A Preston North End fan has received a lifetime ban from the club following Tweets he made, tagging the club, about The Queen.
Football League Twitter fan page The72 (@_The72) has published the Tweet that it claims led to the ban, in which the fan tags Preston NE while asking if he would be ejected from the stadium for booing during a minute’s silence for the Queen.
“Will I be ejected from the stadium if I boo during a minutes silence for the death of the queen? #pnefc,” the post, dated Septemebr 8 at 7.30pm, asked.
It has also published a letter, which the fan claims to have received from the club, informing him of the ban. The letter states: “Your comments on twitter about the Queen and Royal Family were reported to the club and the board were informed.
“As a result of your comments Preston North End do not want to be associated with you, therefore you are receiving a life ban.
“Your season ticket and club account have been blocked from use.”
The letter goes on to inform the fan that the ban applies to matches at all levels, that teams hosting PNE away fixtures will also be informed, and that the police may be involved should the fan attempt to enter Preston’s ground.
Some fans have questioned the authenticity of the letter, however, particularly given its sometimes unusual choice of wording, random capitalisation, and lack of apparent “officialdom.”
Nikki (@COYR26) said: “Happy to be proved wrong but I’m not believing that’s a real letter. Something official from a club would read a lot better than that.”
Many fans have suggested that, if the ban is indeed for simply asking the question, the club may have overreacted. Tom (@Tom_ncfc1902) said: “Sorry, did he just get banned for life for asking a hypothetical question? So not even doing it?”
Other fans, however, have claimed that there were more Tweets, since deleted, that led to the ban – a theory that would support the club’s official response referring to a “series” of Tweets. User Burnley Fan (@ClaretsFan94) posted an image of one such alleged Tweet from the fan asking if he should perform a Nazi salute to honour the deceased monarch.
Preston North End confirmed the ban in a statement, however it has so far not confirmed whether the letter is genuine, or the details of the specific Tweet that led to the ban.
The club’s statement said: “As a football club we acknowledge every individual’s right to free speech and personal opinions.
“In this specific case a series of tweets were put into the public domain and by association linked to this football club.
“One specific tweet, which has since been deleted, crossed the boundary of acceptability and by associating us as a club a stadium ban was issued.
“As with all decisions, if the individual were to make representations as to why our decision was inappropriate to their actions we will always listen.”
Preston North End has been approached for clarification
