Appeal to someone who works at the club and can help

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I received this email from Mr. Holloway, hopefully someone can help. If you can please email me antoine@empireofthekop.com and I will provide you his contact info.

“I wrote to LFC in early March 2011, I am not sure of the exact date. I also wrote to them in early April as i did not get a response for the first letter. Four to six weeks later I got a reply from LFC. The following is what they said (not exact words but, this is basically how it went) this is accurate and true.

Dear Mr Holloway
Thank you for writing to LFC, to ask if your Grandson Harvey could be considered for mascot for LFC. Unfortunately all team mascots are chosen from our business partners/associates and from junior LFC fan clubs on a monthly prizedraw basis. They then stated that they could enrol Harvey “right now” if I rang and had a Visa/Electron card or set up a monthlydirect debit. They also said that mascots were also selected from chosen charities.

Finally they said “we hope Harvey is OK!” it seemed that it was added in as an afterthought. Did anyone at LFC actually read the letter that I sent to them? How could he be OK, when he is termnally ill? I also tole him thate we wanted him over while he can still walk and function. We dont have time to wait for monthly prize draws, hence my request.

I was so angry that I threw the letter in the bin. They sent as a gift a notebook, colouring pencils, a keyring and a plastic whistle. The letter they sent was cold and insensitive, it almost read like a compute generated run of the mill “fob off”. This is not uch of a response for the mass amounts of money spent over the years on tickets, LFC football kits and club merchandise.

Harveys family who are each and everyone a lifetime LFC supporters were angry and hurt at LFCS refusal. LFC should be rminded that outside of Liverpool there isnt a bigger fanbase than here in Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland. In fact it would be fare to saythat no other English Premier League team gets the amount of and level of support that LFC get.

Our local Irish League team, Glentoran FC, who are amateurs on approx £170 per week and the club is in seriousfinancial trouble gave Harvey a tour of the club, autographs, met the players in the dressing room, a kick about on the pitch with the players durig warm up and gave the kids free kits, scarves, training tops, badges, pendants the whole works. He was absolutely made up ok, its a small team but, they are our small team here in Belfast. They lack funds but they dont lack compassion.

We are dissapointed by LFCs response to our request to host Harvey as a mascot in my opinion it is unforgivable. I emphasised in my letter to LFC that we didnt want them to view our request as a begging letter or even emotional blackmail, but we cannot be blamed for trying to give Harvey as much quality in his life as possble. I admit that sometimes your mind can become clouded, even obsessed with wanting the best for Harvey and it could be seen as being selfish. We just want Harvey to know that he is loved so much in the time that he has left for him and us.

yours sincerely
Robert Holloway”

16 Comments

  1. This is an absolute travesty. Things like this used to be the norm in Parry’s day > I thought Ian Ayre was getting it together but apparently not. Shankly was a man of the people what would he have made of this ??

  2. Your response came from a computer, not a person.

    If Harvey is apart of a registered charity then they are better of writing to the club and they will definatley get a reply.

    I no you feel hard done by but there are 1000s of disadvantage kids writing to the club and it must be hard to reply to them all hence the computer generated letter.

    Hope this helps.

  3. i wrote to lfc 4 years ago too to see if my son who was needing his 2nd heart op at that time he was 6 (hes just had his 3rd open heart last month he is now 10)i wanted to kn ow if he could meet the team i got a letter bk asking me to ring,so i did and spoke to a lovely lovely man vin o brien who explained how many letters they get etc and how the way to get to meet the team was through the make a wish foundation so thats what we done we too live in ireland and aarons wish was granted ,he meet the whole team after a limo trip to mellwood,watched training had tea and toast went to anfield and had the most amazing time of his life ,has this been thought off make a wish are amazing and orgainise evrything,we found the liverpool fc staff amazing so kind and lovely to aaron it was such aspecial day,i really hope harvey gets his wish because we are liverpool ,one crest one family my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family xx

  4. Liverpool is not a club who doesnt appreciate its supporters.
    There certainly must have been a misunderstanding.
    I remember seeing this video,at the time of christmas,when this very young guy named Rhys,who had some kind of a skin disorder,was given a huge surprise including a tour of the stadium,signed kits,footballs etc etc n even met the likes of stevie,carra,torres n cole.
    Liverpool knows how to treat its fans,which gives me even more pride to be even associated with this historic club.
    YNWA!

