Clapton Football Club has always had a philosophy of  ‘working with other like-minded people’, and although we have never had a grant from KickItOut they are an organisation that has pioneered the eradication of racism in football, which we fully support.

Following our recent publication of a post relating to the annual football event organised by Proudly East London, we have received communication from Clapton FC News. Further, Essex Senior League and the FA have also received communication from Clapton FC News (interestingly no communication from Proudly East London, or is Clapton FC News now the official voice for the Clapton Ultras!).

KickItOut’s time and focus is precious – the impact of their work is far reaching and benefits many communities and society in general.  Therefore, we believe they should not be spending scarce resources on issues that take them away from their main focus. It is for this reason that we have amended our statement to exclude KiickItOut as they should not be having to deal with harassment from individuals.

The original article stated:

For many years now social media, particularly Twitter, has been awash with statements from the joint enterprise groups known as Friends of Clapton, Clapton Ultras, The Real Clapton FC led by Andrew Barr and Clapton FC News. These statements are made to attack the efforts of the existing management – any positive achievements have been undermined and replaced with their own spin.

These comments and statements continue with little challenge. Clapton FC News is not interested in the facts – we are invited to “reply” after the fact and occasionally before publication, but the reality is that they have already decided on the focus of the article, which is always to denigrate Clapton Football Club in the eyes of real supporters, the league, FA and others. That is why we have said we will not answer any questions from people we don’t know, so Clapton FC News (or your new monika, CFC News!) until you unmask yourselves or come from behind that web and show who you are, we will not be answering questions from you.

Our original post included a statement that KickItOut will not be funding the Clapton Ultras.

We are aware that KickItOut is a partner in an initiative from which Proudly East London has had financial assistance – some are using that to say they are being supported by KickItOut.

As David Folkes the previous Chief Executive of the London Football Association said to Andrew Barr (when he was harassing the LFA as part of his, and now the Clapton Ultras, plan to take over the Old Spotted Dog) “What are you going to do when you have poisoned all of the watering holes. Where are you going to drink from?”.

This opaque web that the Clapton Ultras, Andrew Barr, Clapton News and other websites  and email addresses operate from fools no one.

In the complaint by Clapton FC News to the league and FA, they state:

The Clapton FC logo is on the website for the 2017 tournament… . No team has entered the tournament using the name Clapton FC except for the club owned by Vince McBean and playing in the Essex Senior League from the Old Spotted Dog.

Yet, when you go to the page, there is nothing more than a photo and social media links.

When the Clapton Ultras were fans of Clapton Football Club back in 2015, a number of then and ex players of Clapton FC took part in the event.  However, the management of Clapton FC has not officially entered this event, particularly since the ultras started to boycott the club, which they have done since part of the 2016-2017 season and all through the 2017-18 season.

The facts are that the Clapton FC logo has been used on many occasions  with the details linking to the Real Clapton FC, Clapton Supporters Club (on Pitchero until we got that shut down) and other sites set up by Andrew Barr and the ultras.

The Clapton Ultras have done it again with the Proudly East London website, linking the social media pages from the supposedly “club owned by Vince McBean and playing in the Essex Senior League from the Old Spotted Dog”. The issue is that:

For Twitter, the link takes you to Andrew Barr’s Real Clapton FC page (which he has now taken down)

For Facebook , the link takes you to Claptonfc (not our official Facebook Page), which in recent days has morphed into Clapton CFC with the hashtag #WeAreTheClapton – as part of their ongoing campaign to take over the club and save the Old Sotted Dog!

For the official Clapton website, the link goes to Andrew Barr’s personal and very public witch hunt of the chief executive of Clapton Football Club.

On this basis, there is no way that the official Clapton Football Club would link to these accounts rather than its own official Facebook, Twitter and Website pages.

For many years, Clapton Football Club has allowed the social media statements to go without comment. Why? Our focus is on football and developing the club, not on spending time on individuals’ hate campaigns.  However, we are now being compelled to respond as we are being asked by real supporters why we are not doing so.  This is not where we want to spend our energy but we will now be responding more via Tons Make Clear.

Clapton Football Club remains open for business. We are preparing for the 2018-19 season, but we only want football supporters of the club.  We don’t want to get involved in anything else. If you are with us, then welcome – our doors are always open!  You will not be harassed into joining any political views here at Clapton again – we apologise for what has happened to some of you in the past, where you have been harassed. It is not Clapton’s way of doing things, and we did not know that supporters were only allowed to stand where they were told depending on the hierarchy of who was there from the Clapton Ultras. To clarify, they stands were constructed for all supporters on a first come basis,  regardless of religion, race, color, sex or your beliefs. We will be more diligent in the future.

The season is coming and Jon Fowell, Clapton’s Manager has arranged a number of good friendly matches for the club, the first on Saturday 14 July 2018 against Ware Town FC (away).

We value your support and look forward to seeing you at the Old Spotted Dog Ground soon.