Carpet fitter Thomas McCormick sponsored Westland Young Men FC a couple of years ago after being asked to do so by a friend and has since been targeted with abuse following an incident the club was involved with
A Belfast carpet fitter says he has been targeted with unnecessary abuse for sponsoring a football team that has recently been involved in an altercation.
Carpet fitter Thomas McCormick sponsored Westland Young Men FC a couple of years ago after a friend of his asked him to do so in order to help a local football club but has never had any active involvement with the club. He said he just wanted to help a local team in his area and would do the same for others.
However, following an altercation at the weekend involving Westland Young Men and Kelvin Old Boys U21 teams, Thomas says that he has been targeted with abuse with people ringing him on withheld numbers threatening him, alongside text messages and social media posts slandering him.
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Speaking to Belfast Live, Thomas said: “A couple of years ago a friend of mine asked me if I would help out a local football team that was struggling a bit and needed some support with sponsorship, which was something that I was happy to do in order to help people in the community.
“Since then I have had no involvement with the club, but it seems people are now connecting me to the team and threatening me.
“This is having a real impact on my mental health and also slandering my business over something that I have had no part in.
“People who know me know that I am always happy to help out in my area on both sides of the divide and in the past couple of weeks I have done a few things to help the elderly in the community with heating and electricity and children with my fund to help families who may be struggling this Christmas with presents.”
On Friday, Thomas had put a post on his Facebook page saying that he had donated £100 to three different shops in Ballysillan and Ardoyne which could be used by local residents who were in need of an energy top-up.
He also has charity boxes in place for his Christmas Toy Appeal at Brian’s Newsagents in Ballysillan and the Co-op which has already gathered a lot of local support.
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