By CandH blogger Allen Cummings
The shocking events of Sunday have cast a dark shadow over last weekend’s football programme.
The vast majority of football fans are appalled at the violent attack that took place on Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish at Birmingham City’s St Andrews ground.
And we are equally appalled just a few hours later at the second encroachment onto the field of play at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, with Manchester United’s Chris Smalling the apparent target for yet another sick individual.
Those incidents followed another at Friday’s night’s game at Easter Road between Hibernian and Rangers.
This is all totally unacceptable! Calls for action against the perpetrators and the three home clubs involved are already growing. There will of course be full investigations into all three disgraceful incidents.
Suggestions for possible action and even legislation to eradicate this unacceptable stain on our game have been voiced and continue to grow. One such suggestion aired is that the distance between supporters and the playing area should be increased in order to give stewards and police more space and time to react to anyone seeking to leave the stand and take the field.
A suggestion that the first half dozen or so rows of seats, maybe more, should either be covered and unused, or even removed altogether to provide a minimum acceptable distance, have been made.
Extreme some might say – but a measure that could gain significant momentum and support and I believe more acceptable than the introduction of fences and that ‘caged in’ feel.
As we know too well, one of the criticisms frequently aired of our London Stadium is that the front seating is too far from the pitch, reducing the intimidatory atmosphere of the ground to visiting teams.
There has even been a recent proposal by the club to reconfigure the lower seating in the Bobby Moore and Trevor Brooking ends behind the goals to placate certain supporters and bring fans closer to the action. Maybe that’s a step the club might not want to pursue now.
Maybe it’s a step we won’t be allowed if new legislation is introduced. Just maybe the configuration of the seating at the London Stadium will become the blueprint for the rest of football. How ironic would that be if others were made to fall in line with us.
There will of course be those who point out we had our own pitch invaders last season but that was found to be more to do with the inadequate stewarding than the proximity of the seating. That issue has been addressed, and similar unacceptable events are now highly unlikely.
There is no denying a bigger gap gives more protection to the players – and action to facilitate that is a distinct possibility in the current climate.
As always, there’s a real danger of emotion getting in the way of sensible decision-making, and media-fuelled over-reaction. Nobody but the thickest of morons condones what these guys did, but a measured response is required.
Being close to the action is part and parcel of football, and to take further steps like this to punish the majority because of the actions of a few just sanitises the experience.
It simply needs to be written into law that if you enter a prohibited section of an arena, regardless of the event, you face severe penalties – a crippling fine, banning orders and community service. If you go on to hit someone, then it’s assault, and the same rules should apply (on top of the above) than would apply in the street.
The individuals need to pay for being total idiots, or be deterred from doing it.
The footage from the AV-BC game was shocking and ridiculous.
There was a point raised on NBC (US) during Halftime of the Arsenal match that this goon got close enough to Grealish to hit him, what if he had smuggled in a knife? Or produced a makeshift one? I still remember Monica Seles getting stabbed during a tennis match back in the 93. This wasn’t just some drunkard out there running around making a fool of himself.
If something as simple as having a bit more distance between the seats and the playing surface will help curb this, then I say do it! Match day should be a safe haven for everyone, including the players, officials, and fans!
Totally agree Mr. Buddy, I see no reason why a club and it’s real fans should suffer because of a mindless moron. New legislation is required to punish the minority not the majority.
On a related note I saw that the author of a vile tweet, which I won’t share, relating to Grealish’s dead brother is being investigated by the West Midlands Police. I hope there is severe punishment for this too. If the law doesn’t exist to punish these online cowards this should be changed too.
Utterly ridiculous to change the entire rules for every sporting event that takes place due to one (or a few) mindless idiots.
The actions by that person are completely senseless, idiotic and I am glad he is now servicing prison time. It was assault plain and simple, but please do not overreact and change every single stadium, every single sporting event, when in reality there have been thousands of games in the Prem and lower, thousands of concerts, events etc without an incident like this.
Assaults like this happen all the time all over the country, it doesn’t mean we stop people going out or near each other in public just incase it happens!
The punishment and action taken by the police in this instance, 14 weeks jail time, a fine & a ban from all football for 10 years (lifetime from Birmingham) should be a strong enough warning. I think they have dealt with the matter pretty well and swiftly. Maybe a longer Jail sentence would have been good but it is what it can be.
Just came in over the ESPN notifications, the goon has plead guilty and will be in jail for 14 weeks and banned from any UK football for ten years!
Once a moron ; always a moron . That’s no reason to deny real football fans of their enjoyment . The seating should be nearer to create a better atmosphere . A stronger atmosphere would probably cause less incedents as the crowds would be less tolerant of idiots . The problem with big stadiums is that there are too many people who don’t support either team ,,, too many tourists with cameras hanging from Thier Gregory pecks . Too much television that attracts numbskulls & numbnuts . It’s all about MONEY and football is taking a back stage position . The poor feeding the riciciciciih . Time to put a cap on players earnings .
When It comes to coin throwing idiots I’m glad there is a distance to pitch at the London stadium. When it comes to pitch invading idiots it seems to make no difference as we saw at the Burnley game last year. What needs to be changed is we need professional security put in place. Not poorly paid youngsters and students but professional security guards of the close protection/ bodyguard/ military kind put in place to deal specifically with pitch invaders.
Inadequate stewarding West Ham reduced there pitch side security for the Burnley game so not sure how that is stewards fault and they have just recently reduced security by hundreds it’s all about saving a few bob
West Ham didn’t reduce the stewards. West Ham have no control over it.