[Hull Baggie]

Some new measures for next season across all football (including fans behaviour).

https://www.wba.co.uk/news/albion-tackle-participant-and-crowd-behaviour-ahead-new-season

"Ahead of the start of the new season we want to make you aware of new measures being taken across all of football to help ensure football remains safe and enjoyable for all.

We are backing the introduction of strong measures across the professional and grassroots game to help improve the behaviour of players, managers and coaches on the pitch, and aiming to address the unacceptable issue of football tragedy abuse in the stands.

Under the new participant charter, match officials will be empowered to take more robust action, while the players will receive cards for any confrontation, surrounding or invasion of the match officials’ personal space. Our academy scholars will also undertake refereeing courses to improve players’ education into officiating.

To challenge the totally unacceptable presence of football tragedy abuse, for season 2023/24, regulation changes and tough new measures have been introduced which will see people who are found guilty of offences face stadium bans and criminal prosecution.

This builds on measures to address dangerous and illegal crowd behaviour which were introduced last year and continue through the 2023/24 season including bans and reports to the police for activity such as entering the pitch without permission, carrying or using smoke bombs or pyrotechnics and throwing objects - as well as drug use and discriminatory behaviour.

These acts are dangerous, illegal and have severe consequences. They have no place in football, or anywhere.

Football should be a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone in the stadium whether on the pitch, on the line or in the stands. We thank you for your support this season."

[LiamTheBaggie]

Well if football clubs - including Albion - are serious about tackling fan behaviour and in particular the use of pyrotechnics then clubs would be wise to stop promoting them through their social media accounts.

Football clubs: “Pyrotechnics are bad. Really bad. We’ll ban you for three years”…

Also football clubs: “….scenes. Darnell furlong with a pyrotechnic on the pitch celebrating that night..”

Practice what you preach and all that…

[Atomic]

Well if football clubs - including Albion - are serious about tackling fan behaviour and in particular the use of pyrotechnics then clubs would be wise to stop promoting them through their social media accounts.

Football clubs: “Pyrotechnics are bad. Really bad. We’ll ban you for three years”…

Also football clubs: “….scenes. Darnell furlong with a pyrotechnic on the pitch celebrating that night..”

Practice what you preach and all that…

Very good point and I totally agree.

Fully in favour of all these measures.

[zippyandbungle]

Well if football clubs - including Albion - are serious about tackling fan behaviour and in particular the use of pyrotechnics then clubs would be wise to stop promoting them through their social media accounts.

Football clubs: “Pyrotechnics are bad. Really bad. We’ll ban you for three years”…

Also football clubs: “….scenes. Darnell furlong with a pyrotechnic on the pitch celebrating that night..”

Practice what you preach and all that…

Fantastic point
I’d suggest the deployment of sniffer dogs at the turnstiles would get rid of a lot of the problems too

[robnewbold]

The behaviour of Football players compared to Rugby players is disgusting.
 Any confrontation with/surrounding of  officials should be a an immediate yellow card to all concerned.
Swearing at officials should be an immediate red card.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Fantastic point
I’d suggest the deployment of sniffer dogs at the turnstiles would get rid of a lot of the problems too

They are there.   Most away games last season saw them in attendance.

[zippyandbungle]

The behaviour of Football players compared to Rugby players is disgusting.
 Any confrontation with/surrounding of  officials should be a an immediate yellow card to all concerned.
Swearing at officials should be an immediate red card.

I understand the thought process behind this but what I would say is
Invariably there is a hell of a lot more money at risk on some descions in football over rugby and whilst not excusing it …money does impact people’s rational thought processes
&
A footballer shouting at a ref does not excuse a grown adult to smash up toilet facilities.

[zippyandbungle]

They are there.   Most away games last season saw them in attendance.

I’m not arguing but genuinely don’t recall seeing any
I went to Bristol c twice,Hull,readiing couple of others..

[Blowee]

A footballer shouting at a ref does not excuse a grown adult to smash up toilet facilities.

Smashing up facilities should result in a life-time ban. Catching the culprits when toilets are damaged is often tricky as the police are left without anything to go on.

[zippyandbungle]

Smashing up facilities should result in a life-time ban. Catching the culprits when toilets are damaged is often tricky as the police are left without anything to go on.

