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Yeovil Town FC have released the following insulting statement regarding the Yeovil Town v Leeds United home fixture in April - which we got hold of through the admirable Somerset County Gazette (see our comments below the statement):

“The fixture attracted a record attendance at Huish Park and represented the most demanding test of resources and procedures since our FA Cup Third Round match against Liverpool in 2004.

“Leeds United have the sixth largest supporter following in the country, but due to the size of our ground and the accompanying segregation issues the club was only able to provide the visitors with 1,600 tickets.

“This scenario risked a substantial number of Leeds fans attempting to purchase their tickets in “home” designated areas.”

“At a very early stage, it became apparent that a few tickets had been purchased online by people residing at northern addresses.

“Although this did not necessarily mean that the buyers were Leeds supporters it raised sufficient concerns for the club to introduce a robust policy for the sale of tickets in relation to this fixture.

“Thereafter no tickets were sold to people living outside of designated local post code areas and purchasers were limited to four tickets per person.

“Many prospective purchasers were refused the opportunity to buy tickets because they were unable to convince staff in the ticket office that they were Yeovil Town supporters.

“Despite these efforts a number of Leeds fans were evident in the Cowlin, AgustaWestland and Carlsberg stands.

“In the majority of cases these fans conducted themselves in a perfectly acceptable manner.”

“However, there were also other contingents that were determined to infiltrate the “home” areas and behave inappropriately.

“We apologise to any Yeovil Town fans whose enjoyment of the game and the occasion was impaired by the presence of these particular fans.

“Although the review of operations has highlighted areas where improvements can be made in managing the safety and security of our fans for any future high profile match the stewards and police must be commended for the part they played in containing the potential trouble makers and thereby preventing any serious disorder.

“Most of all however, the club would like to praise and thank the Yeovil Town fans for the considerable restraint they showed in the response to the intimidation generated by the small minority of Leeds fans intent on causing disruption.

“The police intelligence officer has informed us that Yeovil Town fans are amongst the best behaved in the Football League, home and away, and that is something of which we should all be proud.”

The statement omits to mention there were no arrests and only one Leeds fan was ejected for “poor behaviour”- so why all the fuss? Perhaps because a few home fans used to decades of the three-digit, non-league crowds couldn’t stand a bit of away vocal support? What the hell is the club talking about, “police must be commended for the part they played in containing the potential trouble makers and thereby preventing any serious disorder“. Did I miss a mounted charge by the police; helicopter-borne SWAT teams sliding down ropes to take out Al Qaeda-trained ring-leaders and sleeper agents planted in the home crowds in Leeds shirts? Of course not, it was a below average football match, played in front of sections of a crowd that were clearly overly sensitive; the Leeds fans wanted to watch the game and the Yeovil fans objected to their presence - just who has the mental problem there? The whole statement is self-congratulatory bullshit and police arse-licking from beginning to end.

The record attendance on the night was nearly double the average attendance at Huish Park - perhaps all this could have been avoided if they had allocated more tickets to the Leeds fans who take thousands to each away game instead of allocating them to glory-hunting locals who hadn’t attended a game since the Liverpool FA Cup tie?

But Yeovil listened to police advice didn’t they? They changed the date and reduced the allocation to Leeds fans - and what happened - Leeds fans did what was necessary to attend this game. Any Police force in the country could have told Somerset & Avon Police that would happen - their “football intelligence officer” should be fired. The fans that “infiltrated” (oh, how exciting!) the home stands were Leeds fans based in Somerset and its surrounding counties - see the comments to our previous story.

So its OK for people to live in Yeovil but NOT to attend the local football ground? A Yeovil-based Leeds fan couldn’t go with his Yeovil supporting mates to stand together to watch the game because it spoilt the game for some sensitive, Yeovil, knuckle-dragger who wants to be able to hurl abuse at the away fans but is too scared to do it if one is stood next to him? Oh yes, let’s make a public apology to that moron.

If the club feel so strongly perhaps they should invest in their ground? A ground capacity of ten thousand in the third tier of professional football in the 21st century is a joke.

Perhaps the Football League should start placing minimum capacity requirements before allowing clubs to be elevated from lower leagues? Even Rugby League is introducing a 12,000 minimum capacity for its grounds, and the SPL did it years ago - that requirement even prevented Falkirk from being promoted because they could not fulfill it.

After all, by artificially depriving the away team to bringing along its supporters is gaining an unfair advantage isn’t it? When Yeovil play at Elland Road 100% of their average home gate could attend - but when Leeds trail down to Yeovil only 6.4% of Leeds average home crowd can attend.

Yeovil were also allowed to move this fixture to a Friday night to dissuade Leeds fans from attending - again as this could have been a decider for the play-offs, where in the Football League rulebook does it say that Leeds United can be disadvantaged because the opponent can claim that their local police can’t cope with away fans in numbers?

