CARD Statement - Resumption of matchday protest activity
CARD announced during the summer that in keeping with the general wish to give Russell Slade and his squad every opportunity to demonstrate their ability to mount a promotion challenge and to begin to reverse the club’s decline, it would not interrupt early matches.
The team’s performances and results have given little indication of any improvement, but more importantly the messages from the club in recent weeks have shown that claims that they have learnt lessons and corrected mistakes are little more than empty rhetoric.
The cowardly, secret visit to London last week by owner Duchatelet, who has not attended a match in England since October 2014 and dismissed the club as merely 1.5 per cent of his business interests, shows that he has no intention of reforming his attitude and behaviour.
His chief executive Katrien Meire continues to focus on her personal agenda when the club she supposedly runs is in crisis - joining the FA Council, unsuccessfully seeking election to the Football League board and next posing as a judge at the Football Business Awards.
Meanwhile, and despite a switch to a British manager and players, an arrogant and foolish interview by the regime’s Belgium-based computer analyst and scout, Thomas Driesen, confirms that he is just as involved as before, still interfering on the basis of watching video and live feeds of matches.
The cumulative effect of this incompetent and increasingly ridiculous leadership is failure on the pitch and failure off it, encapsulated by the loss of almost 40 per cent of season ticket holders this year and a corresponding collapse in the atmosphere at home games.
Any manager would struggle in these circumstances, notwithstanding the obvious flaws in the squad that has been put together and the arguments behind the scenes during its assembly.
Charlton remains a club in crisis and that crisis is caused by the ownership of Roland Duchatelet. We will now step up our efforts to remove him and we call on all those who care about the club’s future to join us.
Given the likely make-up of the crowd for Saturday’s Football for a Fiver match against Rochdale we do not propose to take any disruptive action this weekend, but further announcements about the Coventry match will follow.
We call on all Charlton fans to come and support the protests on October 15th. We are liaising with Coventry fans and hope that they will join us, in force, to show the contempt all football fans have for the Duchatelet and Meire regime.
Comments
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Good news, especially the bit about liaising with Coventry.
Here comes Round 2.5 -
Little disappointed that nothing is planned for Saturday but utilising the ongoing disharmony at Coventry is positive.
Watch us go on a winning streak now though, that's the danger I'm fearful of in terms of uptake.7 -
Coventry fans have had the bitter Ricoh shenanigans to contend with, so some of them will understand.4
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Roland will be happy with that, he wants oppo fans mingling outside the ground.LuckyReds said:Good news, especially the bit about liaising with Coventry.
Here comes Round 2.17 -
"Given the likely make-up of the crowd for Saturday’s Football for a Fiver match against Rochdale we do not propose to take any disruptive action this weekend, but further announcements about the Coventry match will follow."
The problem you have there is that most people won't bother coming to protest and not get to watch the game, some will, but most won't, and a lot will only go to games if they are at a significant discount because they don't want to give them any more money than they absolutely have to. This is especially the case as a lot of people were going to games anyway as they had season tickets and there was no extra revenue for the regime to gain by them going to protest.
I will not be going to a game to protest which is at full cost. And now I won't be going to Rochdale either.
I also think mass protest at a game which is meant to make people want to come back to the Valley again and again would have upset them the most...
The problem now is that given that a lot of the people who are minded to protest would not have renewed, there is now a real chance of the protests actually being the 2%... There certainly won't be widespread disobedience in the ground like last season.2 -
Well done CARD. will not attend game but will attend protest.8
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2 home games which could see 2 wins. Many fans are fickle and would see 2 wins as improvement rather than a distraction from the real issues at the club.WSS said:Little disappointed that nothing is planned for Saturday but utilising the ongoing disharmony at Coventry is positive.
Watch us go on a winning streak now though, that's the danger I'm fearful of in terms of uptake.
Posted on another thread but if everyone is fed up again (ie those still attending regularly) then those boycotting and those attending could unite outside the ground at next home game and stay outside together protesting for the whole 90 minutes rather than just before and after.
