Fans behaviour.

[Frank Lincoln]

Another weekend, and again more problems with fans behaviour. There were people coming onto pitches at Rotherham and Nottingham Forest, not to mention the disgusting abuse directed at Bolton Wanderers staff at Morecambe that forced the referee to stop the game. The incident at the City Ground was particularly worrying, just say that person had a knife, who knows what might have happened.

While nobody wants to see the return of fences, something must be done as supporter encroachment seem to be happening every week. I do not claim to know the answers, but a start would be that people invading the pitch be banned from every ground in the country, and also the police should prosecute them, and hopefully stiff sentences will be handed down on these people. There is no doubt that alcohol plays a part in some of this behaviour. Yesterday there had been disturbances in Nottingham city centre from lunchtime as sadly a fair number of Leicester City fans were the worse for wear due to drink.

One last point that might help. Players must be told not to taunt opposing fans when they score a goal. This only adds to what at times can be a tense situation.

Sorry for the long rant, but something must be done before a player gets seriously hurt.

 

[Golden Oldie]

Another weekend, and again more problems with fans behaviour. There were people coming onto pitches at Rotherham and Nottingham Forest, not to mention the disgusting abuse directed at Bolton Wanderers staff at Morecambe that forced the referee to stop the game. The incident at the City Ground was particularly worrying, just say that person had a knife, who knows what might have happened.

While nobody wants to see the return of fences, something must be done as supporter encroachment seem to be happening every week. I do not claim to know the answers, but a start would be that people invading the pitch be banned from every ground in the country, and also the police should prosecute them, and hopefully stiff sentences will be handed down on these people. There is no doubt that alcohol plays a part in some of this behaviour. Yesterday there had been disturbances in Nottingham city centre from lunchtime as sadly a fair number of Leicester City fans were the worse for wear due to drink.

One last point that might help. Players must be told not to taunt opposing fans when they score a goal. This only adds to what at times can be a tense situation.

Sorry for the long rant, but something must be done before a player gets seriously hurt.

Hope to heaven your thoughts are those in the minds of football authorities. Any thoughts of standing areas will be at best delayed unless this trend is stopped. The behaviour generally iro football fans has improved massively in recent times and a return to the jungle standards, within and outside grounds, of the past, is to be avoided like the plague.

 

[WickedWolfie]

Another weekend, and again more problems with fans behaviour. There were people coming onto pitches at Rotherham and Nottingham Forest, not to mention the disgusting abuse directed at Bolton Wanderers staff at Morecambe that forced the referee to stop the game. The incident at the City Ground was particularly worrying, just say that person had a knife, who knows what might have happened.

While nobody wants to see the return of fences, something must be done as supporter encroachment seem to be happening every week. I do not claim to know the answers, but a start would be that people invading the pitch be banned from every ground in the country, and also the police should prosecute them, and hopefully stiff sentences will be handed down on these people. There is no doubt that alcohol plays a part in some of this behaviour. Yesterday there had been disturbances in Nottingham city centre from lunchtime as sadly a fair number of Leicester City fans were the worse for wear due to drink.

One last point that might help. Players must be told not to taunt opposing fans when they score a goal. This only adds to what at times can be a tense situation.

Sorry for the long rant, but something must be done before a player gets seriously hurt.

Not just alcohol Frank if you believe what is posted on here about the South Bank in particular.

 

[WickedWolfie]

Hope to heaven your thoughts are those in the minds of football authorities. Any thoughts of standing areas will be at best delayed unless this trend is stopped. The behaviour generally iro football fans has improved massively in recent times and a return to the jungle standards, within and outside grounds, of the past, is to be avoided like the plague.

Indeed. The last thing that we as football fans need is for things to be let slip further and then, after an incident, a Draconian crackdown. You just know that with populist politicians around that is exactly what would happen.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Unfortunately it mirrors society at the moment, it’s unravelled a bit since covid and generally people have more of a “do what I want” attitude.

The authorities need to crack down on it, these idiots need proper sentencing as a deterrent to others.

 

[Sketchead]

Yep it's definitely got worse since we've returned. While the white stuff has always been part of it for many people, it seems more people are doing it than not doing it these days - can't be helping the idiots with thinking they're invincible.

'Posturing' [as stupid as it is] and giving out some stick is part of the football but the scenes we're seeing aren't good.

 

[Macman]

Agree Frank, but Id love to know how authorities go about banning someone from every ground etc, surely a mate of theirs can obtain a ticket for them, sadly there must be easy ways round it.

also agree about players taunting the opposition fans after they have scored. I appreciate players get abuse from opposition fans during the game, so scoring against them must be fantastic, but deliberately goading them doesnt help the situation, in the same way they will run to the corner where its just opposition fans and celebrate. The bottle throwing incidents recently are awful, but the players don’t help by deliberately running off and celebrating as a huddle right in front of them.

