Hamilton Academical fans have hit out at the League 1 club’s besieged board after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Police Scotland showed they didn’t commit any offences during a protest at Broadwood last month.
Supporters of the South Lanarkshire outfit gathered to voice their unhappiness about their controversial move from New Douglas Park to Cumbernauld before their opening league game against Montrose on Saturday, August 2.
A group of around 100 unfurled banners, set off smoke bombs, handed out leaflets and chanted songs for about half an hour before attending a match which John Rankin’s side won 2-0.
Emotions ran high during the heated demonstration - but the members of the Accies Supporters Association (ASA) believed that it had passed off peacefully.
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The organisers were astonished when the board published a statement on the Monday after the match alleging they had “heaped shame” on themselves with their actions.
The statement, which was signed by Hamilton chairman Jock Brown, branded the protest “a disgrace”, claimed the participants had verbally abused fans who were collecting tickets as well as club staff and stated that “police intervention” had been required.
Colin Hamilton, the co-chair and treasurer of the ASA, had been unaware of any trouble flaring and put in a FOI request to Police Scotland in an attempt to determine if their officers had been required to take action.
He has now been told the match was “not a policed fixture” and “no offences were reported”.
“When we saw the statement we were flabbergasted,” he said. “I've used a lot of big words like that since this all started with Hamilton and they have almost become the norm. But on this occasion we just couldn't believe it.
“We had to challenge it so we sent away an FOI request to Police Scotland. What has come back has knocked the Hamilton statement out of the water in my opinion. It does not reflect well on the board.
“If something unlawful or untoward had taken place then the FOI request would have shown it. We all felt like we had made sure that everything was peaceful and had been conducted as well as it could be. This feedback from the police shows that was the case.”
Hamilton conceded that protesters had inadvertently prevented the Montrose players from disembarking from their team bus when the visitors arrived due to their position outside of the stadium.
However, he stressed they had moved immediately when they were approached by stewards.
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“When the Montrose team bus arrived, we were asked to move from the area where we were standing,” he said. “But we did that right away and were thanked for doing so. We obviously didn’t know where the bus was going to stop and didn’t see it coming.
“I think a couple of stewards came over to us and asked us to move so the bus could let off the players. But we changed our position right away so there was no problem whatsoever.
“That was the only thing the police mentioned, protesters blocking the roadway. They said, ‘Police attended regarding protesters blocking the roadway but on arrival all was in order”. When they got there everything was fine. I believe they were just passing too.”
Hamilton continued, “We have the right to protest, but we know that we have to do it peacefully.
“As I say, we have the right to protest because the club has taken us 15 miles away from our home. We couldn’t believe it when they decided to move without what we feel was any meaningful consultation with the fans at all.
The Broadwood stadium manager came to our former chairman David Equi after the protest and said everything had been fine, said there had been no problems at all.
“We were all amazed. We never saw anything that could be considered unlawful. Even the fans who didn’t take part in the demonstration, the guys who were just going into the stadium, said they didn’t see anything untoward. We thought the statement was incredible. We were gobsmacked. It came right out of leftfield.”
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Hamilton were docked 15 points by the SPFL in April after being found guilty of four offences – failing to pay six players, giving incorrect information about the ownership of the stadium, submitting their membership criteria late and not meeting the SFA licence standard required to compete in the league – by an independent panel. They were subsequently relegated to League 1.
They angered their fans in June when they announced they would be temporarily relocating to Broadwood for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons after their attempts to purchase the company which owns New Douglas Park proved unsuccessful.
There was also widespread dismay last month when the club announced they were going to be pausing their elite academy operations from under-11 to under-15 level due to the resignation of coaching staff – a move which led to the SFA removing them from the Club Academy Scotland elite programme and cancelling their licence.
It emerged last month that Hamilton owner Seref Zengin is locked in talks with members of a US-based consortium about buying his 97 per cent shareholding for a seven figure sum.
“There are things going on behind the scenes and we're hoping there's a chink of light at the end of the tunnel,” said Hamilton. “I am a 60-year-old man and have never put myself forward for anything like this before. But I really feel as if I've got to, not just for me but for my kids and for future generations. Hopefully there will be change soon.”
Repeated attempts were made to get a response from Hamilton to the FOI request findings.
