Saints and Pompey fans to kept in police bubbles ahead of derby matches

The decision of Hampshire Constabulary and the two football clubs to force all away fans to travel to their opponents’ grounds in a ‘bubble’ has not been well received.

Travelling fans will have no choice but to travel via coach to Fratton Park in December, regardless of where they live. If they don’t travel via the especially laid-on coaches, they won’t get their match ticket.

Hampshire Constabulary say this tactic – which has already been used at matches between Cardiff, West Ham, Leeds and Swansea and the Lancashire derby between Burnley and Blackburn – presents the best way to keep fans safe and minimise the chances of disorder from those intent on causing it.

Opponents of the ‘bubble’ say it is an affront, legally dubious and another way of tarring all football fans with the same brush.

So how will it actually work?

With regards to the match in Portsmouth on December 18, all Saints fans going to the game will have to catch a coach at one of three pick-up points in Southampton.

It makes no difference if they live in Freemantle, Fratton or Falkirk – they will have to board the coach in Southampton.

These coaches will then head to the Alverstone Road area of Fratton, Portsmouth, which is a residential street right behind the away end of Fratton Park. This is what is known as a ‘sterile area’ meaning there will be no Pompey fans there and police and stewards will prevent anyone getting in or out unless they are onboard a coach.

There will be burger vans and other such concessions for fans to use.

Then, at the end of the match, the Saints fans will be put straight on the waiting coaches and taken back up the M27 and dropped off wherever they caught the coach that morning.

It is worth pointing out that it is illegal to consume alcohol on coaches and the 1pm kick off on a Sunday will mean any fans who like to meet friends for a pint or other pre-match ritual will be unable to do so.

Although unlikely to be an issue for the Fratton Park match, Hampshire police are currently looking at ways to incorporate fans who have hospitality tickets, although they make it clear they will not compromise the overall operation.

Supt. Rick Burrows, who is heading up the police operation, is keen to stress that the ‘bubble’ is an option he would rather not have to take. He said: “I would like to not have to apply the coach ‘bubble’. I would like to be able to have total fan mixture as per other sports. The tactic itself is resource intensive, but the reality is that, if we didn’t apply it, we would have policing resources spread across the city and travel routes trying to deny or respond to scenes of disorder.

“The tactic is well used by other clubs for local derby fixtures and has seen a significant reduction in scenes of disorder, and with that improving the safety of the fans and the public.”

A huge football fan, Supt. Burrows says his number one concern is trying to provide a safe environment for fans.

“I cannot compromise on denying the small groups of individuals who are intent on generating disorder the opportunity to do so. Nor can I accept that this as an acceptable spectator sport or norm of football.

It’s not – people get hurt.

“The disproportionate effect this small group can have in relation to crowd dynamics (safety) and psychology demands tactics that deny them the opportunity in the first place.”

In recent seasons, there has been an increase in the amount of trouble at Saints games.

During the 2009-10 season (which are the latest figures currently available, and covers the last time Saints and Pompey met) 50 Saints fans were arrested at football matches, within the vicinity of a ground – 24 at St Mary’s, 26 at away matches. That equates to roughly one a game, when averaged out over the season.

In the 12 months up to November 2010, 43 Saints fans were given football banning orders, taking the total number of Southampton supporters with active FBOs up to 56.

Supt. Burrows says a huge effort was made to crack down on a number of youths behind the disorder.

He said: “Targeting these youths and isolating their opportunities to create disorder – plus achieving banning orders against them – has seen a resultant decline in their activities.

“Football related offences for Southampton has now returned to a more steady state though there have been some recent key fixtures whereby significant disorder has occurred like against Millwall and Bournemouth.”

The flipside however, is the impact the ‘bubble’ has on personal freedoms.

Over the years, football fans have been caged in on the terraces, forced to sit down (standing in an all-seater stadium is an offence), stopped from drinking alcohol during matches and not even allowed to be served a bottle which has a lid on.

For many, the ‘bubble’ is just the latest way to restrict the liberty of the law-abiding majority of football fans, by assuming they are just hooligans waiting to happen.

Indeed, the very legality of the tactic is questionable, according to Stephen Field, barrister, whose chambers is 1 Pump Court. He argues that ‘bubbles’ involving law-abiding fans are unlawful. However, unless a supporter is willing to come forward to challenge the ‘bubble’ in court, that belief may never be proven.

