Have pitch invasions gone too far?

[RandoEFC+]

I don't get the beef with teams doing a pitch invasion for winning a playoff semi final either. How often are Swindon going to have that much of an excuse to run onto the pitch and celebrate with their team because they've ended up booking a trip to Wembley in their last home game of the season? I've seen it said that they should wait until they're actually promoted. It's not the same doing it at an away game or at Wembley. You're not running onto *your* football pitch then or surrounded by a stadium almost full of like-minded people. I'm not a regular match goer myself but it's not hard to understand why it's important to those that are that it's *your* pitch that you've been to 25 times a year to generate those scenes.

People can have their opinions. I've admitted I thought before the game that the idea of a pitch invasion for surviving relegation would have been a bit embarrassing. But the bottom line is that the emotion takes you in the moment. And if the emotion takes you over and you hold yourself back because a few Liverpool fans off Twitter, a couple of Aussies you've never met on an Internet forum, an attention-seeking pundit on TalkSport or even your own fans might make fun of you tomorrow, then I'm sorry but that makes you the saddest cunt in the world.

It's football. If you genuinely don't understand it then you don't understand your football club like I do mine and I'm sorry for you. If you're just poking fun, then that's sound.

[Rucksackfranzose]

18 hours ago, patoriku66 said:

As far as I know, there are no metal detectors at matches??

What happens at the end of a match and the other team wins and then there's a pitch invasion? Who's to say someone doesn't bring a blade and stabs a supporter or a player.

Final season matches, the epl, efl, etc need to cough up to provide serious policing.

Using the same logic, you had to ban cars, since you can't guarantee there will be no lunatic stuffing it with explosives and blowing up Piccadelly Circus.

[Whiskey]

People that are anti pitch invasions are the people that spend their time clicking adverts off their stream every five minutes.

If you go the game you understand them.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

35 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

People that are anti pitch invasions are the people that spend their time clicking adverts off their stream every five minutes.

If you go the game you understand them.

Every football game I go to the crowd couldn't invade a fucking penalty box. 

[Honey Honey]

They are very risky from a security perspective. Not just to the players and officials but it causes an opportunistic spirit which can cause criminal damage and tensions with the opposition supporters. 

It used to be a case of knowing when it was likely so security would be part in order. However I don't think it was necessarily expected at Everton and Forest as the occasion perhaps wasn't deemed big enough.

Pitch invasions are an interesting phenomenon to watch happen. It starts by a few chancers and knackers running on to the pitch. Often people with dodgy histories. With no steward or police response the next round of opportunists run on. Usually kids. Then you start seeing what could be considered the better behaved citizens slowly climb barriers and walk onto the pitch. It ends in someone's wheel chair getting stuck in the grass.

[Whiskey]

Things in life that are guaranteed: 

Death, Taxes and @LFCMikegetting a semi on whenever you post and having a nibble  RF

[Stan]

5 minutes ago, Honey Honey said:

They are very risky from a security perspective. Not just to the players and officials but it causes an opportunistic spirit which can cause criminal damage and tensions with the opposition supporters. 

It used to be a case of knowing when it was likely so security would be part in order. However I don't think it was necessarily expected at Everton and Forest as the occasion perhaps wasn't deemed big enough.

Pitch invasions are an interesting phenomenon to watch happen. It starts by a few chancers and knackers running on to the pitch. Often people with dodgy histories. With no steward or police response the next round of opportunists run on. Usually kids. Then you start seeing what could be considered the better behaved citizens slowly climb barriers and walk onto the pitch. It ends in someone's wheel chair getting stuck in the grass.

And crutches going flying in the air across the pitch

I think the Forest one could have been expected. Been happening for years in playoffs. 

[RandoEFC+]

Is it fair to assume that all of the people clutching their pearls over a few thousand people running onto a field and having a sing song and then going home without causing any actual damage have never been to Glastonbury or anything like that. 

[Danny]

I think part of the reason pitch invasions normally work so well is they happen in divisions where the gap between player and fan is smaller. Players are much more accessible to fans in the football league, generally a lot more community schemes going on. Also fans at that level see your Ronaldo’s and Messi’s but don’t care because we’ve got Clayton Donaldson. There’s just a connection that exists between team and fans at lower league level that is very difficult to replicate in the Prem.

I think that generally used to be the case pre-pandemic, but a year or two behind closed doors has fried peoples brains.

[Danny]

On 21/05/2022 at 08:24, RandoEFC said:

It's not my fault that people are upset seeing that Everton have a better celebration for finishing 16th than their teams would have if they won the Champions League.

The absolute bitterness of Liverpool fans who wanted to see us go down is one thing because they actually have a rivalry with us but how wound up others are from Newcastle to Australia about it really is a sight to behold. Then they have the gall to turn around and suggest Everton fans are tinpot. Have a look a bit closer to home lads. 

Tbh Aussie sports are so much better run in terms of fan and player engagement. You don’t need to invade the pitch over there, the players will hang around at the side of the pitch every game for pictures, autographs and chats with the fans. At least that’s the case in the NRL. In general sports fans in Oz are so much better behaved than ours, really less of a wound up by Everton scenario and more a culture clash.

