Just got back from swindon which saw a pitch invasion celebrating promotion. There were plenty of warnings about fans not being allowed on the pitch at the end etc... Didn't stop the fans though. I didn't understand why fans coming onto the pitch at the end of the season to celebrate is such a big deal. Then I heard of a similar pitch ivasion at peterborough where a peterborough fan punched a rochdale player in the face and may have broken his jaw. I remember back in the day where pitch invasions were common place at the end of the season and it was all good natured fun just like swindons was today, why do a few idiots spoil it for the rest of us?. There are so many rules inside english grounds its more like being a child in class told to sit down and shut up. And its the few morons who spoil any little fun we can still have at football matches anymore.
Some places are perfectly happy with it. Was at Forest Green for their last home game of the season, and fans were allowed on when the last of the Halifax players had left the field. Been onto the field at the Shay on a couple of occasions too, although I don't think it's done now.
Depends on the circumstances. We weren't allowed on the pitch yesterday but then again we have just qualified for the playoffs so we've got to keep the pitch in good nick . However, the first leg of the playoffs is our last game ever at our stadium so there'll be no stopping us invading the pitch and ransacking the ground.
During the Golden Years of American soccer, NASL, I knew of at least two occasions when my team the Chicago Sting fans stormed the field and tore down the goals, but there was no violence. I just think security is heightened much more nowadays. I would guess that if anyone tried to run on the field now in Chicago they would be quickly arrested.
Love the play offs, more pitch invasions at lincoln and derby & MK Dons, looked like the lincoln and MK Dons ones were a bit nasty lincoln and MK Dons rushing onto the pitch to confront the away fans, saw some mounted police on the pitch at MK Dons. But I still like them as long as it is peacefull.
Too much potential for trouble. It's time for clubs to be punished for such invasions:- end of season or not, they're illegal.
yea but, just like college basketball/football in the US...it's done and makes a great show when watching on TV.
After Roma won the Scudetto in 2001 (and 85,000 Roma fans at the Olimpico poured onto the pitch in mass hysteria) the Italian federation has now threatened clubs regarding pitch invasion.
Yah and conferences, at least the SEC is starting to punish schools for rushing the court. It does make for great tv but it can lead to serious injuries as Outside the Line reported on a couple months ago.
come on, that's crap. There's nothing better than a pitch invasion to celebrate promotion/winning a title. If it was two rivals then maybe there'd be potential for trouble, but other than that, not at all. Can you recall one such invasion ending in crowd trouble ever? Last year after Reading clinched the title the tannoy guy tried to tell everyone to stay off the pitch, but it was a king canute like announcement as thousands flooded on. All the players agreed that it was far better than the planned walk round the pitch edge with the trophy. As it happens I went to an Aussie rules football match last weekend near Melbourne, and after the match they seem to let fans on the pitch as a matter of routine, providing they wait until the players are off the field.
yup, i remember watchin that... @ an ohio state game, after the game finished, around the football goalposts, police made a huge man-made triangle around it...to stop the college kids from rippin them down...
They do that out here in the PAC-10, my sophomore year a girl was put in the hospital for several weeks from a head injury from the goal posts coming down right on her melon. If people were cool and didn't trash the field and it's the end of the year I don't see a problem, but as usual some idiot or group of idiots tends to ruin things.
Did you even bother reading earlier posts in this thread? So how are you going to handle this? Police permission to break the law when they deem there's no potential for trouble, but not otherwise?
What law? Did some government pass a law saying it was illegal for a mere fan to put foot to grass? If a club or league has a rule saying no fans on the pitch, that's not a law, that's a rule made by a private organization, and breaking said rule is not "illegal". Do they throw people in jail for pitch invasions? Are we in a police state yet, or are you maybe overreacting a bit?
did you even bother to read the sentence where I said if it was two rivals - such as a play-off decider - then it shouldn't be allowed? As for the Peterborough one - can't remember it myself, and it can't have exactly happened this year as Peterborough didn't have anything to celebrate. so what do you want? Clubs docked points for fans celebrating promotion? What purpose exactly would that serve? As I said, fans running on the pitch after the game to celebrate in a non-confrontational way is not remotely an issue. Can't say I've seen too much about supposed trouble at play-off games as I'm in Australia at the moment, but I didn't noticed anything on the BBC site about it - and besides, MK Dons fans going on to confront the away fans would not exactly be an example of fans running on to celebrate, bearing in mind they lost. It doesn't take much of an effort to but a precautionary cordon of stewards in front of the away end if the fans run on. I have to say I'm at a loss to see why you are so against such things. If fans go on and do cause trouble then fine the clubs or whatever - fine - but there's no point doing so for a celebratory pitch invasion.
Nantes fans invaded the pitch to protest against the managers who led the club to relegation. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20xyx_la-beaujoire-envahie The action was prepared several days ago. No problem in the stadium but some fights with the police outside.
