| Dave Gallagher | Tottenham | |
| John Pengilly | Tottenham Hotspur | It seems very unjust to ban fans from attending games when they have not yet been proven guilty of any offence. |
| steven darke | exeter city | |
| Mat Palace | palace | |
| Jon Darch | Bristol City | Board member, Bristol City Supporters Trust |
| viv Cooper | SAFC | |
| Jeff Thompson | Sunderland | Disgusted.
Hesitated when I was asked to name 'MY team' !!!! |
| Steve Cooper | SAFC | I personally know innocent fans who were caught up in this farce,who are now banned due to the over-reaction of Northumbria Police and now Sunderland football club.One of these fans used to take his 9 year old nephew(also a season ticket holder) to home games, so theoretically that is another innocent supporter banned from attending home games,who could be lost to the club for life.SEE SENSE NIALL! |
| Michael Almond | Sunderland | |
| RAY COWIE | NEWCASTLE | POLICE OPPRESSION.
ANGELIC UPSTARTS 1977
HERE WE GO AGAIN ........ |
| Cormac O'Connor | Spurs & Ireland | Niall, as a fellow Irish man, and especially in this past week of injustice demonstrated by officialdom over the Irish team, please do not stand over an Injustice against innocent football fans.
Reinstate their Season Tickets until they are proven guilty of an offence, otherwise you're no better than FIFA. |
| Dean Williams | Sunderland | |
| Jay Graham | Liverpool | |
| Dave Robinson | Sunderland | |
| Warren Parkinson | Sunderland | We all know your a decent man Niall so do the decent thing and overturn this unfair ban. |
| Tony Mongan | Sunerland | |
| Jag Gill | Liverpool | Having read up on this matter, I find it shocking to see that Sunderland have decided to blindly follow a knee #!@* reaction to ban what is essentially part of their most loyal supporters (those willing to travel to see their club in an away pre-season friendly match) without even bothering to find out the facts or attending any meetings involving the supporters.
From what is meant to be a club close to their fans I find this disgusting, distasteful, but unfortunately not unsurprising in this day and age of corporate football.
Use your common sense Niall and see this for what it is!
Jag |
| Roger Taylor | Sunderland | |
| CHRISTOPHER BYRNE | Liverpool | |
| michael nelthorpe | sunderland | |
| Chris Bates | Sunderland | |
| Geoffrey Clapham | York | This whole case is out of order, the very fundamentals of the British justice system have been thrown out of the window by the police |
| Duncan Macrae | Sunderland | |
| John Hynd | Kilmarnock | Innocent till proven guilty |
| Satwinder Dhami | Spurs | To whom it may concern,
guilty until proven innocent is a basic tenant of UK law. The Spurs fans that were convicted of racism towards Sol Campbell were also banned by Spurs BEFORE there court hearing only to have the conviction quashed on appeal. It is unfair for football clubs to ban members of it's support and life blood unless they are proven to have been in the wrong.
Please overturn the bans until due process has been completed. Should they be found guilty of any wrong doing then indeed ban them from your ground or seek complete banning orders as the "suggested" violence that took place has no place in football. Just as there is no place in society for a Police Force to take whatever decisions it see's fit and not be accountable to the public it is paid to protect. |
| David Hodgson | Sunderland | The clubs policy on this matter is a disgrace, in this country you are innocent until proven otherwise, none of these men have even been charged with an offence.
Shame on you Niall, you were supposed to be one of us and a man of the people. What happened? |
| bill patey | Arsenal | Innocent until proven guilty... |
| Mark Hunt-Bryden | West Ham | |
| Hugh Martin | West Ham | |
| simon fisher | west ham | |
| Michael Withycombe | West Ham | |
| chris bowen | west ham | i have a 300 mile round trip for a home game,i don,t drink,and after one game i attended,i asked politely if i could squeeze through a barrier outside the tube station as i was probably going to miss my train to wales if i went to the back of the que,showed the police my train tickets,was told get to the back of the que,i would be watched and if seen trying to get in would be arrested.Strangely enough i missed my train home,waited 2 hours for the next one,with no connecting train to my home town, |
| steve smithson | West Ham | How about innocent till proven guilty eh Niall? |
| Alex Milbourn | West Ham United | |
| Euan Macdonald | Sunderland | |
| Tom Hann | Tottenham Hotspur | Give them their season ticket's back. If they haven't been found guilty, why are they being punished? |
| J Mark Pearson | Sunderland | |
| chris smith | sunderland | |
| Simon Noel | Sunderland | |
| George Davidson | York City | I think SAFC should just let the guys back in. If they have season tickets you can keep a very close eye on them and if there is one whiff of trouble then the signers of this petition will be proven wrong. |
| Alison McIntyre | York City | |
| Peter Eckersley | York City | I'm sure I'm not the only person living north of the Tyne who has a lot of respect for Niall Quinn. But that just makes this decision even harder to understand. |
| Mark Buckley | Sunderland | For these people to be treated as guilty and claim it is some bizzare form of 'best practice' is shocking. |
| Adam Pearce | Adelaide United FC | I believe that pre-empting the court system and being judge and jury and handing out punishment to people that have possibly done nothing wrong. |
| Graham Seward | York City | innocent until proven guilty. |
| Martin Parker | Sunderland | Until found guilty they are innocent, and as Sunderland fans they are still part of "our family" and should be looked after.
