Football team fined after ULU Cup fight
Two football club members have also been banned from sports at Imperial
The football team has been fined £100 by the Amateur Football Association (AFA) after a fight broke out at the 19th of March ULU Cup Final with UCL. The club was charged with failing to control its supporters, to which they pleaded guilty, and one individual, whose case has yet to be heard, has been charged with assault on a UCL player.
The fight is believed to have broken out towards the end of the match between a small group of Imperial fans and UCL substitutes. Simon Kilroy, Imperial club captain, said that he didn’t condone “any act of violence or physical intimidation perpetrated by anybody associated” with the football club and that it was “disappointing that the actions of small minority of both universities have marred the game”. He added that he and other members of the football club committee “worked continuously with those inside and outside of the university to resolve the issue”.
Accounts of the violence differ, with Mr. Kilroy saying that the UCL substitutes turned a verbal confrontation into a physical altercation, while UCL club captain Mike Tetstall said that the trigger was when an Imperial fan slapped a UCL substitute’s head. It is believed that one of the Imperial fans involved in the fight was wearing a red morph suit.
Mr Tetstall laid the blame entirely at the feet of Imperial saying, “the blame for the incident has to fall on the Imperial fans who went out of their way to start trouble”
In addition to the sanctions imposed by the Amateur Football Association, Sport Imperial has banned two Imperial Football Club members from all Sport Imperial facilities for life, meaning that they will not be able to play any sport at Imperial again. One of these club members is facing a charge for assault from the AFA. The sanctions for that member could include a complete ban or a fine.
Two other club members have been banned from Sport Imperial facilities until the 1st October 2011. Sport Imperial have also removed all funding from the football club for next year, although this is mainly in the form of equipment like balls, so will not affect the club’s activities adversely. Sport Imperial did not return a request for comment.
The AFA have not issued any charges against UCL Football Club or its members.
The final was won 3-2 by Imperial.
