After a meeting with Saints new Head of safety & security I have clarified the club's position in regard to the issues in block 1 & 2 in the Itchen North, both why they have had to instigate the measures and their priority for the safety of fans in the area.
On Friday I met up with the club's new Head of safety & security John Darcy, to discuss the Itchen North area and the current issues.
Rumours have been doing the rounds about Mr Darcy and yes it is true in his previous employment he filled the same position for Millwall Football Club, that has led to some on social media to have a perception that Saints have decided to solve a problem by bringing in the big guns to sort out the issue.
That is not quite true, in that recruiting John and the process of leaving Millwall and notice periods etc meant that he has effectively been involved with the club for a number of months.
So the notion that he is some sort of trouble shooter riding into town to hammer the Itchen North into submission is wide of the mark.
So why are Saints taking this action in the Itchen North ?
Well firstly the area has increasingly become a problem, whilst there is evidence to suggest that not all the problems are caused by the Saints supporters, it is an area that has become more rowdy over the past year and whilst that makes it a vibrant area, there are also safety issues including surges towards the away fans at key moments as well as potential injuries to stewards and police whilst removing away fans.
I am not here to judge the rights and wrongs in these issues, what I have tried to do is to get some clarification and also to mediate and make sure both sides of the story are represented.
But although the club were aware of the problem, the need for swift action was not completely of their own making, the Premier League, EFL & FA have got together and introduced new measures and stronger sanctions across the game to tackle the increased anti-social and criminal behaviours recently seen within football grounds and underline the importance of a safe matchday environment.
The new set of actions, which will be implemented across all English football leagues from the start of season 2022/23 will target 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.
Without going into it more deeply ( You can do that using the link below) football clubs are being held to task for anti social behaviour in football grounds and have to adhere to this new code, whether they like it or not.
https://thefsa.org.uk/news/english-football-launches-new-measures-to-curb-pitch-
To use St Mary's Saints have to have a licence which is issued by it's local regulating authority, they have been aware of what they consider issues in the Itchen North and have given notice to the club that unless measures are taken, then they will put sanctions in place, initially that would be mild such as forcing the club to reduce the capacity in blocks 1 & 2, but if the problems continue then it could be more severe such as the complete closure of the blocks and the building of a wall between the Itchen North & the away section such as has been built by West Ham.
This is a solid structure rather than a fence meaning that the fans on either side are unable to see each other.
So Saints have been pro active in tackling the problem before they have enforced sanctions.
This has seen them only renew existing season tickets and not issue new ones in the area, nor sell any individual match tickets for the time being.
It also saw them try to enforce fans to sit down in the pre season friendlies.
This has caused some unrest amongst fans who sit in this area and this was not helped by an e mail sent out by the club also saying that there could be spot ID checks.
So in meeting with John Darcy I sought to get clarification on their intentions and also to put forward the fans views in that area.
Firstly the club introduced the reduced capacity to try and take some of the tension out of the area and also to try and show the Licencing Committee that they can deal with the problem themselves, something had to be done and reducing the capacity would be the simplest in the first instance and to be blunt they probably have only 3 games to sort the problem out before the licencing committee take the matter out of their hands, from this perspective the first home games being Leeds, Man Utd & Chelsea was not ideal.
The ID checks are there to try and stop away fans in the area getting access, Saints fans complained to me about away fans in block 1 & 2, but the blunt truth is all of those found by the club in this area had obtained their tickets through Saints supporters, hence the ID checks.
In this respect the club are also aware that there are issues with away fans in corporate areas and are going to be more proactive to stop issues.
Another issue that was brought up by the licensing committee was surging towards the away fans at key moments such as goals being scored, this too has to be stopped as it could result in fans and stewards etc being hurt.
The main worry for the fans though is standing and the worry that there will be more ejections in the next few games, the club is caught between a rock and a hard place, the terms of the ground licence at the moment do not include standing, over the last 20 years a blind eye has been turned, but the issues in the Itchen stand have brought it into focus.
The club however seem to be aware that persistent standing is not the root cause of the issues, they are more concerned about tackling other acts of unsocial behaviour, their priority is going to be focused more on the use of pyrotechnics, surging across the area towards the away fans, the throwing of objects, unacceptable abuse towards other supporters, acts of violence, this isn't an exhaustive list but these are all a higher priority than asking people to sit down.
There view is that in the pre season friendlies, most of those ejected were not for standing but because the individual concerned had committed another offence or had been abusive to stewards.
I have to say when I sat in the area for the Villarreal game, a significant amount of fans in block 1 stood up and were allowed to do so, although there were some ejections.
The blunt truth is that the club have to tackle these issues as it is not in their hands, they face sanctions and fines under the new charter, this needs some self policing by the fans, I am not going to debate the rights and wrongs, but if things aren't changed then there will be drastic actions.
After the meeting I felt more confident that from the club's perspective they are not going to charge into blocks 1 & 2 and use forcing fans to sit down as their first form of submission. The club is adamant that they see the Itchen North
They say they are not going to use a hammer but try to use more subtle means as per the e mail.
Two things can happen now, the first is that the fans in the Itchen North understand the issues and help the club solve them, the second is that things do not calm down over the next 3 games and the area is at best fenced off from the away fans and at worst potentially closed down.
I'm sure that no one involved the fans, the club, the police and the licensing authority want to see these sanctions imposed, but lets be clear, the club have to deal with the problem or have it put out of their hands.
This was a positive meeting with our new health and safety officer and he said that he would be willing to meet up with any fans in that area to discuss the problems face to face, if you are one of those affected, contact me via the private messaging facility and I will help set up a meeting.