Oh yes 😂😂😂

[alex1]

The club has put out a statement condemning the violence, which is the least you'd expect, but you wonder if it could do more to discourage a repeat.  As a club we can do without the headlines spread across national media. Nationally we generally have had a  reputation as a club not attracting trouble makers, and the many years I've travelled to games I've never witnessed serious incidents started by Albion fans.  Even if it was Wolves fans who were stupid enough to jump up amongst the home supporters, the club are clearly going to be expected to bring in extra measures,
 
Tighter control of ticket contribution seems an obvious one, but I think playing the Liquadator sends out the wrong message from the club. You can't obviously stop fans shouting and singing what they want, but the club has a responsibility to keep it civilised. Opposition fans are paying customers, and you don't normally abuse paying guests.   I know the vast majority are grown up enough to know where to draw the line, but its the others who don't. They probably see anything which ramps up the abuse as a green light to take everything to another level. 

I know, there are no easy answers, but its the sort of thing which can de-escalate the situation. 
 

[jimmyj]

Playing the liquidator is fine.

Giving free reign to cheap cocaine snorters within the ground is not. I'd start there, zero tolerance to that bunch of [expletive]

[liverbaggie]

I did not go to the game, not because i didnt want to watch it but because i thought that there would be trouble. Baggies supporters are not known for trouble and violence, i dont know who caused this aggro im assuming ffom reports that it was Wolves fans who started it and were not in the away end, how csn that happen?
I watched the game on TV and i thought we played well, certainly matched them, our problem was obvious.
The trouble did shock me, and as ive mentioned before i had visions of thst infamous Millwall game years ago when their fans ran riot at the Hawthorns its a bad time for us atm the one bright spot on the horizen is CC he is doing an unbelievable job, i dread to think the mess we would be in he he wasnt holding the whole club and fans together, imagine the presdure thst guy is under, well ill be in my seat in the West to watch us thrash Blues on Saturday i hope the players are up for it and theyre not subdued in any way after the last match 2-0 baggied

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

the stewarding is one of the problems.
gone are the days of proper stewards, today we just have overweight old men or bits of kids as stewards.

[PDB]

the stewarding is one of the problems.
gone are the days of proper stewards, today we just have overweight old men or bits of kids as stewards.

The ones I have encountered over the years just don’t do their job properly, which surely involves keeping the fans safe. They are too busy either watching the match or talking amongst themselves.  There have been several instances in the past when individuals have gone on the pitch because the stewards haven’t been watching the crowd.  I am sure there must be some decent stewards but unfortunately there are many others for which it is a cheap way of watching the match and having a God complex once they don the orange jacket.

[OldburyWBA]

The stewards are not fit for purpose for a game of this magnitude and thats not a criticism of them, the majority are there thinking all they will have to do to pick up their £25 or whatever is direct someone to their seat. There will be the experienced ones who know how to deal with the situations and can spot something likely to kick off and deal with it but most are there for the money and a easy couple of hours.

There should have been a better Police prescence in the ground in all areas.

[NJS]

West Brom should promise the FA / FL that they will bring in better ticketing tech which might cause them too temper any punishment that we have to endure.  I can ring up and buy a ticket just be giving a name and a membership number.  Maybe all tickets should be sold online with members having a remotely readable QR code on their membership cards.

Even with the present weak measures, it should be easy to track down some of those who touted tickets which were taken up by WW supporters.

Sniffer dogs to detect cocaine should also be present.

Such measures will cost money but better to spend it on assuring football t the Hawthorns than on a player in his late thirties.

 

[phbaggies]

The stewards are not fit for purpose for a game of this magnitude and thats not a criticism of them, the majority are there thinking all they will have to do to pick up their £25 or whatever is direct someone to their seat. There will be the experienced ones who know how to deal with the situations and can spot something likely to kick off and deal with it but most are there for the money and a easy couple of hours.

There should have been a better Police prescence in the ground in all areas.

I'm guessing the less experienced ones would have been exactly where it kicked off to begin with, as during a risk assessment that would surely be deemed a safe area as predominantly players family and friends sit there!

[zippyandbungle]

the stewarding is one of the problems.
gone are the days of proper stewards, today we just have overweight old men or bits of kids as stewards.

