A tidy offer

Fans with a few hours to spare next week can help Charlton and benefit their fellow supporters at the same time.

The club is offering a free ticket or a matchday meal in Legends to anyone who volunteers to help clean the stadium seats

The club is offering a free ticket for one of the opening home games or a matchday meal in Legends to anyone who volunteers to help clean the stadium seats in the run-up to the clash with AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, August 7th.

Operations director Mick Everett said: "For the past couple of seasons, we have had complaints from supporters about the state of some of the seats at the opening game and we fully understand why. Unfortunately, it would cost thousands of pounds to have every seat professionally cleaned and there is no budget to do it.

"The work has to be done as late in the summer as possible to be effective, and even if all the staff chipped in, at a time when they are preparing for the first match and dealing with ticket sales and other income generation, we simply don't have the bodies to get the job done.”

He stressed: "We are not asking people to come and clean their own seat. What we are saying is that if some fans want to help the club out and have some time to give, then this would be a great way of contributing."

The plan is that work will take place between 10am and 4pm from next Tuesday onwards, with an hour's break for lunch, which will be provided by the club.

Volunteers will report to main reception at the beginning of the day and be issued with their ticket at 4pm. Those who report for more than one day will receive more than one ticket or Legends meal.

Mick added: "I will say from experience that this is not light work and we will need a considerable number of volunteers to get the whole job done. However, we felt that inviting the fans to help is better than simply accepting that we can't do the job at all."

The invitation is an echo of the famous Valley clean-up, when hundreds of supporters assembled to clear the weeds from the stadium in April 1989 after it had stood empty for three and a half years following the move to Selhurst Park.

Three years later, a team of volunteers played an invaluable role in preparing the ground to reopen in December 1992.

Unfortunately, given that it is the school holidays, the invitation is not open to U18s for insurance reasons. Fans can help for a shorter period if they prefer, but will have to register at the beginning and continue to work until the end of the session to qualify for the ticket or matchday meal in order to streamline the administration.

If you are able to join the Clean Team on Tuesday or later, please email Katie Cowling in the commercial centre at katie.cowling@cafc.co.uk

Volunteers will be accepted each day and there is no limit to the number who can participate, but the club needs a general idea of numbers to make provision for catering and so on.