Match report - Hicks prevents own goal
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 As a Chelsea supporter (since 1967), I have little interest in the boardroom shenanigans at Liverpool. However, when I read (in today's Telegraph) that Merseyside police had given co-owner Tom Hicks a "firm warning" to stay away from last night's Champions League semi-final because "they could not guarantee his safety", it made me question the sort of society we are living in, and the role of the police.
I know how hostile some football supporters can be. Twenty years ago I was a regular at Stamford Bridge, a notorious hotspot for hooliganism in the Eighties. A violent pitch invasion following a League Cup defeat against Sunderland sticks in my mind, but there were plenty of other incidents inside and outside the ground.
I once stood among Leeds supporters on the terraces of Derby's old Baseball Ground and watched as glass bottles were thrown on the pitch by visiting "supporters" who stripped to the waist, turned their backs on the game, and taunted the home fans to fight them.
At White Hart Lane (home of Tottenham) I remember standing among Arsenal supporters behind the goal at a North London derby. It was pre-Hillsborough and we were packed together so tightly we could barely breathe, let alone raise our arms above our heads to fend off the half-bricks being lobbed in our direction by Spurs fans.
Nevertheless, there is no justification for Merseyside police giving the co-owner of Liverpool Football Club a "firm warning" to stay away from last night's match. Had Hicks chosen not to go, the only winner would have been Britain's intolerant, illiberal yob culture.
In a free society, the police are there to help us go about our daily business and protect us from yobs and potentially violent morons. Running away from the problem and refusing to tackle it is not the answer.
Reader Comments (8)
The police were probably too busy filling out their forms and issuing speeding fine letters to spare the manpower.
The police were probably too busy measuring how open the wheelie bins were to worry about the safety of one of the owners.
The police were probably too busy making sure nobody was smoking inside anywhere or dropping cigarette ends outside anywhere.
The police were probably too busy watching the match.
Which proves that we need five million more police out on the streets - one million to police the yobs and four million to police the smokers and wheelie bins.
Sorry, the idea that we have a free society, just makes me laugh.
We used to be free, but we gave it all away, to mindless government agencies.
Strangely enough, the new [and first] UKIP MP, Dr Bob Spink, made this the subject of his first ever speech in the House of Commons on behalf of UKIP. He presented a petition signed by 25,000 people requesting that the politicians "butt out" and enable the police to work to the public's priorities.
His speech and the wording of the petition can be read in Hansard of Tuesday, 22nd April 2008.
P.S. I should have given the refrence. See Hansard, 22 April 2008, Column 1285.