Ex policeman and member of the ClaretandHugh Facebook Group Brian Neil Gay cannot believe what he is seeing inside the London Stadium and pulls no punches in this brilliant blog.
I have supported the Irons since the late 60s but as someone involved in frontline policing back in the 80s and 90s including policing numerous football matches (albeit mostly in Bristol) I find the current security situation at the London Stadium almost unbelievable.
I say almost because as recent matches have shown it is a reality. How can a stadium operator, let alone one of a most prestigious stadia such as the London Stadium, get away without making their venue secure enough to host Premier League soccer?
This is Premier League football we are talking about, the national game, the most followed sport in the nation with years of rivalry of passionate, emotive sometimes aggressive and sometimes volatile support. The same sport which has drawn on years of policing and stewarding expertise (often learned the hard way) having made it in recent years, one of the safest public events to attend.
Once upon a time attending a soccer match wasn’t for the faint hearted but in recent years its been a lot different, for the better.
Policing such events is never straightforward and always has to include planning for various unwanted scenarios but scenarios that can and do occur yet can be dealt with swiftly and professionally with little disruption to the law abiding majority.
Surely it must have occurred to someone in the migration process from Boleyn to London Stadium that the same standards of stewarding, crowd management and policing would be required at the London Stadium as at any other top flight club and indeed the Boleyn before it. Surely they must have realised this won’t be like security at an athletics or rugby match?
Has the club been misled into believing that adequate security was in place at the start of this season or did they just assume it would be? Who actually approved what we have been served up so far as suitable because whoever it was the events so far have proved them wrong.
The fact that statements have been published by the Met Police stating they warned the operators nearly 12 months ago of the need to install adequate wireless radio network in order for them to provide the required level of service speaks volumes to me about how low down the list of proprieties safety has been.
Surely anyone who has any experience of attending professional football matches realises that there is an element of patron who go for the buzz, the tribal gathering, the confrontation with the rival fan?
Did someone in authority suddenly decide that those supporters would change lifelong habits and tendencies and be all sweetness and light, all sitting down and being nice and polite to each other and the rival fans without needing to properly segregate them?
Surely it must have occurred to someone that thousands of fans who have for years stood in a specific part of Upton Park would expect to be able to do the same in a section of the London Stadium.
Why wasn’t this addressed to avoid spreading them around among those who are not like minded triggering some of the supporter on supporter angst.
Surely it must have occurred to someone in the migration process that selling plus ones and twos would result in a lot of tickets being sold to fans of rival teams .., creating further potential flashpoints?
Failing to provide clear and distinct separation of rival fans in the stadium is just inviting trouble. Having no distinct away turnstiles is another potential flashpoint.
Every club has a section of support made up of the, let me call them boisterous, element, and I’m sure they bring in a not insignificant revenue, West Ham are no different in that respect.
When you bring together 50,000-plus members of society at a football match you will have a wide cross section of the public and the security and crowd management has to prepare for that.
It’s all very well claiming that no one should resort to fighting or verbally abusing others but lets get real. Every soccer crowd has them and in normal circumstances they don’t cross the line because the stewarding and or policing is in place to deal with it effectively.
However no police presence at all and poor stewarding means the fighters and the verbal abusers can have a free run.
What it comes down to in the end is that you or I, or any other member of the public has to be able to trust that when we attend large public gatherings such as soccer matches that our public safety has been provided for.
The London Stadium and the club need to ensure that public confidence is restored and that we can attend the stadium without having the safety concerns at the back of our minds and that must be done soon.
That means confident, competent stewarding backed by a visible police presence, proper segregation of home and away areas plus a rethink on how the tickets are allocated to contain like minded supporters with each other.
Someone needs to take responsibility and fast.
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It will have to be one thing at a time.Priority is to get the police involved.Then proper away fan segregation. But it’s all been said before, ii think we’ve identified the problems should be sorted sooner rather than later.COYI
Yeah having police about in any situation does tend to quiten down any potential troublemakers or flash points.A possible night in the cells or court date coming through the post is always a deterrent 🙂
At UP in the 80’s they were always in that box, when it used to flare up they came out and acted probably overly aggressive but in most cases they got the troublemakers out. There was more of a balance to be had in those days because the violence was expected and there was no respect for anyone including police add to that the assortment of tools that were brandished, there was sometimes more claret in the away section on the fans than there was on the pitch.