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What a relief, we need to fight back. Can you give any more information on what might be planned (obviously without spoiling any surprises)? I still don't fancy breaking my private-boycott; it had better be bloody good if I'm expected to do so. My personal preference would be to protest before and/or after, or perhaps in the carp ark throughout, so that I don't have to give them money.3
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What took so long ;-)
Statement, as ever, is spot on from my point of view as from what I can see little has changed with the exception that the club have gone on a PR offensive during the CARD period of purdah.
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Well done. 100% spot on as usual. Please can all the boycotters return for this, it's the right time.7
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I understand very well the desire to do more at the Rochdale game but it's too short notice for many of the stay-away fans to get down to the Valley now. And the point about casual fans is well made too. They will inflate the proportion of non-protesters in the crowd and anything organised for that day will appear low impact.
However, for anyone who is going to that game (I'm not) just do whatever you can to show them the protests are back. Black and white, anti-regime chanting, letting Meire/Keohane know as they arrive what you think of them - anything.
Then, please please everyone who supports the protests make a special point of coming down to the Valley on 15th October. I totally respect those that are boycotting and the "not a penny more" fans, but we need now to show the regime that they haven't won any battles, let alone the war. We need everyone there for a very large, very vocal display of our feelings. Please don't leave it to others. A small turnout will see the smirks return to Meire's and Keohane's smug faces - let's not let that happen!29 -
Agree it should have been as soon as they announced the game for a fiver. Having said that why does anything have to be planned by CARD ? Anything can be planned by anyone.WSS said:Little disappointed that nothing is planned for Saturday but utilising the ongoing disharmony at Coventry is positive.
Watch us go on a winning streak now though, that's the danger I'm fearful of in terms of uptake.8 -
Not going to Rochdale game but will definitely be there for Coventry.2
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Glad to hear but .... think that a protest this saturday (as only a fiver) would have more impact as more fans would have been tempted to attend thus more noise/disruption etc.
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Well, that's up to us, isn't it? People have been crying out for CARD to re-commence hostilities. Now they have. Surely they deserve our support. If CARD say come to protest, let's all move heaven and earth to do so, putting aside our personal views and preferences. If CARD say take the protests inside the stadium, let's take the protests inside. We need to stand together, and that means acting in unison.Huskaris said:"Given the likely make-up of the crowd for Saturday’s Football for a Fiver match against Rochdale we do not propose to take any disruptive action this weekend, but further announcements about the Coventry match will follow."
The problem you have there is that most people won't bother coming to protest and not get to watch the game, some will, but most won't, and a lot will only go to games if they are at a significant discount because they don't want to give them any more money than they absolutely have to. This is especially the case as a lot of people were going to games anyway as they had season tickets and there was no extra revenue for the regime to gain by them going to protest.
I will not be going to a game to protest which is at full cost. And now I won't be going to Rochdale either.
I also think mass protest at a game which is meant to make people want to come back to the Valley again and again would have upset them the most...
The problem now is that given that a lot of the people who are minded to protest would not have renewed, there is now a real chance of the protests actually being the 2%... There certainly won't be widespread disobedience in the ground like last season.11 -
Two wins and the lamest of fans will then blame a failure against Coventry on the protests10
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Does anyone seriously, going on the last three performances, see us winning our next two games?
The Coventry game is perfect, protesters are not seen to be reacting just to results, protesters are not trying to hijack a family filled fiver day, protesters are not inflating the gate of said family filled fiver day.
Anyone who supports the protests should come along on the 15th so we, the majority of the supporter base, can reassure the ownership we have not gone away and are not likely to, anyone against the protests has a free reign to arrange a pro-regime rally this Saturday and anyone who just wants to watch the football can do just that.
Lets make the 15th October another protest day to remember
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No wins since Walsall and a win against Coventry will be down to the protesters protestingoohaahmortimer said:Two wins and the lamest of fans will then blame a failure against Coventry on the protests
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Great news.