It's a criminal offence to go on the pitch in the UK. I think that's also true for many places in the US? I've certainly heard announcements to that effect at many games I've been to here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/6593437.stm http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=428591&cc=5739
Hardly a good yardstick. I mean, Peterborough and Rochdale were hardly two big rivals were they? There's just too much potential for even a small minority to cause trouble on a pitch invasion, be it with opposing fans or players. I doubt you can cleanly differentiate between invasions that are supposedly celebratory and those at which trouble can and does occur. And as going on the pitch is a criminal offence, the law should be enforced in a consistent manner. By allowing pitch invasions in certain circumstances, you're only encouraging people to ignore the law in others.
Has anyone actually seen the law in full? I've seen the signs at the edge of the pitches and stuff but not heard much about it. It'd be quite interesting.
but when did this supposed attack happen? If it was this year then in was just a hooligan pitch invasion, not a celebration as Peterborough had nothing to celebrate typically those that take place because of promotion etc are celebrations and do not result in trouble. As I said, can you think of one such example that lead to trouble? The Peterborough one, if this year, wasn't a celebration as they had nothing to celebrate, nor did MK or Lincoln. oh come on, what are you suggesting? That if you let people on the pitch to celebrate they are going to suddenly think drink driving is OK, or something like that? Nobody who runs on to celebrate promotion is going to be lead to any degree down a path of criminality. If an American had suggested that you can bet it would be in the DPT by now.
It was a "traditional" end of season pitch invasion so, no it wasn't a "hooligan" invasion: a hooligan merely took advantage of the invasion as has happened on occasions in the past. I posted a link earlier about the Peterborough incident. As I said before, there is not a clear cut distinction between those that are "celebratory" and those at which trouble can and does occur. Pitch invasions provide too much potential for a small minority of idiots to case trouble. Define "celebration". Many fans invade to "celebrate" the end of the season, for example, as was the case at Peterborough. And the vast majority of fans would have entered the pitch in that spirit. Unfortunately it also provided the opportunity for an individual to attack an opposing player. "the" law as in the law against entering the pitch. There are good reasons why there's a law against pitch invasions and those reasons are just as valid for these end of season invasions as they are at any other time.
At the end of the say, as with so many things, it's down to the fans. I hate to trot out cliches, but it's always the "mindless minority" who ruin it for everyone else. This past week saw my club, Shrewsbury Town, face MK Dons in a 2 leg League 2 play off semi-final. For the first time in history, both legs of the playoff would be each club's last game at their home stadium before a move to a new one next season, beginning with the last game of our 97 year history at Gay Meadow on Monday night. The game finished in a 0-0 draw and, as you'de expect, Salop fans ran onto the field in their thousands to celebrate the end of a good season with the club staff and to say a fond farewell to the place. As is also customary, several Town fans headed over to the away supporters' section to clap the MK Dons support, several of whom took this in the wrong spirit and began to climb the fences, hurling abuse and bottles at our fans and spitting onto the pitch. This resulted in an ugly confrontation between both sets of fans, with one young Town fan breaking past the stewards and landing a nice punch on an MK twat who was stood on the fence mouthing off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABjKKOq5ZY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=malPqEp3TgA This could have ruined the last day at our stadium and could have been avoided had the MK Dons fans acted with some dignity and not deliberately tried to provoke Town fans, knowing full well there was a nice fence and a load of stewards to protect them. Had that fence not been there, it would have kicked off but, as it was it was only a minor incident. The second leg ended in a 2-1 win for the mighty Shrews. After our first goal went in, several Town fans got a bit over excited and ran on to the pitch to celebrate with the scorer, Andy Cooke. However, it was all good natured and they were off the pitch and back in the stands as soon as the stewards and police told them to and well before the game was ready to restart. At the end of the game, Dons fans invaded the pitch and once again, some fans ran to confront the 1,200 Town fans massed in the West Stand of the National Hockey Stadium. Five police horses and a line of police and stewards were on hand to drive them back but not before one of them had managed to kick Shrewsbury player Ben Davies, who was later seen hobbling out of the car park on crutches and was unable to drive his car back to Shrewsbury. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P8oofjq28g (Salop fans can be heard singing and are in the section to the left of the person filming) In both cases, the pitch invasions would have gone off calmly had it not been for the actions of a few idiots. As it is, MK Dons are facing a probable points deduction and one of our star players may be missing for our trip to Wembley. My personal take on pitch invasions is that it's down to context. If it's the last game at your ground or you've just won the title or promotion against a team with nothing to play for then a pitch invasion is the perfect way to celebrate, but if there's anything in the game for your opponents then it can cause problems. Ultimately, clubs need to take more responsibilty. If the game goes off without incident then there should be no punishment for a pitch invasion but if there's a danger of trouble then they need to pay the money for the policing necessary to prevent fans getting on the pitch. The MK police did well on Friday to stop our fans getting on the pitch a second time and keeping MK fans at the other end of the ground but even then, Ben Davies has ended up with an injury that had nothing to do with the game. The FA needs to take a hardline with these incidents as well. Chester City were docked 2 points a few years back when a fan ran on to the pitch and assaulted a Rochdale player so I'd expect nothing less to be applied to both MK Dons and Peterborough.
Loads of pitch invasions today, I think the only one that turned nasty was southampton the other week.