We spoke to the former senior Metropolitan Police responsible for security at south London soccer club Millwall FC.
Match day security at Millwall FC is good for business. The policy of zero tolerance for indecent and racist chanting, that has run for the last four seasons, is not only giving Millwall a more positive image – it’s bringing in higher crowds, the family enclosure is getting full, more women are attending and season tickets sales are up. The south London club has a history of hooliganism, which has included reams of unfavourable coverage in The Observer newspaper recently, and Millwall admits that it has what security adviser Ken Chapman calls ‘a significant minority of fans with potential to cause trouble’. In 1993 the club opened its new stadium in SE16, the New Den. Its CCTV system covers the ground. Ken says: ‘We have a total of 37 cameras. We also have one manual camera which covers 80 per cent of the ground.’ That camera was operated by police until three seasons ago; now Millwall staff operate it, and are adept at gathering good enough evidence to bring prosecutions.
<br><br>
Audio recording
<br><br>
‘We also have additional covert and overt cameras and covert recording equipment – when we get complaints or we recognise there is a problem, particularly with indecent and racist changing, we can record to bring the best evidence to the court. Although we had a lot of stick about civil liberties, it ensures we get the right people. We don’t force people to come into Millwall football ground, but we want our fans to know they aren’t going to be subject to indecent and racist abuse. That is in my opinion a problem not addressed by clubs. You pick out the ring-leaders.’ Having to listen to swearing and racist abuse is a fact of life for Football League supporters. Club bosses do wash their hands of racist chants on what are still called the terraces, but Ken argues that publicity surrounding prosecutions of even a few chanters sends a message to other offenders. He says that fans’ shouts about Manchester United star David Beckham’s celebrity wife Victoria and their son Brooklyn are obscene; if Beckham should ever play at the New Den, Ken Chapman and his staff will do all they can to make sure Beckham does not face the abuse that he has suffered at just about every stadium in the land.
<br><br>
Security managers have to pick up on possible football hooliganism – that could happen hours or even a day after the game. So says Ken Chapman, a former senior Metropolitan Police office now security adviser at Millwall FC. He told Professional Security that security managers should particularly be aware of the time factor – fans travelling to or from the match. He gave the example of the Tuesday evening game, on August 22, between Millwall and Brighton. Many Millwall fans spend the day in Brighton, Ken said. ‘It’s incumbent upon them [security managers] to think through where fans will be travelling, whether they will be travelling overnight.’ Fans going to seaside resorts such as Blackpool and Bournemouth may have the weekend there. If fans have a fight at 9.30pm on Saturday before the last train home, is that violence football-related’ Ken thinks so.
<br><br>
Pick up information
<br><br>
Security managers have to pick up all possible information – even though serious hooligans may not wear their team’s shirt or any other identifying colour. For instance, rival supporters use mobile phones and pagers – rather than the internet – to arrange venues for fights. Security officers ought to be aware of men using pagers constantly, and to overhear suspicious mobile calls. Ken says: ‘We work very hard at doing risk assessments. On match days and prior to match days security managers who are vulnerable have got to look very hard at how they will deal with problems, and whether there is a history [of trouble] between clubs.’ Ken opens the risk assessment folder for most matches at least two weeks before kick-off. His nightmare’ A supermarket next to the ground with building or roadworks nearby offering rubble for throwing. There are few sure predictions. The annual surveys of hooliganism by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) suggest that local derbies are possible flashpoints; however, the two most troublesome fixtures that Millwall FC was involved in in Division Two were against Wigan and Cardiff, hardly local rivals. Ken points out that Liverpool-Everton derbies tend not to have trouble; not so Rangers-Celtic in Glasgow, or Bristol City-Bristol Rovers. The NCIS on its website (www.ncis.co.uk) has listed incidents by season. Security managers even in places not known as football hotbeds should sit up; Darlington, Huddersfield, Hartlepool and Colchester fans were featured in the 83 cases. Football intelligence officers (FIOs) with each police force say that lower league clubs such as Stoke, Cardiff and Swansea have the most virulent hooliganism, causing trouble in towns on many Saturdays. Ken adds that of the 900-odd English ‘fans’ arrested in the Low Countries during Euro 2000, three claimed allegiance to Millwall; two were known to Ken. Yet several ‘fans’ arrested at Euro 2000 claimed to follow Shrewsbury – more fans in fact than were arrested following Shrewsbury last season.
<br><br>
Where do they drink?
<br><br>
Ken sees some good signs: of the 25 million people that watched Football League matches last season, less than 0.1 per cent were arrested. Hooliganism cannot be separated from wider society, in which recorded violent crime is rising. Ken says: ‘Football does provide all the ingredients. You have to camps; you have got the travelling to and from the grounds, and drinking of course does have some effect.’ A question of Ken’s of direct interest to security managers is: where do hooligans get their drink’ The answer: often in off-licences and supermarkets, where it is cheaper than elsewhere. Ken thinks it’s naive to believe all supporters’ coaches keep to the no-alcohol rules – something for managers at motorway service stations to take into account. London and Crewe, places where fans from various clubs may bump into each other while changing trains, are possible flashpoints. Even the weather matters: on a hot day, fans may drink in the streets; on a warm day, they may arrive at the ground early; when it’s wet, they may stay in the pubs drinking. The NCIS reports that CCTV and stewards, that can identify hooligans inside the stadium, have pushed violence away from the grounds. Ken agrees, pointing to Chelsea – that London Premier League club had 168 fans arrested last season, and only Sunderland had more (223). Few of the 168 were arrested in the ground, ‘because there’s a waiting list for season ticket holders. You have the ultimate sanction – you can take the season ticket away and give it to someone else. Most Premiership grounds are sold out week on week. In the lower leagues you don’t have that luxury.’ Yet the Premier League had 1,461 arrests last season, compared with 831 in Division One, 586 in Division Two, and 259 in Division Three. That 1999-2000 season total of 3,138 last season was down from 3,341 in the season before. The bare figures suggest that the biggest clubs have the worst security problems. Not so, as the NCIS admits, calling arrest numbers an ‘unreliable indicator’. Lower leagues have fewer police; police forces and clubs have different styles of policing. Some merely eject trouble-makers; Millwall for example has a zero tolerance of indecent and racist chanting, and has offenders arrested. It means that Millwall tops the table of arrests in Division Two (with 102, compared with 73 the season before). Far from Millwall being more unsecure, such zero tolerance is leading to bigger crowds, and a packed family enclosure.