You only really seem to see anything resembling a European sports culture in Australia in the A-League and that’s generally just cringey lads pretending they’re ultras.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

I never used the term tinpot. I just cringed a little and were I the league I'd fine you out the ass for that shit. A pitch invasion on any given day is where this is headed. 

I fucking bet they do one next time they beat Liverpool

[RandoEFC+]

People can think where they want but equating Chelsea to reaching 40 points or drawing with Southampton to a team coming from 2-0 down to win a game that saved them from the threat of relegation which posed a very real existential threat to the club's long term future is just wilfully ignorant. Nobody is kidding themselves that this season is worthy of celebration overall but Thursday night was. And the comments about how rich the club is as if match going fans should restrain themselves in a moment like that because of what numbers are on a spreadsheet somewhere are just incredibly daft.

Everton fans have been irritated and embarrassed by the team's performances all season (and most of the past decade, in fact most of my lifetime). If you expect them to react with frustration and resentment in that moment where the worst case scenario was staved off instead of just allowing themselves to be relieved for one night then I'm afraid you simply don't understand football. There is so much broader context as well in the way that the connection between the club and fans (mainly due to the two managers we've had this season) has gone from its worst in 20+ years to its best in 20+ years over the course of a couple of months, the fact that we were 5 points from safety less than a month ago, the siege mentality generated by refereeing decisions in so many of our recent games.

Taking the specific case of Everton out of it, anyone who looks at how another fanbase reacts emotionally to any situation and thinks they have a case to criticise them is automatically wrong 100% of the time. If you don't support that club, you do not know the full context, and you aren't in a position to comment and be taken remotely seriously. This is genuinely the worst genre of football discourse around and we should all condemn and ridicule it whenever we catch each other doing it.

For further reading, see the back end of my signature.

[nudge+]

It's interesting to see the difference in opinions, even among the officials. The current DFB president said he doesn't like it because of the risks it carries, while the previous president said it's not a big deal and should just be organized better to avoid potential injuries.

Werder management board obviously was appealing to the fans before the match not to do it, but they opened the barriers to avoid crowding and then after it happened, they also said it's alright because fans behaved well and there were little to none issues. Some players thoroughly enjoyed it and celebrated with the fans on the pitch and in the stands. Same at Schalke and Frankfurt.

Maybe there's just more dickheads in the UK

[Stan]

1 minute ago, nudge said:

Maybe there's just more dickheads in the UK

That's genuinely probably it

 

[RandoEFC+]

Authorities are obviously going to speak against it though as they've got all the liability.

[nudge+]

Just now, RandoEFC said:

Authorities are obviously going to speak against it though as they've got all the liability.

Of course. But even then, the tone seems to be much, much milder in Germany than in the UK.

[RandoEFC+]

4 minutes ago, nudge said:

Of course. But even then, the tone seems to be much, much milder in Germany than in the UK.

Football feels a bit more folksy and people-driven in Germany overall between fans being trusted to drink beer at games, fan ownership of clubs. I don't know how much lazy stereotyping and confirmation bias I have in my perception but football does seem to have an angrier culture about it in the UK. I'm not sure why but probably linked to it being historically the sport for working class men and acting as an outlet for them to express their negative emotions because their lives aren't that great. We've had it all over the years between football gangs, bans from Europe for hooliganism, rivalries like the one in Glasgow born out of secularism. I might be ignorant of similar stuff in other countries though.

[Beelzebub]

Germans don't have emotions, simple.

[Honey Honey]

Some things have always been considered small time in English football, pitch invasions are one of them, another is playing music after a goal.

 

[nudge+]

What about prostituting yourselves to the highest bidder? Is it considered small or big time in English football? 

 

[Honey Honey]

 

You have a wall of stewards and still knackers are getting on.

I guess won't be anymore instances for 12 months but it will be interesting to see if the Premier League is now going to import this new wave of Football League "mum I'm on the pitch"

[RandoEFC+]

Much more of that and I'm going to end up looking like a cunt for standing up for pitch invasions in this thread.

The Mum I'm on the pitch thing isn't really a problem. Just going onto the pitch, for me, really doesn't matter.

But if this trend of dickheads going on and trying to start on or wind up opposition managers and players carries on then it's going to ruin it for the majority who are just there for a slightly naughty laugh.

Like I said earlier, stewards won't stop pitch invasions. It'll be fences between the pitch and the stands like they have in some of the Eastern European leagues that have properly mental crowds.

Got to hope that what we've seen this year is simply just three years of backed up stupidity that's all come out in the first season since fans came back into stadiums for season finales, with a bit of rusty awareness on the part of officials and opposition players in knowing their cue for getting off the field of play. It does make me concerned that there's already a bit of copycat that behaviour happening though.

Feel for Robin Olsen as well who had his home broken into and his family threatened when he was with us last season. Must be loving the fact he came to play in the Premier League.

[Spike]

It's all fun and games till some kid gets knocked over and trampled by a thousand blokes rushing the pitch.

[Toinho]

Do people rush the stage of performers at glastonbury? I did not know that! I've been to 100+ gigs and never seen anyone run onto the performers workplace, just like people shouldn't run onto footballers' workplace. No one is running through my classroom celebrating that I taught a student how to read (much bigger achievement than someone scoring a goal).

[Bluewolf]

Job done!!!