Exactly

I said this on the aftermatch/aftermath thread …
And it’s every ground on the country …At some point it will run over and there will be a monumental mess .
Anyone could take any manner of weapons in if they wanted too .
Then when trouble starts the bright orange army of hopelessness haven’t got a clue .
Last season I went cov vs Blackburn
After the match it was like a country and western on the dual carriageway and car park…stewards literally ran the other way

It’s the same for security in most retail shops …over 60 ,over 22 stone or a mix of both …
What I will say is somehow they did manage to find some peeps that looked like police from the 80’s …you know,not the sort we normally see dancing on social media 😃

[zippyandbungle]

West Brom should promise the FA / FL that they will bring in better ticketing tech which might cause them too temper any punishment that we have to endure.  I can ring up and buy a ticket just be giving a name and a membership number.  Maybe all tickets should be sold online with members having a remotely readable QR code on their membership cards.

Even with the present weak measures, it should be easy to track down some of those who touted tickets which were taken up by WW supporters.

Sniffer dogs to detect cocaine should also be present.

Such measures will cost money but better to spend it on assuring football t the Hawthorns than on a player in his late thirties.

 

Well…unless the FA are going to fine whoever signed off our magical mystical lottery of an online ticketing portal…we may as well just have behind closed doors ?
Our on line commercial and ticketing platforms are the work of business advisors from Woolworths,Ratners and Lehman brothers.

[BigFrank20]

I'm an old codger who's been going to games, home and away, for a very long time and can honestly say I have never seen any evidence of cocaine use in all that time. I sit (stand most of the time) to the rear of the Smethwick, have an old mans weak bladder so frequent the toilets regularly yet somehow I seem to have missed this scourge on the game.
What am I doing wrong?
It's far too easy to say it's all due to the 'coke sniffers' without admitting to the ills and woes of the populace of this poor bedraggled country of ours and especially the much abused support base of our great club by its current and recent ownership structures. I guess I'm trying to say Sunday's madness was an accumulative event, a conflation of many and varied factors over which the majority of supporters and the club have very little control and its a bit of a cop out to blame it all on 'coke heads' 
as ever COYB and see some of you at the bluenoses game 

[Albionic]

The stewards are not fit for purpose for a game of this magnitude and thats not a criticism of them, the majority are there thinking all they will have to do to pick up their £25 or whatever is direct someone to their seat. There will be the experienced ones who know how to deal with the situations and can spot something likely to kick off and deal with it but most are there for the money and a easy couple of hours.

There should have been a better Police prescence in the ground in all areas.

When the eejits were launching bottles at players taking corners, there were a good 20 coppers in that tunnel bit between east stand and the Smethwick, if they had sent 5-10 coppers into the area after the first bottle, there would have been far less chance of the situation there deteriorating as it did and the volleys of bottles / coins could have been halted.
Not making any excuses for it happening, just saying the coppers were there but not deployed actively.

[OldburyWBA]

When the eejits were launching bottles at players taking corners, there were a good 20 coppers in that tunnel bit between east stand and the Smethwick, if they had sent 5-10 coppers into the area after the first bottle, there would have been far less chance of the situation there deteriorating as it did and the volleys of bottles / coins could have been halted.
Not making any excuses for it happening, just saying the coppers were there but not deployed actively.

I meant in the ground as a whole to be honest, other than that corner there was not much of a visible presence yet in previous years they have been all around the ground

[Albionic]

I meant in the ground as a whole to be honest, other than that corner there was not much of a visible presence yet in previous years they have been all around the ground

agreed they were not visible enough, plenty having a cup of tay under the stand ?

[TheBaggieMan]

As we know the area of the disgraceful events that were beamed worldwide by television is where non-involved players of both teams, players families and friends are given seats, usually complimentary.

I have a obtained a still photograph of a SMALL area of within Blocks D3 & D4 in the West Stand (Halfords Lane) and in that area alone in the picture are at least 10 Wolves supporters identified by club clothing and hats obtainable from the Wolves club shop.

My view is that although possibly unknown, allowing many Wolves fans in what should principally be a Home area was inviting trouble and I suspect those tickets were originally sourced from players/staff or passed on at a large profit by the original recipients.

The long term damage to the Club could be immense and caused by the irresponsible followers of both Clubs.  Very sad.