RICHARD CABORN, THE Sports Minister, has joined Merseyside Police in warning the FA about the dangers of late kick-offs at weekend matches after a series of ugly incidents marred Manchester United’s FA Cup fifth-round victory away to Everton on Saturday.
Everton had expressed their reservations about allowing the highly charged match — which featured Wayne Rooney’s return to Goodison Park six months after his acrimonious departure to United — to be moved to a 5.30pm kick-off for the benefit of the BBC Television audience and their fears that security could be threatened by supporters intent on causing trouble after hours drinking in the pubs nearby were vindicated by a series of unsavoury incidents inside and outside the stadium.
Several missiles, including a mobile phone, were thrown at Rooney and although none of them hit him, Roy Carroll, the United goalkeeper, required treatment after being struck on the head by a coin thrown from the Gwladys Street end of the ground in the second half. Rob Styles, the referee, has included three missile-throwing incidents in his match report, which he sent to the FA’s headquarters yesterday.
Everton face the likelihood of censure from the FA, but they hope that by immediately promising to take action against the culprits, they will avoid anything more serious than a £50,000 fine and a warning. Ian Ross, a club spokesman, said: “Bearing in mind we had been warned this was a powder-keg game, we believe that it passed off relatively well.”
However, there were violent post-match clashes between rival supporters about a mile from the stadium in the Everton Valley area of Merseyside. This resulted in injuries to five police officers and numerous arrests, bringing the number for the evening, for “disorder and public offences”, to 33.
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Caborn questioned the thinking behind the kick-off time. “We may well have to rethink the 5.30pm kick-off,” he said. “We know it is done predominately for television, but we might have to reflect on that. There are now a lot more people returning to football and it is a minority of fans who are bringing the game into disrepute and we have to deal with that. It is a police decision and for clubs to make sure that games of some tension are maybe played earlier in the day.”
Everton have also launched an investigation into an ugly confrontation between Rooney and two representatives of the company who sponsored the match ball. The former Everton forward was involved in a slanging match with a male and a female representative of Ellesmere Port Motor Auctions after one of them, waiting by the touchline before the pre-match presentation, called him a “traitor” as he left the pitch after the warm-up. Merseyside Police are aware of the incident, which is said to have left Rooney “upset”, but are thought unlikely to take any action.
Mark Hughes, the Blackburn Rovers manager, criticised Burnley’s policing of yesterday’s fifth-round tie at Turf Moor in which there were three separate incidents of encroachments on to the pitch and a coin was thrown at Jean-Louis Valois.
All police leave had been cancelled and 60 extra stewards were on duty for the first derby game between the clubs for four years. “It shouldn’t happen in this day and age,” Hughes said. “God forbid, he [the final encroacher] might have had a knife. It shouldn’t happen.”
Dave Edmundson, Burnley’s chief executive, said: “Everything was in place that could be. There’ll be a debriefing with the police but if someone is absolutely determined to get on, they can. You’re trying to steward the game in the least confrontational manner possible.”
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Adrian Bevington, an FA spokesman, said: “We are aware of the incidents and we will be discussing them with the club in due course.”