Violent Behaviour Condemned
The Football Safety Officers Association (FSOA) condemns completely the violent and law-breaking behaviour of the mindless thugs at and outside Upton Park before and during the West Ham United v Millwall Carling Cup match on 25 August 2009.
The actions of those involved have no place in football and the FSOA urges football’s governing bodies and the country’s legal system to identify the culprits, to bring them to book and issue the most severe punishments possible.
Fortunately, last night’s disgraceful scenes involved only a very small minority of those who attended the fixture. These events are also extremely rare at Premier and Football League stadia. Nevertheless, those responsible for the disorder have damaged football’s reputation and the public’s perception of standards of behaviour at matches.
With the new season very much in its infancy and a World Cup bid gathering momentum, the incidents cannot be allowed to detract from the huge strides that football, government agencies and members of the FSOA have jointly taken to make watching our national sport a welcoming and enjoyable experience.
West Ham United’s safety management team are very experienced in crowd management operations. They have well defined, in depth procedures and contingencies for dealing with incidents at Upton Park. These procedures are agreed in advance with the police, local authority and other agencies who oversee spectator safety at the stadium.
In depth planning for the fixture would have started as soon as the draw was confirmed. That planning would have involved close liaison and co-operation with officials at Millwall FC and the police, in particular.
The FSOA works closely with football authorities, the police, Football Licensing Authority and other agencies to improve safety standards at sports venues and will continue to do so to eradicate this unwelcome, if rare, outbreak of disorder from our beautiful game.
