Charlton fans unveil next protest against owner Roland Duchatelet as taxi drives to Belgium to give him birthday ‘presents’
Fans' group who have already thrown plastic pigs onto pitch and held mock funeral will travel across Channel with petition to try and get him to sell club
CHARLTON fans determined to get owner Roland Duchatelet out of their club have revealed their latest stunt – a black cab adorned with their message which will head to his homeland of Belgium.
To mark the businessman’s 70th birthday on Monday, the Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) has covered a traditional London taxi with the slogan “Taxi for Roland” and “We want our Charlton back”.
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The cab will head a small convoy of vehicles carrying CARD activists on a three-day tour of Belgium, targeting locations represent Duchatelet’s key interest areas of football, politics and business.
The taxi leaves from The Valley this morning, and follows other highly-publicised stunts created by the protest group.
As well as traditional protests, The Valley has seen black and white beach balls thrown onto the pitch, a mock funeral procession for the club through the streets around the ground, and most notably flying plastic pigs thrown onto the pitch a few weeks ago.
Season tickets are thousands down on last year as many fans also choose to boycott the club altogether.
Duchatelet bought the club in 2014 and has overseen the club's relegation to League One last season, attending the Valley just twice in two years.
Russell Slade’s men are mid-table in the league with a thin squad and lost 3-0 at relegation-threatened Swindon Town yesterday – after which the former Cardiff boss offered an apology to the fans who travelled to Wiltshire.
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The millionaire, who has a network of football clubs across Europe, including Carl Zeiss Jena in Germany and Ujpest in Hungary, has been through six managers in that time.
Charlton’s equally unpopular chief executive Katrien Meire has previously revealed Charlton fans travelled to Belgium to visit her parents to criticise the regime – but CARD aim for this to be a more peaceful demonstration across the Channel.
A CARD spokesperson said: “We are taking the protests to Belgium in this unusual way to gain maximum exposure of Duchatelet's incompetence and destruction of our club in his home nation.
“It is intended to be engaging and non-threatening - but also embarrassing for him and chief executive Katrien Meire to have their disastrous regime laid bare before the Belgian public and media.”
As well as the taxi, CARD has been unveiling a different birthday present for Duchatelet every day.
These have included map of south-East London, a birthday card mocking him up as a clown, a DVD with highlights of all their protests to date, and a bumper pack of items thrown to interrupt matches at The Valley in 2016.
CARD plans to display all the birthday presents in the main square of Sint-Truiden, home to the Belgian club Duchatelet also owns, on Monday morning, his 70th birthday.
It will also be handing out black and white beach balls and balloons to the local people, while explaining to them why we are protesting against Duchatelet’s regime.
Later, the taxi and the protest group will “deliver” the presents to Duchatelet, together with a petition calling on him to sell the club, at the KSTVV Stadion in Sint-Truiden.
The protest wrap will then remain on the taxi – owned and driven by boycotting Charlton fan Chris Harman - for three months and thus will be seen on the streets of London in the busy Christmas and new year period.
CARD added: “The driver will be able to explain to his passengers what is going on at Charlton throughout this period.
“We intend to cause Duchatelet maximum embarrassment at home and abroad until he sells the club.”