Bradford Pitch invasion fine?

[LWJ]

source?

Personal experience.

The ban got over turned in a Crown Court though.

[LWJ]

There are a couple of fans on those clips that could be looking at a stadium ban. The flare guys, and a couple goading the away fans. One guy quite a few times.

Once they were on the pitch where were the stewards taking them away from the away end.

If you look most of the stewards are huddled around the players tunnel. Not good enough.

Also the tannin guy should have tuned the music off and asked fans to clear the pitch. Fairly basic.

Bans are being handed out, I know 3 people who got 3 year football or Reading bans. 1 fairly (flare thrower), 1 semi-fairly (threw a bottle back at the Bradford fans after it had been thrown and hit him from the Bradford fans, Bradford fans got no backlash) and 1 very unfairly (being on the pitch).

Please tell me Edge did

[Will95]

There are a couple of fans on those clips that could be looking at a stadium ban. The flare guys, and a couple goading the away fans. One guy quite a few times.

Once they were on the pitch where were the stewards taking them away from the away end.

If you look most of the stewards are huddled around the players tunnel. Not good enough.

Also the tannin guy should have tuned the music off and asked fans to clear the pitch. Fairly basic.

Bans are being handed out, I know 3 people who got 3 year football or Reading bans. 1 fairly (flare thrower), 1 semi-fairly (threw a bottle back at the Bradford fans after it had been thrown and hit him from the Bradford fans, Bradford fans got no backlash) and 1 very unfairly (being on the pitch).

Please tell me Edge did

no his ban is just from England games

[Nameless]

It would be interesting to see what the numbers of badged stewards were compared to a normal match. There did appear to be an extra response team (one by the north stand that isn't there) but there didn't seem to be much of an increased presence around the edges of the pitch. I suspect that if the club were able to show that they had put in place what the FA would have considered appropriate additional measures given the high emotions, it wouldn't have mattered how out of hand it got. I was sat in the north stand and there were only 3 or 4 stewards applying their best kung-fu to lone teenagers. They were never going to stop anything.

Shame all of this, it has soured what was probably the best atmosphere/experience i can remember at the Mad Stad in recent years.

The Kungu Fu stewards were probably contract staff not RFC. I'd be surprised to see doing RFC stewards doing that.

What do you mean by 'contract staff ' ? All the RFC staff ? Do you mean agency ? If so then there are two types of those. Professional ones, like Green Team who basically are an upgrade on our Tangoes and are usually massively experienced and very good. Or there are just agencies supplying extra warm bodies who probably aren't very experienced, and are more like or safety stewards. There were definitely more stewards at the Bradford game and I would have said both types of agency were involved. The stewards in front of the North Stand were clearly not Response Stewards as I would see them, just bodies manning positions.
There seemed a clear strategy to use resources to protect players and away fans rather than totally prevent a pitch invasion. Stopping thousands of people getting on the pitch just using stewards is nigh on impossible, unless you have physical barriers like at Wembley or dogs sheer weight of numbers will breach a single line of stewards if they are determined.
They put response stewards at the players tunnel to make sure the players got off safely and then no one could go down the tunnel and then they put a solid line across the away end to keep fans apart. That kept the situation pretty controlled and non threatening (bar a few isolated incidents). They could probably have cleared the pitch with a couple a police dogs or the mounted team, maybe they thought that would be over the top considering 99% weren't on the pitch looking for trouble.
With a couple of hundred extra stewards of suitable experience maybe they could have kept everyone off the pitch. But in the best they have tried to focus on y25/26 only for an invasion to start elsewhere, distract everyone and people then flood on elsewhere.
The fine does seem huge, and I think disproportionate compared to the Villa fine for a number of reasons. But I guess the FA decided to make an example of us and it's going to cost us a fortune in future as we now have a 'record' and can't afford for it to happen again.

[Royal Ginger]

There was a clear lack of direction once it had started. Some stewards were holding the gates open for people to come through whilst some were pounding children into the ground and the announcements were telling people to piss off. Is there an analysis of the reasoning for the fine anywhere?

[Nameless]

There was a detailed analysis of the Villa fine, which was part of the reason I didn't think we would be hit as hard as many of the factors didn't apply to us.
Not sure the stewarding was as chaotic. There were 2 stewards at the North who clearly had not got the right idea hence chasing the youngster whilst ignoring the hordes of others rushing past. Opening the gates is just pragmatic once the invasion has happened, a it makes it easier to get off the pitch and b it's better to avoid people getting crushed or falling over a bolted gate. You look daft standing there defending your little gate as people climb the holdings either side of you !

[STAR Voice]

STAR have made a statement on our website about this, basically saying the amount of the fine was harsh, but nevertheless it's a warning to our future behaviour. 'Exemplary' fine seems to be the word, rather than 'appropriate.'

The situation was exacerbated in our view by a number of factors:
- shown live on national TV
- following close on the incidents at Villa also on national TV
- the Nellie the elephant sequence or whatever that was with the solo pitch invader - you can't afford to be humorous these days
- the small minority chucking stuff at Bradford City fans

The post above makes a fair point about the difficulty of stopping a mass invasion. What was successfully prevented was a mass confrontation. When they say stay off the pitch they mean it now and they back it up with fines that hurt our club.

[TFF]

STAR have made a statement on our website about this

Thank God

[Gordons Cumming]

I meant agency , nameless.

[UpThePrem]

£100,000 fine reduced to £40,000 on appeal.

http://www.thefa.com/news/governance/2015/oct/reading-fined-misconduct-supporter-behaviour

[Maguire]

STAR have made a statement on our website about this

Thank God

I've only just seen this. Been fretting about the whole thing since it happened but at last I have found peace.

[Ian Royal]

£100,000 fine reduced to £40,000 on appeal.

http://www.thefa.com/news/governance/2015/oct/reading-fined-misconduct-supporter-behaviour

That's much more realistic for what happened.

[bobby1413]

We're going to be tarred with the same brush as Millwall at this rate. Visiting fans shouldn't be intimidated at the mad stad

[Mr Optimist]

We're going to be tarred with the same brush as Millwall at this rate. Visiting fans shouldn't be intimidated at the mad stad

[Haag Royal]

A Reading supporter flies through the air after being tackled by stewards at the Madejski Stadium

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z3noXVEqv5

Just love how wrong this picture caption is.

[Sutekh]

A Reading supporter flies through the air after being tackled by stewards at the Madejski Stadium

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z3noXVEqv5

Just love how wrong this picture caption is.

Yes, you can always trust the Daily Mail for a factual well balanced and non hysterical reaction to events

[Forbury Lion]

A Reading supporter flies through the air after being tackled by stewards at the Madejski Stadium

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z3noXVEqv5

Just love how wrong this picture caption is.

LMAO