Aston Villa have released a statement concerning what they describe as an ‘inaccurate, misleading and distorted’ article from the Mail On Sunday.
The statement can be read in full by Clicking Here.
In short for those who aren’t aware of the article, it claims some Villa players removed the ‘Kick It Out’ shirts ‘early’ and threw them to the ground in ‘disgust’ during the pre match warmups at Fulham.
However:
‘As is usual practice the players were split into two groups during that warm up to play possession football; in order to be distinguishable one group removed their t-shirts. The players who removed their t-shirts for this reason were Brett Holman, Joe Bennett, Fabian Delph, Darren Bent and Nathan Baker. This was not a protest. There was no controversy.
‘No player threw their shirt to the ground ‘in disgust’.
‘Aston Villa are particularly disappointed with this irresponsible journalism, given that the journalist in question had the full facts of the matter at his disposal before this article went to press: he even asked a question regarding this issue at Saturday’s post match press conference.
‘His question and the manager’s response are below –
‘Mail on Sunday: Can you confirm they meant no disrespect to the Kick It Out campaign?
‘Paul Lambert: No, not at all. We play a possession thing and that will only have been what that was
..There was no disrespect to it whatsoever. We train and then five lads wear one shirt and five wear another
. They backed it, the football club backs it to the hilt.
‘Despite this, the Mail on Sunday proceeded to publish an article which is demonstrably untrue.’
Villa also prove their commitment to the cause by pointing out that we became the second club to achieve the highest level of the ‘Kick It Out Equality Standard’, which the club is obviously proud of.
They are also taking this matter very seriously and:
‘The club have written to the Mail on Sunday today, requesting that the article be corrected and an apology published.
‘We have also suggested that the Mail on Sunday makes a donation to Kick It Out to help them continue with the excellent work they do.
‘Finally, we have suggested to the Mail on Sunday that they may wish to highlight – in next Sunday’s edition – some of the positive events and activities that all Premier League clubs, including Aston Villa, are taking part in as part of Kick It Out’s Weeks of Action (which take place between October 18 and 29).’
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