Stewards alleged to be groping fans

[Loafer]

According to BBC

BBC News - Reading football fans report stewards 'groping' at match
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... e-66947904

[Ascotexgunner]

I'm gonna respond, though this is probably the wrong area where this thread was created...should be Club Policies methinks matey.
Anyway my take on this...I can understand these claims, security have been so ridiculously over zealous with searching and frisking it really is going to end up in claims like this. Several games this season I've turned up in shorts and football shirt (which is slim fit) and been searched where the guy has put his hand and patted inside my thighs, felt down my arse, and my shorts are tight jean shorts. Was it necessary? If I'm carrying a tennis ball, zombie knife, flare etc where the oxf*rd am I going to hide it? Not bloody there.
I've never had this level search at airports or gigs and certainly not at football grounds...
I can't think this is just me.

[St Pauli]

For those fans who would like to be groped by a steward at the ground, how can they seek out the relevant steward in order to be frisked by them?

Asking for a friend.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

[tmesis]

I was once, shall we say "thoroughly frisked" by a policewoman in Holland, who seemed to be being egged on by her colleagues.

It's not necessarily a complaint.

Had it been one of her male colleagues, I might not have found it so amusing.


Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

Maybe the OP can add some more detail

[St Pauli]

Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

Maybe the OP can add some more detail

The OP is banned from the ground.

[SCIAG]

Don't think we should be making light of sexual assault.

If you personally have been groped and not minded then fair enough, but personally for me it isn't something funny or enjoyable, and I don't think making light of it helps the victims.

Obvs saying that without prejudging this particular case, which I have no knowledge of.

[St Pauli]

Who’s making light?

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

Maybe the OP can add some more detail

The OP is banned from the ground.

For something related to this story?

[leon]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

These were my thoughts

[genome]

Not groping fans might be somewhere in the club contracts though.

[Loafer]

Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

Maybe the OP can add some more detail

i have no idea, just sharing what i read m9!

[Clyde1998]

Does this case at Reading seem to be stewards, or just a single steward overstepping the mark?

Based on the quotes in the article:

At first I was so shocked.

I've had many pat downs going into grounds and sometimes a steward can go a bit close for comfort, but this really caught me off guard.

The fan said he asked the guard what he was doing and the guard responded by "giggling like he found it to be some sort of joke".

I thought maybe the club had told stewards to be a bit more thorough with the searches, due to the protests, but I guess this guy took it too far.

I told the supervisor that [a steward] groped me, there were other people saying that. You heard it from quite a lot of places in the ground.

It was worrying. There was too much of it that it wasn't a coincidence. It felt deliberate.

I was searched as normal on the legs and arms going into the ground, but then touched further down.

I think the reasoning for it was to do with trying to hide tennis balls for the protest at the Bolton game. However, was still unacceptable to do what they did.

It's difficult to know whether it was a single steward or a more general problem. The fact the police are investigating five reports of sexual assault to me suggests it was more than a single steward, as you'd expect the supervisors to have 'resolved' the issue before it got that far.

[Forbury Lion]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

Explains why this thread isn't posted under Club Polices then.

I saw this reported a while ago, details were lacking so had just assumed it was some drunk perv not club stewards.

My guess is it was outside the South Stand/Club 1871 since the stewards outside the Lower West only take a peek inside your bags generally and don't do body searches, admittedly they a slightly more through squeeze of the bag to feel for balls.

I guess fans can help by not hiding tennis balls down their pants, maybe those with tennis sized balls can apply for an exception certificate or something?

Not really a laughing matter, I guess the club might want to have CCTV on the body searches in future to help prevent this kind of thing from happening and to protect theirselves from accusations. In the meanwhile, I guess fans could film the stewards doing their body searches?

Suspect now the full story is out, there will be more complainants coming forward who perhaps wrote it off as an accidental grope, Could still be that is the case I guess, if it was just the once and the incidents were all different stewards.

[Green]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

So are they doing it for fun or what?

Is this a few bad apples or are they being put up to this?

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

So are they doing it for fun or what?

Is this a few bad apples or are they being put up to this?

I can’t answer this but I don’t think it’s a club policy.

I doubt they are being put up to it.

[leon]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

So are they doing it for fun or what?

Is this a few bad apples or are they being put up to this?

I can’t answer this but I don’t think it’s a club policy.

I doubt they are being put up to it.

Well I’m suspecting it’s one of those options. Probably not the latter.

[rabidbee]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

It's presumably the failure of a club policy, though.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Groping fans isn’t a club policy

It's presumably the failure of a club policy, though.

I’d agree with this.

Maybe the OP could post this in the (failure of) club policies forum