Convicted football hooligan gets match ban overturned

A CARDIFF City fan jailed for his part in a violent clash between rival fans in Coventry city centre has had a football banning order lifted almost a year early.

Matthew Huxtable was one of three jailed for ten months in October 2007 for their parts in a violent planned clash with Coventry City supporters.

They and two other men, who were given suspended prison sentences, were also made subject to football banning orders for six years.

But at Warwick Crown Court West Midlands Police decided not to object to 26-year-old Huxtable's application to have the ban removed.

During the original hearing, it was said the rival fans had used the internet to plan a violent clash in February 2007.

They had taunted each-other via internet message boards and then planned their confrontation by phone.

Up to 30 Sky Blues and Cardiff City supporters clashed outside the Herbert Art Gallery in Jordan Well, Coventry, during which bottles, railings and bollards were thrown as passers-by caught up in the melee fled to safety.

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