A FEW years back, the chairman of the jewellery chain Ratners rather foolishly dismissed his own product as "tat and rubbish" and wondered how any of his customers could bring themselves to buy it.

Soon afterwards he had to resign and sell up. After all, in business you can't be seen, at least, to bite the proverbial hand that feeds. Or so everybody thought.

Now it seems that Messrs Hall and Shepherd have proven that wrong.

They were due to be reinstated to a Board of Directors that they left only months ago in disgrace, after insulting the fans, players and womenfolk of Newcastle alike.

Football, it appears, is different to other businesses.

But we keep being told the contrary by the likes of Hall and Shepherd, that it can insult its grassroots customer base, and against severe public opinion, reinstate two disgraceful characters like these.

When are football clubs, Burnley FC especially, going to start respecting their fans and start treating them with respect, not like brain-washed automatons?

DAMIAN WILKINSON, Shakespeare Street, Padiham.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.