Fan's View Pitch Invasions

boogaloo said:
There seems to be an alarming increase in pitch invasions. Not sure what's driving it - could be booze/drugs, but could also be the social media trend (Bell-end runs on to the pitch, takes a selfie, sends to his mates and says "Look where I am, look how big and clever I am").

It really does need to be stamped on. Over the past week, we had Billy Sharp and Robin Olsen assaulted. People can say "It's passion" and that the players need to connect with the players, but when you have 500-1000 heavily beered up idiots running towards you, I don't care who you are - that is f**king scary, and players, just like you and I have the right to feel safe in their workplace (the field of play).

Also, do we just wait until something really serious happens, such as the stabbing of tennis star Monica Seles back in 1993?

Surely entering the pitch without permission is trespassing. You have video surveillance throughout the ground how about fining each and every person jumping over the railings the maximum £2500. They'll soon learn

www.gov.uk

Unauthorised encampments: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 factsheet

www.gov.uk www.gov.uk
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Is that going to be McBurnie’s defence? 🥺
 
battman said:
There seems to be at least one incident per pitch invasion, so it's hardly isolated. It's only a matter of time before a player or member of club staff becomes seriously injured by an 'isolated incident', and it's simple risk management that to keep the players safe pitch invasions have to end. It's not cancel culture, it's simply asking fans to stay off the pitch and celebrate in the stands instead. I'm not asking anyone to stop celebrating, it's just you can choose to celebrate in a much safer and considerate way than sprinting onto some grass.

I'm not adverse to fans entering the field of play in a controlled manner to celebrate more closely with players like what happens in F1, but we can't have this uncontrolled mess that currently goes on. In no other walk of life is invading a performer's place of work acceptable. Did fans run onto the track when Mo Farah won gold in London? Do theatregoers rush onto the stage when actors receive an ovation? Do Adele fans invade the stage after she sings Someone Like You really well? Or do they all respect the boundaries between the performer's area and the spectator's? A football pitch is a performance space and a footballer's place of work, and they should have a right to feel safe doing their job. The past week or so has proved pitch invasions are anything but safe, and it's not 'cancelling' anything to point that out, it's just common sense.
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I would class Billy Sharp needing stitches as a serious injury, I’ve seen the video and his assailant runs full tilt at him before butting him.
 
I vaguely remember a wonderful old ground where they actually dug a moat between the stand and the pitch to prevent any incursions.
Now where was that again...........................................
 
Wallop said:
I would class Billy Sharp needing stitches as a serious injury, I’ve seen the video and his assailant runs full tilt at him before butting him.
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Yeah you're right, considering one punch can kill it's fortunate that he didn't stuff anything worse than that. Because if he was hit in the wrong place or hit his head on a harder surface when being knocked to the ground, we could've been looking at a very different outcome.

Some have already accused me of melodrama on this thread, but these are the consequences if we allow pitch invasions to continue as they are, no matter how harmless the intent from the majority is.
 
The thing is, not all pitch invasions lead to trouble.

Look at us v Wycombe when we got promoted,thousands of joyous fans wanting to celebrate with their heroes. I think the ref was very savvy at the final whistle . Nearly every player was near the touch line at the tunnel allowing all Wycombe players to depart safely but even then nobody had any intention of harming one of their players.
So the question has to be asked what is the mentality of some fans who want to harm opposition players?
 
The mighty Aldo said:
The thing is, not all pitch invasions lead to trouble.

Look at us v Wycombe when we got promoted,thousands of joyous fans wanting to celebrate with their heroes. I think the ref was very savvy at the final whistle . Nearly every player was near the touch line at the tunnel allowing all Wycombe players to depart safely but even then nobody had any intention of harming one of their players.
So the question has to be asked what is the mentality of some fans who want to harm opposition players?
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Thug mentality I'd suggest.
 
battman said:
So you're saying it's Viera's fault really because he was walking the wrong way on the pitch, rather than it being the fans to blame for invading the pitch in the first place?
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"So you're saying it's Vieira's fault", nowhere have I said it's Vieira's fault? I'm saying once again basic organised stewarding/policing on these rare specific matches would have prevented it and allowed for player/fan protection on both sides. Man City stewards excellently shielded the tunnel and dugout area to create a safe space whilst at Everton Vieira was allowed to stroll around the pitch amongst the fans without any steward supervision. It's looking at proactive, realistic solutions before giving the media more ammo to tarnish football fans with. The actions of a minority, or even this case just an individual amongst tens of thousands, should not reflect on nor negatively impact on those who behaved perfectly fine.
 
What I don’t understand about the pitch invasions for the semi final playoffs is, they have still not been promoted. They have to get through one more game.They may have reached Wembley but that is no cause to celebrate as we well know
Now if Forest fail to go up they will play Sheff Utd next season, there will have to be a huge police presence and innocent fans are going to be targeted by thugs.
Things are getting seriously out of hand and it seems to me we are going back to the dark days of the early seventies.
 
The mighty Aldo said:
What I don’t understand about the pitch invasions for the semi final playoffs is, they have still not been promoted. They have to get through one more game.They may have reached Wembley but that is no cause to celebrate as we well know
Now if Forest fail to go up they will play Sheff Utd next season, there will have to be a huge police presence and innocent fans are going to be targeted by thugs.
Things are getting seriously out of hand and it seems to me we are going back to the dark days of the early seventies.
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We pitch invaded for reaching the new Wembley for the first ever time. Despite being a club of their size, Forest were one of 7 or 8 clubs who had still never played at the new Wembley. Easy to condemn but the emotions were enough for us...
 
