Leicester City’s Official Supporters Club is planning to write to the Football League to complain about the staging of Saturday’s game at Portman Road. The match, which the Blues won 3-0, was played in heavy snow with the Midlands club unhappy that it was played to its completion.

Foxes Supporters Club chairman Cliff Ginnetta was one of 550 away fans making the trip to Suffolk and says his organisation will be contacting the football authorities to make their feelings known: "We will be sitting down in the next few days to write a letter to the Football League, after we have all calmed down a bit.

"We didn't pay £30 each to basically watch a snowstorm, and it seems the fans are the last consideration in these situations.

"In 50 years of watching City I have never seen anything like that. It was horrendous. Whatever possessed the referee to start, and then carry on with that game, it was ridiculous. It beggared belief.”

Leicester first team coach Chris Powell is the latest member of the Foxes camp to claim the game should never have got under way: "From when we warmed up you could see it was extremely hard and dangerous, especially along the flanks. Obviously anyone who was here and watching on TV would have seen that the weather got progressively worse.

"For me, it shouldn't have started. I'm sure Ipswich Town fans and players will say 'you're only saying that because you were 3-0 down after 25 minutes’. I'm more interested in watching a good game of football between two teams that are trying to win a proper football match."

However, former Premier League and World Cup ref Graham Poll backed Attwell’s decision: "Stuart Attwell was right to start the game, sensible to take a 15-minute break to ensure pitch markings were visible and right again to complete the fixture.

"He needed self-belief to withstand massive pressure to abandon the game once the snow started. Perhaps Ipswich taking a 3-0 lead helped him. Leicester might complain, but snow does not automatically mean pitches are unplayable."

Another ex-top flight official, Jeff Winter, concurred: "The conditions did not seem to be affecting the players that much. The only problem was that quite a lot of the pitch markings were not visible.”

Sky Sports, who screened the match live, have dismissed claims that they put Attwell under pressure to keep the game going: "It was entirely the referee's decision."

Photo: Action Images

itfc1981 added 10:39 - Dec 21 bunch of losers, write a letter to santa for three points while your at it.
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bluepeter added 10:40 - Dec 21 I wonder if they had won, if they would of gone to all that trouble?
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itfc1981 added 10:41 - Dec 21 extremely hard on the flanks, the pitch was warmed you know.
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dobbie73 added 10:41 - Dec 21 The conditions were the same for both teams, and for both sets of fans .... surely the Foxes fans would have complained more about paying for a wasted journey if the game had been called off at 5.15??? To be honest though, if we had been 3-0 down we probably would have been saying the same, but we weren't, we won, yippee! As we tried to get the point across to Leicester on the night .... JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE LOSING!!!!!!!!!!!!

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HampshireBlue added 10:43 - Dec 21 Get a bloody grip. The pitch was playable, the ball wasnt being held up, and other than a couple of moments players weren't slipping.
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Legend added 10:44 - Dec 21 So how many would complain if they were 3-0 up at half time? get over it, it was the same conditions for both sides! Just because your manager looks like one of santa's elves!
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Karlosfandangal added 10:44 - Dec 21 If they had been winning 3-0 then they would have wanted it to be played. As for the fans, I was going down to the game but looked at the weather reports and stayed at home, so they had a choice too. Was surprised it went ahead but once it got under way its the same for both set of players, If Leicester were so consecerned for the safety of the players then they could refuse to send them out on the pitch, or even hours before voise thier consecerns and get the match called off well in advance of kick off. As I said I looked at the weather reports before I set out and that was about 4 hour before kick off and made the decision. Sour grapes now leicester

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TJS added 10:53 - Dec 21 Looking forward to the the return fixture at their place on the last day of the season in May. We've already decided we're all going in winter related fancy dress !
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mickeyjb added 11:00 - Dec 21 We would have said the same if we were 3-0 down. However we wernt so jog on foxes.
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JayITFC added 11:03 - Dec 21 Merry Christmas to all at LCFC ;)
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jas0999 added 11:04 - Dec 21 I wonder of they would have felt the same if they won 3-0?
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blue_em_away added 11:04 - Dec 21 "We didn't pay £30 each to basically watch a snowstorm, and it seems the fans are the last consideration in these situations." Who is this bell end?? OMG what an embarasment you are to your club. If the game was called off with 5 mins to go you would be saying NOTHING fella, so go and crawl back under your tartan travel rug and shut the f*ck up. If it was us, no we would not like it, but we would not be writing a poxy letter to the FA. FOOTBALL IS A WINTER SPORT!!!! HHHEEEEELLLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

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62WasBest added 11:05 - Dec 21 The pitch was playable and was quite obviously good enough to start the game. Criticism of the referee is nearly as bad as Arsene Whinger slating the Old Trafford pitch last week! Football is not billiards. The idea isn't that every game is necessarily played on a carefully manicured, flat surface that is not too wet, not too dry. What next? Calling off games as soon as there is a breath of wind? Half these players would never have survived if they'd been around before the 1970s. Snow in itself has never been a reason to cancel or abandon a game.

