Newcastle United punished supporters planning to take part in an 11th minute walk in for the home clash against West Ham on Saturday by turning off the live stream of the game on the concourses at St James’ Park.
A picture posted on Twitter by Newcastle fanzine editor Alex Hurst, who is also the founder of supporters group Gallowgate Flags – showed that the television screens, which usually show a live stream of home games around the food and beverage outlets, were turned off in response to the planned demonstration.
The club have turned off screens on the concourse to punish fans who have decided to go in late pic.twitter.com/IFOFlGUSWv
— Alex Hurst (@tfalex1892) December 1, 2018
The protest, as detailed by Sky Sports, involved supporters choosing to miss the first 11 minutes of the game and walk to their seats in retaliation to Mike Ashley’s running of the Magpies.
Opinion
This is really pathetic from Newcastle in an attempt to try and prevent the protest. The Toon Army are obviously still frustrated with the way their side is being managed by Ashley and are wanting to make their voices heard on Tyneside. Of course the Magpies are entitled to try and ward off the dissent around St James’ Park but at the same time why turn off the screens? There may well have been some supporters who had nothing to do with the protests left on the concourses finishing drinks and the like and they were punished too. The Magpies just risk alienating their fan base even further than they already have and it is going to do nothing for the relationship between the Toon Army and those at the top of the club. Hopefully this petty tit-for-tat can be sorted out in the near future, for it is a sad state of affairs to see a fan base battling against their own side.