The mighty Aldo said:
What I don’t understand about the pitch invasions for the semi final playoffs is, they have still not been promoted. They have to get through one more game.They may have reached Wembley but that is no cause to celebrate as we well know
Now if Forest fail to go up they will play Sheff Utd next season, there will have to be a huge police presence and innocent fans are going to be targeted by thugs.
Things are getting seriously out of hand and it seems to me we are going back to the dark days of the early seventies.
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This is the crux I think. For the ones on the pitch, they are not really celebrating the success of the team, they are trying to get that selfie. This is their chance to do it, so they take the opportunity. It's a selfish act, not an act of celebrating with the team hence why it doesn't actually matter that they haven't won anything yet!
 
So, if I'm reading this right, there is an historical entitlement for fans to invade the pitch in order to celebrate momentous achievements with the players and the solution to the problems caused in recent events is to have the stewards primed to promptly remove the players from the pitch to protect them from harm.
 
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battman said:
There seems to be at least one incident per pitch invasion, so it's hardly isolated. It's only a matter of time before a player or member of club staff becomes seriously injured by an 'isolated incident', and it's simple risk management that to keep the players safe pitch invasions have to end. It's not cancel culture, it's simply asking fans to stay off the pitch and celebrate in the stands instead. I'm not asking anyone to stop celebrating, it's just you can choose to celebrate in a much safer and considerate way than sprinting onto some grass.

I'm not adverse to fans entering the field of play in a controlled manner to celebrate more closely with players like what happens in F1, but we can't have this uncontrolled mess that currently goes on. In no other walk of life is invading a performer's place of work acceptable. Did fans run onto the track when Mo Farah won gold in London? Do theatregoers rush onto the stage when actors receive an ovation? Do Adele fans invade the stage after she sings Someone Like You really well? Or do they all respect the boundaries between the performer's area and the spectator's? A football pitch is a performance space and a footballer's place of work, and they should have a right to feel safe doing their job. The past week or so has proved pitch invasions are anything but safe, and it's not 'cancelling' anything to point that out, it's just common sense.
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Imagine if City hadnt won and also lost the title. Would have been dangerous to be a Villa player. Not sure what the answer is - early kick offs?
 
The mighty Aldo said:
The thing is, not all pitch invasions lead to trouble.

Look at us v Wycombe when we got promoted,thousands of joyous fans wanting to celebrate with their heroes. I think the ref was very savvy at the final whistle . Nearly every player was near the touch line at the tunnel allowing all Wycombe players to depart safely but even then nobody had any intention of harming one of their players.
So the question has to be asked what is the mentality of some fans who want to harm opposition players?
Click to expand...
How do you know that nobody had any intention of harming any of the Wycombe players.
Judging by some of the comments I've read about the team and their manager over the seasons I'd bet some would've loved the opportunity.
 
The mighty Aldo said:
The thing is, not all pitch invasions lead to trouble.

Look at us v Wycombe when we got promoted,thousands of joyous fans wanting to celebrate with their heroes. I think the ref was very savvy at the final whistle . Nearly every player was near the touch line at the tunnel allowing all Wycombe players to depart safely but even then nobody had any intention of harming one of their players.
So the question has to be asked what is the mentality of some fans who want to harm opposition players?
Click to expand...

You're right. There have been no negative headlines regarding Exeter or Stockport's pitch invasions, so we have to remember what isolated incidents these are albeit very serious ones.

Outside of the playoff finals, every team that gets promoted will see their fans invade the pitch. A few teams that escape on the final day will too. It's happened for years and often has no incident. However, all it takes is one and then the copycats have followed suit. A dimwit fan in an FA Cup tie charges onto the pitch and assaults a player and now others see it as carte blanche to do the same. They don't care about consequences. They just see it as something acceptable to do because someone else did.

It's spread rather frighteningly but at least the media are shining a light on it. We can identify and ban morons who attack opposition players quickly now. Most of them do it themselves by posting the nonsense all over social media anyway.
 
There's a risk of damage to local property, personal injury and violent events at a large number of football matches every weekend. Perhaps we should ban crowds and large gatherings altogether if we're going to go down this route.
 
bashamwonderland said:
There's a risk of damage to local property, personal injury and violent events at a large number of football matches every weekend. Perhaps we should ban crowds and large gatherings altogether if we're going to go down this route.
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Unless players and club staff get caught up in it every time it happens, then it's a pretty ridiculous hypothetical. Still, it's easier to pose a made up scenario than it is discussing the subject in hand I suppose.
 
I’d lay it at the door of the Covid lay-off. It’s not end of days.

People are allowed to have fun again after a long break and a few football supporters idea of fun in the last week is unfortunately base criminality. On the pitch after a play off/last day win.

The Sharp incident was awful. Cowardly and potentially life threatening.

There was a little bit too much of ‘mum I’m on the telly’ after the City game while the Sky cameras deciding to cut away from pitch side after a minute or two smacked a little of audience manipulation

They didn’t want their ‘product’ compromised after all.
 
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