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SectionedSix added 11:18 - Dec 21 A MESSAGE TO THE PLAYERS STAFF AND SUPPORTERS OF LEICESTER CITY. Grow up. World Cup ref Graham Poll backed Attwell's decision: "Stuart Attwell was right to start the game, sensible to take a 15-minute break to ensure pitch markings were visible and right again to complete the fixture. Another ex-top flight official, Jeff Winter, concurred: "The conditions did not seem to be affecting the players that much. The only problem was that quite a lot of the pitch markings were not visible.” That makes two top referees plus the guy who was in charge all happy for it to go ahead. The pitch WAS NOT frozen. It was basically a normal pitch that had a bit of snow on top. The snow laid and you could see the ball still rolling quite nicely. At half time they made the lines visible and there was a break in the second half to do the same. Only in the very late stages of the game did the snow start to really lay. At that time there was 10 minutes or so left and no way the game was going to be called off. It was NEVER dangerous. It was simply that your players didn't fancy it. Had you been 2-0 up you know full well you wouldn't be coming out with all this nonsense about the players safety. The fact you seem to be overlooking COMPLETELY is that the game went ahead because the pitch was fine and during that initial 30/40 minutes we were 3-0 up. Any argument over the pitch is irrelevant. Are you suggesting your team didn't play and conceded three on the basis they could predict the snow would start to lay in the last 10 minutes? Rubbish. Grow up you sore losers. You are useless away from home anyway.

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ITFC_Budapest added 11:20 - Dec 21 Losers! Blub snow blub! Pathetic!
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blueblood66 added 11:24 - Dec 21 PATHETIC LOSERS...blah blah blah..they could have watched it at home on Sky like I did!!
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Blueknight85 added 11:29 - Dec 21 ... saw losers or what... i saw a good game of football snow wasnt hindering my view at all and the players seemed fine... sky sports presenter inspected the pitch at half time and said it was fine not even slightly hard what a bunch of losers
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paddypowell added 11:31 - Dec 21 their supporters r just like their players .if they had done what our team did and just got on with the game instead of winging all the time they would have made a better game of it ,players werent prone to injury no more than having to play 2 or3 games a week because of a backlog of games.fair play to the ref
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essexblue added 11:31 - Dec 21 Idiots. Look we could all carry on like that for example, why don't we all write to the League and tell them that D'Urso hates us, never gives us anything and by the way is f**king cr*p. But we dont do that do we. Get over yourselves man!!
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Garv added 11:45 - Dec 21 Just because your losing!! Pathetic, conditions were the same for both teams, you could have taken advantage of the snow like we did but you didn't. We tried our luck from range and it paid off, it would never have gone in without the snow. But we can't start stopping games just because of some snow, as long as the players are safe, which they were, and players are able to pass the ball to a teammate, which they were, the game should be played.

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awayfan added 11:49 - Dec 21 "We will be sitting down in the next few days to write a letter to the Football League, after we have all calmed down a bit." Comedy gold! Agree 100% with HampshireBlue's summary. Attwell was very professional and showed strength of character in the face of both sides jabbering in his ear. Well done young fella.
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nobrain added 11:51 - Dec 21 "It was horrendous." No, no it wan't. It was a football match. We won, you lost.
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Blue92 added 11:54 - Dec 21 They can give it all the crap about players safety as much as they like.. but the proof is in the pudding.. how many players got injured? none.
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bluebrit added 11:56 - Dec 21 The pitch was fine when game kicked off. Admittedly things did deteriorate rapidly from that point onwards. It was a shame that the Leicester team didn't show as much spirit as the fans who made the journey down but the bottom line is at the start of the game it was 0-0 and from that point only one team wanted to play and win.
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roytheboy added 12:11 - Dec 21 What a load of mamby pamby softies the Leicester camp must be, absolutely pathetic, very bad losers obviously.
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