I received this email tonight from the Free Michael Shields campaign. You’ll remember what happened to young Michael in the summer of 2005. Whilst the rest of us were celebrating the fifth Champions League win, poor Michael was starting on a nightmare that still shows no sign of coming to an end. There is a little bit of hope for him with an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Another way of at least improving matters for Michael and his family is for him to be allowed to serve his sentence back home in England. Unfortunately this is going to cost a lot of money, but as you will see in this email there are ways of making this money happen.
Here’s the email:
Dear LFC Website Admin/Editor,
You will probably be aware of Michael Shields, the young Liverpool fan imprisoned in Bulgaria. Michael has exhausted all the routes open to him via the Bulgarian justice system and the only hope he has of overturning his conviction is via an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
In the meantime the priority is to get Michael back to England, to do this Michael’s family have to raise money to pay the largest fine in Bulgarian history. Obviously as an ordinary working class family they’re struggling to do this. To help them Councillor Joe Anderson has launched the ‘Bring him home’ appeal fund. The details are below:
You can donate over the counter at Lloyds/TSB** or send a cheque to the campaign office:
LFC have kindly allowed Michael’s supporters to collect money from Liverpool fans at the West Ham game. We’d be grateful if you could let your members know this. We know that money may be scarce but if all our fans could donate just a pound we’d be well on the way to getting Michael back in the UK. Thanks for any help you can give.
Also, there’s a benefit night for Michael on the 25th August at the Devonshire Hotel on Edge Lane. There’ll be live music including Neville Skelly, raffles, prize draws, LFC memorabilia etc. It starts at 8pm
Phone: 0151 260 7165
Kind regards,
Matt on behalf of FreeMichaelShields campaign.
ps: This is from JonnyMack of RAOTL, you may already have had a copy in which case please ignore:
: from the Free Michael Shields Campaign.
The club have kindly agreed to let us INSIDE the ground to ask for donations, on the afternoon of the first home game.
Through one individual’s persistence and dogged determination to get things done, there was a meeting yesterday with Rick Parry and Ged Poynton.
The club are showing real support for Michael and his family, by allowing this to take place within the ground, so hats off to them.
We NEED at least 60 volunteers to make this happen. Hopefully, this will be run with near military style precision. The volunteers are needed to collect cash INSIDE Anfield on Sat. 26th (West Ham – 12:45pm kick off).
Please be aware that you’ll miss most of the first half (if not all of it) and you will have to be INSIDE the ground at around 11am/11.30am – so you won’t be on the ale.
Please e-mail me on jsmack77@hotmail.com if you’d like to help out or post here:
http://forum.raotl.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=34042
Anyone kind enough to help will have 2 buckets, will stay at their turnstile until 10/15 mins. after KO, then take the buckets to be counted, ready for the Securicor pick up.
Also can anyone help in obtaining authentic charity buckets? We need at least 120, so any help would be much appreciated.
Please leave contact details if you’re willing to help.
Could those of you who go on other LFC independent sites copy this post please.
More info. to follow,
Tony.
Please do what you can to help.
Why not arrange a bit of a collection from colleagues at work? Even if your colleagues aren’t Reds I’m sure you’d donate to them if one of their supporters was in this kind of situation and they asked for a quid or two. A lot of them would donate to you too. Add your collection to a donation of your own.
Why not start an empty coffee jar of loose change between now and the game? Every day when you come in from work, or in from the pub, throw your loose change into the jar. Coppers, 5, 10 or 20 p pieces – shrapnel. Chuck it in the jar. Suggest the same idea to your mates. Take it to the match, or take it to the bank using the details above.
It sounds a lot of money, but it’s not out of reach. Little things really will make a difference to the funds collected. If you’ve any other ideas send them on to me or post them in the forums above and elsewhere. Without wanting to sound like some comedian with a Red nose on, every penny really will help.
For Liverpool Football Club to be allowing this collection to take place is a huge gesture. Please, make a gesture yourself.
I’m also now going to add a name to this story that will probably, hopefully, add some extra visitors who find the page through search engines. Dirk Kuyt. Rafael Benitez’s latest transfer target, who seems set to sign for the club before the end of the week. Reports this morning said the two clubs had got close enough to agreeing a fee that Feyenoord had therefore given Kuyt and Liverpool permission to speak to each other. Tonight the Liverpool Echo’s Chris Bascombe said the player will be a Red by the weekend if all goes well. Jan Kromkamp might be going in the opposite direction as part of the deal too, but it isn’t yet clear whether or not Feyenoord are willing to consider this. It’s been known that Kromkamp has been earmarked for a return to Holland since before the end of last season. His homesickness is the main reason for that.
But the homesickness that Kromkamp is feeling is nothing, not even a small part, of what Michael Shields is feeling. So please make sure you give as generously as you can to the appeal to get him home again.