Stewards

[floyd__streete]

Warmest congratulations are due to RFC; I have travelled the length and breadth of England watching football and visited over 70 grounds but I can safely say that the stewards at the Madejski Stadium are absolutely the worst I have ever come across. Unhelpful, incompetent, rude and confrontational - I have nothing but contempt for them.

[RoyalBlue]

Warmest congratulations are due to RFC; I have travelled the length and breadth of England watching football and visited over 70 grounds but I can safely say that the stewards at the Madejski Stadium are absolutely the worst I have ever come across. Unhelpful, incompetent, rude and confrontational - I have nothing but contempt for them.

Slightly harsh. I would have said more of a curate's egg. A lot of bad ones agreed, but there some very good ones amongst them albeit they are probably in the minority.

[Behindu]

Warmest congratulations are due to RFC; I have travelled the length and breadth of England watching football and visited over 70 grounds but I can safely say that the stewards at the Madejski Stadium are absolutely the worst I have ever come across. Unhelpful, incompetent, rude and confrontational - I have nothing but contempt for them.

A point only spoiled by the fact that a lot of the stewards actually work at other grounds en masse. Swindon for one but several others as well !

[ArfnipIsARoyal]

Anybody else witness the scuffle in the North Stand at half time last night?? Whilst amusing, I couldn't help but watch with bemusement at the lack of input from the stewards.

Do these characters have any form of training in how to deal with hostile situations or is the general rule "If it goes off, just stare at the melee".

Yours,

Confused.

Witnessed this. The man was ejected with no stewards outside, literally just opened the door and made him leave, the others involved then grabbed a smoking pass and came out, the Stewards came from the East Stand.

[Behindu]

Anybody else witness the scuffle in the North Stand at half time last night?? Whilst amusing, I couldn't help but watch with bemusement at the lack of input from the stewards.

Do these characters have any form of training in how to deal with hostile situations or is the general rule "If it goes off, just stare at the melee".

Yours,

Confused.

Probably.

Depends on who was there. Most of the stewards in the North at half time would have been just that - stewards. They aren't there to get involved in fights. They are there for H&S reasons, to keep exits clear, deal with evacuations etc etc.
The Tangos are the ones trained to deal with aggro and I would imagine most of them would have been elsewhere as the N stand isn't the one you expect trouble in.
If the situation was dealt with by stewards coming from the East Stand that would sugest it was Tangos pulled out of there who got involved.

[floyd__streete]

Warmest congratulations are due to RFC; I have travelled the length and breadth of England watching football and visited over 70 grounds but I can safely say that the stewards at the Madejski Stadium are absolutely the worst I have ever come across. Unhelpful, incompetent, rude and confrontational - I have nothing but contempt for them.

A point only spoiled by the fact that a lot of the stewards actually work at other grounds en masse. Swindon for one but several others as well !

Well, given that I have visited the County Ground as recently as 2002 how silly of me not to recognised them.

[readingbedding]

Am I the only person that has zero interaction with Stewards?

[Sharpy]

fair oxf*rd to goderz tbf, a mouthy chap he is. but takes no jip from the stewards.

[cmonurz]

Am I the only person that has zero interaction with Stewards?

You're not a proper fan if you don't give the stewards some jip.

[Behindu]

Warmest congratulations are due to RFC; I have travelled the length and breadth of England watching football and visited over 70 grounds but I can safely say that the stewards at the Madejski Stadium are absolutely the worst I have ever come across. Unhelpful, incompetent, rude and confrontational - I have nothing but contempt for them.

A point only spoiled by the fact that a lot of the stewards actually work at other grounds en masse. Swindon for one but several others as well !

Well, given that I have visited the County Ground as recently as 2002 how silly of me not to recognised them.

I'm simply informing you that you are able to enjoy the company of these fine people at a number of convenient locations. You do not have to fear that the Mad Stad holds a monopoly on their services...

It has to be said on the other hand that amonsgt our fans there are a few who are possibly unequalled in terms of their negative qualities - rudeness and confrontation is not confined to the wearers of reflective jackets.

[Sharpy]

atmosphere before stewards came up and moaned making us sit down > everyone sat on their ass!!

FACT

[cmonurz]

Fans moaning about sitting down = more boring than an evening talking politics with Cmonurz.

FACT

[handbags_harris]

A point only spoiled by the fact that a lot of the stewards actually work at other grounds en masse. Swindon for one but several others as well !

Well, given that I have visited the County Ground as recently as 2002 how silly of me not to recognised them.

I'm simply informing you that you are able to enjoy the company of these fine people at a number of convenient locations. You do not have to fear that the Mad Stad holds a monopoly on their services...

It has to be said on the other hand that amonsgt our fans there are a few who are possibly unequalled in terms of their negative qualities - rudeness and confrontation is not confined to the wearers of reflective jackets.

