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Newcastle in line for investigation and big fines after Leicester fiasco

9 years ago
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Newcastle United are facing investigations by both the FA and Premier League after the shambles yesterday afternoon involving the new giant screen.

The official bodies will be looking at the circumstances that led to the Leicester match being delayed by an hour, with tens of thousands of fans locked outside the stadium as turnstiles weren’t opened until after the scheduled 3pm kick-off time.

The game was delayed after part of the new advertising giant screen set-up at the Leazes End started flapping in the wind, causing a potential danger to spectators.

Punishment from the overseeing bodies seems certain after the club’s incompetence and negligence produced such a farce, inconveniencing so many people.

The club issuing this statement explaining the fiasco;

‘Turnstiles were closed until 3:15pm whilst loose dressing panels surrounding the newly-installed LED screen in the Leazes Stand were assessed and made secure by engineers. Kick-off was subsequently rescheduled to 4:00pm.

Before turnstiles were opened, an issue was identified with the dressing panels and in order to give the Club the opportunity to rectify the situation, the decision was taken to keep the turnstiles closed. Supporter safety was of paramount importance and the Club felt that this action was necessary as a precaution.

The Club wishes to make very clear that the issues we experienced were not to do with the screen itself. Although the screen carries the ‘adi.tv’ branding the dressing panels were not installed by ADI, nor a company sub-contracted by ADI.

We wish to apologise once again to everyone who suffered inconvenience as a result of this issue today and wish to place on record our particular thanks to all supporters at St James’ Park for their patience.’

As well as what happens with any FA and/or Premier League investigation, it will also be interesting to see how Newcastle United deal with any genuine complaints from fans who may have had to miss a large part of the match through no fault of their own due to the late kick-off, or who ended up having to spend extra on different travel arrangements such as  train tickets etc.

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