Charlton and Coventry fans 'throw pigs onto pitch' in protest against owners
Both sets of fans have endured long-running disputes with the owners of their respective clubs
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Your support makes all the difference.The League One fixture between Charlton Athletic and Coventry City was interrupted when hundreds of small plastic pigs were thrown on to the pitch by supporters from both clubs.
The pigs were hurled from the stands shortly after the kick-off, delaying play at Charlton’s The Valley for around five minutes.
The protest was co-ordinated and carried out by both Charlton and Coventry fans against their respective owners, with the intended aim of persuading them to sell up.
Charlton supporters have endured a long-running dispute with Roland Duchâtelet over his chairmanship of the club, while Coventry fans protested against their owners, the hedge funders Sisu.
Chants of ‘we want Roland out’ and ‘we want Sisu out’ were sang in unison while players, officials and stewards cleared the plastic pigs off the pitch.
Duchâtelet's 34-month-long reign at Charlton has seen relegation from the Championship to League One, with seven different managers at the helm since January 2014.
Coventry, currently bottom of League One, face a period of homelessness after the owners of the Ricoh Arena, Wasps Rugby Club, pulled out of tenancy talks with the west Midlands club.
Prior to kick-off, supporters from both clubs marched together in a ‘#FansUnited’ protest outside The Valley.
Jan Mokrzycki of the Coventry fans' group Fight The Jimmy Hill Way Alliance told The Telegraph: “We saw this fixture as the opportunity to try something different.
“People shouting they don’t like the owner has been heard a million times. But we felt if we do this together it will be something that will get us a much wider recognition for what we’re trying to do.”
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