Mike Smith

[TomCaleyJag]

Being on Study Leave from school, me and a mate decided to go to the reserve match today. Great performance from the youngsters, especially Dale Gillespie who looked a real class act.

This was all overshadowed however, by the behaviour towards me by Mike Smith. Just before the match, me and my mate decided we wanted to sit in the North Stand, so started to walk towards the stand, when Mike Smith came out of the toilets between the main and north stands.. Mike took one look at me, and immediately shouted, "where do you think you're going?" I replied, "Is the North Stand available?" He told me "no of course not...I recognise you - sit down over here, shut up or you won't be coming back here this season." He didn't say this to me, he shouted it.

My disagreement with Mike over my Brewster Out banner is well publicised on here, but I am shocked and deeply troubled that a man with so much power at the club shows so much hostility towards the fans. My only words were, directly quoted, "Is the North Stand available?", and his response was to shout at me to shut up, and to threaten me with a ban from the stadium for the final game.

How did this man get to be in such a high position at the club? What does he actually do? What is his problem with the fans? My mate who attended the game with me today was a Hearts fan, and he joked to me that ICT was a joke the way it treated its fans. But he was 100% spot on.

:008:

[wyness_is_god]

he said to you he recognised you then told you to sit down and shut up and threatend you with a ban ? if that is 100% true and I'm not doubting you for a minute, then that to me sounds like victimisation  :018:

Make a complaint to the club (doubt you will get anywhere) but maybe even write a letter into the courier explaining about how the way fans are treated at ICT, maybe if Mike Smith and ICT get some bad press about it rather than the moaning on here they seem to be ignoring, they might actually stand up and realise that something needs to be changed, maybe not Smith himself but on the way he goes about his job on a full team matchday/reserve matchday.

[TomCaleyJag]

I was considering that, however if I go to the courier, Im worried I might be permanently banned from the stadium  :rolleyes02:

Mike also knows me, by name, and am keen not to make myself known as a trouble-maker. Maybe too late for that though ... Funny seeing as I haven't broken any of the SPL Ground Regulations  :024:

[johnnykipper]

Sounds like you were just trying to see how far you could push him :018:

[TomCaleyJag]

Sounds like you were just trying to see how far you could push him :018:

"Is the North Stand available?"

Yes that is quite cheeky  :017:

[wyness_is_god]

He might permanently ban you from the stadium if you do so, but I'm sure as **** you would be able to challenge that ban (even) in a court of law if he was stupid enough to take it as far as that.

As you say you haven't broken any of the SPL ground regulations and your not keen to make yourself known as a trouble maker, writing a letter to the local press IMO is not considered trouble making, it is making the public aware of what has happend the same way as you are doing on here just to a wider audience (one that ICT and Mike Smith might actually think when they see it, its bigger public knowledge being in a paper something needs to be done about this to stop this from happening in the future) so I really don't see how he could legally work a banning order on you when you haven't done anything illegally wrong.

As-long as you can back up your accusations that you write in the letter to the courier (if you did decide to) then there really is nothing he can do about it, its your opinion (and if he replies with a press release of any kind in the paper afterwards) then the public can decide which side of the story to believe, (you may not be the only one he's challenged but you maybe the only one willing to do something positive about it).

I'm sure if you hadn't had the thing with the Brewster banner on Saturday and it was another member of the public he'd never encountered before he would have replied to the question with some dignity

Good Luck whatever you decide you have my backing if what you say is 100% facts.  :003:

[johnnykipper]

Sounds like you were just trying to see how far you could push him :018:

"Is the North Stand available?"

Yes that is quite cheeky  :017:

By what you have said of Mr Smith's reaction, it would appear that it was blatantly obvious that the North stand was out of bounds.  

[4ize]

Yes that is quite cheeky  :017:

It could be, depending on how you said it  :016:

I guess you and yer mate have never been to a reserve game before: if you had you'd have known that it's just the main stand (where you can rub shoulders with the visiting coaching staff and try to infect them with your cold if you judge it right, or run up to Brew and wave a flag in his face). The chief exec really shouldn't be shouting at fans, but I suppose Delia Smith set the precedent. Bet she can't really boil an egg, or hire decent stewards either.

