General
Can I add my concern about the bad publicity about the Poppy Day collection. The club obviously has a really good story to tell but the quote from the AVFC press office that was used in the News Of The World article didn't really explain things properly (“We are having a collection for Acorns at the Middlesbrough game and don’t want to bombard our fans with a number of collections,”).
The newspaper also had negative quotes from Matt Croucher, who is a local lad and a war hero who is just about to be awarded the George Cross for bravery in Afghanistan, and Patrick Mercer MP, who is the Conservative Party spokesman for homeland security and a very big supporter of the Armed Forces in his political work. I appreciate that the club doesn't want to be seen to be boasting about its charity work but I do wonder if it would be worth trying to set the record straight on this one, possibly even by trying to involve Patrick Mercer in the work we are doing with the Armed Forces, and to get some positive publicity for that.
This may all blow over and be forgotten but I worry that, once a rag like the News of the World gets onto a story like this, it won't let go for a while.