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Dorset Police make official statement after 7 Newcastle United fans arrested at Bournemouth

5 years ago
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A statement has been released by Dorset Police regarding Newcastle United fans at the Bournemouth match on Saturday.

They confirmed that seven Newcastle supporters had been arrested, including a 14 year old boy.

The Dorset Police statement said the seven had been arrested on suspicion of ‘going onto the playing area at a football match’ on Saturday.

The official statement adding that a female steward hurt her nose and they are looking into whether that was as a result of an ‘assault’ yesterday.

Obviously nobody wants to see anybody get hurt at a football match but from everything that I saw at the Vitality Stadium. If anybody did get hurt it was purely an accident.

I didn’t see any malice shown by anybody and even as some fans were arrested, they simply attempted to try and continue to celebrate Ritchie’s late goal. Rather than being violent/aggressive towards anybody.

If the Police do have proof somebody acted in such a way then fair enough charge them with whatever.

However, don’t try and make an example of anybody for simply getting excited at a football match and celebrating a late goal.

Dorset Police Official Statement:

“Six men and a 14 year old boy were arrested on suspicion of going onto the playing area at a football match from the away supporters stand and are assisting officers with their inquiries.

“One female steward sustained an injury to her nose during the incident and investigations are under way to establish whether any assault took place.”

Something I wrote earlier today (Sunday March 2019) about the Newcastle United fans being arrested at Bournemouth:

Quite disgraceful the lengths the media will go to, when it comes to having a go at football supporters, Newcastle United fans in this case.

I haven’t spoken to anybody this past week, who thinks that Birmingham fan who attacked Jack Grealish is anything but a disgrace.

Everyone agrees that he should be in jail and they all wished he had got more than 14 weeks in prison, as nobody wants to see that kind of incident happen.

Yesterday, Newcastle scored a brilliant equaliser in the final seconds of the match.

The goalscorer Matt Ritchie scoring the volley from the left side of the penalty area, right next to where the travelling Newcastle United fans were at the side of the pitch.

Ritchie turned and ran towards them, as you would.

The design of the mickey mouse Bournemouth stadium means that fans are level with the pitch, only a flimsy advertising hoarding between them and the side of the pitch.

This has got nothing to do with the Birmingham idiot who attacked Jack Grealish, or indeed other odd incidents where people intent on mischief have confronted a player from the opposing team.

In an ideal world no fan would make contact with the pitch or even the very narrow area between the stands and the pitch.

However, this is football and you should surely be expected to get a little bit excited when you are on a 700 mile round trip and your team scores in the last minute and the scorer runs towards you, the players celebrating a few yards away.

A couple of Newcastle United fans might have gone onto the edge of the pitch on purpose but only to celebrate with the players. Maybe they should be punished to deter others but in the nature of a slap on the wrist, rather than making it out that there is a link between this and the Peaky Blinders dwarf at Birmingham.

You can see by the footage at Bournemouth that fans who ended up on the side of the pitch weren’t looking to cause trouble.

A poorly laid out stadium and so little space between supporters and the pitch.

It is all about intent.

Were the Newcastle fans on Saturday wanting to celebrate the goal or intent on causing trouble?

The media obviously wanting to stir it up though and no surprise to see the worst offender…

The Sun:

‘Paul Mitchell was jailed for 14 weeks and banned from football matches for ten years, while Tyson Fury’s cousin stormed the Emirates pitch and shoved Chris Smalling during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Man Utd hours later.

And today, the top-flight was plagued by a number of pitch-invading supporters across the country.

Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium appeared to be the worst-affected, as fans charged at players following Matt Ritchie’s last-gasp equaliser on the south coast.

Stewards at Bournemouth’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle desperately struggled to contain some of the Toon faithful – with one fan appearing to have badly grazed the side of his face in the scuffle.

Others were pinned to the ground and tackled by orange-coated staff as they celebrated the late leveller.

For now it would appear no players were attacked, unlike last week’s sour scenes.

However, the continuing trend of over-eager fans racing on to the pitch is becoming a real problem across the country.’

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