PRESS RELEASE

CHARITY VOLUNTEER KICKED OUT OF FOOTBALL MATCH

I am writing this to vent my utmost disappointment and report an unfortunate event that occurred at Members Equity Stadium on Sunday 21st September during the Perth Glory vs Wellington Pheonix football match.

It was supposed to be a fun day, where a group of Perth Glory supporters would get together and make good out of a bad situation that happened the previous week in the home end at MES.

Last Sunday (14th September 2008) a security guard used very heavy handed and inappropriate techniques to subdue a Perth Glory fan which resulted in a physical altercation between fans and security guards. (this was reported by the West Australian newspaper reporter Shayne Hope, in the paper last week)

The security guard in question wore a black leather bandana.

In an attempt to make good of this unfortunate situation, where no one was a winner, the Perth Glory fan base decided to have a bandana/pirate day, where we would sell bandanas with all proceeds going to a teenagers with cancer charity. I don’t wish to name the charity as I don’t wish for them to get caught up in the affair. It was envisaged the charity and the Glory football community would be the winners and the limelight on last Sundays events would be diminished.

Sunday the 21st came around, it started off very, very well. With the prior consent of the Perth Glory Football Club, Allia Holdings and the Australian Protection Service (security firm for MES on behalf of Allia Holdings) and prior consent and full support of the charity, along with vendor ID’s and MES security passes we began to sell bandanas inside the gates of MES, and they sold very well indeed.

Just before half time in the game, a small group of 3 fans walked around the ground to try to sell the remaining 20-or-so bandanas (out of 300). One of the three fans, who was also an official vendor for selling the bandanas asked the security guard in question (from last sunday) if he would like to buy a bandana and help teenagers with cancer.

The fan was then threatened by the security officer (in which the security guard used threatening language in front of a designated family seating area). The three fans/vendors then walked away and were stopped minutes later by a senior supervising security officer. The fan in question was then was evicted from MES on the grounds he was inciting trouble with security.

This is disgusting behaviour from a self proclaiming professional company who in their company objective statement on their website claims to show commitment to high ethical standards. The behaviour displayed on this occasion showed anything but a high standard of ethics.

As I said in the opening couple of statements, this was supposed to be a fun day, with bandanas being sold and worn, even with some pirate costumes being donned and just generally having a good time while at the football, again with the charity and the Glory football community being the winners.

I’d like to thank the majority of staff of APS who are mostly very pleasant and are willing to help, but unfortunately it seems that the old saying about “a couple of bad apples” rings true in this case.

I’d like to also say how proud I am of the Perth Glory Fan base for really getting behind the idea and supporting a very important charity group. It is just a real shame that some people’s egos got in the way of supporters having a great day for a great cause.

And for the record $1050.80 was raised for the charity. A great effort!

Glory Fans United

Email: gloryfansunited@hotmail.com