Unsavoury elements creeping back into football

[normal rules]

And don’t hold your breath, because rovers go to Lincoln soon in what will be an away sell out. Night game too. If there is no trouble before or after this game I will be amazed.

[Filo]

And don’t hold your breath, because rovers go to Lincoln soon in what will be an away sell out. Night game too. If there is no trouble before or after this game I will be amazed.

Lincoln and Everton are the only two places I’ve been to where I have been struck by an object from the home fans, that was back in the 80’s though

[Axholme Lion]

Seen this so many times over the years.
Most of the wannabe hooligans are just that. Hide behind lines of cops while giving it the big un. Throw expletives across an area of segregation. Knowing full well they are safe.
Truth is, the vast majority would run a mile if the chips were down. And shat the,selves whilst at it.
I don’t condone any violence, unless it’s in defence. But the vast majority of these idiots have no class. No code. No honour.
If they genuinely want a tear up, f**k off outside town away from the game and crack on. It’s not hard  to arrange with social media. The fact they don’t tells you everything about them you need to know.

This 100%. I couldn't have put it better myself. If they really want to have a go they could, but they don't...

[rich1471]

Leicester fans decided to throw chairs and tables at a Nottingham restaurant today with what appears to be kids and families in. Very bizarre.

And then the idiot fan who ran into the pitch and punched a Forrest player ,should go to prison for it and a lifetime ban

[Axholme Lion]

Leicester fans decided to throw chairs and tables at a Nottingham restaurant today with what appears to be kids and families in. Very bizarre.

And then the idiot fan who ran into the pitch and punched a Forrest player ,should go to prison for it and a lifetime ban

Nailed on. I hope he has a taste for porridge!
This is the same Leicester who were crying their eyes out after a bit of abuse at the Den last time we played them.

[Filo]

Leicester fans decided to throw chairs and tables at a Nottingham restaurant today with what appears to be kids and families in. Very bizarre.

And then the idiot fan who ran into the pitch and punched a Forrest player ,should go to prison for it and a lifetime ban

Nailed on. I hope he has a taste for porridge!
This is the same Leicester who were crying their eyes out after a bit of abuse at the Den last time we played them.

Would that be the same Millwall that tried storming the West Stand at the then named KM a few years back, only to stop dead in their tracks when they realised the Rovers fans were n’t moving and were laughing at them lol!

[Draytonian III]

Whenever there’s a last minute/injury time winner, equaliser there’s always a pitch invasion by the benefitting team and it’s always filmed by one of the people on the pitch ,it must so much easier to pick out who the offenders are now.

[glosterred]

And today we’ve had Leicester City fans trying to fight Forest players. Time an example needs to be set and away fans banned from travelling or making teams play in empty stadiums


COYR

A man to appear in court

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-60294769


COYR

[colincramb]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

Absolutely. Carnage waiting to happen.

[wilts rover]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

Absolutely. Carnage waiting to happen.

Yes, madness.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The media are always reporting these incidents but never seem to follow up with news of the punishments and sentencing.

As said above, these need to be seen to have sufficient consequences to act as a deterrent.

Life bans from the football clubs is not enough 

[normal rules]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

I can go to a game without needing a beer. Bit it would be nice to sit and have one watching the match.especially when the weather is nice early and late season.
However, I’ve seen lads in boozers before a game. Power drinking. Knowing full well they will not be able to get a beer for two hours when they are in the ground. And yes, you can get a beer on the concourse sometimes. But you have to sup it in 15 mins or miss part of the game. So the whole culture around drinking and footy becomes compressed. Rushed. Get pissed on the train on the way there. Get in a boozer an hr before kick off and sup as much as you can as quick as you can.
We are actually promoting an unhealthy attitude around beer and footy. Booze at the footy has become taboo. Young lads now see booze pre match as a challenge. It makes for a very toxic mix.
I think a lot less booze would be consumed rapidly pre match if people knew they could get a beer and sit and enjoy the match with it.

[rich1471]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

I can go to a game without needing a beer. Bit it would be nice to sit and have one watching the match.especially when the weather is nice early and late season.
However, I’ve seen lads in boozers before a game. Power drinking. Knowing full well they will not be able to get a beer for two hours when they are in the ground. And yes, you can get a beer on the concourse sometimes. But you have to sup it in 15 mins or miss part of the game. So the whole culture around drinking and footy becomes compressed. Rushed. Get pissed on the train on the way there. Get in a boozer an hr before kick off and sup as much as you can as quick as you can.
We are actually promoting an unhealthy attitude around beer and footy. Booze at the footy has become taboo. Young lads now see booze pre match as a challenge. It makes for a very toxic mix.
I think a lot less booze would be consumed rapidly pre match if people knew they could get a beer and sit and enjoy the match with it.

totally agree would be much better having a pint in each half than having 4-5 pre match in under 90 minutes

[normal rules]

There is the issue of course of some young lads just not coping with ale. A little sniff of the barmaids apron and all that.
The other issue is the young fascination with beer wasting as seen during the euros and World Cup If your team scores. I just don’t get it. Throw good beer in the air soaking everyone around you.  It’s beer wasting. Which should be a crime .

