English soccer gates rise

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 21

English soccer gates rise

From ROBIN CHARTERIS in London

For the first time in six years, the crowds are returning to English soccer.

Half a million more spectators attended games in the first half of the present season than last, giving rise to hopes that soccer has turned the corner in its struggle to survive the 1985 tragedies of Brussels and Bradford.

Together with larger crowds have come fewer hooligans and hopes that England may soon be re admitted to European competition. “Football is starting to become fashionable again,” said Peter Robinson, Chief Executive of the League Champion, Liverpool. “This was always going to be an exceedingly critical season for the game and people are coming to watch it and talk about it again. “There is an excitement throughout the divisions and though the fear of hooliganism is still in people’s minds it is going away just a little.” Mr Robinson’s own club is showing a I«JC per cent increase in attendances this season. Bradford city, whose grandstand was destroyed by fire in 1985, has a 28 per cent increase, in spite of flaying its first lOleague

games at another ground. Attendances still fluctuate with the fortunes of each club. Manchester United, for example, in poor form this year, is averaging almost 29 per cent fewer spectators each game than last year, when it won its first 10 league matches. However, over all, attendances are 4.25 per cent up for all league games at 8.74 million to December 31. The biggest increase is in the fourth division, where the leader, Northampton Town, has gates up by 150 per cent The division over all has gates 17 per cent higher. One of the main reasons for higher attendances has been the reduced incidence of hooliganism, largely because it is being more effectively controlled by improved safety measures. Police attend all league games in large numbers, marshalling crowds from railway and bus stations to and from grounds, using radios and horses for crowd controL There is strict surveillance and searching at ticket booths. From January 1, they have new measures available to them under the Public Order Act, 198 C, to crack down even harder orr. football louts. I

For the first time they will be able to prosecute supporters carrying smoke bombs or fireworks. They will also have greater control over alcohoL with the present ban on alcohol in buses and trains going to matches extended to minibuses and vans.

Fans, too, are controlling each other better. At each of four games this writer has attended in London this season, older spectators have been seen quietening down teen age supporters and acting together to ensure better behaviour. More young children have been apparent at matches, too, as parents deem it safer for youngsters to attend.

Closed-circuit television monitors, introduced at the behest of the Government, have played a big part in curbing behaviour problems, said Manchester United’s chairman, Mr Martin Edwards.

“Apart from the recent incident at Bradford, there have been few problems with spectators inside the stadiums. It is largely restricted to railway stations and such places,” he said. “There is discernibly less obscene chanting nowadays too. Clubs have been financially more sensible for several years now and with

gates up, that is something to build on.”

Watford’s manager, Mr Graham Taylor, was particularly concerned about the future of the game at the start of the season and still has doubts.

“The biggest worry now is that too many people are offering advice, changes which could be too drastic, and they could be made by people who do not understand the pulse and the heart of the game,” he said. “But at least people are starting to face up to their responsibilities.”

The Footabll Association’s general secretary, Mr Ted Croker, writing in “The Times” newspaper this week, pointed to 41,1 M clubs under the Association’s control today, compared with 22,M0 25 years ago, and 2,1 M more clubs in the last five years as indicative of the strength of soccer in Britain.

He reminded critics that while hooligans could not be ignored, they were not just football hooligans but members of the public. “They do not crawl out from under a stone, go to a football match, then crawl back under the stone. They ar&part of our society; they areTnational hooligans.”