Villa.

The latest example of this unjust and unfair phenomenon of fans being treated differently to the rest of society is all the more surprising because it has occurred at a club where the admirable, famously fan-friendly Niall Quinn is the chairman.

The Black Cats have suspended the season tickets of fans who were caught up in a clash with Northumbria Police officers after alighting a football special train in Newcastle Central station after a friendly at Hearts.

The single arrest made on the night was for drunk and disorderly but since then 44 supporters have been arrested and bailed but no charges have yet been brought against any of them.

None of the season ticket holders can now watch their team at the Stadium of Light because of a club policy which means fans can be suspended from attending simply on suspicion of committing a football-related offence.

Those season ticket holders are effectively being punished before they are ever charged with an offence or even get a chance to plead their case in court.

What disturbs me about this case is that I arrived in Newcastle on a scheduled train that night shortly after the football special and the only injuries that I witnessed were to Sunderland fans.

I spoke to several blood-stained fans who alleged that they had been batoned by officers and bitten by unmuzzled dogs as they tried to make their way across a platform to the Metro station after being coralled by police lines.

The supporters I met told how they were kept sitting on the train for 15 minutes or more.They admit that some of their number were singing and chanting as they left the train but insist the police response was indiscriminate, heavy-handed and out of all proportion to the situation they faced.

The police claim that they were in the station in unusually large numbers to meet that train because of tip-off suggesting that some known Sunderland trouble-makers were on their way to a pre-arranged fight outside the station with a Newcastle United gang.

Quite why a football special carrying Sunderland supporters terminated in Newcastle- home of their fiercest rivals- is a bit of a puzzler.

But what concerns me most has been the police public relations campaign that has effectively tarred those caught up in the incident as thugs and hooligans.

They released edited CCTV images of the incident to media outlets but have refused fans access to the footage from those trying to prove their innocence.

They claimed that officers and police dogs were kicked and punched leaving the animals with the worst injuries ever seen in the history of Northumbria police force.

Yet a Football Supporters Federation investigation claims that no police officer needed hospital treatment that night and using freedom of information access they discovered that none of the police dogs required veterinary treatment.

Three fans were hospitalised with serious head injuries and I witnessed several sporting cuts and bruises more than an hour after the clash.

Without seeing the unedited CCTV images that the police will not release it is impossible to decide who or what sparked the trouble.

But I have little doubt that the police over-reacted that night using the sort of aggressive response in dealing with a large crowd that was discredited at the G20 protest.

The Football Supporters Federation have taken up the fans case and their recent record is impressive having won victories and compensation for supporters of Stoke City and Plymouth Argyle wrongly arrested by police as well as helping clear a Manchester United fan wrongly accused by a steward of throwing a coin at Wigan.

The FSF are as baffled as I am by some of the inconsistencies in the police account and are not cowed by the fact that the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner for the North East, Gary Garland, appears to have prejudiced the ongoing inquiries by declaring in August that the police use of force was justifiable and the evidence of fans violence was conclusive.

It is for the authorities to decide who if anyone should be charged with offences and then for the courts to decide on verdicts of guilty or not guilty.

But it goes against the laws of natural justice to punish people before their guilt or otherwise has been established and that is even more the case when the people concerned have not even been charged with an offence.

If fans are charged and found guilty then they should be punished according to the law.

But those fans found to have done nothing wrong should receive full apologies from both the police and Sunderland and receive compensation for their financial loss.

Thanks to the good work of the FSF, ordinary fans now have an organisation that will stand up for their rights and find them legal representation when they face problems such as the Sunderland incident.