Please see blow a joint statement from the club, our community trust, our supporters' trust and the Proud Valiants, the club's LGBTQI+ supporters group.
Last week the Proud Valiants held a very successful programme of events to celebrate the launch of this year’s National’s Football vs Homophobia Month of Action. The activity included the excellent Football v Homophobia launch show hosted by Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday evening.
Sadly, following the show, the Proud Valiants’ Saturday comedy event - “The Worst Football Songs Ever” was infiltrated by a small number of people whose only intention was to spoil it for others - by using abusive and offensive hate crime language which included homophobic, racist and sexist language.
Regardless of the attempts of these individuals, the organisers were able to shut them down and restart the event - and had a very enjoyable evening.
The Proud Valiants have now taken legal advice about the incident and are corresponding with the Police Hate Crime Unit
The Proud Valiants, Charlton Athletic Football Club, Charlton Athletic Community Trust and the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust have a long history of working together to tackle all discrimination, and we stand together to unequivocally restate and pledge our commitment to tackling all forms of hatred and division in sport and wider society. We welcome all fans regardless of their sexuality, race/ethnicity, or gender, and any hate crimes committed against these groups will not be tolerated.
Chair of the Proud Valiants, Rob Harris, said “The way the abuse was directed would suggest the perpetrators of the crime were not from our club, in fact we are very lucky to have real support from the club’s wider fanbase and are blessed with a great new owner, a club, a community trust, and a supporters’ trust who back us without question. This incident and recent events at other clubs show that homophobia is still a big issue in the sport - however the message remains that we will not be deterred from following the sport we love because of the prejudice and hatred of minority.
“As a united force we will continue our work against Homophobia and Transphobia in the game, alongside all other forms of discrimination.”