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

It will probably be carling so not wasted at all. Not drinking carling is a huge positive. Wouldn't want to be covered in it though.

[normal rules]

At Cambridge the other week, granted there were only two hundred ish of us there, the little cafe at the back of the stand sold the most superb pint of Adnams on draught. My lad reckoned it was one of the nicest pints he had ever had.
Mind you, a cold winter Tuesday night in Cambridge is hardly the time to be supping ale at the game. I had a coffee. Which was putrid. It had a skin on it.
But on another occasion, with nicer weather, how nice would it be to sit and watch the game with a nice pint, albeit in a plastic cup.

[colincramb]

It’s a disgrace. Yet people are still campaigning for fans to be allowed to drink alcohol during the game in stadiums. That absolutely can not be allowed to take place - it would be an unmitigated disaster.

I can go to a game without needing a beer. Bit it would be nice to sit and have one watching the match.especially when the weather is nice early and late season.
However, I’ve seen lads in boozers before a game. Power drinking. Knowing full well they will not be able to get a beer for two hours when they are in the ground. And yes, you can get a beer on the concourse sometimes. But you have to sup it in 15 mins or miss part of the game. So the whole culture around drinking and footy becomes compressed. Rushed. Get pissed on the train on the way there. Get in a boozer an hr before kick off and sup as much as you can as quick as you can.
We are actually promoting an unhealthy attitude around beer and footy. Booze at the footy has become taboo. Young lads now see booze pre match as a challenge. It makes for a very toxic mix.
I think a lot less booze would be consumed rapidly pre match if people knew they could get a beer and sit and enjoy the match with it.

Sorry, but I completely disagree. It wouldn’t do anything to stop people drinking before games at all. It would just mean good folk get covered in warm horrible piss every time a goal is scored or a decision doesn’t go in their favour. Not to mention the amount that would be thrown onto the pitch or at referees and players.

Incidents like Sunday afternoon show why this should never be considered.

Then on top of that, there’s videos circulating of kurt Zuma assaulting his cat in front of children. The whole game is rotten

[normal rules]

I never said it would stop pre match drinking. I suggested it would lessen pre match binge drinking.
Non alcoholic drinks are allowed into games and you don’t see cups of coffee routinely being thrown around? At players refs or otherwise.
What happened at forest can never be legislated for or prevented unless we return to having fences. I suspect that prick was coked off his head and had nothing to do with alcohol.
Take tonight’s game against Ipswich for example. It won’t be a big crowd. It would not be seen as a risk fixture. I see no reason why those at the game tonight could not enjoy a pint whilst watching the game.
It could be on a match by match basis .
The Rotherham and Wednesday games  I would make no alcohol. Local derbies, big crowd events etc.
If you have been to MK and enjoyed the wonderful facilities and concourse they have at the ground, how bizarre is it that you could stand on the concourse enjoying a pint, but instead the bar has a screen so that the playing surface cannot be viewed.
If you were daft enough you could spend all game just drinking, so what difference does it make that you are not near the field of play?
We continually ask football supporters to behave like mature adults, yet we treat the majority of well behaved ones like immature children.
Ridiculous.

[normal rules]

Besides, as part of the fan led review, I believe next season could see the ban lifted as a trial at lge 2 and national lge. With a view to it being rolled out across all leagues if successful . Let’s not forget , this ban was introduced in 1985. Its over 35 years old.

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

To be fair, most (not all) of the pathetic rabble who act up at football matches are of a certain age. They are hardly likely to be buying coffee and bovril at the ground in the first place, let alone chucking it around. If beer was available though, this would change overnight.

Besides, I really don't see why people are obsessed with drinking alcohol at the footy. I have no idea how some people can stand in the freezing cold drinking copious amounts of beer anyway. Hardly relaxing and convivial is it?

[River Don]

When some of these lads are doing cocaine before a game, somehow I don't think it's about having a relaxing, convivial time.

[Jimmydee]

My 8 year old grandson had his unopened can of pop taken off him at the turnstiles at the last home game, what’s the difference in the velocity of a can or a bottle full of liquid?
I was allowed in with a full litre stainless steel flask.

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

When some of these lads are doing cocaine before a game, somehow I don't think it's about having a relaxing, convivial time.

Fair point. Changing times. Who needs beer when you've got Class A drugs i guess?

[normal rules]

To be fair, most (not all) of the pathetic rabble who act up at football matches are of a certain age. They are hardly likely to be buying coffee and bovril at the ground in the first place, let alone chucking it around. If beer was available though, this would change overnight.

