Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, believes that lifetime bans and modern technology combined are the only way to put a stop to fan unrest that continues to occur at the Barclays Premier League matches.
This week many calls have been made to put netting in areas of the grounds that allow fans to be seated close to the players. The hope is that the netting could help prevent some incidents from occurring such as Rio Ferdinand getting a cut above his eye after being hit by a coin that was tossed at him at the Manchester game from an opposing fan.
However Allardyce believes that netting will just encourage fans to get rowdier and get around it. ON the other hand he believes that lengthy bans and video footage will be a more powerful deterrent since they will teach fans that abhorrent behavior will not be accepted.
He explained that the more they utilise CCTV to weed out fans that are acting out and continue to ban fans for life the more they will reduce the chances of this type of thing occurring again. Allardyce added that you do not want to have to cage in people, but that only adds to anger on fan’s behalf.