London, Jan. 12: A football stadium has been branded the quietest in the UK after visiting fans were asked not to bang drums or even shout too loudly.

The reason for the softly-softly approach at Cambridge City’s ground stems from the fact that there is an old people’s home next door to the stadium. The club says it is “walking on eggshells” after noise complaints to the city council.

In a Dr Martens League game 10 days ago, supporters of Eastbourne Borough FC were astounded when they arrived at the club’s Milton Road stadium to be told that there were rules about how noisy they could be.

The club’s chief steward told them they would not be allowed to bang drums and asked them not to chant too loudly. Julian Smith, 46, one of the visiting fans, said: “I’ve followed football for years and never come across anything like this before.”

Arthur Eastham, the chief executive of Cambridge City, which has an average attendance of 400 at home games, acknowledged the club had a noise problem.

“Our ground is in the cen- tre of Cambridge. We’ve got houses along one side and an old folk’s home along another,” he said.

“We have had problems with Cambridge city council. We were written to a few months ago after we held a youth tournament here and we had the environmental health people here. Unfortunately, Cambridge is not exactly a hot-bed of football, so sometimes we do have a few problems.”

Selwyn Anderson, the environmental protection manager at Cambridge city council, confirmed that the club had been warned about noise in 2003.