Southampton fan has been banned from football for 3 years after arrest at Brighton game. Brighton fan received similar ban. Before we get too wound up about this, I would guess this wasn't the average chanting that thousands of fans were doing. Must have been more aggressive than that.
good to see action taken. Some idiots take things to far, and there were warnings in terms of what would be viewed as a breach of the peace. Hope they feel foolish, especially if they were targeting each other somehow from across the ground; a bit like a hateful version of... the two guys who lived down the street from each other (they didn't know each other at the time) and they both though they had a local owl. Each used to call out to it - doing owl noises - at night. But what they didn't realise was, there was no owl. They were really making owl-calls to each other, for 3 years!
No doubt it was very strong but in reality there isn't really what you call average chanting on this. Homophobic chanting IS banned. It's like fans chanting racist abuse at black players or a black team/fans and then saying 'oh it really wasn't that bad, we weren't excessive.' It's unacceptable and not necessary.
I'm saying it's not necessary in general. That being said if they were banned for chanting the same stuff as everyone else it's a bit unfair.I'm guessing it wasn't and they went overboard
I don't suppose this was "does your boyfriend know you're here?" or "we can see you holding hands!" that's pretty harmless and loads of people were singing. There is a line where banter crosses into targeted and unnecessary abuse and most people understand where that line is.
My guess is that aggression was involved whether at a Brighton fan or towards an official. He pleaded guilty anyway.
