NEWCASTLE fans are fuming after being banned from drinking alcohol on trains on Carabao Cup final day.
Toon take on Manchester United at Wembley on Sunday in their first major final for 24 years.
But fans have been left dismayed by the decision of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to ban alcohol on trains from London King’s Cross to Newcastle after 7pm on Sunday.
The Football Supporters Association is now in a dispute with the train company and accused them of targeting football fans trying to enjoy a day out.
The FSA tweeted: “We’ve long been opposed to dry trains that target football fans for just being football fans on a day out.
“This move from LNER for the League Cup final won’t achieve much and has completely misread the mood amongst NUFC fans, which will be celebratory regardless.”
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A response from the rail company read: “The decision has been taken in co-operation with the British Transport Police to prevent any unnecessary antisocial behaviour, fuelled by alcohol.
“We want fans to enjoy themselves, but not at the risk of injury to other customers or our colleagues.
“We will have additional security and Transport Police in place at London King’s Cross to assist our colleagues and manage the capacity levels on services to ensure everyone travelling with us, for football or not, gets to their destination safely and enjoys their journey.”
The FSA remained unsatisfied, replying: “Thanks for the reply – we remain completely unconvinced by the explanation, however.
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“If you could feed that back to the senior management at LNER, they’ve got this one wrong.”
Many Newcastle fans are in agreement with the FSA and have criticised the decision to ban booze.
One wrote: “A bit pathetic this! Only 3 hours and most fans will have been drinking from the moment they leave Newcastle Friday/Saturday.”
Another added: “The treatment of all football supporters is appalling, they don’t implement draconian restrictions on any other customers or sports fans. Time for common sense.”
And a third said: “Like many I feel this is poor judgement, in spite of the explanation. Dry trains aren’t enforced in many other scenarios, e.g. race day attenders in York etc. Picking an #NUFC cup final day to enforce draconian measures is a shame, and wrong in my opinion.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
