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| TX: 28.10.05 - Disabled Chelsea Fans PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Now as someone who recently pocketed £5 billion from the sale of an oil company and it's one of the richest football clubs in the world, yet Chelsea has dropped its concessions to disabled supporters - they now have to pay the full ticket price - £35 in the cheapest seats or £60 in the most expensive. Anyone who uses a wheelchair pays a flat rate of £48 per match plus a booking fee - double what they paid two seasons ago. Chelsea says the move is nothing to do with raising more money but is about the possibility of being sued for discrimination. Other clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United let their disabled supporters in for free. Bela Gor is one of the country's leading experts on disability discrimination case law, I asked her if Chelsea bosses were right in thinking that they could have been taken to court under the Disability Discrimination Act if they hadn't dropped the disabled concessions. GOR No they won't, there is nothing to stop Chelsea or any other service provider from positively discriminating in favour of disabled people by letting them in for free, as Arsenal and Manchester United have done, or by charging a lesser price. BARCLAY Where has this misinterpretation come from then, is there a flaw in the legislation itself, is it still open to misinterpretation? GOR I don't think so, the act is quite clear. The problem may be that people are familiar with sex and race discrimination legislation are transferring their learning over into the DDA and the DDA's very different in that it's an asymmetric piece of legislation - it only protects disabled people, it provides no protection to non-disabled people, unlike the other pieces of legislation where both men and women and people of all races are protected. BARCLAY So you are saying then that it is perfectly okay to offer concessions to people with disabilities in this context? GOR Absolutely yes. BARCLAY Well that sounds absolutely clear. Jamie Polk joins us, he's the disabled representative on the Chelsea fans forum. Jamie, the club says any accusation that charging full price was done to raise revenues is completely refuted by Chelsea: "We take no pleasure in charging full price for disabled fans". So what do you think explains the price rise? POLK There was a report that came out from which they got their advice which was commissioned by the FA in which it says that charging policies must be used to ensure they do not discriminate either between disabled and non-disabled people or between disabled people themselves. This is obviously very misleading. They took that advice from the FA, it was ratified by the Premier League and they acted in good faith. I think they got it completely wrong but they have acted in good faith. BARCLAY You don't think they're trying to hide behind this as a way to raise ticket prices? POLK No I think - I did a brief calculation before I came on and the difference between the concessionary price and the full price across all their disabled fans is about half what Frank Lampard gets paid in a week. So I don't think it's a revenue raising issue actually, I think that's coming from the wrong angle. BARCLAY But you're saying this is guidance from the FA. Arsenal and Manchester United admit disabled fans and their carers for free, presumably they've taken advice from the same source? POLK Yes, as I say the source is a 68-page document and only one line of which states this discrimination between disabled and non-disabled people, which is misleading. The other clubs have taken the same advice, read it differently and have come up with what actually is the true reflection of the DDA, which is to allow for concessionary pricing. I hope Chelsea will have a look at that again, I'm sure they will and once they see that there is plenty of room for concessionary pricing they'll drop their prices accordingly. BARCLAY Bela, what would you say to people who say disabled people want equality? GOR Well Chelsea doesn't have to have concessionary pricing or allow disabled people in for free. The DDA doesn't require them to do that. There are people who would say that some disabled people would find it patronising to be offered concessionary rates, other people would say well I'd quite like a cheaper ticket to Chelsea because I don't have much money. The way round that might be to concentrate on disadvantage, rather than disability and if they want to encourage people who can't afford to attend football matches they could use means tested benefit, for example, rather than disability, there are some disabled people who are very rich and don't need a cheap ticket. POLK Well most disabled fans would be perfectly happy to be thought of as equal in terms of even ticket pricing as long as the facilities that they are offered are equal which in Chelsea's case at the moment isn't the case, in fact most clubs can't offer equal choice because of the situation like positioning wheelchairs in various parts of the ground, there is no continual choice. And as a result I think that because of that there should be some sort of concessionary pricing. BARCLAY So you would ask Chelsea to look at this again? POLK I would, I would yeah. BARCLAY Chelsea fan Jamie Polk and lawyer Bela Gor. And Chelsea has told us that there is a series of meetings planned to look at this issue for next season. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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