FSF concerned about Police Powers

The Football Supporters Federation (FSF) are concerned that powers given to the Police under section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 can be used against football supporters without justification. Last Saturday a group of Stock City supporters were prevented from watching their team play at Old Trafford after police escorted them out of a pub and put them on a coach back to Stoke.

Amanda Jacks, FSF portfolio holder for policing and stewarding, explains.

We were contacted on Monday by Lyndon Edwards a 38-year-old Stoke fan who'd travelled to their away game against Manchester Utd by mini bus, rather than train, having previously had poor experiences of policing at Piccadilly station. All of his group were members of the Stoke Away Membership scheme meaning they'd been vetted by the police. They knew of a good pub on the way Old Trafford so decided to have a couple of drinks there before the game.

Lyndon describes the behaviour of his fellow supporters in the pub as exemplary, boring even. Not a song being sung, just a group of ordinary, law abiding supporters wiling away the time before a long awaited kick off. He wasn't overly surprised or bothered when the police first made their appearance but the mood changed when it became clear that the police were about to put them all back to Stoke on a coach under the powers of Section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006.

Why? For no other reason than they were a large (if separate) group of predominantly male football supporters. Such was the attitude of the police that his female friend was distraught, so upset that Lyndon asked to see a senior officer to see if he could negotiate her leaving the pub rather than being forced on the coach. Eventually an inspector came to speak to Lyndon, showed no sympathy, he advised that the girl "should know better than to mix with Stoke scum." He then refused to give his name and Lyndon was unable take his number as it wasn't displayed on his shoulder. The girl was eventually able to leave but only after an officer from Stoke intervened.

It is to the great credit of the Stoke supporters that they did not react to this provocation, although even when a couple of fans did try to make the police see reason they were threatened with arrest for public order offences. Processing this many supporters takes time meaning that those who were escorted onto the coach first sat there for nearly two hours, requests to leave the coach to use toilet facilities were met with scorn, fans were told to get a cup off the driver and use that instead.

Lyndon, who is pursuing his complaint with the IPCC, says: "It was the worst policing I have ever experienced in all my years as a football supporter. I am absolutely incensed at the way my friends and I were treated. Not one of us in our group has ever been in trouble with the police for any type of offence.”

“We were treated like criminals and this issue needs to be as publicised as widely as possible to let all football supporters know about the danger of Section 27.”

The FSF fully support his views and our chair, Malcolm Clarke, has written to the police asking whether or not this was an appropriate use of Section 27, and asking him to clarify how officers are trained to use it. We await his response.

Far too many fans are poorly treated by police, and far too few challenge their actions. You may read this and think, what’s the problem? You’ve obviously never experienced it yourself then – draconian and arbitrary treatment of football fans is widespread and we’ve got the mailbag to prove it. If anything, we think it’s on the increase too. Don't just expect and accept this treatment otherwise it will get worse. We're always willing to fight your corner for you and would be pleased to help with any legitimate complaints out there.

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