Chelsea have been given an away allocation of 5,200 for the EFL cup game on Wednesday 26 October just 500 seats under the 10% EFL cup requirement.
It was was thought that the London Stadium Security Advisory Group (SAG) which includes the Metropolitan Police would look to drastically reduce the away allocation on safety grounds but that has not been the case.
There has been clashes with away fans during the Watford premier league game due to poor segregation within the stadium as well further clashes outside the stadium at the Bournemouth and Middlesborough Premier league games.
Part of the problem is one of geography of the London Stadium and the vast surrounding area to cover, it is logistically difficult to separate away and home on the mass exit of 57,000 fans.
One suggestion is to keep away fans behind a period of time to allow the majority of home fans to disperse but the police are known not to favor this tactic. The evening Chelsea game has the extra complication of being a London derby and a evening game with possible extra time and penalties meaning keeping Chelsea fans behind could be impractical.
On Saturday some West Ham home fans had their exit blocked by stewards and police to allow Middlesborough away fans to leave causing extra frustration.
The game is likely to rated to a category C+ high risk with a heavy police presence both inside and outside the stadium. Stadium owners are expected to have a temporary radio in place by then to solve a small number of reception black spots.
This is a London derby this must go off well, for us to have any chance of increased capacity. COYI
It’s a sad state of affairs that grown men feel the need to fight and get aggressive, and that once again we’re making the news for the wrong reasons. I get the adrenalin and the energy. I don’t get what flicks in an adults brain that says “yeah, the best thing to do right now is to go over to that guy and risk killing him and jail time just because he’s wearing a different colour football shirt”. If you’re one of those people, please explain to me why you want to bring such vicious negativity and hatred to a game of football. Shame on you.
BaddowHammer I’m sure it will go off
Despite the videos of Bournemouth and Boro showing kids fighting it is the middle aged guys that were arrested. The three arrested on Saturday were all in their forties
Just goes to show that the saying “another year older, another year wiser” doesn’t hold true for these morons. I was at Charlton last week (a mate supports them) and while they have much funnier fans than ours (who take it all way too seriously, moaning on forums rather than singing in the stands), I had to witness a young lad – no more than 11 – standing next to his Dad while shouting obscenities unrestricted!!! Nothing was off the table. Couldn’t believe it. But then I could, and my heart sank. Unless these thugs grow up and act responsibly, their kids are going to assume it’s okay to act like that. It’s why I don’t want to take my kids.
That big grassy area is prime territory for it to kick off, an easy to find meeting point, my worry is that like not so long ago there might be pre-arranged aggro between both sets of supporters, one lot in the crowd maybe and another lot without tickets outside. This is certainly an acid test so will have to see how it goes, I should be there on the night and hopefully any trouble can be contained.
With regard to potential trouble in the ground, I believe their are two main issues:
1. The away section needs to be totally blocked off so that the away fans do not have access to any other part of the stadium.
2. The away section itself should be moved back up to the higher tier only. Where it is at present it is far to prominent and has the home fans on either side very close. Supposedly there has been a premier league initiative insisting clubs provide away fans close to the pitch. But Man U surprise surprise has an exemption because they have a disabled section behind one of the goals, but this doesn’t go all round the whole stadium. Theres probably 30% of one end taken up by the disabled section and they have more than enough room to comply. If Man U can have exemption on such dodgy grounds surely we can with regard to safety, which is by far more important.
There are two problems here:
Firstly, the stadium was not built for football and the seg lines aren’t sufficient. Eug is right saying the away fans shouldn’t have access to other parts of the stadium.
Secondly, we have sold over 50,000 season tickets. Who have we sold these extra tickets to? What checks were put in place?