IMUSA News
IMUSA's Year - 2007
1st January 2008
Downloadable version here
IMUSA's Year - 2007
IMUSA was founded in 1995 and came about because of the tensions between the fans' natural enthusiasm for supporting their team and the clubs’ increasingly commercial approach that required us to sit down, shut up and passively hand over ever increasing amounts of money.
These tensions have guided our agenda ever since.
Safestanding
Football fans want to be given the choice about whether to stand or not.
Standing in football grounds is not illegal and even the Government agrees that it is not unsafe.
Standing is permitted at every event held within a football ground, except football and even here it isn't against the law. It is a breach of the terms and conditions on the ticket.
Nonetheless, this rule is vigorously enforced, while other terms and conditions on the tickets that can have a greater impact on compromising fans safety, like non-transferability, are studiously ignored.
IMUSA supports the call for safestanding areas and has been actively campaigning for their introduction.
Hopes were that Richard Caborns' departure as Sports Minister would lead to a change in Government attitude but this has proved not to be the case.
IMUSA has dealt with several cases of fans being ejected from the ground and having their season tickets confiscated for persistent standing and continues to press for the club to introduce 'due process', whereby a formal system of warning is put in place that allows people to argue their case with someone other than a steward.
Given the powers that this situation currently gives stewards over paying customers in the ground and because they do not need to be licensed under the Private Security Industry Authority Act, IMUSA has been trying to obtain information about how the police monitor their training and vet them.
Regrettably GMP have not dealt with these requests with enthusiasm and are currently hiding behind the Data Protection Act in the hope of avoiding having to answer questions as sensitive as "Do you check the stewards qualifications?".This is a matter that will roll on into the new year.
In September IMUSA, along with MUST and the FSF supported the safestanding demonstration held at High Wycombe FC.
Ticket Pricing
In the two years since the new owners took over tickets have risen, on average, by 44%.
This year, the requirement to purchase tickets for all home cup matches was added to the terms and conditions.
As this potentially adds another 14 games to the cost of a season ticket, some fans are experiencing financial hardship because of this. Others are being forced to buy tickets for matches they cannot possibly attend because of work commitments, the distance they live or the age of their children, etc.
MUST has taken the lead in campaigning against the Automatic Cup Scheme (which has taken the form of challenging the legality of this in the County Courts) and IMUSA has supported them in every way we can.
On more specific issues, IMUSA found out through its connections with the FSF that Reading gave United tickets for their away end at a discounted price but that this discount was not passed on by the club to people buying those tickets. The club has since refunded the affected fans in consequence.
IMUSA was also deeply disturbed by the relatively small allocation given to our fans for the FA Cup final and the large number of tickets that were being sold at greatly inflated prices on eBay etc. We made representations to the FA and provided evidence that this was happening and they undertook to take action to prevent this in future.
IMUSA also provided information to members of the House of Commons Select Committee on Touting and they have undertaken to examine the current anomaly whereby touting is only illegal for tickets to football matches but not to other events that may even be held in the same venue.
Fans’ Safety Abroad
United fans faced significant problems on our European travels to Lens, where we played Lille, to Rome in April and to Rome again in December.
For the incidents in Lens, IMUSA put together a dossier from the eye-witness testimonies of several hundred fans that contacted us after the match and presented this to UEFA. Their conclusions were clear and Lille were fined a significant amount in view of their lack of adequate crowd safety measures. United fans were exonerated from all the accusations of football hooliganism initially levelled against us.
Regrettably several hundred more eye-witness accounts were needed following incidents in Rome in April. This time it was because of the actions of the Roma police who were supposed to be protecting our fans from the Ultras that had inflicted several stabbings earlier in the day.
The TV pictures were graphic and clearly showed that the police viciously and violently attacked our fans rather than the other way round. These assaults were so serious that IMUSA has coordinated legal action against the Roma police and these cases are still waiting to be heard in the Italian courts.
On a lighter note, the Italian satirical programme Le Iene picked up on Youtube footage of one of our members getting her camera stolen by the police and then being punched in the face by them. They gave her a replacement camera with messages of apology from Roma players and a VIP ticket for when we played there in December.
Other fans were not so lucky at this last match and four currently languish in an Italian jail after being tried by a kangaroo court and defended by a state-appointed lawyer who didn’t speak English. IMUSA is currently doing all it can to help get these lads out of jail as soon as possible.
Our view is that because of their police Rome is not a safe place to hold ordinary football matches, let alone Champions League finals and this view will be communicated to UEFA with all the political pressure we can bring to bear on this if these United fans are not released soon.
Other Activities
The Minister of Sport was asked about whether the Glazers were getting tax relief on the interest on the loans they took out to buy United. No answer was given, as this information is reported to be protected by the Data Protection Act. If this had been a normal Private Equity deal then such tax relief would have been given as a matter of course.
IMUSA helped, along with MUST to organise a fund raising night in Sam Platt’s for former United player Danny Wallace.
IMUSA was glad be of assistance in helping collect funds for John Wroe’s funeral but very much regrets his passing.
Future Events
February 6th 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash.
As the club has no plans to commemorate this event in Munich on that day, IMUSA has organised a short ceremony to give a focus to those fans that are travelling out.
The ceremony will be led by a local Catholic priest and involve a short religious ceremony, a reading of the names of the dead, a reading of “The Flowers of Manchester” which will be followed by the playing of this tune on the bagpipes and a lament as people lay wreaths etc.
The whole ceremony is planned to last no more than 15 minutes, so that fans have plenty of time with their own thoughts.
IMUSA, 1st January 2008