[TomCaleyJag]

Yes that is quite cheeky  :017:

It could be, depending on how you said it  :016:

I guess you and yer mate have never been to a reserve game before: if you had you'd have known that it's just the main stand (where you can rub shoulders with the visiting coaching staff and try to infect them with your cold if you judge it right, or run up to Brew and wave a flag in his face). The chief exec really shouldn't be shouting at fans, but I suppose Delia Smith set the precedent. Bet she can't really boil an egg, or hire decent stewards either.

:015:

We have actually been to several before, and on more than one occasion we've asked members of ICT staff for permission to sit in the North Stand and received it, which is the reason we asked. Plus we could see two lads sitting in the South Stand today. That, however, is not what Im complaining about  :004:

[4ize]

I always thought the folk in the North and South stands at reserve games were Sneck's forgotten homeless, like the kids in the barrios hoping desperately for a club trial (only wearing lots more clothes cos I believe it's colder here than in Brazil). I stand corrected (mind if I sit?)

[Guest birdog]

TCJ in my experience, regardless of whether you are right or wrong, if you go out specifically to wind up the owners or their representatives of any institution then you have to be very clever about it (and don't do it when full of absinthe) slowly, slowly catchee monkey. It seems that you have got a mission head on to take Mr Smith down quickly by getting in his face as much as possible. You need to take things slowly my friend, you need to build a case against him and turn the populous against him slowly. You have already said that he has the power, that power needs to be eroded if you go in all guns blazing then you will find that you are the one who gets shot down. Plan your moves carefully and do it so that he does not know he is being hit or if he does make sure that you totally clear of blame when it happens. I am not sure how you can do this but at the very least let it lie until next season because he certainly does have the power to ban you and I am sure that he will be able to find some rule or regulation that he can use against you, if not I would assume that the rules could be covertly changed to accommodate his quest to have you removed.

[TomCaleyJag]

TCJ in my experience, regardless of whether you are right or wrong, if you go out specifically to wind up the owners or their representatives of any institution then you have to be very clever about it (and don't do it when full of absinthe) slowly, slowly catchee monkey. It seems that you have got a mission head on to take Mr Smith down quickly by getting in his face as much as possible. You need to take things slowly my friend, you need to build a case against him and turn the populous against him slowly. You have already said that he has the power, that power needs to be eroded if you go in all guns blazing then you will find that you are the one who gets shot down. Plan your moves carefully and do it so that he does not know he is being hit or if he does make sure that you totally clear of blame when it happens. I am not sure how you can do this but at the very least let it lie until next season because he certainly does have the power to ban you and I am sure that he will be able to find some rule or regulation that he can use against you, if not I would assume that the rules could be covertly changed to accommodate his quest to have you removed.

Agreed. Thanks birdog for all the advice you've given me since Saturday on these forums. Much appreciated  :003:

[Guest birdog]

He might permanently ban you from the stadium if you do so, but I'm sure as **** you would be able to challenge that ban (even) in a court of law if he was stupid enough to take it as far as that.

I would think that you are wrong that a ban could be challenged if the ban was placed under the licensing act Scotland given that the stadium has a license to sell alcohol and licensees and their staff have the right to refuse entry to any person, it is also an offence to refuse to leave an establishment which is licensed. Now I could be wrong, and most often I am, but I think that if someone was banned on these grounds then they would not have any legal grounds on which to challenge the decision.

[Guest birdog]

TCJ in my experience, regardless of whether you are right or wrong, if you go out specifically to wind up the owners or their representatives of any institution then you have to be very clever about it (and don't do it when full of absinthe) slowly, slowly catchee monkey. It seems that you have got a mission head on to take Mr Smith down quickly by getting in his face as much as possible. You need to take things slowly my friend, you need to build a case against him and turn the populous against him slowly. You have already said that he has the power, that power needs to be eroded if you go in all guns blazing then you will find that you are the one who gets shot down. Plan your moves carefully and do it so that he does not know he is being hit or if he does make sure that you totally clear of blame when it happens. I am not sure how you can do this but at the very least let it lie until next season because he certainly does have the power to ban you and I am sure that he will be able to find some rule or regulation that he can use against you, if not I would assume that the rules could be covertly changed to accommodate his quest to have you removed.

