A Coventry City supporter has been banned from 'home' matches indefinitely.
Alan Howe from Tile Hill took to the pitch at Arsenal to make a peaceful statement about the owners of Coventry City FC and their failures to resolve the Ricoh Arena dispute which have led to the club playing their matches 35 miles out of Coventry.
However, the club, who escaped with a charge of failing to control their supporters as this was the second time that City supporters have got onto the field of play this season, have now banned Mr Howe from City matches at Sixfields, not that he went to any.
The club have said in a statement: “There is no grey area when it comes to entering the field of play – when a supporter does so, they are committing an illegal act.
“When it happened at an away fixture earlier this season, the club had to give an undertaking to the FA that it would do everything within its power to stop it happening again.
“The strongest sanction the club can bring is a ban on attending home games and that is what we have done in this case, for an indefinite timescale.
“We cannot emphasise enough just how important it is that fans refrain from entering the field of play. We understand that feelings can run very high but the footballing and civic authorities will bring to task any supporter caught entering the field of play.”
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Simon Gilbert, Mr Howe, who is due in court on February 10th, said: "It might have had something to do with my shirt. Was it Coventry City or Sisu that banned me? It probably was Sisu.
“But if they’re going to ban me for protesting against the owners, they might as well ban 8,000 or 9,000 other people because they all feel the same."
Full story: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-city-fan-banned-attending-6674541