American Eagle
07 Oct 2002, 04:13 PM
I am relatively new to the beautiful game, but this week, I've been following the story of one Stuart Astill, a 59-year-old man and lifelong Nottingham Forest supporter. In fact, before this weekend, Mr. Astill had been to 214 consecutive Forest league games, home and away. His streak was in jeopardy because Millwall had decided to ban all away support. Why?
Mostly because Millwall has a history of being unable to control themselves. Forest and five other clubs are not allowed to have any away support this season at the New Den, mostly because the Metropolitan Police said they could not effectively police the ground if away support was allowed.
The first thing about this that shocks me is how the League would allow such an imbalanced situation to occur. Support has a definite impact on the results of games in any sport. At the very least, if Millwall can not effectively ensure the safety of fans, no one should be allowed to come and the game should be played behind closed doors. This was debated heavily on MatchTalk on BBC Radio Nottingham, which is where I was introduced to the saga of Mr. Astill.
Now after hearing this, the Nottingham Evening Post decided to pick Stuart to be the guest writer to compile the fans' player ratings for the game, wanting to continue his run of over 29 years of support for NFFC. This was a totally legitimate job, and the paper obtained two press passes from Millwall, one for Astill, and one for beat writer Michelle Wilson.
Apparently, some disgruntled Millwall fans e-mailed the club to complain, and on 4:45 on a Friday, Mr. Astill's press pass had been yanked, even though he was working on a legitimate piece and was certainly not a threatening hooligan. Even more shockingly, club chairman Theo Paphidis had Wilson kicked out of the ground a few hours later for no other reason than that he was "very disappointed and angry" at the Post for attempting to give a diehard supporter a chance to legitimately see his team in action.
Paphidis made some more friends by going on Radio Nottingham's MatchDay program and getting into a very combative interview with Robin Chipperfield in which he said, among other things, that fans of the opposing clubs have just as many hooligans as Millwall and demanded that Chipperfield stop attacking him and his policy "on scout's honor".
Well, there are a few happy endings to this story. First of all, Forest beat the Millwall scum 2-1 and forced at least a few of those words down the chairman's throat.
Also, Mr. Astill didn't seem to like it, but it doesn't appear that he has too many hard feelings. He watched, with Wilson, the "beam-back" of the game to a TV screen in front of the Trent End at the City Ground, and counts it as a half, so he'll head to Derby in two weeks on 214 1/2.
This incident has given me two opinions. Sure, I'll agree that the vast majority of Millwall fans are peaceable folks, but that doesn't change the fact that I think their club did a shocking injustice to the sport and to Forest with this. Essentially, they have made and will make four more times, a benefit of their inability to control their own support. How would they like it at the New Den if Forest banned their supporters from visiting?
The second is that this Mr. Astill guy is exactly what sport should be about. Ceaseless dedication to one's club, through good times and bad. If I ever get a chance to visit Nottingham, and he's still around, I'll have to say hello, and maybe buy him a pint!
Mostly because Millwall has a history of being unable to control themselves. Forest and five other clubs are not allowed to have any away support this season at the New Den, mostly because the Metropolitan Police said they could not effectively police the ground if away support was allowed.
The first thing about this that shocks me is how the League would allow such an imbalanced situation to occur. Support has a definite impact on the results of games in any sport. At the very least, if Millwall can not effectively ensure the safety of fans, no one should be allowed to come and the game should be played behind closed doors. This was debated heavily on MatchTalk on BBC Radio Nottingham, which is where I was introduced to the saga of Mr. Astill.
Now after hearing this, the Nottingham Evening Post decided to pick Stuart to be the guest writer to compile the fans' player ratings for the game, wanting to continue his run of over 29 years of support for NFFC. This was a totally legitimate job, and the paper obtained two press passes from Millwall, one for Astill, and one for beat writer Michelle Wilson.
Apparently, some disgruntled Millwall fans e-mailed the club to complain, and on 4:45 on a Friday, Mr. Astill's press pass had been yanked, even though he was working on a legitimate piece and was certainly not a threatening hooligan. Even more shockingly, club chairman Theo Paphidis had Wilson kicked out of the ground a few hours later for no other reason than that he was "very disappointed and angry" at the Post for attempting to give a diehard supporter a chance to legitimately see his team in action.
Paphidis made some more friends by going on Radio Nottingham's MatchDay program and getting into a very combative interview with Robin Chipperfield in which he said, among other things, that fans of the opposing clubs have just as many hooligans as Millwall and demanded that Chipperfield stop attacking him and his policy "on scout's honor".
Well, there are a few happy endings to this story. First of all, Forest beat the Millwall scum 2-1 and forced at least a few of those words down the chairman's throat.
Also, Mr. Astill didn't seem to like it, but it doesn't appear that he has too many hard feelings. He watched, with Wilson, the "beam-back" of the game to a TV screen in front of the Trent End at the City Ground, and counts it as a half, so he'll head to Derby in two weeks on 214 1/2.
This incident has given me two opinions. Sure, I'll agree that the vast majority of Millwall fans are peaceable folks, but that doesn't change the fact that I think their club did a shocking injustice to the sport and to Forest with this. Essentially, they have made and will make four more times, a benefit of their inability to control their own support. How would they like it at the New Den if Forest banned their supporters from visiting?
The second is that this Mr. Astill guy is exactly what sport should be about. Ceaseless dedication to one's club, through good times and bad. If I ever get a chance to visit Nottingham, and he's still around, I'll have to say hello, and maybe buy him a pint!