Agreed. Thanks birdog for all the advice you've given me since Saturday on these forums. Much appreciated  :003:

No probs matey I always like to help and I too dislike authority. Authority is essential but it is always good to let those in authority know that power and respect are commodities which should be earned and not abused.

[Yngwie]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

[ictchris]

It's a disgrace - why weren't you studying you skiving wee git?   :018: :016:

I don't know much about this side of things at the club as I haven't been to a home game in a while but what is Mike Smith's job, what value does he add to the club?  I think taking a 'Brewster Out' banner is stupid but for an employee of the club to behave like that is poor.

[Guest birdog]

It's a disgrace - why weren't you studying you skiving wee git?  :018: :016:

I don't know much about this side of things at the club as I haven't been to a home game in a while but what is Mike Smith's job, what value does he add to the club?  I think taking a 'Brewster Out' banner is stupid but for an employee of the club to behave like that is poor.

Maybe a "Smith out" banner could be placed somewhere instead. :004:

[TomCaleyJag]

It's a disgrace - why weren't you studying you skiving wee git?   :018: :016:

I don't know much about this side of things at the club as I haven't been to a home game in a while but what is Mike Smith's job, what value does he add to the club?  I think taking a 'Brewster Out' banner is stupid but for an employee of the club to behave like that is poor.

Maybe a "Smith out" banner could be placed somewhere instead. :004:

I was thinking that, or I could carefully position my two flags so they read, "Marius is magic", "Smith is tragic"  :004:

But I don't think that would get me anywhere, as I have no interest in "getting at" Mike Smith, I simply want the right to peacefully protest if I believe the club is being run incorrectly.

And i do believe, at the current moment, that both the footballing side of the club (ie. Brewster) is being run incorrectly, and the way the club treats its fans (ie. Smith) is being run completely incorrectly. Infact the club doesn;t seem to be making any effort at all in that department.

[TomCaleyJag]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

For a moderator, I think this is a very poor post. You haven't offered an opinion, given an explanation or contributed to the discussion at all. What was your point?

[Guest birdog]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

For a moderator, I think this is a very poor post. You haven't offered an opinion, given an explanation or contributed to the discussion at all. What was your point?

Possible that Yngwie forgot the  :tic01: ?

If not then I'd have to agree that it's disappointing because if MS had taken that course of action then not only would he be sacked you could have him for assault :004:

[TomCaleyJag]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

For a moderator, I think this is a very poor post. You haven't offered an opinion, given an explanation or contributed to the discussion at all. What was your point?

If not then I'd have to agree that it's disappointing because if MS had taken that course of action then not only would he be sacked you could have him for assault :004:

Hmmm... He probably should have... That would be problem sorted  :004:

[TomCaleyJag]

It's a disgrace - why weren't you studying you skiving wee git?   :018: :016:

We were on a break :004:

[L_G]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

For a moderator, I think this is a very poor post. You haven't offered an opinion, given an explanation or contributed to the discussion at all. What was your point?

"For a moderator".  You are quite entitled to think that it is a very poor post, but the reference to Moderator status is completely irrelevant.

[Caley]

I'm very disappointed with Mike Smith on this. He should have given TCJ a good clip round the ear and then dragged him out of the stadium by the scruff of the neck.

For a moderator, I think this is a very poor post. You haven't offered an opinion, given an explanation or contributed to the discussion at all. What was your point?

"For a moderator".  You are quite entitled to think that it is a very poor post, but the reference to Moderator status is completely irrelevant.

Give Yngwie a break. He is probably sleep deprived due to a new arrival (as I am) and just forgot to make it clear that it was a tongue-in-cheek comment.

[BornCaley]

Can someone tell me who is this Mike Smith and what is his position within the club?