Football Fans Not Criminals

Football supporters are an easy target for the censors

(Guest post by Peter Lloyd)

The Manifesto Club was instrumental in highlighting the discriminatory behaviour of the police towards football fans (see the reports here), especially ‘bubble matches‘ that led to the kettling of supporters and restrictions to travel and assembly on match days. Mercifully, and partly because of the Manifesto Club campaign, the practice of bubble matches has almost entirely ended.

Now we see something more insidious, and covert, in a case highlighted and taken up by Toby Young at the Free Speech Union.

A Newcastle United member and season ticket holder Linzi Smith wrote three moderately worded tweets, in which she supported the idea that there are two sexes, that biological males should not necessarily be allowed to play in women’s sports teams and that the organisation Mermaids ‘sought to promote gender affirmation in schools in a manner that runs counter to NHS advice and overrides safeguarding’. This is known as having ‘gender critical views’, although such views are fairly mainstream among the general public.

For expressing these views, she was banned from her football club and subjected to a private investigation by the Premier League.

The involvement of the Premier League in monitoring the political views of a regular supporter is taking censorship to a new level. This involvement, seemingly at the behest of Newcastle United FC, occurred after a single complaint was made to the club.

The police had already visited Linzi Smith at her house, investigating whether a hate crime had taken place and immediately concluded that one had not. This didn’t stop the Premier League embarking on its own investigation of an innocent member of the public.

According to Linzi’s Crowd Justice appeal, the Premier League created a confidential ‘Online Investigation and Target profile’ on her. If so, this is way beyond the remit of a commercial organisation making a fortune for its member clubs by organising, and selling, the TV rights to a football league competition.

According to its own website ‘the Premier League is “all about the football”’. Well, it most certainly isn’t in this case, and it should amend its website to include covert and intrusive investigations into the private lives of ordinary members of the public who are football supporters. It might then report annually on this element of its business.

Happily, and with the support of the Free Speech Union, Linzi Smith has instigated legal action against both Newcastle United FC and the Premier League. Let us hope that it signals the end of such activities by both the Premier League and individual football clubs.