By Tony Attwood
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It has of course, been building up for quite a few seasons, but the media are as usual, a bit slow in the matter, even though there are some grounds where the problem is getting huge. “The problem” occurs where home fans have bought tickets as close as possible to where the away manager sits, stands and patrols, and then spend the whole game insulting the manager and his family in what most people would tend to call an utterly unacceptable manner.
These supporters’ attention on the game is limited, the police tend to take no action (justified by the difficulty sometimes of identifying the culprit and sometimes of getting the individual out. Clubs do nothing about it because they recognise the benefit that such behaviour can bring in putting the coach off his work in instructing his team.
It’s not a problem that I have seen or heard about in stadia outside of the UK, perhjaps because of the difference in the design of the grounds, but perhaps because of the increasing publicity that is given to the practice by the media in England, it is growing in the English game. Indeed, it is that growing publicity that has encouraged me to pick up the theme today.
And it is not something reserved for the grounds of smaller teams where it has always been easy to get a seat close to the opposition manager. For now t,he manager of Atletico Madrid, Diego Simeone, has reported most clearly how he was continuously insulted by Liverpool fans – something which one or two publications did pick up on, although mostly they will as ever never write anything that might reduce the positive image of Liverpool.
It would appear that Liverpool supporters standing near the away team manager have realised that with enough taunting, can indeed put the manager off his game, and get him to lose focus in terms of the instructions he gives. That certainly looked to be happening in the Liverpool game, and might also partly explain the number of times Liverpool are getting late winners. Even if it is only 5% of those late goals, it is more than there should be. In fact, the notion of scoring right at the end is now called scoring in “Slot time”
The Atletico manager has demanded that Liverpool should be punished for the behaviour of their supporters, and whether there is any sort of enquiry or not, will tell us a lot about whose side Uefa is on in this.
Simeone, one of Spain’s longest-serving managers, said later, “My reaction was unjustifiable, but do you know what it’s like to be insulted for 90 minutes, to turn around after the opponent scores and still be insulted? It’s not that easy. There were insults throughout the match, including gestures. It’s clear that I’m the one who has to stay calm, I have to put up with the insults, the gestures and any situation. Because I’m in a position where I have to put up with it.
“I’m not really going to get into the exact nature of the insults. I don’t want to get involved in that. I have got to stay in my place, I know what went on behind the manager’s bench. I can’t solve society’s problem in one press conference. I have to live with it as it exists all over the place all of the time.”
But then the question arises, is this just a Liverpool thing? Certainly, as we have noticed, since the Community Shield opener this season, four out of five of Liverpool’s victories this season have been by a single goal and in four of those games the teams were level on 80 minutes. Indeed, half of their goals have been scored after 80 minutes this season and
And even more to the point, two-thirds of their goals have come in time added on by the referee. And to show just how unusual this is, it is reported that they are the first team ever in the Premier League to win four consecutive games in the 80th minute or later.
Such data is often known as “indicative” of there being an issue, but is not proof, simply because there are too many unknowns in the equation, but if the normal patterns of football behaviour are followed, other clubs will soon have supporters using the same very unpleasant approach with the clubs doing nothing about it. (Although to be clear, they could act, simply by warning fans that if the practice of abusing the manager of visiting teams in this way continues, tickets for seats in that part of the ground will be cancelled. That means innocent people will be punished as much as the guilty, but that’s how it always goes.
The problem is that in England, there is no crowd control committee that looks into such issues in games involving Premier League teams. And some supporters of various clubs such as Liverpool, have latched onto this.
The Premier League say that they work with the FA and other leagues and the Football Supporters Association, but their work is primarily around security and safety and has nothing to do with the abuse that home supporters can throw at visiting managers.
It is true that the Premier League did introduce what it liked to call “enhanced safety measures” a couple of seasons back to tackle what it called “anti-social behaviour” but it is clear in the case of Liverpool and perhaps some other clubs that nothing is effective. Of course, the Champions League committee and Premier League crowd control committee could take action and their failure to do so, speaks volumes for the weakness of their approach. And to be clear, I’ve never sat in that part of the ground at Arsenal, but if the practice is happening there, I’d condem it just as strongly.
