Stoke to contest FA charges

Stoke City have asked the FA for a personal hearing regarding the charges they have bought against the club after last season’s home game against QPR in which Rangers’ keeper, Simon Royce was attacked at the end of the match by a Potters’ fan.

This long drawn out saga saw the Stoke fan arrested and jailed, QPR fined £5,000 for failing to control their players and Stoke eventually charged in May with failing to control their spectators.

The club feels that this should all have been sorted out long ago and Chief Executive, Tony Scholes is of the opinion that the FA should have let it rest:

“The FA investigated the matter immediately after the game. We carried out our investigation to ensure our procedures were operating as well as they should be.

Scholes added: “Clearly the incident shouldn’t have happened. The supporters who came on to the pitch have been dealt with in the manner we would expect for an incident of that nature. But in terms of whether our procedures are operating effectively, we say they are.”

Since the match on the 5th December 2005 in which the Potters lost 1-2, fans will have noticed a significant increase in stewards towards the end of a game. But this, hopefully, was an isolated incident at the end of a particularly fractious game both on and off the pitch.