Millwall hooligans cast shadow of fear over football as semi-final descends into violence



It's hard to know which was the most depressing sight on Saturday’s rainy day out at Wembley.



Perhaps it was the teenage girl weeping behind the goal, terrified and distressed by Millwall thuggery.

Or maybe it was the yellow jackets of the police officers who felt compelled to have a visible presence on every Tube train that left Wembley Park, more than two hours after the game had finished.

Certainly, both told us the same story. Both told us this would be an afternoon that would not be remembered for the football. That really was a shame, too.

Scroll down for video - WARNING: VIOLENT FOOTAGE



Horror: Police tried to calm Millwall fans amid the shocking fighting in the stands

Shame: Bloodied Millwall fans were involved in fights among themselves in the stands

Trouble: Police attempted to control the Millwall fans in the final stages of the match

Too much: A young girl is brought to tears by the violence that erupted in front of her eyes



Eyewitness report

An eyewitness to the violent scenes that marred the FA Cup semi-final claimed trouble began among Millwall supporters after a child was knocked to the ground by another drunken fan.

The eyewitness, a Millwall season ticket-holder, sat just yards from where the initial fracas occurred, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘This drunken guy came back to his seat and knocked a little boy over. The bloke refused to apologise to the child or his father and the exchange soon became very heated.

‘Before you knew it two groups of mates had formed and punches were being thrown. There were children around and some of them got scared and upset and needed to be taken outside.

‘After a while the fighting died down but then it started again and was stop-start all the way through the second half.

‘People were calling on the police to get involved, but it took them the best part of 30 minutes to intervene and by that time it was too late. Between 10-15 police eventually acted but they were chased off.

‘The stewards were nowhere to be seen. Totally useless.’

Wigan’s progress to the FA Cup final presents us with a remarkable story. They played lovely football on their way to victory, fashioning two of the finest goals our national stadium has seen for quite a while.

Goals fit for a final, as they say.

Unfortunately, eyes had been diverted away from the field of play for much of the second half.

Sporadic outbursts of trouble that surfaced and then died during the first half gathered momentum after the interval, culminating in the prolonged, ugly scenes so bravely and responsibly shown by broadcasters ESPN late in the game.

And this is where those who seek to make excuses for the hooligans should be careful. Those who will shrill in the coming days about a ‘minority’ and complain about exaggerations in the media need to be aware of the cold, ugly facts.

They should know that a man — face covered in blood — was carried out of the North Stand in a wheelchair after being attacked by one of his own in the first half.

They should also know that there was a fight in one of the corporate areas — away from the cameras — and that there was a scuffle outside South Ruislip Tube station in west London as a group of Millwall fans disembarked later in the evening.

VIDEO Shameful! Milwall fans clash with police and fight each other

Aggro: Two fans fight it out in the stands in scenes that were beamed around the world





This is what football violence does. It spreads terror far from its most visible hotspots.

It reaches further into communities than those who aren’t directly confronted by it will ever realise. As we saw on Saturday, it remains part of our game. At full time at Wembley, it was hard not to feel sorry for Millwall’s Kenny Jackett. A dignified, experienced manager, Jackett has played a full part in his club’s largely successful efforts to enrich its local community.

Yet, here he was, faced with questions about violence rather than football. Some criticised his refusal to condemn outright his club’s followers. He was right to be cautious, though. At that stage, he hadn’t seen the footage. Now that he has, I am sure he is as appalled and distressed as the rest of us. Silly boy: This Millwall fan (cream jacket) was seen running off with a policeman's hat As the FA and the police look back at what happened and seek to ensure there is no repeat, there are some obvious questions to ask about the wisdom of a 5.15pm kick-off and the opportunities for a day of drinking which that presents. The demands of television are influential here, of course, but public safety must always take precedence. ESPN may well want one of the flagship games of the season to kick off once the day’s Barclays Premier League fixtures have finished, but frankly that ceases to be important when it comes to safeguarding the wellbeing of the vast majority of law-abiding supporters who just want to watch their team without trepidation. The authorities must also ask fresh questions about how big games are policed.

