Poppies on our shirts or not

[Montse]

And then there were two: Bolton join the poppy parade - unlike Manchester United and Liverpool

 

By Charles Sale

Last updated at 12:44 PM on 06th November 2009

 

Bolton Wanderers last night became the 18th Barclays Premier League club to commit to playing in poppy-embroidered shirts on Remembrance weekend.

 

That makes a total of six clubs who have changed their plans this week on the back of Sportsmail’s campaign that began by pointing out that only 12 of the 20 teams in the top flight had informed the Premier League about their intention to put a poppy on their

match kit.

 

But while Fulham, Aston Villa and Portsmouth on Tuesday, Stoke and Blackburn on Wednesday and Bolton yesterday have had admirable second thoughts — owing

significantly to the fans’ outrage at those missing from the Premier League poppy list — two huge names, Manchester United and Liverpool, remain stubbornly against.

 

United and Liverpool have offered the excuse that they carry out a great deal of work to

recognise the British war dead.

 

Nevertheless, the absence of a poppy on their shirts will make two of the world’s

biggest clubs stand out for all the wrong reasons to the vast television audience in

Britain and in hundreds of countries around the globe.

Nicklas Bendtner of Arsenal wears a shirt with an embroidered Rememberance Poppy

 

Statements released to Sportsmail by both clubs have stressed their respective work with the Royal British Legion and the Armed Forces.

 

But fans of both clubs are puzzled by their intransigence over the simple matter of having a poppy embroidered on their strips for this weekend. Any argument that this would not be seen against their red shirts is negated by the fact that Arsenal have worn a red strip with a poppy that was perfectly visible.

 

United play Chelsea on Sunday, and their stance will be in sharp contrast to their London hosts, where the connection between the club and the Chelsea Pensioners is always stressed on Remembrance Sunday.

 

Bolton fans have contacted Sportsmail to detail the club’s grand war history.

 

At the Bolton v Sunderland match on April 14, 1939 an appeal was made by team captain Harry Goslin to the crowd asking those capable to join the forces. Two days later, the entire Bolton team, led by Goslin, signed up for the 53rd Bolton Artillery, who fought in the Middle East, the Italian campaign, and at Dunkirk. Goslin was killed in action in 1943.

 

The Bolton statement said: ‘Bolton Wanderers has been and continues to be a constant supporter of Britain’s Armed Forces. The manager and his staff will all be wearing a poppy this weekend at Aston Villa and the players will also wear a poppy-embroidered kit for that game. All embroidered first-team shirts will be donated to the British Legion Poppy Appeal.’

Burnley's Graham Alexander celebrates scoring his sides opening goal

 

Football teams across the country will be holding a minute’s silence to remember the war dead and are holding a variety of fund-raising activities, including the auction of their special poppy strips.

 

Teams from outside the top flight, including Middlesbrough and West Bromwich, will also be proudly sporting a poppy on their chests.

 

This year’s Remembrance Day will have added poignance after the horrific death toll this week in Afghanistan, including five servicemen who were slaughtered by a rogue policeman.

 

ere

 

 

Theres an increasing mass hysteria/outcry doing the media circles at the moment that out of all the prem teams us and Man Utd will not be sporting poppies on our shirts for this weekends Rememberence Sunday.

 

Personally I think we should but not because we have been pressured into it I but also understand the amount of work the club does off the pitch with the organisations and other charities.

 

Guarenteed its just another media stick to beat us with at the moment

[Damian_de]

Sportsmail saves tha day! I think we should show willing.

[£440,000]

Marina Hyde on this in the Guardian.

 

Really don't see the need for us to wear one.

 

With a tedious inevitability, the Daily Mail's campaign to divide the whole of Britain into people who wear poppies and people who are subhuman scumbags has reached the Premier League. But then, based on that taxonomy, where else was it ever going to end up?

 

In case you are not familiar with what we would be encouraged to refer to as "the growing row", the facts are these. At the time of writing 15 Premier League clubs have applied for special dispensation to embroider a poppy on their shirts for games between now and Remembrance Sunday, while – far more thrillingly for the Mail – five clubs have not. They are Blackburn, Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Stoke, and while some have declined to explain their decision, a Manchester United spokesman has stated: "We don't think it's particularly necessary. We sell poppies around the ground and all our officials wear them and we work with armed forces charities in a lot of other ways throughout the year." Is hanging too good for them? Doubtless we shall find out.

 

Before we proceed any further I should make clear that I am an ardent supporter of the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal. Indeed, I am wearing a poppy as I sit typing this, and will replace it as soon as I lose it, and indeed the next 12 that go the same way before Remembrance Sunday.

 

But why must the build-up to Remembrance Day be characterised by these incredibly cheapening, confected rows? What does that sort of focus say? Thank you for fighting for our freedom to ring talk-radio programmes and explain why this is "typical Man United"?

