Pitch invaders

​

Is a lifetime ban enough?

​

Pitch invaders are becoming increasingly more popular as there have been several incidences in Scotland this season and there has been problems down in England. In Scotland there have been people several players either approached or have had foreign objects thrown at them from the terraces.

​

There’s been a Buckfast bottle, Coconut and several flares thrown on the pitches across Scotland and that simply is not good enough. The laws and security should be stricter because there should not be people entering football stadiums with foreign objects.

Does this duty to protect football fans and footballers reside with the SFA or with the police? The SFA are doing as much as they can in accordance wit the police but there is only so much that can be done especially when people are just deciding to run on the park.

​

Two incidents that both happened at Easter road stands out as Hibernian were playing Celtic and a half bottle of Buckfast is thrown from the crowd and almost hits Celtic player Scott Sinclair, who knows the damage that could have done to him if it hit him and a scenario when Rangers played Hibs a fan came on and pushed James Tavernier as he was about to take a thrown in.

​

These fans should not be able to have such easy access to the players, there has to be something done to stop these horrific acts happening again.  One idea that could be used which has been implemented several countries around the world such as Germany for the Bundesliga matches the fans must sit behind nets which stop people running on the pitch and stops items being thrown from the terracing.

We cannot have the game go back to the way it once was. Most people thought that pitch invaders would have learned their lesson after the outcome of the 2016 Scottish Cup final at Hampden when Hibernian and Rangers fans invaded the pitch at full time and started a riot, which led to several injuries and arrests.

Lets home people come to their senses and stop running on the pitch and stop throwing things on the pitch that could seriously hurt the players.

​

By Stuart McDougall