Tag Archives: She Wore

Pitch invaders should not face imprisonment

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I was sitting there at Sunday lunchtime having a cup of tea (Assam tea, little splash of milk) with the Birmingham v Aston Villa game on in the back ground. I was not really takingnotice when it happened. A fan ran on the pitch and punched Jack Grealish.

It was shocking.

Like many others, I like a drink before the game and get myself well up for the North London Derby. Adrenaline is running, you are on edge. Anything could happen. But running on the pitch and punching a player – that is simply idiotic behaviour.

A few hours later, when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his penalty, an Arsenal fan ran on the pitch and pushed Chris Smalling before attempting to join the Arsenal celebrations.

Now I do not know whether this fans had watched the Birmingham v Aston Vila game prior, and was inspired by what he saw, but it was another silly act.

These two incidents were on the back of a Hibernian fan attacking Rangers’ James Tavernier on Friday night.

Three incidents in the space of 3 days.

The authorities will come down hard in all 3 cases, using the full of weight of the law to prosecute and punish.

On Sky Sports, they talked about making “entering the field of play” a criminal offence. It already is.

Under the Football (Offences) Act 1991 it is an offence for a person at a designated football match to go onto the playing area, or any area adjacent to the playing area to which spectators are not generally admitted, without lawful authority or lawful excuse (which shall be for him to prove).

As it stands, the criminal punishment for entering the field of play is a fine. A court will also likely hand out a 3 year Football Banning Order (FBO) if it is a first offence. This banning order can increase to a life time banning order depending severity of offence and previous offences.

Clubs also have the civil power of banning fans from the ground in the same way a pub can ban a punter. It is private land. They can choose to ban however they want for however long they like.

In the case of the Birmingham fan, he will probably receive a life ban. It is not just that he ran onto the pitch, but he also assaulted Grealish.

He will be prosecuted under the Football (Offences) Act for entering the field of play but also likely to be prosecuted for common assault Criminal Justice Act 1988. This could lead to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months. (Note: he was given 14 weeks).

The CPS who probably also try and add Actual bodily Harm (ABH) in as this carries a sentence up to 5 years. However as there has been no bodily harm, this will probably fail and he will be convicted of common assault (note: he plead guilty to common assault).

In the cases of the Arsenal and Hibs fans, they will be fined and banned. Probably for 3 years by the courts and longer by the clubs.

All for 30 seconds of fame.

Pitch invasions are not a new thing.

For years in the League Cup Arsenal have suffered from silly children running on the pitch, and recently a YouTube channel decided to invade a Tottenham European tie. Whilst these are harmless acts, all would have been arrested and prosecuted.

The concern for the authorities is 3 incidents live on Sky over 3 days have shamed the English game.

They have a brand to protect, and will ensure that all those involved will be prosecuted to the full extent.

My concern is that the law makers go OTT.

Like with the Dangerous Dogs Act, governments throughout history have responded disproportionally to a minority of offences as they gained public interest. This results in them quickly passing legislation without thinking of the greater impact.

If they add imprisonment to the punishment for those fans that enter the field of play, it could have far reaching consequences.

Yes, the Birmingham fan deserves jail time as he assaulted a player. No one should fear being assaulted when at work – or any other time.

But if they role out imprisonment for all pitch invaders, this could be misused.

There was an incident a few years ago during an Arsenal v Manchester United game that highlights this.

“When Manchester United were away to Arsenal last season,” says Amanda Jacks from the Football Supporters Federation, “Rooney scored a winner and about half a dozen fans went tumbling over the barriers as the crowd surged forward. Clearly they weren’t trying to run on the pitch, it was just the momentum that carried them over. They all got arrested and charged with pitch encroachment. One pleaded guilty, the others pleaded not guilty, but the magistrates were pretty disparaging that the case had been brought at all.”

You could be completely innocent and be punished over a barrier, or simply be caught up in celebrating a goal, and end up with 6 months in jail.

Jumping on the pitch is not the equivalent of assault; so should not have the same maximum punishment.

The UK has a huge knife problem at the moment.

Sentencing guidelines indicate courts must impose a mandatory six month minimum prison term on those caught carrying a knife for a second time.

So you could be caught carrying a knife twice before being handed a 6 months sentence (and only in 63% of cases have people been sentenced to 6 months for their 2nd offence), or you could be jailed for 6 months for entering the field of play once whilst celebrating a goal.

It clearly is not a proportionate offence and the law makers need to think carefully before adding imprisonment to the list of possible punishments.

The bigger concern for me as a fan is that these fans behaviour supports those who do not want to see a return of Safe Standing. It supports the law which bans drinking in view of the pitch at football. And it supports kick offs at noon for big games.

Next season when Birmingham play Aston Villa it will be at 11:30am.

Fans will moan, they will complain, blame the police, the TV companies. The real person to blame is the chap who ran on the pitch and assaulted Grealish.

The actions of a single fan have consequences for every single other fan that go’s.

I do not want early kick offs for “security reasons”. I want to be able to stand and watch the game. Have a beer. But whilst people continue to misbehave.

Those who ran onto the pitch over the weekend will face proportionate consequences. My fear is that we will see a disproportionate response from the law makers and the consequences for the majority of fans could be greater.

Think before you run on the pitch.