It would not be the first time that the Police have been involved in either a miscarriage of justice or unlawful arrest. |
| Stuart Pearson | Sunderland | As a season ticket holder, I find it galling that the club can go against the very fibre of the British Justice System, Innocent until Proven Guilty. This sets a very dangerous precedent and is disappointing from a club that claims to want to go back to the people. |
| steven tindale | none | The law states innocent until proven guilty. Sunderland AFC have no moral right to prejudge these supporters until the legal process has been completed. The fans right to attend the The Stadium of Light for matches should be reinstated immediately & compensation given for the games already missed. |
| Matthew Walton | Sunderland | |
| Graham Snell | sunderland | Quite simply, do not allow the police to use our club to pervert the principal of 'innocent until proven guilty.' |
| Andrew Murray | Sunderland | No injuries to officers, no arrests on the day, no CCTV evidence, no charges after 3 months. Yet this justifies being banned from watching games they have already paid for without chance of refund.
What an utter joke. Disgraceful. If I was one of the unfortunate ones to be banned from my club (after following for 20 years and spending god knows how many thousands of pounds) i don't think I would ever go back. Innocent until proven guilty. |
| Sean Riley | Manchester City FC | Give these lads a fair hearing |
| Anthony Whitmore | Sunderland | The law of the land states 'innocent until proven guilty'.
I would urge SAFC to take this into consideration before unfairly banning people. |
| Daniel Wilson | Sunderland | |
| Mick Flannigan | Sunderland | Something's afoot and it's not 12 inches |
| tim smith | york city | |
| mark dodds | sunderland | |
| James Precht | Sunderland | Innocent until proven guilty, these guys had no chance to avoid the situation. |
| steve pugh | Sunderland | First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Martin Niemöller |
| robert carlisle | sunderland | SHAME ON YOU S.A.FC |
| David Bailey | Arsenal | This is a disgrace |
| Jamie Colman | Sunderland | |
| TONY JAMES | SUNDERLAND | I agree when people get banned but in this case all the evidence points to the police and their reaction, so why should innocent fans who pay 100's of pounds for season tickets and money on match day be banned |
| Gary Gwilt | wolves | |
| paul dawson | sunderland | |
| Stephen Payton | Sunderland | |
| Simon Hunter | Sunderland | |
| Adrian Rowell | Sunderland | |
| Marc Stubbs | sunderland afc | An absolute disgrace by Northumbia Police, and the stance of SAFC |
| Jonathan Todd | Sunderland | Don't really know the whole ins and outs but the principle of not letting the fans in without any charges being brought seems unjustified.
I'm sure there'll be some 'safety' related reason cited by the club but if the advice on this is coming from the police force in question, rather than an independent source, how can this be justified?
|
| Rob Traynor | Sunderland | |
| Stephen Smith | Sunderland | From what I've read on this there is a massive doubt that fans involved in this were intent on trouble. fans deserve the same rights as those accused of any other crime - that of innocent until PROVEN guilty. If these people are subsiquently found guilty then ban them for 5/10 years or even life but only then - give these people back their seats |
| Daniel Joyce | Sunderland | |
| Alan Kearin | Sunderland AFC | very disappointing state of affairs. I would expect better from SAFC. Please change your policy regarding incidents such as this. There is no room for guilty until proved innocent in our society.
When all the fans are finally proved innocent, they should not only receive re-imbursement, but also an extra gesture of goodwill, such as a special meet & greet session, free tickets, or upgraded to a box for a match.
