Charlton fans have slammed an “insulting” statement which was released by the club and the Metropolitan Police Service yesterday.

The statement was produced after a string of protests were held before, during and after the Addicks’ Championship clash with Middlesbrough on March 13.

The demonstrations included a mock funeral and hundreds of beach balls being thrown on to the pitch in a show of discontent with owner Roland Duchatelet.

A statement, which appeared on the club website on March 29, warned fans of “incidents of disorder” in recent weeks which would be cracked down on.

The Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) described the statement as “insulting to thousands of decent, law-abiding Charlton fans” who have protested peacefully in the last few months.

A CARD spokesperson said: “Two weeks ago the regime issued a mad statement in which it sought to pretend protesting fans were being manipulated by a small, disaffected minority, despite the massive evidence of its own failure on and off the pitch.

“Now they are linking peaceful protests with criminality, including explicitly hooligan behaviour at an away match months before CARD was even set up.

“It is a shabby and insulting attempt to cover up their complete inability to run a professional football club, which is the real reason thousands of Charlton fans have been moved to protest.

“We challenge the club to publish the number of people charged for protest-related activity and the full extent of these criminal acts, which we understand they believe to include the throwing of beach balls towards the pitch at the last home game.”

CARD, which was formed in January to unify the efforts of supporters hoping to oust the Belgian millionaire, added: “We understand that the police have a duty to enforce the law as they see it, but the club should treat supporters with respect and not characterise protestors as criminals in order to try to discredit them.

“CARD has not been responsible for every protest and we acknowledge that a very small number of unacceptable acts have been committed by others, but the overall depiction of events in the statement is seriously misleading because thousands of people have protested peacefully match after match without incident.”