City fan who invaded pitch receives ban
SUPPORTER CANNOT ATTEND GAMES FOR 3 YEARS
I know I shouldn’t have done it but I spend a lot of money watching the club. Darren Kedzierski, who has followed Sky Blues since 1976
A COVENTRY City fan who invaded the Ricoh Arena pitch during a game and remonstrated with players has been banned from going to matches for three years.
Darren Kedzierski’s decision to run on the field of play during the Sky Blues’ 1-0 loss to Forest Green Rovers was caught on camera and went viral on the internet.
He made his thoughts known to players including Jack Grimmer, Marc McNulty and Michael Doyle, before the City skipper ushered him off the turf. However, his actions on the night of Tuesday, October 17, landed him in court where he pleaded guilty to going on to the pitch at a designated football match and was handed a three-year a football banning order .
FBOs usually ban a supporter from going to football stadiums for a fixed amount of time, as well as sometimes limiting their travel to cities and towns where their supported club are playing on a certain matchday. Appearing at Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, Kedzierski, a 47-year-old dad-of-three, was also fined £40 and ordered to pay £100 court costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
Kedzierski, who has followed the Sky Blues since 1976, previously told the Telegraph: “Basically I had just had enough of the way the football club is being run.
“I know I shouldn’t have done it but I spent a lot of money going to Accrington and spend a lot of money watching the club.”
Asked what he said to defender Grimmer and striker McNulty, he said: “I told them that I’m fed up of watching this rubbish and that no-one is putting in any effort.
“I explained to Michael Doyle that the club’s in disarray. People are spending a lot of their wages and not getting a performance at the end of it. I wasn’t abusive. My actions waving my arms might have seemed that way but I just told him that I’d had enough. I’m tired of the players not putting in a performance. I’m sick of it. He said, ‘please just get off the pitch.”
The protester then climbed back over the advertising hoardings where he was intercepted by stewards who showed him off the premises.
Asked if he regretted what he did, he said: “There’s part of me that’s sorry for what I did but at the end of the day it’s the only way to put your point across. I do have a bit of remorse but there’s part of me that doesn’t because it’s the only way I can show what I think about the club that’s doing its best to alienate everyone.”