Charlton postponement the Football League's take on it

Here is the email I received from the FL re my emailt o them regarding Charlton. We had booked in the Hospitality Suite there and have still not been told officially that the match was called off. The staff in the suite carried on serving drinks/food etc as if nothing had happened until past 3pm. But nobody told us!! We found out from FB/Bulletin Board. Mates were texting ME to see if it had been called off up till 1pm!!
Interesting that FL should think that some fans would have set off by this time!! This of course anybody travelling by helicopter and being able to land on the pitch! (Not allowed by the CAA due to danger of not being able to take off again!!!)

"Thank you for your email regarding the postponement of the Charlton versus Barnsley fixture.

With regards to the game in question, the home club had done significant work on the pitch to prepare it for the game. Due to an apparent issue with the drainage system at The Valley, the club’s preparations unfortunately were in vain once the referee had conducted an inspection. The club had hoped that enough work had been carried out to ensure it was playable, however they are currently experiencing some unusual problems with drainage. They had brought in some external support in the form of a weather dome, and enlisted some FA assistance to attempt to rectify the situation.

Ultimately the club and referee attempted to give the game every chance of taking place but on removal of the covers and assessment of the pitch, the decision was made to postpone. The decision was then made to give supporters as much advance notice as possible, although understandably some away fans would have set off at that time.

While your disappointment is understandable and regrettable, the severity of the pitch problems at Charlton, and the recent weather caused difficulty in ensuring on this occasion the pitch remained playable. While a significant amount of work is carried out by clubs and officials preceding these fixtures, unfortunately the unpredictable UK weather (combined in this case with an issue with pitch drainage the club is experiencing) means some postponements are inevitable from time to time.

The club released the following statement regarding the postponement and tickets http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/20140111-club-statement-1288017.aspx. They also released the following article relating to the referee’s comments and managers assessing the pitch http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/20140111-referee-outline-reasons-for-postponement-1287759.aspx.

Thank you for contacting The Football League.

Kind Regards

Amanda Craig
Customer Services Administrator
The Football League Limited
www.football-league.co.uk

 

She should be a politician.

 

Didn't expect much else tbh. It still does not answer why they didn't do (and refused) a pitch inspection on the Friday, does it?

Time to move on and focus our energy elsewhere.

 

Like a pitbull I'll keep hold. And no she didn't answer why it wasn't postponed before - I did ask./ I also asked if it only rained on Charlton in the London area? she didn't answer that either

 

Typical PR response. The only way is to keep pressing. Thanking her for her reply but could she please address your other question regarding the refusal for a Friday inspection and their insistence throughout the previous week that the match would go ahead. If you cause them a headache and display that you won't go away at the very least you may p*ss them off like you were on the day in question

 

Nah! She is just a PR assistant spouting from the manual "How to fob people off". You hear the same clichéd response over and over again on 'Watchdog'

 

Some away fans would have set off at that time?!?!?!

What an incredibly stupid statement. Did she think that when the Concorde was put out of service it was purchased by the Courthouse? The only away fan who hadn't set off yet was Mr C and that's only because he was wavering, having blown all his money on a new guitar the day before!

 

Can you imagine if the boot would have been on the other foot......would the football league have been so easy on BFC?

It stinks that Charlton and the FA did not make a decision on this on Friday evening.

 

What a load of 'party line' *****. I really don't know what fans have to do to be treated with anything other than contempt. Responses like this from the governing bodies show that we may as well pi55 in the wind if we expect anything to change. I really hate football with a passion.

 

niether does it say its been that way for 17 years too thats my point

their ground staff actually came out and said that much. But then again Charlton is in London we are Barnsley.... end of, innit

 

That's the kind of 'Dear Mr Bloggs" mail merge response that makes me bloody angry, and I didn't even go to the game!!.

That response shows about the same level of contempt for the supporters as Charlton did in the week of the game.

It doesn't even come close to explaining why it must have been obvious on Friday to anyone with eyes in their head that the game had no chance of going ahead.

If I had received that response they would be getting a very curt reply pointing out the answers they had failed to provide.

 

DSL, it gets me irate.....but sending another letter will end up getting you even more wound up, cos you would get the same non-descript and fluffy response.

Easy to see why fans fall out with football.

 

The supporters trust received the same response. We replied to state that they were obviously not very good at geography, and that we expected a full and proper response to our questions and comments.

All went quiet, so I asked them if they re going to respond or just ignore there fans charter. I got an almost instant response to say that they were investigating and would reply in full, once they get a response.

We got a response from Charlton Athletic today, along with the offer of free travel for about 100 supporters. Whilst this does not appease everyone, it is a good offer and unprecedented. We also asked for them to look into their processes for games whilst the pitch remained a problem along with CASTrust and they responded positively on this.

Be interesting to see how many other clubs follow Charlton's lead.

http://bfcst.org.uk/charlton-update-a-positive-response-from-cafc/