“Mr and Mrs Holden I am interested in whether or not you use your disabled parking badge to leave your vehcile close to the ground in a disabled parkin bay? because if you do you openly admit your disabled and need to use such area. because as you describe your ailments you can not walk very far at all.

I beleive it what city are doing because such an area for disabled supporters and carers is a fantastic idea especially if access is easier and space is more for people with disabilites

feel yourself lucky that city wish to take more care of you in the new area and shut up or pay full price for all of you and stay put!!!!! because if city have created such an area it can not be one rule for one and one for another.”

“Marcus has it dead right imho. Forget the Health & Safety "spin". What we have here is a transparent strategy to shift the concessions to areas of the ground where seats are traditionally hard to sell. Free up the prime seats for full paying customers. There will be no specially trained stewards and no special services. The peoople around me in the Kop who have these concessionary seats are already well known to the stewards and are helped by them where necessary. They will now be moved to different areas, will not be able to sit in rows closer than 12 rows from the front ( ensuring that they have to climb more stairs and making it harder to evacuate in an emergency!), will be mixed with non-concessionary seating anyway, and can stay where they are if they pay full price - meaning the club doesnt give a toss if they have special needs as long as the shell out. Very caring. Oh, and if they have a concessionary seat, they will not be able to use the turnstiles even if you have sufficient mobility - nothing like humiliation by exclusion eh! And what about the kids who are allowed to infest the Kop for next to nothing, run amok and force everyone in their rows to stand up and sit down like yo-yos the whole game? If there was an emergency they would be and would be at greater risk than adult concessions. Finally I should emphasise that I am not disabled and pay full price each year! This really is a deeply cynical and shoddy scam, Mr Hoos (or is Mr. Mandaric so hard up he has sanctioned this scam?).”

“Whilst I can understand a lot of people may take the view that the way in which LCFC are acting is wholly fair and acceptable, I would like to add in a couple of points for consideration.
True LCFC do have a better than most policy on offering discounted season tickets. Any supporter who can meet certain eligibility criteria - realistically if the Department of works and pensions consider an individual sufficiently disabled to qualify for disability living allowance the said individual can apply for a discounted ticket and will also receive a carers ticket (which is free). It seems that this issue is that which is annoying many people and the content of the article highlighting the 2 "free" tickets is particularly damaging.
My son is registered as disabled due to his autistic spectrum condition - he can walk, he can talk and visbily he does not look disabled, there are however aspects of his condition which cause distress.
He does not respond well to changes in routine, can be over excitable etc etc.
We have benefitted from a season ticket at LCFC for the last 4 years during which time the people sitting near us have come to know and accept my sons behaviour for what it is.
The policy of LCFC to now create designated areas for disabled supporters is restrictive in many ways eg. non disabled supporters in these areas will not be asked to vacate their seats to accomodate the needs of a disabled supporter - therefore commenting that these segregated areas will increase health and safety is blatantly incorrect particluarly as there apppear to be a considerable lack of aisle seats available to purchase in the designated areas.
I am not entirely convinced that the club will have specialist stewards able to cope with the specific needs of disabled supporters - I believe this to be a smoke screen for a wider issue.
In reality the club is in a better position than it has been for many years - and it is not beyond the realms of possibilty that promotion to the premiership could occur (most likely through the playoffs granted!). If this were to happen then the value of the tickets allocated to my son - and other disabled supporters - would become even higher, particularly if these are in good vantage positions.
To me the clubs policy is very clear,
Free up as many of these tickets as we can - and add them to the other 8000+ that seem to be available for most games, and we can get more revenue into the club.
We can then put our mobile but still disabled supporters (and their free loading carers) into other areas of the ground - with poorer views and less cover - "they should be greatful we are letting them have a discount" - We can then say that we are doing this in the best interest of the fans and everyone will be happy.
LCFC were quite happy to sell me these tickets 4 years ago, during which time we have seen battles against relegation - some successful, others not so - and a promotion. Over this period I am entirely sure that there has not been a home game where any person wishing to attend a home game could not have purchased a ticket.
I believe that Mr Mandaric is an honorable man, I would be very surprised if he is aware of this planned policy let alone sanction it. It also speaks volumes that nobody from the club was available to comment to the Mercury.
When I spoke with the LCFC disabled supporters association they could not get anybody from the club to comment either.

Come on Milan - have a think about this - if the issue really is money then perhaps creating a charge for the carers ticket would be a fairer way forward. By doing this you can get some more money into the club, disabled supporters and their carers can sit where they have chosen to sit and everybody is happy (or at least happier!)”

“Ha ha brilliant comments Alvin, I agree fully! I will listen out for the chant later on.”

“At £140 for 4 tickets id be prepared to sit in the concourse and watch every game. People should be grateful of the cheap price season ticket they receive and sit where they are told. I work all year round to pay for my full price season ticket. Let me ask the question "Are they true city fans and if so would they be willing to pay full price for a ticket." Anyway lets start the chant for them " We're disabled we're disabled we're disabled over here"”

“my husband recently had a hip replacement we contacted the City to see if we could change our seats for a few games, because he couldn't get into our seats. They were most helpfull changing our own seats, daughter and grandsons' seats to a more comfortable area. We were also provided with blankets. They also provided us with a car park pass so that my husband only had to walk across the road to get into the stadium. LCFC ouldn't have been more helpful, and we were most grateful to them.”

“Kevin, it isn't the amount of money that they are paying, i personally don't begrudge anybody a penny that they receive through disability, my view is that they have been asked to move to an area that can be better monitored with specially trained wardens at a reduced rate and also able to take 2 carers, then making comments that they are being victimised, when in fact it seems to me that LCFC are implementing procedures to ensure that due to disability they are positioned in the best place to receive any attention/treatment required and as my comment earlier (and i'm not taring all disabled people with the same brush) it seems that sometimes they feel it's appropriate to be treated differently unless it's sitting where you want with your mates at the footie !”

“Well, of course, you need to be in a wheelchair to be disabled, don't you.................come on you lot, remove the blinkers, stop living in the 19th century, and start looking at things from others point of view instead of being self centred as is the norm today...... I'm sure the people concerned would willingly pay full whack in exchange for being able to walk properly.”

“i am registered disabled i sit in the keith weller stand and pay 450pounds for my season ticket.”

“While I dont want to be seen as being "discriminative" towards disabled people I have to wonder what the main problem is behind this situation.
After reading the article and everyone's comments I wonder if the main problem for this family is the fact that the Daughter and Son-in-law will no longer get free tickets as acting as their "carers"??
I really cant see the problem with what the club are doing? Their wanting to provide them with more proffessional club assistance and for that surely the family should be grateful?!?”