How the Premier League fanbase has turned into a mess?

Since Euro 2020 final incident involving English fans, the Premier League has turned into one of the most toxic leagues because of its fans, who have caused chaos by hurling objects, assaulting the players, and on top of that, racist abuses at games. 

Premier League fans have turned into the most toxic fans in Europe’s top five leagues. This had led to many police investigations and postponements of games. 

In fresh news, Aston Villa players Lucas Digne and Matty Cash were hit by plastic bottles as they celebrated Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Everton. Antonio Rudiger was hit by lighter from the crowd after their 2-0 victory over Tottenham.

However, there have been worse cases, where a drone stopped play at Brentford and West Ham fans clashing with police at Old Trafford. 

While in a match between Manchester City vs Southampton, fans ran onto the pitch and clashed with stewards and police in the stands.

After a series of incidents, the FA, Premier League, and EFL held a meeting, where Chief constable Mark Roberts issued a notice to put an end all these incidents.

What happened at Euro 2020? 

In the final game between England and Italy in Euro 2020  saw a horrific incident when fans broke into Wembley stadium on 15th July. 

This led to another frightful event when England lost on penalties by Italy, as three players who were of colour missed the penalties. 

Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka were met with massive backlash on social media as many fans racially abused them offline and online. 

In the Euro 2020 tournament, there were 92 football fans arrested and a majority of them were during England home games. In the investigation, the home officer said, “currently exploring how best to capture and report on all online abuse and hate crime connected to football”.

 “These are recorded through a number of different streams, and it is not currently possible to fully capture and report on them alongside figures on hate crime reported at specific matches.”

These incidents have become very common now at games. 

Such events have become very common during games, although the tally has increased this season. 

According to reports, there was high level of arrests of fan disorder this year during games in top-five English leagues. And “it’s getting worse,” which UK’s football police said.

When the closed-door matches rules was removed, and fans’ return saw stadiums getting to its full capacity. 

There were 759 reported incidents of fans derangement in these six months of the new campaign. While comparing it to the 2019-20 season, where 560 cases were reported when there were no coronavirus restrictions.

Data collected from 1 July to 31 December 2021, stated that 802 arrests have been made this season, a rise of 47% compared to 547 arrests in the 2019-20 season.

At matches, the fans have thrown flares missiles and are involved in hate crimes which have grown even more since 2019-20. Escalating chaos leads to more arrests which mean fewer games. 

Do you feel there should be stricter measures taken by the F.A to eradicate this toxic fans culture in England and in the Premier League?

Featured Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images