It felt to some like a return to the 1980s, if not deeper in the mists of time. ‘We’re in the dark ages,’ said Jermaine Jenas when Aston Villa’s Matty Cash and Lucas Digne were struck by missiles at Goodison Park at the weekend.
The incident was very much a part of a present reality, as Burnley’s Matt Lowton, Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger and Brentford’s Sergi Canos can vividly attest. All three have been hit by missiles at games in the past few months — Lowton by a bottle full of liquid thrown at him when he celebrated a Maxwel Cornet equaliser at Leeds.
Police figures reveal a 36 per cent increase in the number of games with incidents of disorder in the first half of this season. The throwing of missiles and pyrotechnics is among the most common offences, though a striking rise in hate crime — 206 in the first half of this season, up from 146 in 2019-20 — suggests that this scourge is nowhere near being eradicated.
Aston Villa duo Matty Cash and Lucas Digne were struck by a bottle at Goodison Park
Antonio Rudiger also had a missile thrown his way as Chelsea played Tottenham on Sunday
The figures also show there is more policing of games than there was in 2019-20, the last comparable, pre-Covid season.
The proportion of matches with a police presence — where the potential for disorder is deemed too high to leave things to stewards — is up from 46 per cent to 66 per cent across the top five divisions. Arrests have gone up from 547 to 802.
Many who regularly attend games see the line between high spirits and disorder being breached by the small minority of fans who can’t cope with their own alcohol intake. There was a charge on police by a bunch of Wrexham fans outside Stockport County’s Edgeley Park in September. Officers scrambled to deal with the escalating trouble.
The number of young people, barely more than teenagers, in the ruck that afternoon was disturbing and fits a national picture. ‘We are trying to explore and understand why,’ Britain’s top football police officer, Chief Constable Mark Roberts, told Sportsmail.
‘The worry for us is that in the past you could ascribe the problems in England to too much drink and cocaine but now you are seeing a new generation of young people who don’t necessarily fit those criteria. There is definitely a greater element of youth risk.’
Other incidents have seen Manchester City players have objects thrown their way after celebrating a goal against Arsenal
Clubs’ penny-pinching is a part of the problem. There is a clear correlation between the number of police officers in grounds and the ability of stewards to control potentially anti-social fans. But there has been a concerted effort among clubs to limit the amount they pay for uniformed officers.
Many clubs pay £210 for three hours of an officer’s time and largely make do with their own stewards — who are ‘security staff’ in the very loosest definition of the term. A Sportsmail