Manchester United supporters' groups have angrily accused police and stewards of heavy-handed tactics in dealing with protesters against the club's owners, the Glazer family, after some fans were refused entry to yesterday's reserve match at Old Trafford.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust (Must) and the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association (Imusa) both today issued statements accusing Manchester United stewards, supplied by a subcontractor named CES that has a long-term contract with the club, of denying fans entry to the game against Aston Villa.
"Fans have heard from Sir Alex [Ferguson] and David Gill [the club's manager and chief executive respectively] that 'everyone has a right to protest' but seen CES stewards violently confiscate protest flags and harass protesters in a number of other ways," Imusa said.
"This harassment has included conducting illegal searches, sometimes on minors, throwing out dads and lads on trumped-up accusations of inciting other fans to violence that the club have been unable to substantiate, and packing out the aisles with police and stewards in breach of safety regulations in order to suppress these protests."
The supporters' groups said a party of teenagers had been ejected from Old Trafford yesterday by police without a valid reason. One supporter, who did not want to be named, said that he and his friends were told they would not be able to bring their anti-Glazer banner into the ground because it contravened rules on the size of banner that would be permitted.
Having returned it to their car, he said the group was twice approached by the same group of police officers and told they had been recognised from YouTube footage of a Must stunt when "Love United Hate Glazer" messages were projected on to Old Trafford.
A Manchester United spokesman said only three supporters had been refused admission, two of them because of unacceptable behaviour at previous reserve matches played at Altrincham FC. He said the club were "entirely comfortable" with the actions of their stewards.
The supporters' groups claimed that stewards were guilty of covering up identity cards that they were required to display by law, but Manchester United said there was an exemption from that rule for stewards in football grounds.
"If they behaved at Old Trafford as they had behaved at reserve games at Altrincham, they would not have been allowed in," the spokesman said. He said it was "nonsense" to suggest that fans were being targeted because they had been photographed at anti-Glazer protests, and did not recognise claims from Must and Imusa that photographs of more than 20 fans had been circulated among stewards and police.
Attention will now turn to Sunday's last match of the season, at which Must have called for a final mass protest against the ownership of the Glazers ahead of a bid being submitted from the Red Knights group of wealthy Manchester United fans within a month of the end of the season.
The spokesman said anti-Glazer protests, likely to intensify if Chelsea are winning at Stamford Bridge, so putting the title beyond Manchester United, would be permitted as long as they did not contravene regulations on the size of banners allowed.
A Greater Manchester police spokesman said: "Greater Manchester police has a policy of allowing peaceful protest to take place."
