Footballing authorities are concerned at the increasing use of flares and smoke bombs at football grounds. There have been 131 incidents at or connected with football matches in England compared with 199 for the whole of last season.
Flares used by Polish fans at Wembley
FIFA have fined England £6,800 for the recent incidents at Wembley for the World Cup qualifier and fined Poland £21,000. Some Clubs are repeat offenders, Clubs with 3 or more incidents this season are:-
5: Everton, Manchester United, Wigan Athletic
4: Liverpool, Manchester City, Sheffield United
3: Bradford City, Bristol City, Burnley, Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, Mansfield Town, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic
Source: UK Football Policing Unit
The Board of Directors at Chester City have recently issued a statement imploring fans to stop their use of pyrotechnics:-
Flares at the recent England/Poland match
Sadly, the behaviour of a small number of individuals in the games at Hyde on Saturday and last night’s game against Hereford, seriously threatens to undermine all that we stand for as a Community based, family club.
The Board of Chester FC absolutely condemn the use of smoke bombs and flares which are illegal to take into football grounds, and instances of both have been reported to the FA by match officials at our last two away games. We have now had several instances reported this season, and the action taken could well eventually result in fines and/or points deductions applied to the club.
Flares at SJP – Exeter v Cheltenham
Brislington also had issues at their 4th round qualifying match against Welling Utd where 4 flares were thrown on to the pitch.
The big story this season was at Villa Park with Spurs the visitors. Any debate on whether flares should be legalised was became a non debate when a Spurs fan threw and hit a linesman. 2 men were arrested for this incident. Flares as a weapon will mean that increasing searches of football fans will now take place, and some forces will be using sniffer dogs to search out hidden flares.
These are the thoughts of the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and case worker Amanda Jacks:-
The FSF shares the concern of the authorities and the police at the increased use of pyro – not because we’re all boring gits who don’t want fans to enjoy themselves but because the use of pyro isn’t backed by the majority of fans and can, for some, wreck their day.
Liverpool flares in the away end at SJP
We’ve covered the consequences before but it goes a little something like this – Football Banning Order, criminal record, possible prison sentence, and the FSF picking up the pieces explaining to your relatives why the law has stamped down on you. Yeah, you might be a nice lad trying to “bring back the atmosphere” but the law doesn’t care and you’re banned from football.
The “no pyro, no party” culture that has sprung up among some fans, who view the use of pyrotechnics as a way to bring edge and atmosphere back to modern stadiums. But there is also genuine concern about injury to other fans, in particular from smoke inhalation.
The message is clearly “don’t even think about it”.