 

[Peszkywolf]

Trouble around the subway after the Norwich game, not sure what happened exactly?
Not all that bothered if it's 2 groups wanting to fight each other (more important things in life to get bothered about), but innocent scarf wearing fans and attacking players on the pitch is just bullying and moronic.

 

[steve vena]

Hope to heaven your thoughts are those in the minds of football authorities. Any thoughts of standing areas will be at best delayed unless this trend is stopped. The behaviour generally iro football fans has improved massively in recent times and a return to the jungle standards, within and outside grounds, of the past, is to be avoided like the plague.

Kids love the Charlie these days I guess and it's cheap now.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Definitely a need for better stewarding and harsh punishments for offenders. How practical it is to ban people from every ground is another question,back to Thatcher's ID cards anyone? Let's also be clear though, nothing that has happened remotely justifies even thinking about returning to fencing,maybe there is an infrastructure solution around something between fans and pitch though.

 

[TheConcourse]

Not sure what’s happened with people. Can only assume Covid has affected peoples mental health and distorted their view on the world. There seems to be a lot of anger everywhere.

The internet in its current form doesn’t help to be fair. People hide behind fake handles with aggressive personas.

 

[sc91]

Football mirrors society, which is changing, its the big day out, on the beer sniffing gear and that leads to all sort of trouble. Add in the general malaise in football where the closed shop has never been more evident and it just becomes a self serving prophecy.

 

[sc91]

Not sure what’s happened with people. Can only assume Covid has affected peoples mental health and distorted their view on the world. There seems to be a lot of anger everywhere.

The internet in its current form doesn’t help to be fair. People hide behind fake handles with aggressive personas.

Id say social media doesn't help but without throwing this way off topic, we've got those in power across numerous nations who do as they want whilst happily punishing others, its hardly much a surprise that society ends up reflecting that, id much argue I am with that as well, I'm far angrier these days over simple things than ever in the past before.

 

[TheConcourse]

Id say social media doesn't help but without throwing this way off topic, we've got those in power across numerous nations who do as they want whilst happily punishing others, its hardly much a surprise that society ends up reflecting that, id much argue I am with that as well, I'm far angrier these days over simple things than ever in the past before.

Feel the same. My patience levels have reduced pre-Covid to now, although we’ve pretty much had two children during lock down, a lack of sleep and all the other world stuff going on.

I don’t know the stats but I assume people spent way more time on social platforms when locked down. Perhaps they’ve learned new behaviours?

Genuinely dislike the world we’re creating. Digital should be enabling genuine human connections, at the moment it’s an echo chamber for anger at scale.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

One thing I’ve noticed is the prevalence of the “xxx xxx is a sex offender” chant. There’s players getting it sang towards them when there’s not even any claims that they are.

 

[fleck1]

I don't have an issue with players celebrating in front of fans, why should fans be allowed to abuse and chant about player's for 90 mins, then not expect a little back when the player gets one over them. That's just making excuses for the idiots that run on to the pitch and think its ok to attack players and officials.


With the banning orders, don't they have to report to their local police station at certain times on their teams match day or have I imagined that.

 

[WolfLing]

Football mirrors society, which is changing, its the big day out, on the beer sniffing gear and that leads to all sort of trouble.

Think this is it to be fair.

It used to be, "he's had too much to drink, he needs to stop drinking and sober up". Now it's, "he's had too much to drink, he needs a livener to sober him up".

There's no off switch, no limits and no responsibility.

I'm not really anti-drugs or drink, I'm just anti-selfish, offensive idiots! People need to be aware of the consequences of what they do and the impact on others around them, but as you say, football mirrors society, which is broken.

That's without even going into the cardiotoxicity of mixing booze and cocaine. Probably one of the worst combinations health-wise, increasing the risk of a heart-attack massively. It's a sad state of affairs when the first question a doctor will ask someone under 40 suffering with heart-pain whether or not they've taken cocaine. But they can always blame the vaccine I suppose!!

 

[WolfLing]

Genuinely dislike the world we’re creating. Digital should be enabling genuine human connections, at the moment it’s an echo chamber for anger at scale.

There's a theory that the digital revolution could actually see us regress as a species, rather than progress! Unfettered access to limitless information, no matter how true. We could be in for a new dark age, where science and fact are rejected (we've already seen this start).

