Uni sides with football club against feminists

Committee members unfairly banned after FemSoc complaint

| UPDATED

• Football ban overturned by uni after ‘unfair’ hearing 
• Union ignores video evidence and forces apology from Football

Banned football club members have been reinstated after the University decided the SU ruling was unfair.

The move comes after an incident last year involving the Football Club and the Feminist Society, during which both groups were chanting songs on a bus.

The Union ignored video evidence of the feminist group chanting “we get more pussy than you” at the players – branded as “vulgar”. They refused to release the video.

UEA Football Club were told to make a public apology following a complaint from FemSoc last year – despite the uni overturning the punishment.

FemSoc have not been punished.

Now FemSoc say they felt “threatened” by the “misogynstic” chants.

In a statement they said: “Both socieities had been drinking but we sat separately on the bus and intended to travel peacefully.

“The Men’s Football Club were engaging in chants that we felt were of a misogynistic nature and many of our members felt threatened.

“There were verbal altercations between the two societies culminating in our society being physically approached by the Men’s Football Club, despite our protests. We decided to get off the bus early, resulting in chants and taunts.”

President of UEA Football Club Alex Kibbey revealed his side of the story.

He said: “We were on the bus before them and then they got on and we were at the back of the bus just singing to ourselves.

“One of the guys got up and started singing Adele’s “Someone Like You” to them at the front of the bus.

“When Adele finished Femsoc started chanting ‘We get more pussy than you’. We took no offence to that whatsoever.”

But despite Femsoc engaging with the Club and chanting back at them, the Union only took action against the Football Club.

Alex added: “Femsoc sent the video in, and it’s only of one boy singing Adele.

“The Union saw that and subsequently banned the two committee members on the video.

“They were using similarly vulgar chants. But as they were the ones to report it to the Union we were the ones to get in trouble.”

FemSoc complained to the Union about the chants and an “encroachment of personal space”, who then took action against the Club: “The Union asked for a statement after FemSoc reported the incident, and obviously we had to respond and give a statement.”

But that was the last Football heard from the Union until being informed of the ban. The Union even failed to invite the boys to their own hearing to give evidence.

Alex said: “We were never called to be questioned or give evidence, or defend ourselves, neither were the committee members who were banned.

“We simply received an email from the Union saying that the members had been banned.

“We then brought this up and went to uni and appeal panels who then scheduled is into a meeting with the appeals panel.

“We had a discussion and a few weeks later received an email saying they were on our side.

“They were looking into three reasons as to why it was unusual practice from the Union, found them to be true and therefore the decision was overturned.”

The members were reinstated after the uni appeals board found seven “procedural irregularities” with how the Union handled the case.

But the Union has STILL demanded an apology from the Football Club, which Concrete will publish next week.

Alex revealed he submitted a first letter to Concrete but the Unions Conduct Trustee Board wouldn’t print it as they wanted a plain apology. He was told it could not include a statement about the punishment being revoked.

He said: “I submitted a letter and it didn’t meet the standards, they didn’t think it was adequate enough.

“Obviously we had a bit in the end about how badly the Union had dealt with it and they told us we had to submit that separately, that there were good and bad ways to go about writing this letter.

“By this stage I was getting frustrated by it all and did as they asked and submitted an apology.

“It was frustrating. This was an apology lettter supposedly from us, as we were happy to tell our side of the story, but they severely edited it.

“Considering the decision was overturned we no longer felt we were in the wrong in as far as the Union had told us we were.

“We were not given the correct opportunities during the process which is why the decision was overturned.”

Alex said: “The Union dealt with it so poorly and the university offered us a lot of advice and support. UEA is under a lot of fire for how the Union is changing things.”

A spokesperson for the Union said: “The Club were required to submit an open letter of apology to be published in Concrete.

“The final text of the letter submitted by the Club for publication was approved by the Supervising Trustee responsible for the operation of the Code.”