Evening match gave fans ‘six hours more drinking time’ The head of football policing has questioned the scheduling of Aston Villa’s FA Cup quarter-final against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday after the match was marred by crowd disturbances.Villa fans invaded the pitch on two occasions while seats were torn out and thrown from the North Stand which was housing the Albion fans.
The Football Association is launching an investigation and has contacted Aston Villa and West Brom to “request their observations to the disturbing crowd incidents which occurred during and after their FA Cup quarter-final tie” while West Midlands Police made 17 arrests related to the game and are also seeking witnesses to a disturbance at the Witton Arms pub before the game, which kicked off at 5.30pm.
Four of those arrests were for drunk and disorderly behaviour and Mark Roberts from Cheshire Police believes more consideration should be taken over the scheduling of potentially heated fixtures.
“Saturday night football is here to stay, we appreciate that, Friday night football is due to be coming in,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“When you have these fixtures you have to be careful about which ones you play. All games have potential [for crowd trouble] but clearly some games have more potential than others.
“They are big clubs, not clubs that particularly have a troublesome following but when you have that sort of fixture, late on a weekend in particular, alcohol is a factor.
“If you give people four, five, six hours more drinking time, don’t be surprised if in a highly charged atmosphere, their behaviour isn’t good.
“If you’re looking at whether alcohol was a factor, there was disorder at a public house near the ground before the game, people being arrested coming into the ground for being drunk and disorderly, being drunk seeking entry to a football ground.
“If you looked at the people who came on to the pitch, a few of them looked like they were worse for wear from some substance and I don’t think there is any coincidence that where there’s alcohol involved, people’s behaviour tends to deteriorate.”
He added: “I do think there is an issue here for the broadcasters because that game was scheduled for a 5.30pm kick-off to meet the BBC’s scheduling.
“Broadcasters as well as the football authorities need to start taking these issues seriously.
“What we want is a sensible dialogue so that we schedule the game appropriately. If you look at the four games for the FA Cup quarter-finals this week, you couldn’t probably have picked a worse one to have on a Saturday tea-time than a local derby between two big clubs.”
Villa issued an apology for their fans’ behaviour while West Brom vowed to take a “zero tolerance” approach after promising to co-operate fully with the FA inquiry.
Villa issued a further statement on Monday afternoon saying the club would co-operate fully with the FA’s investigation.
“Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and West Midlands Police are all working together to investigate events which took place both during and after Saturday’s FA Cup match. The club will also cooperate fully with the Football Association. There will be no further comment until all inquiries are complete.”
Source: Guardian