I think the issue at hand here is that the likes of floyd, myself, AndyRFC, Keeper etc who all sit up in Y24/5, are somewhat stereotyped. We sit up there so we must be intent on causing trouble and deliberately disobeying the FLA regulations and so we are treated as such. Now, I for one am not an aggressively confrontational person, I'll fight my corner but I'm not aggressive. I think that goes for a lot of the guys and gals up where I sit. There are a small minority of people up there who willfully disobey however it doesn't take a politician to work out that that a diplomatic approach to a situation is far more likely to nullify a flashpoint rather than the Hitleresque approach adopted by numerous of the regular men in yellow. I personally had a situation just before the Everton game where down in the concourse one of the senior stewards approached me from behind, pulled me around by the shirt sleeve and almost poked my chest through sheer force of pointing whilst stating that if I consistently continued to stand throughout the game as I had at the Chelsea game I'd be ejected. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I didn't even notice that I was standing persistently (I try to make a conscious effort to at least obey some regulations) and secondly I don't remember a steward making his way up to the top to ask (nay tell) us to sit down! The approach taken will almost certainly get everyone's back up, it certainly did mind, and that approach will eventually get the serious flashpoint it deserves.

[Katie Marsden]

Anybody else witness the scuffle in the North Stand at half time last night?? Whilst amusing, I couldn't help but watch with bemusement at the lack of input from the stewards.

Do these characters have any form of training in how to deal with hostile situations or is the general rule "If it goes off, just stare at the melee".

Yours,

Confused.

Probably.

Depends on who was there. Most of the stewards in the North at half time would have been just that - stewards. They aren't there to get involved in fights. They are there for H&S reasons, to keep exits clear, deal with evacuations etc etc.
The Tangos are the ones trained to deal with aggro and I would imagine most of them would have been elsewhere as the N stand isn't the one you expect trouble in.
If the situation was dealt with by stewards coming from the East Stand that would sugest it was Tangos pulled out of there who got involved.

How hard is it to have some stewards who are trained in dealing with conflict to be spread out amongst the stands? Especially at the big games where you expect away fans to be in the home ends and trouble could kick off at any moment.

[cmonurz]

I agree, it's a fair point. Doesn't make it the fault of the yellow coats who were there though.

[Behindu]

I think the issue at hand here is that the likes of floyd, myself, AndyRFC, Keeper etc who all sit up in Y24/5, are somewhat stereotyped. ........... The approach taken will almost certainly get everyone's back up, it certainly did mind, and that approach will eventually get the serious flashpoint it deserves.

I think you make a very reasonable point. I know Flloyd, as far as I am aware I don;t know the rest of you but if you are mates of his I can only assume you are pretty normal football fans who like their football, beer and a laugh but are in no way 'dangerous' !
I've always thought that there was a need for a 'intermediary' up in Y25/6. Someone who wears a jacket but is known to the fans and the authorities and who can use a bit of common sense to deal with things in a non confrontational manner. Whether the club would sanction such a person and whether the right person exists I don;t know. But I do feel something needs to be done to get rid of the them and us situation. Maybe if there is a stewards forum it would be an idea worth discussing.
I know something of the pressures on the stewards and have seen stuff that does make yuo realise why they can be a bit heavy at times. But at the same time football is a passionate game and I would hate to see it being like a trip to the cinema.

[Behindu]

How hard is it to have some stewards who are trained in dealing with conflict to be spread out amongst the stands? Especially at the big games where you expect away fans to be in the home ends and trouble could kick off at any moment.

Quite hard.
There are a limited number of them (and RFC bring them in from a surprisingly long way away) and you don;t deploy them on their own. Most of them tend to be at the away end (because that is where they are usually needed). The others spend their time dashing round from one incident to another. you might get lucky and have a team in the right bit of the stand atthe right time, but if you have a limited number you concentrate then where they are most likely to be needed. Which isn't the North Stand.

[BenReadingFC]

What was all that business about some woman in the away end?

Couple dressed as bride and groom and was prepared to get her tits out for the lads!

Took this pic of them towards the end of the game (no saggy tits though)

[floyd__streete]

It has to be said on the other hand that amonsgt our fans there are a few who are possibly unequalled in terms of their negative qualities - rudeness and confrontation is not confined to the wearers of reflective jackets.

The obvious difference of course being, Behindu, that one set of people are the customers and the other set are employees who are expected to provide customer service .

[The 17 Bus]

There are one or two Tango's that need retraining in people skills, ideally you would never notice them, much like the yellowcoat stewards, always polite to me, and welcomed to the game, too many Tango's seem to like the confrontation.

I personally had a situation just before the Everton game where down in the concourse one of the senior stewards approached me from behind, pulled me around by the shirt sleeve and almost poked my chest through sheer force of pointing whilst stating that if I consistently continued to stand throughout the game as I had at the Chelsea game I'd be ejected

That sounds like assault to me, and IMHO you should have taken his name and reported it back to the club, Tango's are not allowed to assault fans in this way.