Besides, I really don't see why people are obsessed with drinking alcohol at the footy. I have no idea how some people can stand in the freezing cold drinking copious amounts of beer anyway. Hardly relaxing and convivial is it?

I’m not obsessed with drinking anywhere, let alone the footy. But you can do it at rugby, horse racing , cricket, tennis, it’s time the rules were relaxed. And it looks like they will be soon. At the start and end of the footy season when the weather is nice, there is nothing nicer. Drinking is a social thing for many. Like having a cuppa, or a fag. In lower non league, it’s never changed. You can watch the game with a beer.
And if you have treated yourself to a meal in one of the many lounges that are now afforded at football grounds, it should be that you are allowed to take your drink out to watch the game.
And before anyone comments about drinking at horse racing, I’ve seen some very serious tear ups at the races between pissed up blokes (and women). Just as bad if not worse than I’ve seen at the footy.
When you are at the game tonight, forecast to be a balmy 11 degrees, look around you and ask yourself is there any reason why adults cannot sit here with a drink, given they are allowed one on the concourse?

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

Horse racing is a good example of why booze should be banned at sporting events and why weekend meetings are best avoided. They are best avoided because they attract the chav pissheads, the kind that like to cause trouble at footy and they get tanked up and cause mayhem at race meetings. York is regularly like fight club which also spills over into the city centre in the evening.

[River Don]

Football is a passionate tribal game, more so than any other I would say.

Some mature adults might enjoy a drink while watching a game and it would be no problem at all. Some though, will be on the lash getting drunk. Drinking in the stands, inhibitions down, contraversial decisions on the field. It's asking for trouble.

[Jimmydee]

My 8 year old grandson had his unopened can of pop taken off him at the turnstiles at the last home game, what’s the difference in the velocity of a can or a bottle full of liquid?
I was allowed in with a full litre stainless steel flask.

Also, at the MK Dons ground, my 8 year old grandson had his Rovers flag on a stick, the steward inspected it and asked for approval from his supervisor because it’s not allowed to be over a metre long, I told him that it’s okay, it’s only a yard long, the guy didn’t have a clue how long a yard was.

[Monkcaster_Rover]

I enjoy a bevvy at the football but wouldn't agree with the idea of them being able to be drunk in the standards. All clowns in our fan base we'd just end up getting drenched. Bad enough having to watch England in town.

[silent majority]

As a campaigning member of the FSF/FSA, the organisation that wants drinking rules relaxed, I should pitch in here to offer an explanation as to the whys and wherefores.

Our studies into this cover many areas, are they effective and do the rules provide the outcome that is expected? The answer is clearly no. A few years ago Dr Geoff Pearson from Manchester University conducted a peer reviewed study and produced the following;

On the Lash: Revisiting the Effectiveness of Alcohol Controls at Football Matches.

This had a clear mandate such as;

It has long been assumed that the problem of ‘football hooliganism’ is linked to levels of alcohol consumption by crowds of football supporters. As a result a number of laws and policing strategies have been developed that aim to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed by fans. This article is based primarily upon a 15-year ethnography of English football supporters and the effectiveness of social control policies upon them, and supported by interviews with police officials from the UK and Italy. Its conclusion is that alcohol restrictions are ineffective at reducing the level of drunkenness amongst fans, partly as a result of police underenforcement. Furthermore, a by-product of a number of the restrictions is that the level of risk for violence between rival groups of fans is often increased. This article concludes that we need to revisit the use by police and football authorities of alcohol controls to reduce crowd disorder and look to other methods of reducing the problem of football hooliganism.

In addition the study concluded that the rules encouraged binge drinking and had other unindented consequences, i.e. crushing at the turnstiles 10 minutes before kick-off because of late arrivals from the local pubs. Further research has been conducted into these unintended consequences, and revealed that Police refused to operate on crowded concourses at half time for that very reason and that there was further unruly behaviour because of the lack of Policing.

Furthermore the restrictions imposed on coach travel and when and where these can operate are all mixed up within the same legislation.

At National League level drinking within sight of the pitch is allowed, as it is in UEFA and FIFA competitions. And yet arrests for drunken behaviour are lower than they are at EPL and EFL level. I can also assure those who are reluctant to accept this because of what you've seen on television, i.e. the throwing of beer, I can assure this doesn't happen in stadiums I've been in. No, its very much a practice carried out in fan parks in the UK, and in summer months, with some activity on concourses too but that's isolated behaviour.

During the Fan Led Review we learnt from clubs at National League level that alcohol sales played a major part in the financial contributions of a match day. So much so that a number of clubs have categorically stated they would refuse promotion rather than losing out on that revenue. That's why it will be trialled next season.

This has the full backing of the EFL as well. And that's because they know that the regulations as they stand are not working.

As a side note, the alcohol revenue at the Eco Power (Keepmoat) Stadium is 3 times higher for a rugby league game than it is for a DRFC home game.