A rugby fan has been banned from his club’s stadium for life for praising a girl who refused to “take the knee” and criticising “Marxist extremism and intimidation”.
Sharing a now-viral image of a player on a girl’s football (soccer) team declining to kneel for Black Lives Matter ahead of a game shared by actor Laurence Fox, Twitter user GJPowell had commented: “More moral fibre than the rest of her teammates combined and more balls than the entirety of the [English Premier League] player pool in the face of Marxist extremism and intimidation…?”
While the girl’s stand has been praised by thousands of social media users who are not fully on board with the organisations leading the Black Lives Matter movement, GJPowell’s support for it incensed Ben Jeffreys, the CEO of Pontypool Rugby Football Club in Wales, prompting an astonishing and highly personal attack.
“Find another club to support. You’re no longer welcome at @PontypoolRFC and Pontypool Park,” Jeffreys raged.
“I’ll personally ensure we never sell you a ticket ever again,” he vowed.
“When I said I would make positive change moving forward, I meant it. Good riddance. You won’t be missed.”
This remarkable personal intervention by Jeffreys, who recently shared a blog post about his revelation that “because of my white privilege, I’d never considered just how much inequality and discrimination truly exists within our communities” until the death of George Floyd, received heavy criticism from some commentators.
“What a woke ass Ben is,” remarked James Wells, a former Brexit Party MEP.
“[Black Lives Matter UK] is a Marxist political movement — even the [English Premier League] is distancing itself now!” he added.
Andrew Allison of The Freedom Association, meanwhile, said he “imagine[d] that many supporters of [Pontypool RFC] will think that Ben Jeffreys wouldn’t be missed if the club decided to fire him.”
“[GJPowell] didn’t say anything remotely racist in his tweet. He expressed the views of many of us. I am not going to genuflect for anyone. I am not about to take on the sins of people who died 200 or more years ago,” Allison insisted.
“Nor am I going to apologise for not supporting a Marxist movement which seeks to end the nuclear family, bring down capitalism, and abolish police forces across the country. Why would I?”
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