TISA Statement on Incident at Maidstone United

With regard to the incident before the Maidstone United v Truro City game on Sunday May 8^th where at least five innocent TISA members were falsely identified as “troublemakers” it remains the case that we still do not know who the perpetrators were of this cowardly and malicious act which could have resulted in a serious public disorder incident were it not for the admirable restraint shown by all concerned and the common sense and professionalism of the Maidstone officials.

 

With Truro City Football Club seemingly not interested in investigating this matter any further and seeking to draw a line under the issue with their recent statement we in TISA feel we cannot allow the reputation of our members and that of our Association itself to be tarnished in this way.

 

Despite claiming that the statement issued by TCFC was made jointly with Maidstone United FC, we understand that no such corresponding statement on this issue has been made by Maidstone which leaves the only evidence we have being that given to us repeatedly in person by various Maidstone officials and officers of the Kent Police Force that the information and photographs came from “your club”.

 

In the absence of any further investigation by either club we don’t know whether “your club” referred to officials of Truro City Football Club or perhaps even persons within  the official Truro City Supporters Club but we intend to use the official and approved channels open to us in order that we may find out.  We believe we owe it to our members to do this.

 

We have already sought the advice from the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and on Monday May 16^th if we do not hear from TCFC that those responsible have been identified and dealt with appropriately, applying sanctions consistent with those applied on previous occasions by the club, then we will be making Subject Access Requests to both Football Clubs, Freedom of Information Requests to the Kent Police Force and letters to the National League.

 

We hope that this course of action can be avoided and that TCFC can work with TISA by contacting me the Secretary in order that we can put an end to this properly once and for all.

 

Simon Birch – TISA Secretary