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New “Radical” Newcastle Protest Group Formed

The new protest Group “United Against Ashley” aims to take a more direct approach at protesting the action of Mike Ashley

Newcastle United v Leicester City - Premier League
The Magpie Group protests weren’t enough for some people
Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

After what some may call a failed attempt at dethroning Mike Ashley from the Magpie Group, another protest group has recently formed and vows to also take back the club. The group has been named “United Against Ashley” and claims that they will be taking a more direct approach with their protests against Mike Ashley.

The group was apparently founded out of the “Leazes Flags” group who has had issues dealing with the cub as of late. The Flags group has been claiming over the past couple of weeks that the cub has treated them with a lot of disrespect, which the group believes is rooted in Mike Ashley.

The root of the group’s disdain in the club seems to have begun when members of the Leazes Flag group were cleaning up a display from the home match against Manchester united on January. The group claims to have been kicked out of the stadium after briefly speaking to ESPN analyst, and former player John Beresford.

The full thread on the January incident is below, and makes the claim that 3 volunteers associated with the group have been banned from speaking to players or getting autographs after matches.

Additionally, the account claims that thousands of pounds of damage was done to the flags by the club. This prompted a response from Lee Marshall, who is the clubs main point of contact for fans, who claimed that this was an exaggeration but still gave his support for the group as a whole.

The Leazes Flag Group went on to make claims about the club being responsible for the destruction of the flags, and claiming that the status of the club being so rotten is due to one man.

The group however was quick to shift the blame from Lee Marshall, who had been taking the majority of the abuse from angry fans regarding the incident.

Another incident involving the group was apparently the final straw as tthey then announced that members of their group were going to begin protesting the club shortly thereafter. This time the group was slated to appear on the Newcastle BBC radio station to discuss the current state of the club, and shortly before the interview was slated to happen, the interview was cancelled. The cancellation in the eyes of certain members of the Leazes Flags group was a product of the “Newcastle PR Machine”.

Newcastle United v Manchester United - Premier League Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

Whether you agree with Leazes Flags’ claims of disrespect towards them from the club, destruction of personal property by the club, or being subject to the Mike Ashley/Newcastle PR Machine, or you disagree with said claims; members of the group have decided to take action against Ashley and the club.

The group formed is named “United Against Ashley”, and looks to be a break off protest group from the Leazes Flag group. It is important to recognize that United Against Ashley does not represent the opinions of all involved with Leazes Flags and was in fact formed in order to separate the good work of the flags group with these upcoming acts of protest.

The group already has the support of two other groups, the London Magpie Group, and Toon Polls. Toon Polls in particular is known for constant criticism of the actions of The Magpie Group, often claiming what the group has done is either “not enough” or “divisive”.

Toon Polls has been very active in drumming up publicity for the group, which began when Toon Polls ran a series of polls to pick the name for the new protest group. The London Magpie Group seems to have just given a general endorsement of the efforts surrounding the protests, but are being tagged in nearly every tweet put out by the United Against Ashley Account.

This new group has been slated to be a “radical” protest group, even though they have not once made that claim. The group itself claims that they will be taking a direct approach when protesting Mike Ashley, but has yet to deny any claims from other groups and people that claim this group will be a “radical” group.

The United Against Ashley group has been pretty secretive about their planned actions possibly in fear of their actions being shut down by the club, which does feed into the narrative that they are going to be a “radical” protest group. The group is planning to meet with fans and announce their plans shortly before the match against Cardiff, a match in which I am assuming they will have their first planned protest.

As it stands, the group has 8 members (2 founding members) and under 1000 followers of their Twitter account, but those numbers are quickly growing as more and more people are learning about the newly created Twitter account. You can follow the group on Twitter with their username being @UtdAgainstAsh for all for the latest details surrounding their planned actions against Mike Ashley.