 

[Netherton Wolf]

No discipline from a young age at home, no discipline at schools, parents who dont give a ****, broken families, warring families, etc etc , I know Im from the older generation growing up in the 60s, but I would never have spoken to my parents/teachers/peers the way I hear some kids of today, I have no idea what the answer is, but society of today is broken, so sad

 

[TheConcourse]

No discipline from a young age at home, no discipline at schools, parents who dont give a ****, broken families, warring families, etc etc , I know Im from the older generation growing up in the 60s, but I would never have spoken to my parents/teachers/peers the way I hear some kids of today, I have no idea what the answer is, but society of today is broken, so sad

Good and bad from all generations. I know people who are 50+, they constantly share racist messages through WhatsApp channels for example.

Everyone plays their part in creating a better society. Age isn’t the thing.

Genuine question: has parenting really changed that much or do kids have more access to things which makes parenting harder?

Going one stage further on this. Since remote work landed I’ve never been more available/on-hand to answer work questions. My fault, but I can feel myself eating into time with the kids answering emails etc.

I think everyone’s attention has been stolen to a degree which really reduces the time to think about how to really discipline kids now. Genuinely think people are tired which creates a bad environment to make good decisions.

 

[WolfLing]

Genuine question: has parenting really changed that much or do kids have more access to things which makes parenting harder?

Both I think. Kids are bombarded with as much noise as we are from media/adverts etc. Only way to limit this is to limit 'screen-time'.

I wouldn't answer my parents back or do some of the things my kids get away with through fear of a smacked ****! But yet I wouldn't dream of smacking my own kids. It makes it harder because you have to explain things more!

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

So many factors at play here - lack of a proper upbringing, poor education/ no respect, social media influence, cocaine, beer, economic polarization - the list really goes on.

Either way, these are just factors as to why this is happening more and more. What has to be said is none of these factors make the actions (particularly the Leicester fan) acceptable.

If you can’t keep your **** together when a rival player dares to give some back when they score you really are a pathetic individual.

 

[sc91]

No discipline from a young age at home, no discipline at schools, parents who dont give a ****, broken families, warring families, etc etc , I know Im from the older generation growing up in the 60s, but I would never have spoken to my parents/teachers/peers the way I hear some kids of today, I have no idea what the answer is, but society of today is broken, so sad

Probably heading for the thread to be shut, but I generally think the real lack of hope has killed off society like that for generations. You've got a society where living with your parents in your 40s is normal because of the unaffordable nature of the country, and that trickles down, and is reflected by many areas (such as the cities, like Wolverhampton) where there's such neglect just leads to the '**** em all' attitude which gets reflected in the football games we see.

Its not just England, this is happening in France as well. Youth turning to football as an outlets for what is a pretty mundane existence.

 

[topcat99]

Good and bad from all generations. I know people who are 50+, they constantly share racist messages through WhatsApp channels for example.

Everyone plays their part in creating a better society. Age isn’t the thing.

It’s interesting and true that age is irrelevant.

There is a guy in his 80s in our village, horrible old git.
Quote from another elderly bloke “He was a nasty obnoxious young man and now he is a nasty obnoxious old man”

The pitch invasion stuff is getting worrying though, because it will either end up turning violent or the powers that be will react in a disproportionate way and make things worse for the innocent fans.

 

[Frank Lincoln]

Thank you for the many, varied responses. I think we all agree that football needs to do something. I totally agree that bringing back fences should not happen, but people need to take responsibility for their behaviour. Just because someone supports or plays for a different team is not an excuse for what is happening.

Banning people from every ground is probably not practical, but again an answer needs to be found. Banter is fine, but some of the things occurring at the moment are way beyond that. Maybe, as has been mentioned, the reintroduction of standing areas should be put on hold, but would that stop someone running onto the pitch.

A good friend of mine is a Leicester fan, and he follows them everywhere. He told me last night that he was ashamed and embarrassed to support his team after events yesterday. Not just the idiot running onto the pitch to attack Nottingham Forest players, but he said the centre of Nottingham was a no go area with large groups of people from Leicester (I won't call them supporters) behaving in a way reminiscent of the bad old days.

As I said in my original post, I do not know the answer, but the football authorities have a responsibility to ensure people's safety at games.

One thing that should and could be done is to tell broadcasters that local derbies will not be allowed to kick off in the late afternoon. Many people were warning of potential trouble in Nottingham yesterday, and sadly that is what happened.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

It’s interesting and true that age is irrelevant.

There is a guy in his 80s in our village, horrible old git.
Quote from another elderly bloke “He was a nasty obnoxious young man and now he is a nasty obnoxious old man”

The pitch invasion stuff is getting worrying though, because it will either end up turning violent or the powers that be will react in a disproportionate way and make things worse for the innocent fans.