Keenos

Reiss Nelson ‘discipline’ issues an ‘educational’ lesson for player and fans

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It was easy to get caught away with Reiss Nelson start over in Germany.

4 goals in his first 5 games for Hoffenheim saw him named Bundesliga Rookie of the Month: for October.

Some Arsenal fans were demanding the club recall him in January. Others putting him in their start XI for 2019/20.

Many ignored the fact that, despite his good form, he was not a regular starter for Hoffenheim.

In that run of 5 games, he had only started twice, and was pulled off at half time in one of those.

People had unfairly raised their expectations of a then 18-year-old who was having his first season of top flight football. They had forgotten that he was an 18-year-old in his first season of top flight football.

Since that blistering start, he has scored just twice in the next 18 games – and has not scored in his last 12. He has also failed to provide an assist this season.

Since the turn of the year he has failed to make a single start, playing just four times.

It then breaks that manager Julian Nagelsmann omitted the youngster from his squad against Nuremburg for disciplinary reasons’.

Nagelsmann also adds that his decision was an ‘educational measure’.

This makes me feel it was just a minor infringement, probably turning up late too often for training.

Nagelsmann realises Nelson is with him to develop to learn. So omitting him to teach him a lesson is part of that learning. Something Arsenal would not have a problem with.

Nelson is in a new country, alone.

How he behaves when living on his own, with money to burn, will be an insight into the type of player he will become in the future.

We have seen a lot of young players with a lot of talent not make it to the top level, not fulfil their potential, due to a poor attitude.

Think Jermaine Pennant.

Recently Emmanuel Frimpong announced his retirement from football at the age of 27-years-old.

Frimpong was starring for Arsenal’s under-18s at 14-years-old. He should have made it, but became more interested in his social media profile then his football.

Hopefully Nelson learns his lesson from being dropped, moves forward, and becomes the player he has the ability to become.

Next season will be too early for the 19-year-old to be playing week in week out.

Once we sign a top class winger, he will then be competing with Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to start.

It will not be easy for him – and he will probably start the season as 4th choice, but with the right attitude and progression he will should be pushing for a starting spot.

An exciting talent, he just needs to fulfil it.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Manchester United

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Arsenal (1) 2 Manchester United (0) 0
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 10th January 2019. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles; Ramsey, Xhaka; Kolašinac, Özil, Lacazette; Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Čech, Elneny, Iwobi, Mustafi, Suárez, Guendouzi, Nketiah.
Scorers: Xhaka, Aubameyang
Yellow Cards: Sokratis,  Kolašinac
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Attendance: 60,000

A fine win, and against one of our oldest rivals as well, along with a scoreline nobody could have possibly predicted after the disaster of Thursday’s match. In fact, we are now lying fourth in the Premiership and are pushing for third place, being only one point, yes just one point, behind Tottenham Hotspur. Mr. Emery’s tactics were absolutely perfect today for this clash, and there were times in the match that the visitors did not have the answer for them.

The die was cast as early as the twelfth minute when Granit Xhaka hit a shot from 25 yards which swerved wickedly, and catching United goalkeeper David De Gea wrong-footed, sailed into the net. The mere fact that we were one-nil up against Manchester United (and at home as well) fired up both players and spectators and from this moment onwards we played like men possessed. Although United did hit the woodwork twice in the first half, in both instances Bernd Leno had everything covered adequately, and it looked far worse than it ever was, really. We went in to the half-time break as deserved leaders in this match and looked unstoppable in many areas of the pitch.

We applied more pressure intensely in the second half with some superb passing between the players which silenced the critics, as well as reinvigorating the crowd. More excellent play showed us to be the best side on the day, and when Alexandre Lacazette was brought down in the United box (courtesy of Fred), there was only one man that could take the subsequent penalty. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, so step up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with absolute nerves of steel to assume responsibility for the penalty kick; after his miss last Saturday against Tottenham Hotspur, he could have backed off, but didn’t, The proof of this pudding was very much in the eating, and the cool way he dispatched the penalty said more about him than we ever really knew.

The final twenty minutes of the match saw us settle down and not do anything too silly to either get a man sent off or to let in a goal; we consolidated, showed our maturity in every area and held on the the two-goal lead, which at times looked shaky, but in the end we got there. After a performance such as this it is very hard to pick out an outstanding player, as so many of the Araenal team played so well today. Mesut Özil was utterly superb, and although he was substituted for Alex Iwobi with thirteen minutes on the clock, for once it was for tiredness and not tactical reasons. Ainsley Maitland-Niles showed maturity beyond his years at fiull-back, and Granit Xhaka was utterly immense in his midfield role. He was inspirational to everyone around him and his never-say-die attitude was instrumental in the defeat of the visitors here today, also Bernd Leno was extremely impressive as well in goal, making some brave saves at the feet of United forwards at crucial moments in the match. Today’s performance was one of teamwork which was heartening to see. Manchester United came here today with the thought that they would steamroller over Arsenal, but we had other thoughts on that, and to a man, we played well and deserved our victory. Whatever work Mr. Emery did with them between last Thursday and today certainly worked and it is extremely frustrating to realise that we can play like this when we so desire; perhaps it the fact that we are playing at home inspires us to these heights, who knows? But it is interesting to note that we have wrestled twelve points from ten matches against other top sides this season, which is double the amount that we had at this time last year. Our home record is excellent; perhaps the Premier League will allow us to play at home all the time, then? Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.