Post by QPR Report on Feb 20, 2009 19:56:54 GMT
Goal.com - Everton Forced To Switch Fixture Date Due To BNP Rally
Everton club officials are reportedly fuming over the decision by Merseyside police to compel the club to switch the date of their Premier League fixture with Stoke City due to a political rally taking place on the same day.
What angers the club even more, according to British broadsheet The Guardian, is the fact that the rally is being organised by far-right neo-fascist party the BNP (British National Party), a minority group whose extremist views on immigration and nationality are generally perceived as racist and bigoted by the vast majority of the British population.
The fixture has been moved from Saturday, March 14 to the day after to accommodate the BNP march, organised for Saturday afternoon in the city centre. Matchday revenue is set to be severely reduced, and many fans who live away from Liverpool itself will now have to alter travel and accommodation plans.
"We have had complaints from fans that the BNP supporters have been put before Everton supporters," the club's head of Public Relations, Ian Ross, told The Guardian.
"This is a matter for Merseyside police to comment on and not Everton Football Club. In the interests of public safety we had no option but to accept the change of date. The first priority is public safety and Merseyside police are taking that into account."
It is understood that the police asked the BNP to alter the date of their march but the request was refused, putting the onus onto Everton. Chief Superintendent Steve Watson, the area commander for Liverpool North explained, "There were several events scheduled for Saturday, 14 March, which would have required intensive policing.
"If they had all taken place at the same time, it would have placed extraordinary pressures on demand and would have affected the ability to police those events effectively."
Everton fans are reportedly enraged by the decision, which they see as according political extremists more rights than decent football fans, a view succinctly expressed by TUC (Trades Union Congress) representative Steve Farley, whose organisation are vehemently opposed to the BNP and will campaigning against the rally, when he said, "It is disgraceful that Everton fans find themselves forced to watch their team on a Sunday in order for the BNP to march in our city on the Saturday. Over 35,000 football fans are being put out for the sake of a few hundred BNP members."
Zack Wilson, Goal.com
