Southend United, a soccer club that plays in England’s fifth tier, says it will change the name of its Gilbert and Rose West Stand because of its association with one of the country’s most notorious serial killers.
Rose West and her husband, Fred, murdered an unknown number of people during a 20-year stretch that included the 1960s. Rose was convicted in ’95 of killing 10 people and is an inmate at a West Yorkshire prison. Meanwhile, Fred died by suicide while awaiting trial.
The soccer club’s sponsorship deal is with Gilbert and Rose real estate agents. Ron Martin, the club’s chairman, said to radio station talkSPORT: “It’s not the most advisable thing; it is unfortunate. I suspect that the Gilbert and Rose are delighted with the press that they’re getting but it’s not good for the club.”
He added, “I suspect that the people in our commercial department were not born at the time of that tragedy and so I guess that's why that's happened.
“To be fair, it should have been picked up by the senior management. It wasn’t, and it came to my attention the night before last, and we’re changing the name of the stand to the West Stand sponsored by Gilbert and Rose. I spoke to Tom Lawrence, the CEO, about it, and we’re definitely going to change it.”
Martin apologized and said he was embarrassed.
