Source: FOOTYMAD
We'd be better off protesting outside Kentucky Fried Chicken!
I just wanted to say...but just went on and on... I'm not protesting outside the Vale after the Bury game. I'm sure many will stay behind, but I'll be off to the pub. Why? Well, listen: Firstly, the Bury game's been moved to 1pm because of the Wales vs England game, which kicks off at 3 and is on Sky, which I can't afford. Whatever my opinions on the board, I'm not letting them get in the way of my first love, football. Yes, FOOTBALL! I know that some protestors leave the match early to be the first on the "picket line". For the Macclesfield game they missed TWO late goals & a cracking finish. My black & gold scarf can wait till the fat lady sings. No board is going to get in the way of me watching football. But then the protests are going seriously off the rails. It's not just the fact that the after-match protests aren't growing; it's also that they are just getting too toxic. Let's face it, only about 1% of a typical crowd bother to join us. That's probable less than 0.2% of all Vale fans out there. What's worse is that the directors aren't even there when we protest. In fact all that happens is that we sing a load of aggressive songs and chants at the players' families and friends as they emerge after the game. And what are the families of our players going to say to our players after being subjected to that?! Probably "This isn't the sort of club you should be playing for if that's the sort of fans they have here." If we lose just ONE decent player as a result of the abuse bring hurled at our protests, then it will all have been in vain. Because where one goes, many follow. At the last few protests I've seen mothers covering the ears of players' children as they try and get away from the throng. Then there are the elderly parents, even some on crutches, making their way through a line of stewards and police. It don't look good. It doesn't help that the thugs have joined us. And why are we chanting: "We know where you live!"??? "if you don't come out, we're coming in!"??? followed by pushing & shoving and the police videoing us!! I've got a young family myself; do you think I need this?! We want CHANGE, not violence. Duh! After the Burton game, some protestors broke off to attack the Burton players trying to get on their bus?!?! No wonder the media don't take us seriously! But now we have the results of a poll conducted by some shareholders claiming that 77% are unhappy with the board. This is a much better way of conducting ourselves. The problem is that many fan-shareholder didn't reply because they thought that it could result in them bring targeted by the protestors. When I said that they didn't need to put their names on the voting form, they replied that they reckoned that the voting code on the form would be enough for them to be traced. Are some people that scared of the protestors? Answer: YES, it seems they are. And the spectacle of an enormous protestor standing over & ranting abuse at a little old lady season-ticket holder, whose only crime was that she didn't agree with him, was the sort of image the movement DOES NOT NEED. Thank god there was no press-photographer there to capture that. The media would have had a field-day. We need to protest, to show everyone that we mean business. The way we do it presently though, we might as well be protesting outside the Kentucky Fried Chicken. We must act now to rectify this as the time it takes to move from a credible protest movement to a laughing stock can be measured with an egg-timer. We have the momentum for change - let's not end up with egg on our faces.
