Armed police will be on Standby on saturday.

[Dabby]

Armed police will be on standby and more than 100 officers will help keep rival football fans apart at tomorrow's South Yorkshire derby between Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers.

Read more at: https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/armed-police-on-standby-for-rotherham-united-and-doncaster-rovers-clash-1-9033405

[Bristol Red Rover]

Hope they have legs too. 

[Padge_DRFC]

Bit extreme

[DearneValleyRover]

When did this become a war zone fixture, seems to me that SYP are the only ones bigging this up, if there is trouble they will have gone a long way to contributing to it.

[Donnywolf]

Seems a bizarre message "to send"

Armed Police - really ? The Police who do a great job get enough flack if they shoot someone who is armed and particularly if they are "fooled" by a Replica weapon - so there would be zero chance of them opening fire on an unarmed crowd surely

There were bigger crowds than 11500 years back and a bigger percentage of those were actively seeking "aggro" and the Police did what they could with Horses Dogs and Man power so this seems to be just "sabre rattling"

There is more chance of us winning 10-0 with all goals in the last 10 Minutes than a single shot being fired

[bobjimwilly]

why the f*ck are armed police needed? No fans there will have guns. And if any officer dared to fire their weapon against an unarmed member of the public they would face severe consequences - this isn't the f*cking USA!

[RedJ]

We're hardly going into some ultra infested war zone hahaha, this is a massive overreaction.

Yet nothing anywhere near this scale was put on in Doncaster when they came.

[Super Colin Cramb]

The article does say that armed police are on standby so we will only see them if really needed. If that’s what is needed to keep women and children safe say so be it.

[IDM]

They also say that Wednesday are at home too.

Maybe the armed police on standby is a precautionary thing that police do these days whenever there are large crowd public events. As far fetched as it sounds, it could just be an anti-terrorist contingency plan, and nowt to do with football per se??

[Donnywolf]

Personally they are as I said above just "sabre rattling" - letting people know they are not messing about BUT seriously are they going to brandish Automatic Weapons to break up a few fights ?

Better get Sabre the Alsatian on the job and let him and his Pals loose !

[Donnywolf]

They also say that Wednesday are at home too.

Maybe the armed police on standby is a precautionary thing that police do these days whenever there are large crowd public events. As far fetched as it sounds, it could just be an anti-terrorist contingency plan, and nowt to do with football per se??

Thats quite possible - and makes more sense - because whether we as Fans like it or not sooner or later someone will target a "soft" Target where there is a biggish Crowd for their gratification / to further their cause (which it never does)

[IDM]

Lets just hope that the only battles are on the pitch this afternoon.

[RedJ]

They also say that Wednesday are at home too.

Maybe the armed police on standby is a precautionary thing that police do these days whenever there are large crowd public events. As far fetched as it sounds, it could just be an anti-terrorist contingency plan, and nowt to do with football per se??

Thats quite possible - and makes more sense - because whether we as Fans like it or not sooner or later someone will target a "soft" Target where there is a biggish Crowd for their gratification / to further their cause (which it never does)

Always amazes me nobody has ever decided to try and attack Old Trafford. Biggest (club) ground in the country and the biggest crowds in one place too (aside from maybe Spurs at the moment?).

[IDM]

That is probably why the police have such plans?

[Friendly Miller]

I'm only guessing but I think it could have something to do with the Asian grooming gangs in Rotherham being headline news again this week.

They've had armed police at a few games before when the news first broke.

[Padge_DRFC]

Well they’ve sent 80 Rovers fans home already with tickets and they’re not allowed back to Rotherham

[Glyn_Wigley]

I'm pretty sure there are armed police available - if needed - pretty much all the time, whatever the circumstances. Having said that, what the copper is quoted as saying in the DFP is an 'armed response nearby', which might not mean firearms but tazers and/or tear gas.

[roversontheup]

I have been to quite a few events in recent months where armed police were visible. None of the events would normally justify such precautions but then these are hardly normal times. I doubt it has anything to do with it being a footie match just a large congregation of people in one area.

[graingrover]

The article on DROS describing Rotherham FC's anti terrorist safety precautions explains the armed police presence.

[Filo]

The only terrorist around today are the SYP armed with dispersal orders

[southwestexile]

Lets hope that the only shooting is into the Rotherham goal 💩

[Bristol Red Rover]

It is a ridiculous and amateur statement even if for the purpose of sabre rattling. Are they meaning armed with rubber bullets or is there a shoot to kill policy in South Yorks these days?

If the reaction to that is a "we'll behave then", maybe that can be seen as a good thing, BUT what if just one nutter sees it as a challenge and decides to tool up with something more extreme, or even uses a knife before getting the feck out of the place. Madness. Hopefully the press will chase this up and call them out on it.

[German Rover]

It's 100% a counter terrorism thing, not a football thing. No need to get excited. They aren't going to be mowing down football fans indiscriminately.

[Bristol Red Rover]

It's 100% a counter terrorism thing, not a football thing. No need to get excited. They aren't going to be mowing down football fans indiscriminately.

That may be the case, but they mentioned it in relation to the footy.

[ian1980]

No beer on sale at half time. Wtf

[nortikorner]

Have there brought Duckenfield  out of retirement

[Chris Black come back]

No beer on sale at half time. Wtf

Nowt different from trying to get pint at half time at Keepmoat!

[Jim Dobbin]

Its terrorism and an event with a crowd. Most of the derby games have had them.

[silent majority]

At a meeting with SY Police earlier this season the officer who is responsible for football told us that he was in Barcelona with his family at the time the terrorists struck there.

For that reason he has made armed Police available at all major games this season. This has been discussed on this forum before and was pointed out then that this would be for our safety, and if spotted it would be preferable if we didn't engage with them.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

A few things I found strange though. Why show match ticket to get outbthe station? What if we were just random people going to Rotherham?

Secondly how poorly designed is that exit from the stadium?  It just didn't work.