Oldham Athletic player Kian Harratt speaks out after a throwing a chair which hit a woman during poolside chaos in Ibiza.
The 23-year-old forward has since apologised, expressing regret for the incident, but claimed he acted in response to a man punching his friend and a chair being thrown at him first.
He denied intending to harm the woman. Footage showed the moment a woman struck in the head and a man knocked into a pool.
British holidaymaker Kyle Crawford reported that Harratt and his friends were acting aggressively toward a group of women before the incident.
The video went viral all over social media with Harratt reposting a clip of the fight on his TikTok account before removing it, also liking a number of comments on a separate post on his TikTok account which read: ‘Keep chairs down my brother’ and ‘my striker plz stay out of trouble now’.
Kian Harratt just can’t stay out of trouble can he 😂😂😂 #BCAFC pic.twitter.com/9MLXng9dFP
— Sam (P) (@SamK1ng06) June 24, 2025
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Brandon Watkins from Nuneaton, who was one of the men involved in the the troubling scenes with Kian Harratt, said in a Facebook post: ‘Five lads came to our hotel being nobs around the pool splashing people throwing balls at women and one lad says ‘what are you looking at’.
“so he approaches me and I drop him… they then start throwing chairs because they couldn’t fight and everyone knows how slippy it is round a pool so stopping chairs hitting us/
“I slip in the pool and that’s what went viral.
“If they let me get back out the pool or got in with me then they would have been slapped again but they didn’t they got kicked out.
“Everyone sat around the pool after was coming up to us shaking our hands and buying us drinks because the lads were bellends!”
Brandon Watkins, seen below, was one of the lads confronted by Harratt’s group at the Marco Polo Hotel in San Antonio.
British holidaymaker Kyle Crawford alleges that Harratt and three of his friends were ‘being horrible’ to a group of women, which started the fight.
‘There was four lads, we didn’t know who they were, being horrible to some women,’ he said to The Sun.
‘They were just in the pool splashing them and throwing balls at them – being proper immature
‘Me and my mates stuck up for them and then in the end, they’d come to attack my mate.’
A second source who was caught up in the brawl told The Sun: “It was Kian Harratt. He was bothering these girls.”
Kyle Crawford, seen in the picture below, said Kian Harratt and his pals were “throwing little rugby balls” at the females inside the pool, one of which being the woman that was struck by a chair as seen in the video.
“They were just in the pool splashing them and throwing balls at them – being proper immature,” he explained.
“Me and my mates stuck up for them and then in the end, they’d come to attack my mate.”
Kyle claimed that there was an altercation and his mate was punched first during the fighting, adding that his pal hit back, and the whole confrontation “calmed down” briefly, before footballer Kian chairs towards Kyle and his mates.
“They start throwing chairs – they threw a chair at a woman,” he said.
“That’s when they threw the chair and it hits me, and I go into the pool.”
Kyle said he asked the group: “What you doing? Why are you hitting women?”
“We just stuck up for her, the lads were just being idiots, immature.
“This video doesn’t do us justice for actually being gentlemen and looking after these women.”
He claimed after the chaos, the men “all got kicked out”, with Kyle saying he and his mates were praised by staff for standing up to them.
“All the staff around the pool said thanks and what gentlemen we were,” he said.
“The women thought they were idiots, immature and stupid.”
Kyle also said that his mate allegedly needed stitches from hotel staff.
Referring to the man, Brandon Watkins, who allegedly started the fighting, Kian said: “He was the worst man you could ever come across and a bully! He was 6’6 and built like a brick!”
Kian said via TikTok: “Just for the people who have seen the video circling the internet off me throwing a chair “FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON” 👍🏻
“here’s the fella who started it all and let me just say he was the worst man you could ever come across and a bully! He was 6,6 and built like a brick!
“Anyways he was swimming over to young couples while there at chilling and trying to make the lad feel uncomfortable flirting with there girls and all sorts off daft stuff like that!
“And one off my mates who is only 18 by the way jumped in the pool and started splashing him having a laugh like you do on holiday then it’s stopped!
