Pigs fly as fans vent fury at the Valley
Last Saturday witnessed a most unusual protest in the League One game between Charlton Athletic and Coventry City when hundreds of plastic pink pigs were thrown onto the pitch at the Valley shortly after kick-off. Throwing things onto the pitch is nothing new in football protests, but this time it was both sets of supporters who joined forces to protest their respective owners.
Back in 2001, Charlton and Coventry were playing one another in the Premier League, but times have most definitely changed, with both sides currently wallowing in the depths of League One. Coventry are second from bottom, having won just two games out of 13 this season, while Charlton moved up to a still lowly 15th place thanks to their 3-0 win over the Sky Blues in the “Pigs on the Pitch” match.
The protest actually began before the game, with supporters of both teams marching together around the ground holding posters attacking The Sisu Group, which owns Coventry City, and Charlton’s Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet and CEO Katrien Meire.
In March, before the match against Middlesbrough, Charlton supporters staged a mock funeral carrying a coffin to the stadium and then throwing beach balls onto the pitch once the game had begun.
So what is it exactly that these owners have done?
According to a spokesman for Charlton supporters, Duchatelet had displayed “a toxic mixture of arrogance, incompetence and stubbornness”.
From the time he took over in 2014, Duchatelet has reportedly interfered with matters on the pitch, bringing in players from the Belgian league and allegedly undermining popular manager Chris Powell who was sacked. A series of managers were brought in, none of who could turn things around.
Supporters became increasingly disillusioned and posters bearing the message “We Want Our Charlton Back” became a regular sight. The fans are unhappy that what was once regarded as an example of a successful community-based club, appears to have lost its soul
More recently, there have been chants of “Please Sell Our Club” by supporters at home matches, which can hardly be encouraging for the players.
Charlton were last in the Premier League as recently as 2006, but that seems a lifetime away. One can only wish current manager Russell Slade the best of luck. His first task is to try and get them out of League One, preferably in an upwards direction.
Coventry’s fall from grace has been even more puzzling than Charlton’s decline. It is difficult to believe the Sky Blues have sunk to such depths. When they were relegated from the Premier League in 2001 after 34 years in the top flight, they were the fourth longest-serving members in the first tier behind Liverpool , Everton and Arsenal.
Since they dropped out of the top flight Coventry have suffered a miserable time both financially and on the pitch. In 2005 they moved from their traditional home at Highfield Road, to the newly-built Ricoh Stadium. In 2012 they were relegated to the third tier League One, for the first time in 48 years.
The situation was not helped when, owing to a ridiculous rent dispute, for the 2014-15 season they had to move out of the Ricoh and play all their home games at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium, some 50 kms away.
Coventry have since returned to the Ricoh but it looks like by 2018 they might have to share another stadium with Coventry Rugby Club.
This season, Coventry have experienced an awful run which forced manager Tony Mowbray to resign a couple of weeks ago with his team firmly at the bottom. “The table doesn’t lie,” Mowbray admitted.
Mowbray is the eighth manager since Sisu, a hedge fund organisation, took over in 2008 and many fans blame the owners for their current plight. A 2014 high court judgement ruled that Sisu has “seriously mismanaged” the club, but nothing seems to have been dome about it.
A fan writing in the Coventry Telegraph this week, commented: “It’s been a mess on the pitch and even worse off it…. it is clear Sisu have no plans for the club or any interest in what the fans think.”
Another former big club that has suffered terribly is Blackpool, currently struggling in 17th place in League Two. Fans have no doubt as to the cause of their problems — the owners, Owen Oyston a rich businessman with a chequered history, and his son Karl.
The Oystons took over the club back in the 1980s and enjoyed one really bright moment when the club played in the Premier League in the 2010-11 season. But since then it has been a tale of woe as they plummeted down the divisions.
Blackpool were in such a mess at the start of the 2014-15 season in the Championship, they had to scrap preseason matches because they couldn’t raise a team. One football writer called the club’s situation “a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe”.
Blackburn Rovers, currently fourth from bottom in the Championship, are another club where the fans and owners don’t see eye to eye. Since Venky’s, an Indian poultry company, took over in 2010, things have not gone too well at Ewood Park and this season is even worse.
Rovers seem to be in a permanent state of crisis. A poster at a recent game read:”Venky’s Out: Ewood Blues say, we want our club back. Your time has come, enough is enough!”
There are many more clubs where the relationship between fans and owners are quite fragile and it looks like we could be in for more protests from fans “who want our club back”.