A report by the FSF has cleared Leeds fans of blame for the crush on the away terrace at our game with Exeter City on January 16th.

Following the game the ‘Exeter Express & Echo' published a report which carried statements from the home club which appeared to blame Leeds fans for the overcrowding in the visitors’ section. We were accused of arriving late, refusing to move down the away terrace (turnstiles are only open at one end of the stand), and ignoring loudspeaker announcements.

But a report compiled by the Football Supporters’ Federation has now cleared Leeds fans of any blame, and Exeter City have also apologised for their earlier comments. This follows a meeting organised by the FSF and attended by representatives of the Leeds United Supporters Club and the Leeds United Supporters Trust, as well as the home club and the local police.

The Leeds fans organisations complained that the tannoy announcements couldn’t be heard clearly on the open terrace once the match had started, and that a lot of fans were late arriving at the game due to a police decision to hold the coaches at a service station on the M5 to wait for an escort to the ground.

The delay to the coaches meant that roughly 100 Leeds fans were still outside the turnstiles as the match kicked off, and at the same time a similar number of fans were being moved around the ground from the ‘home’ sections of St. James’ Park. But the away section wasn’t over capacity in total, as Exeter had reduced the ticket allocation sent to Leeds by 150, to allow for the possibility of having to move fans from the ‘home’ sections of the ground on the day.

Following the meeting and investigations carried out by the club and the police, a number of action plan was agreed, to be put in place “should the two clubs meet again” (er, if we fail to go up!). This includes better stewarding and communication, while the Police will ‘review’ their strategy of holding coaches on the M5.

Click here to see the full report on the FSF website.

Photo: Action Images

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