Old Timer;
The aircraft was on a private charter, BUT that still means that Public Transport rules are in place. When I fly my boss he is allowed onto the FD beceause it is his trainset and he's letting me play with it, the flight is private for him.
When someone else charters the aircraft they are not allowed by SOPs beyond the cockpit door. If they want to speak with me the CC come and get me and I go back into the cabin, although it is a Private Charter, money is changing hands and therefore it is Public Transport and is an AOC flight, just the same as the flight under discussion. All a question of semantics.
The same rules apply on this flight. The football team had chartered the AC, just the same as if it was Club Med, Club Carribean or Club Anyone You Like (formerly Club 18-30) Therefore it was Public Transport (an AOC flight) and company SOPs said no pax on the FD.
I have worked for a major carrier and there was always at least one Pablo style "character" in the crewroom. He took the heat off the rest of us, but the majority of pilots would express the opinion "Why do we put up with this guy?"
Certainly PM is not a character we would want to employ. Pilots are not robotic slaves to SOPs, but they do know that SOPs are there to protect them and their passengers. If a pilot saves lives by stepping outside the boundaries then thank god for that man, if he does it just to but heads with management then he should be cleared for a standard job centre deparure with no slot delays.