English football seems to have convinced itself that it can control these occasions with stewards and a low-profile police presence. That has long looked like a dubious strategy at best and on Saturday its flaws were exposed.



Watching on: Attention soon turned to the drama in the stands as opposed to the pitch

Charge: A policeman's hat goes flying as they try to control the Millwall supporters

Violence: A Millwall fan lands a punch on a bloodied man in the stands

The brawl in the Millwall end that drew the TV cameras away from the pitch had been taking place for a good while — certainly five minutes or more — before police arrived to try to restore order.

By then, it was too late. Blood had been spilt. Public safety had been placed in jeopardy. Some 20 minutes earlier, a similar fight had broken out directly behind the goal. That, too, was allowed to go on far too long before officers arrived. We cannot blame the stewards. They are present to assist the law-abiding, not go toe-to-toe with those intent on trouble.

Law and order remains the responsibility of the police and it cannot be said they got their strategy right at Wembley on Saturday. Sadly, this was a low day for our national game; a low day for Millwall Football Club. The majority of their supporters behaved themselves at Wembley, of course. They booed and jeered as the fighting escalated. Sadly, though, the stain remains on that part of south London. They will not be missed when the final takes place.

Split: Millwall fans booed their own brawling supporters in shocking scenes at Wembley

Clashes: Police were forced to use batons in a bid to control the Millwall fans





Millwall: A history of violence

Millwall's supporters have an association with violence dating back decades, with their Bushwackers hooligan firm attaining particular notoriety in the 1970s and 1980s.

This violent reputation can be traced back over a century, when in September 1906, supporters from Millwall and local rivals West Ham, both mainly dockers, fought in the stands during a Western League match.

During the mid to late 1960s, violence at football grounds became more widespread and more widely reported. In November 1965, a hand grenade was thrown from the Millwall end during a match at Brentford. Goalkeeper Chic Brodie picked it up and tossed it into his goal. Police later inspected it and found it to be a dummy grenade.

Outbreaks of fighting at Millwall matches became more commonplace, with the Football Association ordering the club to erect fences around the pitch at The Den in 1967.

In March 1978, a riot broke out during a home FA Cup quarter-final with Ipswich Town, with fighting on the terraces and an attempt to invade the pitch to get the match abandoned with Millwall 6-1 down.

In 1982, the club chairman Alan Thorne threatened to close the club because of the frequency of violence.

The most notorious night was the Kenilworth Road riot of 1985, when Millwall fans repeatedly invaded the pitch and fought pitched battles with police and Luton supporters, during an FA Cup sixth round tie. 31 arrests were made.

Although hooliganism died down during the nineties, there have been sporadic outbreaks since.

In May 2002, following defeat in a play-off semi-final against Birmingham, hundreds of hooligans rampaged through nearby streets, leading to 47 police officers and 24 police horses being injured.

As a result, then chairman Theo Paphitis introduced a membership card scheme, since restricted to high risk away matches, that is credited with vastly reducing Millwall's travelling support. It followed a turbulent season in which there were at least half a dozen separate incidents of disorder.

In October 2004, during a League Cup match against Liverpool, Millwall fans allegedly taunted their counterparts with songs making fun of the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989, leading to clashes outside the ground. They were charged by the FA for the violence.

In August 2009, a Millwall supporter was stabbed outside Upton Park in fierce clashes with West Ham hooligans prior to a League Cup tie. West Ham fans invaded the pitch twice and were later fined £115,000 by the FA.

Before today, the latest incident was in January, when Millwall fans threw beer bottles at a linesman during a Cup fourth round tie with Aston Villa.

The membership scheme, linked to police intelligence databases, has helped eliminate the hooligan element from Millwall's travelling support.

For high risk matches, Millwall fans are regularly made to collect tickets from motorway service stations, meaning they can't travel by train.

Allocations have been greatly reduced and diligence is taken over who is able to buy tickets. The weight of banning orders handed down by the courts has also helped reduce the hooligan risk.

VIDEO: Official highlights of the FA Cup semi final







VIDEO: Martinez interviewed after the game

VIDEO: Wigan v Millwall: Tunnelcam





