TENS of thousand football face “utter chaos” to their first home games of the season after unions called a five-day rail strike.

Albion chief executive Paul Barber called the disruption caused by the industrial dispute “totally unacceptable.”

Brighton and Hove Albion host Colchester in the first round of the League Cup on Tuesday August 9 and three days later the Seagulls’ first home Championship game kicks off against Nottingham Forest.

Throughout that week conductors on Southern trains plan to walk out in the latest episode of industrial action over a change in their role which they say will reduce passenger safety.

Albion chief executive Paul Barber said: "It is hugely disappointing that our fans, along with many others, are being subjected to such inconvenience and uncertainty regarding their travel arrangements to and from matches.

"Our business, like so many others in London and the south east, is now being severely disrupted by the dispute which, as a major customer of Southern, is totally unacceptable."

Paul Samrah, who led the Falmer For All campaign, added: “We’re trying to get into the Premiership which will have positive knock-ons for the whole city and this strike is another obstacle in our way."

He warned that of the Albion’s 25,000 seats, as many as 15,000 might be filled with train travellers who would either stay away or have to face the “utter chaos” of insufficient parking if they chose to drive.

The club is trying to arrange alternative travel to and from the matches and is in talks with transport providers to look at additional coach, bus and park-and-ride services.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT said: “Our fight is not with the travelling public it is with a company that thinks it can treat all of us like dirt.”

The union has offered to suspend threats of strike action for three months if the company calls a moratorium on introducing any changes for a similar period.

Govia has proposed to sit down for talks with conciliation service Acas, which the union said it would attend if they were “serious and genuine”.

A spokesman for Govia said that the operator had “no idea” what services would be provided during the strike, pointing out that contingency conductors drafted in during previous strike could not be relied upon to provide cover during such a lengthy stoppage.

The company could not guarantee that any special services would be provided to or from Falmer for the Albion matches.