It is time to admit defeat in my wholly ineffective one-man campaign to have Kevin Spencer’s ban from Bristol Rovers lifted.
I have now contacted four different directors and only one has bothered to reply and even he, the so called fans director Brian Seymour Smith (stop tittering at the back!), said it was a matter for the chairman.
There is no point in repeating the story all over again. Those who know about it don’t need to hear it again, the rest – probably vast majority – don’t give a toss anyway. And why should they? Supporters, above everything, support the team, not individual officials or supporters. But, very briefly, Kevin Spencer has been banned for his ‘consistent criticism’, according to the chairman Nick Higgs who promised to furnish him with specific examples of the criticism which he deemed offensive by the end of the summer. Assuming he did not mean that 31 October, the warmest Halloween day ever, represented the end of summer, it is surely safe to say he didn’t really mean it.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that this is a ban for life and Kevin will never again be able to attend another football match at the Memorial Stadium. As well as being banned from football matches – and you can imagine how awful it must be to not be allowed to pay to watch the best teams in non league football – he remains banned from attending funeral wakes, as he was following the sad death of much loved kit man Roger Harding. But in the interests of fairness, it is worth pointing out that Kevin is not banned from attending rugby matches at the ground, even though the sport is no longer played there. Thank goodness for small mercies.
The ‘strategy’ employed by the club to deal with the ban is simple: ignore anyone, namely me (!), who raises the issue and tries to resolve it and hope they go away. In my case, finally, they have succeeded!
Am I bitter about it all? No, not at all. My aim was simply to try to remove an obstacle to unity that remained between the club and a small number of supporters.
This issue, minor for most, major for me (to ban a man from attending a funeral wake was a new low in supporter relations at the club and, frankly, unforgivable, especially when its most famous director preaches regularly from the bible. Perhaps he reads the Old Testamant where the ‘God’ was a seriously unpleasant character, arguably the most unpleasant in all of fiction) has affected the way I feel about the club.
But we are all different. Some people think the banning was an important issue worth standing up for, others regard it as unimportant or not very important. Now that’s fair enough and it’s an argument I accept.
I also accept that Nick Higgs is effectively – effectively? – the owner of Bristol Rovers and he can do what he wants. He can admit to the ground whoever he wants, he can ban who he wants. And no one else can do a thing about it.
And if we accept the autocratic ownership and management at the club, as most do, there is an argument that runs that we have to accept everything that comes our way, whether that is a failing football club that is in non league football or banning a supporter for ‘consistent criticism.’
I would much prefer a more democratically run club, or at the very least a club where the views of supporters were paramount rather than a board which declares that without them there would be no football club. But, as I have said on countless occasions before, supporters have repeatedly rejected the opportunity to bring about and participate in change and so have accepted the status quo.
This is emphatically NOT a criticism of the supporters, not a word, nor a hint, of criticism. I used to complain, back in the 1970s, about the mismanagement of the club in the Flook/Bradshaw era but I could always close my mind to them when they game kicked off. In other words, all that really mattered was the shirt.
I still see Kevin who remains a good friend, the best sort of friend a person could have, always straight and honest, always generous. I think he knows the game is up at the Rovers and that his ban is for life. He’d like it lifted because he is sick to the back teeth of people asking him about it, but it does not consume his every waking hour, assuming it ever registers at all. Priorities, dear boy.
This wrong hasn’t been righted, it isn’t going to be. As my father always said, never worry about the things you cannot change and the internal machinations of Bristol Rovers are no longer my concern.
Hopefully, the chairman will continue to plug the financial gaps for the foreseeable future and perhaps beyond. If the owners continue to make mistakes, I guess it is only right that they pay for them.
Personally, I think that without supporters there would be no Bristol Rovers and whilst rich, retired and aloof businessmen might own the bricks and mortar they don’t own the club’s heart and spirit.
But I know that’s a very old, sepia-stained vision from the past.
Time to move on.
