Investment fails to tackle increase of football hooliganism in lower divisions Hooliganism is rising in football's lower divisions despite huge investment in tackling violence... The Independent I'd definitely agree that they focus more on the Premiership clubs making the lower division clubs see an increase in incidents.
Someone from Stoke City was on the radio yesterday to talk about these figures - claiming that arrests within the stadium, where the club actually has a measure of control, are down. And given a lot of the problems at Millwall these days appears to be outside too.
On a somewhat related note, "Banned from Pompey Again" The FL has banned Millwall supporters from travelling to Portsmouth in September. "Millwall fans can not attend Burnley, Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth, Leicester City, Stoke and Wolves matches despite Portsmouth originally agreeing to allow Millwall supporters attend."
Although looking at the full figures today, we only had one arrest recorded, placing us joint second bottom. So something to smile about (Macclesfield had no-one). Incidentally the best four or five records were all from recent Conference winners. One thing I do remember from the mid 90's was that the Conference crowds were always more friendly. Something to look forward too I guess.
Im sure, once in the league, come Conference teams could attract more local idiots when their fixtures start getting more attention - or they start going to places that are trouble hotbeds. Even the "friendliest" of clubs attract nogoodniks at times. QPR - for example - have always had a friendly reputation, but since we went down in the 90's trouble seemed to go up.
Certainly. The worst I ever remember was when we won the Conference in 98, admittedly nowhere near as bad as other clubs, but there were the odd unsavoury incident. The worst I ever saw was a couple of years back when a fan ran onto the pitch to attack the ref. Certainly spend some time in the station after that (and hopefully longer, that can't be condoned).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-378446,00.html Click on the link to the right to see the figures for each club.
A lot of people seem to believe that Sam Hammam is hooligan friendly because he had a meeting with a known firm called the soul crew when he first came to the club. However you now have to be a S/T holder or member to purchase away tickets fromt he club. With this you need to ahve an identity card which includes a picture on the front. As well as this the club has improved security between away fans and cardiff supporters. Finally he has put a £150,000 camera up outside the stadium for the police which can tell the colour of your eyes, very clearly. To help Police find the hooligans something he dosent have to do. I am not responding directly to this thread however a lot of people believe it is a lot easier to rid hooligans from a club than it is. I know it is easy to identify hooligans however you have to make sure the evidence is there.
I've just heard from a few different sources that 'Sam the Man' gave 4 Oldham lads a lift after the match yesterday.
Wouldnt suprise me hes a sound guy, nothing is to much trouble for the guy. Not like most owners or chairman who knon nothing about the guy
Yeah, that's exactly what they said. He drove them to a pub nearby and bought them a pint. It's characters like him that make football so great.
There were 2 men arrested at Rushden and Diamonds late last season. They got 5yr bans. Never been to england but those kind of stats are good to know Go diamonds