The Coventry game protests - 15 Oct

Hopefully lots of disruption inside the stadium

 

Maybe open myself to criticism, but I haven't read anything that has made me change my mind about boycotting.

Hopefully I'm proved wrong and it's worth the effort you guys will contribute

 

Anyone who wants to help there is a meeting of volunteers at The Oak Charlton Lane at 1:15.
Jock Stein told Alex Ferguson when he was his assistant that he wouldn't sit down to dinner with half his Celtic team. The moral is that it's no time to be sniffy about who we're working with.

 

Always thought there was more than one morale to Aesops fables when my school insisted on wasting our time with them.

 

see you in the Oak Billy

 

I'll probably get there about 1:25-ish

 

Exactly, I keep waiting for my stalker to approach me as I want to discuss the next protest at Gillingham this Saturday.

 

Saw card people in the Oak about 1 just as they got their drinks in the little geezerwhos a card head honcho came in said to those at the bar no time for drinking there are boxes to move and they all followed him out.
The little geezer certainly liked the power could see that.
Saw mr Lockwood with his megafone to ...bit naff

 

i saw a fan in the West Stand car park point out to Lockwood that he was a hypocrite

 

A few people in the lower west were heckling Brian Cole; again from the safety of 100 yards away...

 

On a serious note - CARD rebuffed ideas from younger fans & firmly shut the door in their faces when they came forward

Lo and behold Lockwood then pops up after his Damascean conversion and becomes CARD defector leader.

That's not for me

 

Initially I was pleased to see BDL joining the protest, but once he started trying to lead it, well that seemed just weird. Later we had the bizarre spectacle of the protesters sing the Heyyyy Roland song and BDL shouting into the megaphone to try and stop them. Sorry, Dave, but if you want to protest then excellent, that's a big plus, but don't get carried away, put away the megaphone and just join in like the rest of us.

 

seems that a Cov fan has made a porn short with the Pig on Twitter ... umm?

 

It's a who you know situation with CARD. It's why they'll never get past throwing things on the pitch, which will see interest lost.

 

After the pigs there seemed a certain amount of apathy among the fans. The Coventry fans would have been up for more protests, and at times they seemed to be trying to kick-start our fans, with limited success. Frankly I feel at a loss as to what we will do next. I'll support CARD because at the moment that's our best bet but if anyone has any other ideas they must be keeping them a secret. No-one really knows the relationship between Roland and the CEO, or how much she tells him, and how many lies. At one of Roland's other clubs whenever there is unrest he threatens to pull out, whereas he does the opposite here. Whichever is the best way of showing contempt for the fans, it seems.

 

And it also exemplifies the fact that he won't sell unless it's on his terms. The club as an asset is all he's interested in; from that perspective the 1.5% investment of time makes sense. Regenerating the training ground and growing the academy Is further proof, however that still leaves his ignorance toward the first teams position as a remarkably stupid piece of mismanagement. Therefore the only way to remove him is to buy him out on his terms or to force him out 'legally'.

Yesterday was pathetic and served only as a means to boost people's social media followings and egos - 'oh didn't we have a nice time...' - protesting will not work; it will cause reputational damage to Duchatelet at best, and even then looking at the arguments objectively I'm not sure how many of CARDs points stack up (particularly given the fact that if we were in the top 6 going into yesterday then none of this would have happened). More saliently protesting is dividing the fans more than ever.

I'm adamant that we cannot force him out; the football league has indeed let us down and the fit and proper regs aren't fit and proper. But ultimately the footballing authorities do not care; the utopian idea of football clubs as community assets is painfully outdated and died a death a long long time ago (perhaps we were sheltered from this in the early 2000s by the board and Curbishley, however even then consider the numbers of fans that we used to bus in from Kent and the impact that may have had on other football clubs...).

I'm afraid we have to live with the fact that football clubs are now free game for business. And I advocate a form of protectionism in that respect; that football supporters are owed a degree of reasonable accountability by owners given their inherent interests in thier clubs. I still believe in the idea of Suporters Trusts being a force for good (when done properly) and beyond that would like to see Supporters Charters (fan driven constitutions bespoke to a clubs needs) sponsored by the FA and ingrained into a Clubs management to give supporters a voice in the management of a club. It's a model that has worked at several clubs across Europe and which, to my mind, is the only way of preserving supporters interests in modern football.

I would very much have liked to explain this ideology to the track suited ****er with the North Korean flag yesterday (who was subsequently collared) who I saw having a go at a disabled lads grandmother for not getting involved; but I'm not sure he would have seen my point. Sadly I'm not sure that anyone within CARD or indeed CAST will either.

 

@The Kish

Interesting point about CARD's "leaders" using people to boost their social media followings.

Big Dave Megaphone is boasting that yesterday's protest is being covered in Uruguay.

Perhaps he is hoping the Uruguay BBc will pay him a fee for an interview about his Damascean conversion.

 

We all remember Che Guevara getting shot because he was busy selfieing.

 

Worldwide coverage is great if built upon, but it never is. Ask yourself, how many click bait stories have you clicked on regarding something crazy happening in the lower leagues of countries far away which appear hilarious at the time, but do you ever remember the name of the team a week later?

BDL was clearly forced in the quitting the role his heart desired for a place at the table of CARD. He's ultimately a pawn in their game.