Wembley FA Cup Final Villa Surfer Flag

[itbrvilla]

                                                              NEVER MIND
                                       THE VILLA
                                                                 HERE'S THE
                                                    CLueLeSs toXiC WanKErS

Very good.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

I'm not happy about the FA 'banning' this flag if that's what they've done, but the very fact that that it name checks the opponents (small time), adds the prefix (The) and scans badly is enough for me to think that it would've been a lot better if they'd have taken the time to research it.

There are some Villa fans who have a soft spot for Doug Ellis.
If they had got the money together, they could've had a huge flag featuring the old boy on it and I reckon it would've garnered an equal amount of debate.

Come to think of it, 'The Doug Ellis' scans much better.

*Hello China? About that flag we've ordered...*

[amfy]

I don't think I meant you, I don't even particularly mean the other person that mentioned it. I think anyone can get sensitive about being called 'clueless toxic wankers' to be fair, but I just thought we need to take into account why he might have got to that point!

I remember being at the great Les Milner's funeral. He was the man who grew the amazing St Basil's organisation for young homeless people from letting 2 homeless kids sleep on the floor of his youth club, to a multi hostel organisation, providing not only shelter, but advice and support for thousands of young people who struggled to find any stability anywhere else in their young lives. It was the first funeral I had ever been to where the deceased didn't turn into a Saint. People got up to talk about him and called him stubborn, belligerent, unreasonable & a whole host of other unflattering adjectives.......and then said that that was how he got stuff done.

I really don't wish to put MOMs bloke in anything like the same league as Les Milner - as running a twitter & Facebook account for Villa fans isn't in the same league as helping young homeless people, but I think the same applies. He is always going to piss people off, because people who get stuff done invariably do.

Anyway - I only today thought of my favourite ever Wembley banner - back in 1975.
'Aston Villa - Canary Killer'
Referencing the other team goes back a long way.

[Jimbo]

Getting off your arse and doing something is great but I've never ever heard our club referred to as 'The Aston Villa'. 'The Villa' yes, but never that.

Not me - but the original wording is 'The Sex Pistols'. I can see why people think its odd, but surely people can also see why it's The Aston Villa in this context.

The original wording is "Here's the Sex Pistols" because the band is commonly known as The Sex Pistols. When St Pauli did this design - about 10 years ago - they managed to work out that "Here's the St Pauli" would not only be grammatically incorrect, but it would also look ridiculous. So they went with 'Here's St Pauli'. They're German.

I'm assuming that: a) the designers of the Villa flag have English as their first language; and b) they are Aston Villa supporters, who must surely know that the club is never referred to as "the Aston Villa". Why couldn't one of the clued-up non-toxic unwankers at MOM flag this up before it went off to Guangzhou? Sorry, the Guangzhou.

On the subject of name-checking Arsenal, the Arsenal fans approve, which is precisely why name-checking Arsenal is a bad idea. 

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Anyway - I only today thought of my favourite ever Wembley banner - back in 1975.
'Aston Villa - Canary Killer'
Referencing the other team goes back a long way.

Very true - I was looking for an image of this the other day. I seem to remember it being on some official merchandise cover.

[Gerrin]

....and if we are going to be sensitive about being called toxic, maybe we need to scan back and give some thought to what the thread he is talking about feels like to him.

Nobody asked him to do it. If you do something like this off your own bat you should expect that not everyone will agree with you. To then call everyone who does disagree "clueless toxic wankers" isn't the brightest.   

He wasn't referring to messageboard posters as "clueless toxic wankers" when he wanted their money for it.

[amfy]

I'm going to stop now because we're back to the same thing. How you decide to transfer the wording is just a matter of opinion. I can see what you mean because we're not The Aston Villa, but I also think there would be others who would complain that the number of words was wrong if we'd done it the other way.

I don't really want to go on defending it. I'm just putting it out there that quite a lot of people like it. It isn't just about us.

[Mister E]

What I find a little weird is the connection - made by MOMS on Twitter - between the flag-style and some socio-political view that things are still as oppressive in 2015 as they were in 1976-77 (thus - according to them - spawning the punk movement).
Regardless of your view of the social situation and the politcal implications, making this link is both tenuous and irrelevant to the FAC Final of 2015.

[pauliewalnuts]

What I find a little weird is the connection - made by MOMS on Twitter - between the flag-style and some socio-political view that things are still as oppressive in 2015 as they were in 1976-77 (thus - according to them - spawning the punk movement).
Regardless of your view of the social situation and the politcal implications, making this link is both tenuous and irrelevant to the FAC Final of 2015.

Ha ha, really?

God knows I hate living under this oppressive neo-Thatcherite junta* as much as the next man, but I am struggling to think of many social and cultural phenomena similar today to back then.






* don't bite, Tory voter(s)

[chrisw1]

I think Amfy makes a lot of valid points and I honestly think MOMS deserved a lot of credit for getting off his backside and doing something. 

I also think the FA's stance is an absolute joke.  Does anybody really think if Arsenal or Liverpool had come up with something similar it would have been banned?

But, with all of this said, I just can't get over the fact that I think the design is really shit.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

I think Amfy makes a lot of valid points and I honestly think MOMS deserved a lot of credit for getting off his backside and doing something. 

I also think the FA's stance is an absolute joke.  Does anybody really think if Arsenal or Liverpool had come up with something similar it would have been banned?

But, with all of this said, I just can't get over the fact that I think the design is really shit.

This is exactly what I wanted to say.

[godzvilla]

Unexpected but, none-the-less welcome, support from an Arsenal organ. Respect from me............Godzvilla!.

It cost the group of fans £3,000 to produce and will, perhaps, now be seen by more than it would have been at the final because of the FA’s ridiculous decision.
The FA said: ‘The FA and competing clubs agreed the criteria by which supporters could be allowed to bring display flags into the stadium.
‘It was communicated through the usual channels that supporters are required to submit requests to Wembley and must supply a visual for approval prior to consent.’
The fan group responsible, My Old Man, have started an online petition regarding the ban and issued a statement saying “While there’s a slight edge of humour there, it’s not disrespectful in the slightest to Arsenal fans.”

And we have to agree.

Here at Cannon Towers we can’t see what all the fuss is about at all and would like to offer the Villa fans our support in getting the banner into Wembley.
At a time when the fans matter less and less to the FA, things like this are just another step towards sterilising the atmosphere at what is supposed to be the biggest domestic game of the season.
Already the fans of each side are outnumbered by people with no association to either, what’s next? The banning of colours and songs?
If you’d like to support the Villa fans, you can add your name to their online petition here.

#ArsenalDaily....Read more at:
 http://dailycannon.com/2015/05/aston-villa-bonkers-banner-ban/#VYvMiWhUJjXRk9lD.99

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Those of us old enough to remember when the Sex Pistols album came out, there was a court case about the use of bollocks and it being displayed in shops. At the time some shops had the word blanked out which was ridiculous really as we all knew what it was. Why don't MOMS just blank out Arsenal to comply with the FA and get it in the ground? It would have the added bonus that it could be used for any game in the future.

And while they've got the sewing machine out they can cover the offensive 'The' as well.

[cdbearsfan]

I think Richard Branson (that punk icon...) was able to successfully argue in court that bollocks is an old English word meaning "nonsense".

[Chico Hamilton III]

I think Richard Branson (that punk icon...) was able to successfully argue in court that bollocks is an old English word meaning "nonsense".

"Priest", I thought