  5. Just because the kid is terminally ill means he HAS to get a free tour and a walkout with LFC? And as Josh said, Harvey isn’t the only kid trying to have this done. You can’t always get what you want. That’s life.

    1. I hope that you’re not unfortunate enough to have to care for a terminally ill child at some point in your life but that’s a great way to look at things. Just keep telling them “you can’t always get what you want. That’s life”. I’m sure they’ll love it.

      1. it is kind of naive and selfish to feel that the kid should be handed everything he wants because he’s gonna die. it sucks that he is going to die, but it doesn’t mean he should have everything handed to him.

        1. You’re obviously just a child yourself. Probably a rebellious 20 something that thinks he knows all the ways of the world. It’s not about the kid asking for something and not getting it that I responded to originally. I understand perfectly that LFC can’t respond to everyone in this sort of situation and make every request a reality. It’s the lack of compassion and caring that you displayed that I found misguided. You’ll probably come around some day but until then just try to put yourself in the shoes of this person and think about someone saying the things you said about your (hypothetical) child. LFC is a family and as supporters we’re part of it. Take care. YNWA

    2. chris you are obsivously only a child yourself because otherwise you would never have written such a comment ,it will change as you have children yourself and god forbid if one happens to be seriously ill you be done anything ,anything for them,

  6. does not suprise me one bit all they are interested in is money i am a season ticket holder for over 20 years one year i was 4 days late with my season ticket payment and had to go to the ground and virtually beg them to renew my ticket as i am from liverpool and i only tuen up to the game about ten minutes beforehand they dont wont me there they want people from out of town or who go to the ground and spend a couple of hours there go into the souvenir shop spend a couple of hundred pounds go inside ground spend a few more pounds so much for the loyal supporters i have lost count how much i have spent over the years following my beloved reds but it all counts for nothing as i am just a number on a ticket to them absolutely digraceful try to get hold of brian hall or someone like that if possible good luck and hope harvey gets his dream day out loyal reds fan / number

  7. Don’t think me insensitive, I can totally understand the frustration, but imagine the amount of requests LFC gets on a daily basis. Possibly the odd one in a hundred regarding sick and terminally ill children are fake (not trying to insinuate anything there btw) but some people will do anything for their child to be mascot for the day. There are only 19 home league games in a season and I know from experience Liverpool football club does it’s best relating to poorly children (Jeremy Kyle show highlighted one such occasion) be strong, continue with your letters to the club and I for one will be keeping my fingers crossed that young Harvey gets the opportunity.

  8. Hey United fan in peace (despite my name :P)

    Rio Ferdinand recently arranged for a United fan and young brain tumour victim @jack_marshal_ to visit Carrington after a request via Twitter. Perhaps Harvey’s family could do the same through either Kuyt or Kenny Dalglish who are the only Liverpool people I know that are on Twitter.

  9. @ aisling carey:

    I know Vin O’Brien. I worked with him when I worked at Reduc@te a few years ago back when I was in school (I was on work experience). He’s a great guy, and if there is anyone inside the club that could help it would be him.

    It’s sad that the club did this, and unfortunately this is what happens inside LFC. They are not what they used to be. They mess people about all the time. If you send a letter to them you’ll probably be ignored. You have to go to them in person and even then they’ll mess you about, tell you the requested person will phone you later on etc and they never do.

    This is where Everton become the better club. They wouldn’t have been so disrespectful or lazy (they wouldn’t take so long responding).

  10. I blame upper management for this.

    I used to work under a very prominent basketball coach in the US for two years. We would get these requests EVERY day. It was tough for the staff to keep up with these requests and many would get ignored – simply because everybody had their own responsibilities.

    So one day a simple decision was made: We had to hire someone to exclusively deal with these requests. It’s not hard. All these kids wanted is to watch practice and have a player smile at them, and spend 5 minutes with them. Every kid who wanted to watch practice was put on a list, and ultimately allowed to watch practice. They even had a special section for them.

    This case is about more than just spending time, so I can’t talk for LFC, but the reply has to be more than a form letter. If that requires an extra hire, so be it. A sports club must have the will and the time to communicate with its supporters … but that is a vision that has to come from the top.

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