A high-profile police presence and close monitoring of CCTV has always been the way that football clubs dealt with high-risk games; but now more are turning to security specialists who send in undercover operatives to help clubs and the authorities, thus identifying and banning those fans who are the ringleaders when it comes to violence and anti-social behaviour.
Racism has been rearing its ugly head again in British football, though many would argue that the problem had never really gone away in the first place. With John Terry set to face a criminal charge in July for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, an incident which cost Terry the England captain’s armband and Fabio Capello his job as international coach, and Luis Suarez returning to action after an eight-match ban for racist comments directed at Patrice Evra, the problem has never been more palpable.
This weekend’s match, with Liverpool and Suarez playing Patrice Evra’s Manchester United was always going to be explosive, and it is thought that both clubs hired undercover intelligence specialists to try and deal with the threat posed by fans hell bent on taking advantage of the fiery atmosphere to cause trouble.
In the end, Suarez managed that by himself when he refused to shake Evra’s offered hand but the move towards undercover operatives to root out anti-social fans is one that is proving successful at clubs around the country.
CCTV can only go so far in identifying potential culprits and it is much easier to prosecute and ban people if they are caught in the act; of course, most of these “fans” stop any abusive chanting as soon as police or stewards come near the, but undercover intelligence experts can be used to monitor any individuals which the club or the police have identified as being potentially “high risk”.
These undercover fans can then be used to stop any violent behaviour or simply to report on anti-social chanting – evidence which can then be used to ban supporters whose activities are unacceptable in the 21st century, even on the football terraces.