If that is true then the League should throw them out. We’re not interested in quaint footballing backwaters that cannot cope because their police force consists mainly of sheep and members of the local Darby & Joan club. We’re talking about a world-wide professional sport here, a multi-million pound business where the customer is meant to be king and all teams play each other on a level playing-field - that’s what the 15 point punishment was about, supposedly to ensure other clubs were not disadvantaged by our wiping out debts - if you accept that, then you have to accept that matches (e.g. Yeovil and Bournemouth) cannot be changed to purposely disadvantage the supporters of another team - thereby giving an advantage to the home team.

It’s time the Football League took back control of its matches from the police. What other entertainment industry would allow the police to say when and where its events take place, and who can attend and in what numbers. The police then have the gall to charge football clubs extra for policing their matches when the clubs are already paying commercial rates to the Councils!

Leeds fans are many and they spend a fortune travelling the country supporting their team - if the Football League had any intelligence it would realise that they are customers for it’s product and try to engender more like them at other clubs so that average attendances of less than five figures become just a sad memory. No doubt Mawhinney will issue a press release soon pointing out how well they have done because League One attendances have risen by X% year-on-year. The truth is it happened in spite of Mawhinney, in spite of the Football League, in spite of the police, in spite of the cowardly clubs and the Friday night/Saturday lunchtime kick-offs - it happened because of Leeds United.

Other fans chant - “you’re not famous anymore” - but they fail to see that we don’t need to be, we have our own fans who can pack Elland Road; who can set the season’s highest attendance for the whole Football League; who can set nine of the top ten League One attendances at home; who can set the season’s highest attendance at twenty other League One grounds this season; who can set an average home gate higher than a quarter of the Premier League (and that’s without the fans of Manchester United, Liverpool, Man City, Everton, Arsenal et al to boost the figures).

And yet the powers of the Football League think it is their interests to allow other clubs to denigrate the support offered by Leeds United fans all across the country and to place obstacles in their way at every turn. Shame on you Yeovil Town and shame on the Football League.

Despite attending in record numbers this season the Leeds United away support are never given an even chance - take the ludicrous actions of Bristol Rovers, Bournemouth and Yeovil Town this season. All three changed their Leeds United fixtures to discourage the attendance of Leeds fans - Bournemouth on the evidence of something that happened over fifteen years ago.

Despite the hurdles put in their way, the travelling Leeds support managed to create record attendances at Bristol Rovers and at Yeovil Town just last Friday. So how bad was it at Huish Park with a record crowd in attendance?

An Avon and Somerset Constabulary spokesman said,

“Home supporters became disgruntled due to the fact that a large number of Leeds United supporters gained entry into home areas of the stadium.

“There were no arrests or ejections for home supporters, but a Leeds United supporter was ejected for poor behaviour.”

So one ejection from a record crowd - if only all football matches were as easy to police?

The main criticism seems to be from Yeovil supporters about the number of Leeds fans in the home supporters section. What was the problem on the night? Did they start fights or were they just enjoying their team getting into the play-offs? Did no Yeovil fan share a word or two or a joke with a Leeds fan?

Or is it that the problem lies with the Yeovil fans who simply don’t like standing next to strangers in THEIR ground? Personally, as a Rugby League supporter, I have always enjoyed game far more when there are a few away supporters with whom to share banter about the game.

But that is a facet of football that is all but dead now and probably explains the malevolent atmosphere at many Premier League matches - when two sides of an argument don’t (or can’t) talk violence is often the only result. Talking to an opponent puts a human face on them and does away with seeing them as the “enemy”, as a distant homogenous mass, uniformly dressed in red or blue, taunting and, apparently, ready for a fight.

On Sky, when you see the hate-filled faces of supporters screaming, swearing and gesticulating over the hoarding at players about to take a throw-in you can only presume that they would not dare to be so threatening if they were stood in a mixed crowd of supporters from both sides. But it is a sad reflection on the modern game and British society when the desire of Leeds fans to watch their team, which provides an all-time record crowd - at a League One match to boot - at which there is no trouble, merely provokes the home club CEO, Martyn Starnes, to announce and inquiry into how the Leeds the fans got their tickets for the away end. 

I can save the Yeovil CEO the bother; you see Martyn, all Leeds fans don’t talk with a broad Yorkshire accent, wear a flat cap and always have a whippet at their side - maybe that was your mistake using that as the criteria for spotting infiltrating Leeds fans! Leeds United have been a “big club” for nearly five decades and during that time we have garnered supporters all over the country - including Somerset! Many of the Leeds fans in the home end were there because they bought them in their home town - of Yeovil! And Martyn how about a thank you, on the record, for the extra £85,000 in your bank account from all the Leeds United fans that made it a record-breaking night, despite the best efforts of the Yeovil Town board and the Avon & Somerset Police?

The article in the Somerset County Gazette by Steve Sowden about this is situation perhaps the fairest I have ever read about Leeds fans and their motivations in attending away games. It may help a few Chief Constables and football Chief Executives if they were to read it.