Reminds me of a great quote from Billy Connolly “young ********s invariably grow into old ********s”

 

[Deleted member 11021Mcm]

As soon as youth culture moves from coke back to E, the problem will disappear.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

I don’t get to go away anymore. Friends who go to Blues away games (I know, I know) tell me crowd behaviour is getting a lot worse. Seats being ripped up and thrown @ Derby.

 

[waveney wolf]

A quick rough guess,I reckon about 444,000 attended cup games this weekend..
To get 1 or 2 idiots isn't a bad ratio

 

[Supadavewolf]

One last point that might help. Players must be told not to taunt opposing fans when they score a goal. This only adds to what at times can be a tense situation.

Thought the same for ages. Celebrate with your own supporters, fine - celebrate in front of (ie, antagonise) opposing supporters and get a yellow.

 

[crocos]

The potential consequences of this stuff are worrying, just as standing seems to be on the cards to be returning etc. And I don't disagree with the general sentiments on here around the problems. We're in a strange place just now and you can certainly see things getting stranger yet.

Is it such a new thing though? As in if society is collapsing etc etc, and if society were more effective by being tighter & more disciplined back in the 50s - 60s - 70s etc, we'd not have had all the football troubles in the 70s & 80s? And let's face it - it was much worse then than it is now! Part of the "human condition" seems to be looking back to the "good old days" when people were better because things were better /safer / stricter / more moral etc.

Doesn't change the fact though that things do seem to be deteriorating again.

 

[Coops]

Was sat in J2 and saw some Norwich fans holding their seats in the air (that they'd broken off) when they scored...

 

[TFWanderers]

I don’t get to go away anymore. Friends who go to Blues away games (I know, I know) tell me crowd behaviour is getting a lot worse. Seats being ripped up and thrown @ Derby.

Blues are definitely no angels. They've done the same down here.

I was shocked seeing the videos from Nottingham of supposed Leicester fans smashing up bars etc. Faces on show. Some doors will be put through in the next few weeks. We have moved on significantly from the days of bars being turned over etc. Not personally heard / seen it happen down Wolverhampton for a good 15 years.

 

[lostwolf]

One thing I’ve noticed is the prevalence of the “xxx xxx is a sex offender” chant. There’s players getting it sang towards them when there’s not even any claims that they are.

With a name like that though (Triple X Triple X) there are always going to be suspicions

 

[Sketchead]

One thing I’ve noticed is the prevalence of the “xxx xxx is a sex offender” chant. There’s players getting it sang towards them when there’s not even any claims that they are.

Didn't go down too well with Akinfenwa last week, didn't he go into the MK Dons away end and confront them?

 

[thommo1984]

This was linked to this in the Albion thread, and it's an interesting read:

Fans behaviour at away games

Fans behaviour at away games

westbrom.com

Definitely something going on. UK society is on a knife-edge currently I think. Only going to get worse this year with the state of the government, cost of living, etc.

 

[Frank Lincoln]

This was linked to this in the Albion thread, and it's an interesting read:

Fans behaviour at away games

Fans behaviour at away games

westbrom.com

Definitely something going on. UK society is on a knife-edge currently I think. Only going to get worse this year with the state of the government, cost of living, etc.

That thread from the Albion boards is interesting. It seems clear it is now becoming a regular occurance for visiting supporters to cause disruption. Will we return to the days of away fans being banned from certain games. It is a shame how this problem has returned, but it must be addressed.

 

[WickedWolfie]

This was linked to this in the Albion thread, and it's an interesting read:

Fans behaviour at away games

Fans behaviour at away games

westbrom.com

Definitely something going on. UK society is on a knife-edge currently I think. Only going to get worse this year with the state of the government, cost of living, etc.

With a hard right wing populist government in power and many of the checks and balances removed after BREXIT I am really scared that your last two sentences are correct and what the likely responses are.

 

[topcat99]

Boris government “hard right”? Oh my poor ribs!

Soft centre more like. However 440,000 fans at games over weekend?

You’d have doubled that if the Leeds away following had turned out!

 

[Peszkywolf]

Boris government “hard right”? Oh my poor ribs!

Soft centre more like. However 440,000 fans at games over weekend?

You’d have doubled that if the Leeds away following had turned out!

I'd say centre- right wing in it's culture wars and centre right in it's economics looking at how it treats things like Grenfell, letting the market forces get on with it.
But I don't blame the government for fan behaviour, however bad they are ATM.
Think it's got a lot to do with coke, pent up years of doing nothing, and like people above have said, a lot of young people have got nothing to lose with a tough future so football and football violence is pure escapism.