Take a look at yourselves guys. A long hard look at yourselves.
This is what we have created. Yes, us: you; me; him; her and them. A catalogue of shame engulfed our game after passions spilled over and showed a rotten underbelly of society. Behaviour at football is a reflection upon all of us - and that view back from the looking glass is not a pretty one.
To recap, we’ve had the following this week. A octogenarian Luton Town fan was left with blood pouring from his head after being hit by a coin during Huddersfield Town’s play-off final semi-final victory. Hatters' boss Nathan Jones was accosted afterwards by a mum and her son.
Nottingham Forest season-ticket holder Robert Biggs, a City Ground season-ticket holder, and a £55,000-a-year electrical engineer by profession, was convicted for 24 weeks for assaulting Sheffield United player Billy Sharp as a massive on-pitch celebration turned sour. During the same melee, the Football Association and Nottinghamshire Police have launched investigations over allegations Sheffield United’s Oil McBurnie stamped on a fan during the post-match play-off commotion.
Mansfield Town’s Jordan Bowery was attacked during Mansfield Town’s victory against Northampton Town - before the supporter turned his attention to confronting the bench. He then probably saw Stags’ goalkeeping coach Andy Garner and decided against it. Big lump, is Andy, bless him.
And on Thursday evening, another moron decided to goad, provoke or just generally annoy Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira after yet another pitch invasion, this time at Goodison Park and was given a boot up the backside for his trouble. Running concurrently to that, Port Vale and Swindon Town fans indulged in a seat-swapping exercise - lobbing heavy bits of plastic at one another before the Robins players fought - yes, fought - their way back to their dressing-room.
It’s a potent cocktail. If you add alcohol, temperate weather, packed stadia and heightened football excitement together, what do you get? All hell breaking loose by the look of it. There was even one moment that left me scratching my head in disbelief. Within seconds of Brice Samba saving Morgan Gibbs-White’s penalty, the hordes scrambled onto the City Ground turf.
And one bloke went up to clearly-startled Forest boss Steve Cooper and asked for a selfie. I mean, what the actual… whether the world has gone mad following a couple of years of a COVID-inspired lockdown or not, the fall-out from these antics have to be given context.
And warnings about ‘next time’ have rained down from every responsible angle. But we never seem to learn, do we? It was only three years ago since a fella ran onto the pitch during the Birmingham derby and swung a punch at Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish. He was sentenced to 14 weeks - and served four of them.
We heard the same grave words after his assault. Nothing has changed. And yes, I’ve not named the guy deliberately. He doesn’t deserve the notoriety. What’s the point of history, if not to learn from it?
Those 97 poor souls whose lives were ended in 1989 at Hillsborough died because the authorities decided to fence-in supporters. Back then, it was done to combat hooliganism. The result was on that fateful afternoon in south Yorkshire that an escape route onto the pitch for those Liverpool fans was denied them.
After this week, whether it’s a review of policing, stewarding or punishments, something has to be done: not next week when the agenda has moved on; not in the next couple of months, pending some sodding report; now.
The bottom line is that bad behaviour cannot be tolerated. And before there’s another fatality at a match we need to look at ourselves and our society and decide whether we really want to do something about it. Because that time is upon us.