“After that my mate got out off the pool and the big fella shouted over to him wtf are you looking at so obviously my mates said to him I’m looking at you the fella as then flipped and started walking to my mate and the woman who gets his with the chair is in this video here trying to stop him my pal then goes dancing over to him not expecting the man to punch him…
“but anyways he hit my pal in the face and dropped him and then proceeded to kick him in the face while he was down 👌🏻
“the video cut off tho after that obviously like any normal mates would do we’ve backed him up I tried staying out the way as I don’t want the trouble a chair then got lobbed towards me so I picked the chair up and threw it back and it accidentally hit the woman who as you can see went down abit easy but besides that I was very apologetic and I felt terrible
“but I’d have felt even worse if we left my mate to get badly beaten up while he’s trying to enjoy his holiday I hope this video opens peoples eyes I had to post it cause I’ve had nothing but abuse all morning and I’m sure this will clear it or so it should 👍🏻 #fyp”
@kian.harratt3 Just for the people who have seen the video circling the internet off me throwing a chair “FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON” 👍🏻 here’s the fella who started it all and let me just say he was the worst man you could ever come across and a bully! He was 6,6 and built like a brick! Anyways he was swimming over to young couples while there at chilling and trying to make the lad feel uncomfortable flirting with there girls and all sorts off daft stuff like that! And one off my mates who is only 18 by the way jumped in the pool and started splashing him having a laugh like you do on holiday then it’s stopped! After that my mate got out off the pool and the big fella shouted over to him wtf are you looking at so obviously my mates said to him I’m looking at you the fella as then flipped and started walking to my mate and the woman who gets his with the chair is in this video here trying to stop him my pal then goes dancing over to him not expecting the man to punch him…but anyways he hit my pal in the face and dropped him and then proceeded to kick him in the face while he was down👌🏻 the video cut off tho after that obviously like any normal mates would do we’ve backed him up I tried staying out the way as I don’t want the trouble a chair then got lobbed towards me so I picked the chair up and threw it back and it accidentally hit the woman who as you can see went down abit easy but besides that I was very apologetic and I felt terrible, but I’d have felt even worse if we left my mate to get badly beaten up while he’s trying to enjoy his holiday I hope this video opens peoples eyes I had to post it cause I’ve had nothing but abuse all morning and I’m sure this will clear it or so it should 👍🏻#fyp ♬ original sound 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗣𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗛𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗧𝘃
Brandon Watkins has since hit back at Harratt’s claim that he started it, saying: ‘I’m 6ft 4 for a start and I’m not a bully.’
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Brandon alleged that Kian ‘provoked’ his friends and their whole group were ‘looking for a fight’ when they arrived at the Marco Polo Hotel in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon.
He said: ‘The fight happened on day five of our holiday. We’d been around that pool every day and getting on with everybody and making friends with people.
‘These guys turned up and started throwing balls about. ‘Several people were saying they’re going to be trouble even before it kicked off.
‘At one point one of his mates got in the pool next to me and just started aggressively splashing me. One of them said what are you looking at?
‘Next thing I knew Kian picked up a chair and threw it.
‘I got the impression he was intoxicated, they were sat near the bar before and if they were sober they wouldn’t have acted like that.
‘After the brawl happened people were buying us drinks and congratulating us, that’s how bad this group were
‘It’s just outrageous for a footballer to behave like he did.’
The footballer’s mum, Kathleen Duncan, told MailOnline she was “aware” of the video – but declined to comment further.
She said: ‘Kian won’t be back til later. He’s still on holiday. I think he’s meant to be flying this morning. He was supposed to have landed in Leeds but he cancelled his flight because he missed it.
‘He wouldn’t be able to say anything [about the video] – it would be down to his agent. He will be back later this afternoon.’
Vibra Hotels, which runs the Marco Polo Hotel in San Antonio, has bizarrely claimed ‘no chairs were thrown at guests’, despite it all being filmed, but that it was a ‘shame’ its staff had to deal with the fight
In their statement, spokesperson for the chain said to the Oldham Times: ‘The fight in the pool lasted less than three minutes since our corporate security at the hotel acted immediately.
‘No chairs were thrown at any guests; the lady got in the middle, it seems that with the intention to stop the fight.
‘The lady was asked by our security members if she wanted to report to the police and file a complaint, but she said she was okay and she did not want to, that she just slipped and she was fine, and she thanked our security members.
‘It took less than three minutes for the incident to end since our security acted quickly, and as soon as they acted, the fighters left the pool area.
‘It really is a shame for us and for our teams to have to deal with this kind of issue, especially when people are supposed to come on holiday to enjoy and have fun, and not to act in other ways.’
Kian has also faced multiple controversies in recent years, in 2023, while on loan at Fleetwood Town from Huddersfield Town, he was fined £1,153 for poaching in North Yorkshire after being caught with poaching equipment and dogs.
He was also convicted of poaching in East Yorkshire in 2022, fined £830 plus £233 in costs.
Additionally, during the 2023-24 season, Harratt was banned from football for four months and fined £3,200 for placing 484 bets on matches over three years, including 36 bets on Huddersfield games, though he was not in the matchday squad for those games.
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