You don't need to distance yourself from the fans like this, it is a great shame. |
| david cooke | SAFC | |
| peter frost | Sunderland | |
| Ian Bell | Sunderland | This is a disgrace.....Innocent until proven guilty!!!!! |
| Peter O'Sullivan | Sunderland | I was at Hearts on the day. Thankfully I was on the earlier train, but I did clearly hear the repeated announcement in the ground that the 6:30 train was going to 'Sunderlnd'. On this basis alone I strongly dispute the police statement that the fans on that train were intent on causing trouble in Newcastle and that this was pre-planned. Thier story just does not hold water and members of the public have been seriously injured. They say they have CCTV evidence, then use it and convict those proven to be involved. I would not have thought this would take as long as it seems to be taking, unless of course the CCTV footage shows something slightly different? |
| Alan Emerson | Sunderland | A very disappointing reaction from the "caring club". I know the season ticket terms and conditions allow this banning to occur, but given the controversy around this, the club should be making an exemption until this finalised. |
| Keith Binks | Sunderland | |
| Ian Ashman | Sunderland | I understand the T&C's of obtaining a season ticket and understand that some of these fans may be found guilty. What I can't understand is that as these fans have not been found guilty (yet) as the police are dragging their heels with the investigation, why then are SAFC treating them like criminals? I'm sure some of the fans will have just been caught up in a horrible and possibly terrifying situation for some, and will be cleared of all wrong doing. By that time, a good portion of the season will have been and gone and they will have lost out on a lot of money due to SAFC’s ban. I understand that the safety of staff and supporters is paramount but at the same time, I don’t think any one of the accused – guilty or not – would step out of line while the investigation is ongoing. If this was to happen then by all means, slap a lifetime ban on them, but until this situation arises, let them go and support the club they love. After all, more bums on seats means more revenue for the club, in the form of half time pie’s and programs. You know it makes sense. |
| Thomas Grieves | Sunderland | |
| joe sim | sunderland | this is a discrace, back ur fans safc |
| Michael Connelly | Sheff United | |
| Rob Taylor | Sunderland | |
| John Howey | Sunderland | |
| Andrew Lee | Sunderland | No arrests at the time, no injuries, no charges for 12 weeks after the even yet Northumbria Police are being allowed to remain unaccountable for their actions. Also i'm discusted 'my' football club is acting in a cowardly way and banning fans who of yet have not been proven to be gulity of anything other than arriving at the Central Station after a good natured away friendly and being ambushed. Niall Quinn has done an amazing job so far as football club chairman but is letting EVERY fan in the country down by failing to take a stance. |
| safc fan | sunderland | first off i was at the game vs hearts, i have a friend who is a hearts fan i have spoke to them since the game and i make a point of saying this in all respect to the both clubs, the fans and anyone else involved except Nothunbria Police...At the match there was numerous announcments saying that where was a special football train going from Edinbrough Wavely direct to Sunderland at around about 6pm. So can i ask why the hell did it stop at Newcastle Central Station? Why the Hell was there loads of police there waiting for the train...IF IT WAS DIRECT TO SUNDERLAND AS ANNOUNCED AT THE GAME!! and Why didn't the police dogs have no muzzels covering there teath? all those qustions need to be answered before anyone can even come to a conclusion of banning supporters, the IPC say the police had done nothing wrong with in 3 days, and so far taking over 4 months and rebailing the supporters to get a final answer. Thre is only one answer hear the lads are guilty untill proven innocent, Mr Quinn i thought you once quoted "these are my people" well you have a very funny way of showing it. next season if season ticket sales drop and there is more trouble at matches who you going to blame? the fans? i think not just take a look at the decition you have made on this! |
| MICHAEL GIBBON | SUNDERLAND | |
| mark atkin | sunderland | |
| Thomas Barnes | York City | |
| Anthony Wilkinson | Sunderland | |
| Kev Lonsdale | Sunderland | guilty untill proven inocent? shocking. if they not aloud back this season they should have a re-fund as the lads have done nothing wrong untill/if they are found to be guilty. come on sort it...show how comunity and for the people SAFC really is....or is this all for getting the world cup games here? as much as id like to see it here id rather the club not get it and stop being awkward with the fans, i for one will join a protest if there is ever one! come on Quinn sort it please |
| Christopher Cox | Sunderland AFC | |
| Martin O'Brien | Sunderland | |
| Nick Seacroft | Sunderland | |
| Shaun Millson | Hull City | |
| Alan Hudson | York City | Mr Quinn, unless you have personal evidence of the fans' guilt, surely you need to reconsider this matter. |
| Philip Wadsworth | York City | fairness |
| Tom Wade | Sunderland | |
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