Coventry is the ideal fixture to restart the protests.
We need to get these vermin out asap - they are killing OUR club.1 -
Point bears repeating that protests don't begin and end with the coalition. If people are exercised to protest, as they do away, then let it rip. This is the recommencing of organised hostilities.6
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Gutted as I already have commitments, but might be able to make a pre-match event.
Glad it's back, however I don't think it should ever have stopped, as it implied it was primarily about results and performance on the pitch (and will look like that again to outsiders), when it's actually much deeper than that.2 -
Great progress has been made over the summer with many protests planned. We all need to unite as one and fight this regime.
It doesn't matter if you protest inside the ground or outside as long as you get down there and let your voice be heard!
Good Job CARD!8 -
While I know what you mean @WSS (and you have qualified it with the 'in terms of uptake' bit), it does concern me when I see this sort of sentence.WSS said:
Watch us go on a winning streak now though, that's the danger I'm fearful of in terms of uptake.
I know there could be an argument for short-term failure to achieve long-term success, but we must continue to point out that all we really want is what is best for the club.
However, I think this sentence feeds the "Some 'so called fans' want Charlton to fail" merchants.
As such I think it's really important that everyone who supports CARD and what it stands for takes real care with the words they use. We must be clear in pointing out that the reason we are doing this is because we actually want the club to succeed!
In a way, it's similar to how, as many have pointed out, we all must rise above sexist or anti-belgian rhetoric when making our points because it undermines our argument. We must be vigilant in ensuring we take care not to make statements that could be twisted or misrepresented to paint us in a poor light.
We mustn't give the regime and its apologists any free ammunition.
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good idea tying it in with Coventry. They've recently written to Sisu the hedge fund that owns them to sell up and fuck off5
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Surely nobody takes any result in the Checkatrade nonsense seriously? There is only one proper match before Coventry.7
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I'm afraid we've done this type of thing.
RD won't care, and Meire will keep grinning - protesting in the stadium or not.
As mentioned above, people need to get off their arses and be inventive and not just rely on CARD to do everything.
Stuff at The Valley is not going to cut much ice IMO.
Inconvenienceing these people's personal lives / careers / businesses might.4 -
Agree. CARD play their part. So do the Belgium 20. So does everyone else who takes their own actions.boggzy said:I'm afraid we've done this type of thing.
RD won't care, and Meire will keep grinning - protesting in the stadium or not.
As mentioned above, people need to get off their arses and be inventive and not just rely on CARD to do everything.
Stuff at The Valley is not going to cut much ice IMO.
Inconvenienceing these people's personal lives / careers / businesses might.6 -
I take it seriously... In the sense I seriously want to see us lose so we get out the damn competition!!Airman Brown said:Surely nobody takes any result in the Checkatrade nonsense seriously?
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All protests have there place.boggzy said:I'm afraid we've done this type of thing.
RD won't care, and Meire will keep grinning - protesting in the stadium or not.
As mentioned above, people need to get off their arses and be inventive and not just rely on CARD to do everything.
Stuff at The Valley is not going to cut much ice IMO.
Inconvenienceing these people's personal lives / careers / businesses might.2 -
I dont completely agree, boggzy. Protesting at The Valley keeps this in the public eye, lets the rest of the world know that we havent gone away. And if we can involve Coventry fans too, so much the better.boggzy said:I'm afraid we've done this type of thing.
RD won't care, and Meire will keep grinning protesting in the stadium or not.
As mentioned above, people need to get off their arses and be inventive and not just rely on CARD to do anything.
Stuff at The Valley is not going to cut much ice IMO.
Inconvenienceing these people's personal lives / careers / businesses might.
I agree with you that the targets should be broader than just the matches, and pretty much anything that causes those muppets grief and makes them question whether it's worth the aggro for a measly 1.5% of assets has to be a good thing. This might well be stuff outside football.
This is likely to be a long attritional campaign, and the wider the range of targets the more problems it will cause them.4