Basically, the use of a kettle (forcing groups to remain in one place) or a ‘bubble’ (a mobile version of a kettle) requires that ‘breach of the peace is likely to happen’ and police action has to be a last resort and ‘no more intrusive than appeared necessary’ at the time.

Mr Field said: “. The test of necessity would only be met in extreme and exceptional circumstances.

“Advance, routine operational decisions to indiscriminately ‘bubble’ a group of law abiding football supporters irrespective of fear of imminent breach of the peace are arguably unlawful.”

However, it would need a supporter affected by the plans to challenge the ‘bubble’ in court, to put that theory to the test.

The Football Supporters Federation, along with human rights group Liberty is currently running a campaign entitled ‘Watching Football Is Not A Crime’, which aims to stop people who attend football matches from being subject to what it sees as more draconian treatment than other sections of society.

A spokesperson for the FSF, said: “The restrictions placed on supporters for this fixture will leave some out of pocket and cause considerable inconvenience to those not living locally to Southampton.

“We feel that ‘bubble’ trips are disproportionate and will not deter the very few with the wrong intentions.

“We are aware that many supporters are cynical about the reasons for the restrictions given, suspecting rather that the ‘bubble’ is merely for convenience even though the police and clubs are insistent it is for the safety of all.”

Across the whole of England and Wales during the 2009/10 season, 3,391 arrests were made. Total nationwide attendance was 39,145,070 across all competitions.

Statistics seldom tell the full story, but that is hardly indicative of a problem running out of hand, by any measure.

Using the national statistics, 0.08 per cent of people who attended matches were arrested, or less than one in every 10,000. Over half of these arrests were for violence and public disorder, with around a third being for alcohol offences.

The remainder are made of things like pitch incursions, breaching banning orders and throwing missiles.

Between November 2009 and November 2010, 1,025 football banning orders were handed out, nationally.

However, it is seldom the main protagonists behind trouble that are caught, says Supt Burrows.

“The reality is that football crowds provide a potential for accelerated disorder, making the ability to target and differentiate intervention hugely difficult once disorder or fight-orflight situation occurs.

“Any protagonists aren’t usually the ones who get caught; it’s those who get sucked into the disorder as crowd psychology manifests itself that do.

“Where disorder occurs at a crowd event, the likelihood of injury or worse is greatly multiplied.

Heysel should be one event that resonates across history, though short memories can deny this.”

Rather than the ‘bubble’, many fans have called for a return to the holding back policy used for matches between Saints and Pompey prior to 2010. That involved keeping the away fans inside the stadium whilst the home fans dispersed.

At the most recent game, Pompey fans were allowed out into a ‘sterilised’ area in the North car park at S. Mary’s at the final whistle. It was at this point that troubled flared – although the two sets of fans never came directly into contact, as the police kept them apart.

“What I find difficult to remedy, “said Supt. Burrows, “is the two conflicting positions that see some fans demanding that the other set of fans to be ‘held back’ post match, based purely on reputation and without consideration of legal threshold, yet assess the requirement imposed on them to travel by coach as a breach of their Human Rights.

“The coach requirement is far less intrusive in respect of their freedom of movement as it is pre-determined, and as with other conditions of entry, like being searched, the individual can decide whether or not to be subject to it before the match, by deciding not to go.”

He reasons that a ‘hold-back’ is actually a far more intrusive restriction than the ‘bubble’, and the decision to use the new tactic was based upon the safety limitations of the ‘hold-back’ policy.

However, whilst the ‘bubble’ will definitely be used at both derby matches this season, it is not set in stone beyond next summer, with Hampshire Constabulary keen to point out the ‘bubble’ policy will be reviewed at the end of the season.

Supt. Burrows is very clear on one thing though – he does not see the ‘bubble’ as the easy option or a way just to victimise the average football fan.

“This is not about making policing or stewarding easier, it is about safety. Safety of fans, stewards, police and the wider public who aren’t involved in football and really don’t want to be caught up in the mindless violence and damage that we have seen at previous fixtures.”

While no true fan really wants to be subject to violence or abuse, neither do they want to be made to feel a suspected hooligan.

The balance between safety and liberty is a fine one to tread, and while it is too early to judge Hampshire’s ‘bubble’, it is unlikely the debate will rest any time soon.

The Sports Pink Online