Club Statement (Updated 23.12.2013)

[Dobba]

Hednesford Town Football Club are continually looking to promote the club as a community facility that welcomes both home and visiting supporters.

However of late an anti-social element has infiltrated our club and has attempted to tarnish our image with visiting teams and their supporters and diminish all the good work that is currently being done at the club, in the community by our Official Supporters Association and by the playing staff on and off the pitch.

The Football Club will take a strong stance against these undesirable individuals by working alongside Staffordshire Police to identify those who:

- Fail to adhere to our ground regulations
- Make a nuisance of themselves
- Cause alarm and distress to other supporters

In the short term a number of individuals have already been identified and will no longer be able to attend events at Keys Park forthwith. These persons will be contacted and informed in writing that their presence is not required. This course of action taken will be reviewed at the end of the current season.
Over the coming weeks other individuals will be identified and they will also find they will be prevented access to football games and other events here at Hednesford Town to show that we do not welcome this behaviour at our Football Club.

We hope that our genuine followers will support us with these measures and anyone who has any additional information regarding names of individuals and acts they have carried out to the detriment of the club whilst they were perpetrating to be followers of Hednesford Town Football Club.

The information can be passed directly to the club and will be treated in the strictest confidence or alternatively via the CRIME STOPPERS on 0800 555 111.

[Dobba]

Officers from Staffordshire Police have visited five men aged between 18 and 24 from the Chasetown, Rugeley, Cannock and Hednesford areas to address their recent behaviour at Hednesford Town Football Club fixtures.

The five have signed football behaviour contracts which include the following clauses:

- Not to behave in a manner likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to anyone attending designated football matches

- Not to behave in a manner likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to anyone travelling on the rail network

- Comply with the published ‘ground regulations’ and directions given by Stewards and club employees when attending Football Fixtures at Keys Park, Hednesford.

They also enter into a commitment with Staffordshire Police and Hednesford Town Football Club not to cause or contribute to any violence or disorder in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.

If they breach the contract by behaving in a way which Staffordshire Police or Hednesford Town Football Club consider to amount to causing or contributing to violence or disorder, an application may be made to the Magistrates’ Court for a FOOTBALL BANNING ORDER to prohibit violence or disorder at or in connection with any regulated football matches.

Chief Inspector Bird, who holds the Football Portfolio for Staffordshire said: “We work very closely with all five major clubs in the county, and also with colleagues in other police forces, to ensure a safe environment at football grounds. The use of Football Behaviour Contracts is a new concept within our football policing strategy. The individuals we have targeted who have signed these contracts are fully aware that if they commit offences we will bring them into the criminal justice system to be dealt with appropriately"