Flying the Flag

Five years ago, we had a Valley of passion. It wasn't the smartest of
grounds, but it was a noisy, partisan fortress. We'd just finished ninth in our first season back in the Premiership, and our strength at The Valley helped us achieve that. We expanded the stadium as we built on that achievement. Our seventh-place finish in 2004 came after we unveiled our current, 27,000-capacity, Valley.

But now something's missing from The Valley. The Covered End choir has moved to the upper north stand, but the noise doesn't carry as well as we hoped it would. The East and West Stands have become noticeably quieter. If there's a noise at The Valley, it usually comes from the Jimmy Seed stand.

We need to make the Covered End the centre of the fans’ noise and activity again. At Middlesbrough Steve Gibson's canny enough to get the fans involved. On that fateful night in April, who could not have been impressed by that huge Boro flag?

Manchester United may be the world's biggest club, but they still give part of the Stretford End to their fans’ banners. Their banners proclaim their love for United, and tell the world about it.

The Valley Flags Campaign

The Valley has so many stories to tell; the wizardry of Derek Hales;
Colin Walsh's goal which won the first game back home; Clive Mendonca's play-off hat-trick; the only south London club to have got into to and stayed in the Premiership.

This is where the Valley Flags Campaign comes in. Let us demonstrate our history, heritage and pride in Charlton and pass that story onto the next generation of fans, the ones we want to fill an even bigger Valley. And to pass it on to our new manager and players, the men who will take us into the future on the pitch.

One of the proposals made by a number of the candidates during the recent Supporters’ Director’s election was the replacement of the large, overhead flag and the introduction of slogan banners on the balcony in front of the North Upper.

Now that idea has become a campaign with setting up of a website http://www.valleyflags.co.uk

Fans can already make contributions via the website or through Amazon purchases and music downloads via the iTunes music store


The Flags

A10m x 8m flag of the Derek Hales/Che Guevara image designed by Burro. Burro have given us permission to use the image and this flag could also be taken to away games. Approx cost would be £2,000




long slogan banners for display across the front of the north upper Balcony. This would be similar to the slogans displayed so effectively at Old Trafford but would require permission of Llanera and Joma and this is being looked into. A set of different slogan banners would cost around £3,500




Another idea is for a massive replica of the new Joma shirt, the final price to be decided when we have a firm idea on size and possibly design.

Other issues such as health and safety and storage have already been discussed with the General Manager and the club’s Safety Officer. Banners would be made of fire resistant material and would be stored away from the Valley on non-match days. During games members of the campaign would liaise with the club’s staff to ensure that flags were stored safely and did not cause any form of hazard.

So what can you do?

• Spread the word among other fans via e-mail and websites/message board.

• Carry links to Valley Flags on your website/blog or e-mails

• Lobby any fans groups or supporters’ club branches you belong to or just get your mates to chip in.

• Donate yourself via the website.

• Log on via the website to download iTunes and buy from Amazon and get everyone else you know to do the same. 4% of the sale price will go to the campaign.

• If you own or know a Charlton supporting business ask them for a donation

• Offer to help out on matchdays with displaying, moving and storing the banners. We need people to unfurl and then fold up and store the flags

• Help design the flags yourself if you have the creative and IT skills.

So here we go, and lets make the Valley the stadium it was.