 

"An absolute disgrace," spluttered a caller to Nick Ferrari on London's LBC radio of the failure of the Strictly Come Dancing contestants to pin a poppy to their sequins last Saturday night (although all the judges were wearing them). Having pointed out that the X Factor contestants were wearing them – as though that were the most meaningful comparison – Ferrari solicited his listeners to phone in and have their say on Strictly's act of near-treason. He appeared to be under the delusion that fanning a non-argument somehow proved his point, as opposed to being disrespectful in itself.

 

After all, isn't frothing yourself into demented indignation at the Blackburn squad's lack of a poppy the very definition of having way too much time to indulge in fatuous rows? It's redolent of that long-running, now mercifully expired argument about footballers not singing the national anthem in a manner acceptable to whichever Middle Englander wasn't really watching the game anyway.

 

The point so often ignored is that the second world war, in particular, was fought to allow people the choice in this and many other matters. Victory meant freedom from fascism, which makes Jon Snow's choice of words for this annual hounding of any public figure pictured without one – "poppy fascism" – particularly significant.

 

As Snow says, he wears one off screen. Yet whether players of the five refusenik clubs are wearing poppies off the pitch seems to be a matter of sublimest indifference to the critics, despite this being the newest of new traditions, having been dreamed up in 2002, and even last year adopted by only a handful of clubs.

 

Of course, it's nice that some of the shirts will be auctioned in aid of the British Legion – though shirts are auctioned every week, and it remains to be seen whether the poppy will confer any added value. But rest assured that all the positives will be lost in the argument about whether Rio Ferdinand's shirt has a poppy sewn into it. For two weeks of the year, certain elements stop insisting that footballers are not role models, in favour of demanding to know why they aren't wearing poppies when their job is to set an example.

 

At base, this is just another way of presenting footballers as cosseted ingrates. It was a matter of genuine surprise to me that the Mail's reaction to the pictures of Wayne and Coleen Rooney leaving hospital with their new baby wasn't a headline screaming "But where is Kai Wayne's poppy?"

 

So on Saturday, know that every late challenge, every sending-off, will be in the memory of those who fell in battle. Then accept the fact that media campaigns to foreground the poppies that are not being worn, as opposed to the ones that are, serve not as a memorial to the sacrifices made on our behalf, but as a reminder of our hard-wired one‑upmanship and infinite capacity to find ways to divide ourselves.

[Andy @ Allerton]

I think you should remember those that gave their lives for everyone in this country.

 

All of us have had or do have people that have fought for us in our families. I don't think it's too much to ask to remember them once a year.

[Stevie H]

it's an absolutely personal choice to wear a poppy and has nothing whatsoever to do with football. the mail can, as ever, f*** right off.

[Minder78]

It should be a personal choice and not imposed upon anyone.

[Murphman]

I've been reading all this sh*t in the mail every day this week, just f*ck off, it's not as if they care it's just a 'crusade' they can gain cred from. Load of b*llocks, I'll bet the VAST majority at OT and Anfield have bought poppies, just like every other year.

[Mike]

I think you should remember those that gave their lives for everyone in this country.

 

All of us have had or do have people that have fought for us in our families. I don't think it's too much to ask to remember them once a year.

 

poppie facism can f*** off. and that is from someone who served 6 years for queen and country.

[muleskinner]

poppie facism can f*** off. and that is from someone who served 6 years for queen and country.

 

It can, Remembrance doesn't have to be visible and it doesn't have to be once a year. I think the club are taking a sensible stance on this, as are the Mancs. The British Legion have already praised the club for their efforts which the Mail are unsurprisingly happy to omit from the article.

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...091106-1722.htm

 

The Royal British Legion have today expressed their gratitude to Liverpool FC and its supporters for the efforts being put in place to help raise both funds and awareness for the Poppy Appeal.

A minute's silence will be held before Monday's live televised game against Birmingham City at Anfield and this will be preceded by two service personnel and a Royal British Legion standard bearer placing a ceremonial poppy on the centre circle.

 

In addition, a ground collection will be held and advertising made available within both the matchday programme and on electronic LED pitchside boards to further raise awareness of the appeal. The match shirts from the game against Birmingham City will also be handed over to the Royal British Legion to auction off to raise additional income for the Poppy Appeal.

 

David Murray, County Manager of the Royal British Legion, commented: "The Royal British Legion are delighted with the support given to Remembrance by Liverpool Football Club.

 

"Their generosity in allowing us to collect in their Stadium, their kindness in including a statement in their matchday programme together with the donation of the matchday shirts demonstrates their support of the Poppy Appeal is well in excess of anything we could ever have hoped for. Thank you to Liverpool Football Club and all your Supporters."

Edited November 7, 2009 by muleskinner

[johngibo YPC]

I've been reading all this sh*t in the mail every day this week, just f*ck off, it's not as if they care it's just a 'crusade' they can gain cred from. Load of b*llocks, I'll bet the VAST majority at OT and Anfield have bought poppies, just like every other year.

