Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Peter Fahy says football does not need policing GMP chief constable Sir Peter Fahy has claimed football would be better off without a police presence on matchdays. Sir Peter â speaking in the light of the Hillsborough report â said sports such as rugby league managed well without his officers. He suggested their presence at football might encourage âan atmosphere of rivalry and antagonism between fansâ. Sir Peter also claimed: - United and Liverpool fans indulge in unacceptable verbal abuse; - Some clubs had been lucky not to have their stadiums shut following violence on the terraces; - The Hillsborough cover-up had âshamedâ policing â but the culture had changed since the days when âthere was a notion it was the job of the police to control the lower classesâ. Sir Peter called for a change in the culture of football, saying fans had to look at their behaviour and âthe atmosphere that is createdâ. He said: âThe worst place for it is Manchester United versus Liverpool matches, and we cannot just accept that. âYou can go to social events in this city and hear things said about people from Liverpool that nobody would say about black people, or the Irish for example. Both clubs need to look at this.â Mr Fahy said football could learn from other sports, where matches often go unpoliced. He said: âThe biggest example of this is at the DW Stadium in Wigan. âOne week you can have a Wigan rugby league match, and a huge crowd without a police officer in sight. âThe next it could be Wigan versus Aston Villa, a match which I attended, and there are officers everywhere. âWhy do we still need so many police officers and security staff at football matches? Does this prevent or rather does it encourage the atmosphere of rivalry and antagonism between fans? âWe should set an aim of getting police out of football matches.â Sir Peter admitted that scenes of violence at football stadiums were not punished in the same way as other venues, like pubs and bars. He said some clubs had been lucky to escape closure, adding: âAt the recent Bury versus Preston match we got a call for extra officers because of trouble there. âIf that had happened in a nightclub we would have looked at reviewing its licence and perhaps closing it down.â http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...-need-policing
There are too many idiot football fans about not to have a police presence. People dont start fights and hurling abuse just because the police are around.
Too many idiots who attend football matches looking for trouble so this would never be a good idea to remove police officers from "policing" games. Can you imagine a Leeds vs Millwall or United vs Liverpool without police there to control things. Things would kick off big time in these kind of games if there were no police around. Another aspect to look at it is that there would be a risk that more trouble makers could exploit the situation that there would be no police there giving them a easy chance to cause some trouble mainly outside the grounds and the surrounding areas.
It sort of makes sense. Think of any riot you can and one of the main antagonists are the police. However having no police is an insane idea. Maybe just having police who dont look like Universal Soldiers would make sense. Low profile policing if you will.
Personally I'd have the police in vans nearby ready to roll if there is trouble, but not wandering round the stadium trying to intimidate the fans. There's always a hardcore of fans who want to cause trouble, but the police presence doesn't prevent that imo - if anything those nutters use the police as an excuse to start trouble. Then other fans are tempted to join in just to have a go at the police for pushing them around previously. I think if you treat fans like criminals you are more likely to have them behave like criminals.
Imagine no police at OT when Liverpool come to town. There would be mass rioting, stabbings, abuse and pitch invasions from their lot. Stupid idea
There'd still be stewards. I think you're overstating the damages a little, even for a fixture as passionate as that one.
Do police not already send in non uniformed police officers outside the grounds in areas such as pubs, etc to keep an eye on things and to spot any trouble makers? Would be a good idea to have them in the stands and a decrease in the uniformed numbers of officers in the stadium.
“You can go to social events in this city and hear things said about people from Liverpool that nobody would say about black people, or the Irish for example. Both clubs need to look at this.” That's where i stopped reading lol. I get what he means but very badly conveyed. I've never been for all the chanting. It needs to stop. But to say some of the things said are bad even for black or irish standards is appalling unless he meant it in a different way. Maybe he was making a comparison. Oh well, i took it bad anyway
No, uniformed officers always patrol the pubs and try to intimidate the fans. They generally don't get a good reception. I really don't see the advantage of plain-clothes officers in this instance. They've already used every ****ish trick in the book - photographing fans, filming fans, using animals to attack fans and patrol cities, using every CCTV outlet they can, bubble trips, forced escorts and bus trips, no drinking on buses, voucher exchanges, section 27 orders, choosing which pub you can go in. They already rape our civil liberties enough, and yet people want MORE snide, insidious methods of 'rooting out troublemakers' even though, by and large, no such thing exists? Astounding.
This is an absolutely ridiculous idea. No police at football games??? Imagine a Manchester derby, or Glasgow derby, or Man Utd/Liverpool game, or Newcastle/Sunderland game. Inevitably (and wrongly),there would be bloodshed of an astronomical amount. I was at a Sunderland/Newcastle game around 1990, where there was no police presence in the ground. Fights broke out, hundreds, not just the odd one. The stewards were clueless, no-one took any notice of them and there was mass disorder for two hours. Crazy idea.
