The Football Association (FA), Premier League and EFL have together brought up new measures and stronger sanctions to ensure safer football for everyone. Apart from completely banning entering the pitch for the fans without permission, four more bans have also been officially notified.
Recent football matches experienced some increasing anti-social and criminal behaviours, which horrified the entire football community.
So, the top governing bodies have come together to implement stricter laws to ensure a safe matchday environment in all English football leagues from the beginning of the 2022/23 season. The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) is also supporting these five new bans.
All these five new measures are in the following, which will be now strictly banned in all English football leagues from the forthcoming season.
- Entering the pitch
- Use of flares and smoke bombs
- Throwing objects
- Discriminatory behaviour
- Taking drugs
The official statement claimed, “These acts are dangerous, illegal and have severe consequences. They have no place in football, or anywhere.”
The fan can be banned by the club
If a person gets involved in any of these upper dangerous acts, that person will be reported to the police. Also, that person can receive a ban from the club.
Though invading the pitch during a football match has been a criminal offence for 31 years, it majorly remained unpunished during the celebration moments. However, the new laws will protect the game from the celebration moments too.
Some of last season’s incidents
Last season, the English football leagues experienced some of those anti-social and criminal behaviours. Three of those have been mentioned in the following:
In Premier League
In the last Premier League season, the Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira was forced to kick out at an Everton fan after he goaded the manager during a pitch invasion at Goodison Park. That match result helped the hosts Everton to lately deny their relegation from the top-tier system.
In Championship
During the second leg of the semi-finals of the Championship playoffs the last season, Nottingham Forest fans were celebrating on the field after the club advanced to the Championship playoffs final by beating Sheffield United in the penalty shoot-out. At one moment of that celebration, a Nottingham Forest fan headbutted the Sheffield United captain Billy Sharp, who was also a loaned player for Nottingham Forest for a season, as the striker was left bloodied.
That Nottingham Forest fan has been jailed for 24 weeks after pleading guilty.
In FA Cup
During the fourth round of a FA Cup match the last season, a Leicester City fan invaded the pitch and swung punches at Nottingham Forest players during their goal celebration.