 

Agreed. Summed up by the all the 'sportmail's campaign' s*** they constantly refer to.

The last line in the Guardian article says it better than i could

[kop205]

It is all that dastradly Benitez's doing, he is beyond the pale, those Spaniards love a good facist dicatator etc etc etc...

[David Hodgson]

poppie facism can f*** off. and that is from someone who served 6 years for queen and country.

 

 

Get (some) in.

[David Hodgson]

It can, Remembrance doesn't have to be visible and it doesn't have to be once a year. I think the club are taking a sensible stance on this, as are the Mancs. The British Legion have already praised the club for their efforts which the Mail are unsurprisingly happy to omit from the article.

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...091106-1722.htm

 

The Royal British Legion have today expressed their gratitude to Liverpool FC and its supporters for the efforts being put in place to help raise both funds and awareness for the Poppy Appeal.

A minute's silence will be held before Monday's live televised game against Birmingham City at Anfield and this will be preceded by two service personnel and a Royal British Legion standard bearer placing a ceremonial poppy on the centre circle.

 

In addition, a ground collection will be held and advertising made available within both the matchday programme and on electronic LED pitchside boards to further raise awareness of the appeal. The match shirts from the game against Birmingham City will also be handed over to the Royal British Legion to auction off to raise additional income for the Poppy Appeal.

 

David Murray, County Manager of the Royal British Legion, commented: "The Royal British Legion are delighted with the support given to Remembrance by Liverpool Football Club.

 

"Their generosity in allowing us to collect in their Stadium, their kindness in including a statement in their matchday programme together with the donation of the matchday shirts demonstrates their support of the Poppy Appeal is well in excess of anything we could ever have hoped for. Thank you to Liverpool Football Club and all your Supporters."

 

That'll make front page of the Mail.

 

[£440,000]

It is all that dastradly Benitez's doing, he is beyond the pale, those Spaniards love a good facist dicatator etc etc etc...

 

The Mail supported Franco during the Spanish Civil War. That paper's always been despicable.

[Mike]

The Mail supported Franco during the Spanish Civil War. That paper's always been despicable.

 

and mosley and hitler.

 

The Daily Mail that had the banner headline... "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" written by its owner, Lord Rothermere? The Daily Mail that was the only British daily to back the Nazis under Hitler, the Rothermere who sent a telegram to Hitler to congratulate him for taking the Sudetenland. That Daily Mail?

 

the daily f***ing mail, you couldn't make it up.

[Andy @ Allerton]

poppie facism can f*** off. and that is from someone who served 6 years for queen and country.

 

 

Don't think it's a problem if a business chooses to add something to their public image for rememberance myself.

 

Don't think it's that a big an issue.

[muleskinner]

Don't think it's a problem if a business chooses to add something to their public image for rememberance myself.

 

Don't think it's that a big an issue.

 

The Mail is trying its damnedest to make it one, it is uninformed and ignorant.

[£440,000]

Don't think it's a problem if a business chooses to add something to their public image for rememberance myself.

 

Don't think it's that a big an issue.

 

It's not a problem if the club decides to do it. The problem is that clubs are being press ganged into it. It's not about choice.

[Falconhoof]

Where does this end ?

Are all sports teams to be bullied into having poppies ?

 

Golfers, tennis players ?

[Andy @ Allerton]

It's not a problem if the club decides to do it. The problem is that clubs are being press ganged into it. It's not about choice.

 

 

Of course it's about choice. LFC and Manchester United for instance prove that it is about choice.

[Andy @ Allerton]

Where does this end ?

Are all sports teams to be bullied into having poppies ?

 

Golfers, tennis players ?

 

 

You're only going to be 'bullied' if you read the Daily Mail.

 

I don't read it, so like others that don't read it, I'm not going to be influenced by anything they say. Because I don't read it.

Edited November 7, 2009 by Andy

[aka Dus]

I've been reading all this sh*t in the mail every day this week, just f*ck off, it's not as if they care it's just a 'crusade' they can gain cred from. Load of b*llocks, I'll bet the VAST majority at OT and Anfield have bought poppies, just like every other year.

 

And what in that name of all that's sane are you doing buying it every day?!

[Tosh]

Wonder if the Rugger Buggers will wear poppies today?

[stressederic]

I despise that newspaper. After the Brand/Ross thing and that Jimmy Carr joke the other week, the Mail have got their tails right up and everyone is running scared of them. I couldn't be mopre pleased we're telling them to f*** off.

[£440,000]

Of course it's about choice. LFC and Manchester United for instance prove that it is about choice.

 

But if we now do 'choose' to put a poppy on our shirts, it won't be because we think it's the right thing to do, but because we feel that it'll be bad for the club not to do so. Some of the other clubs who've decided to put poppies on their shirts will undoubtedly have done so for that very reason.