Police presence today……

It always suprises me that pre match against Millwall, there never appears to be any police around.

 

According to EFL it’s a family club so that explains it

 

Hi Marlon, I would think it's pretty easy to police. Most of the Millwall fans I've met are decent blokes who are trying hard to live down the reputation of the idiots (this includes probably the hardest looking football fan I've ever seen at a match shaking my hand after the wembley game and saying he had no complaints we were the better side and had beaten them three times that season). The idiots will hang around in a big blob, particularly on strange northern turf, so just follow them around

 

Hi D138
I’m sure there are genuine fans amongst them and try to rid themselves of the idiots turning up for the brawl games .
However these idiots seem to always manage to get tickets for these games ,
For me the club could do a lot better in preventing this by more vigilant ticket sales and punishment of fans obtaining and or providing them .
Having said that this could be done at most grounds with most fans but it’s left to reasonable fans confronting or complaining putting themselves at risk imo.

 

They will get it for nowt they are in London

 

A few of my mates got on the tubes back to london central and said much the same. Complimentary to us, shaking hands.
Having been to Millwall several times (the new ground) I can honestly say the organisation is second to none. I've no doubt if you go looking for it so to speak. They'll oblige. But otherwise no worse than most other away grounds,

 

Millwall's main problem does seem to be historic and reputation/perception rather than current issue.

 

Yes, back in 2008 Wigan Athletic were successful in their action against GMP. Though the role of stewards whether employed directly by the club or as sub contractors and the relationship with the police is complicated. I’ll try to explain briefly. The overall responsibility for health and safety at football stadia on match days is the football club. The primary role of the police is that of maintaining public order. Theoretically because the club pays for police services they are subcontractors (employees) as defined under section 4 of HSWA. The police will not accept direction from those paying for their services. This arrangement becomes more complicated when H&S law is considered. The enforcing authority for football clubs on H&S is the local authority but the H&S enforcing authority for the police is the HSE. So in the event of an incident involving stewards and police there is a dichotomy as to who has legal responsibility. This is only clear cut if the ‘primacy of control’ protocol is followed. Because these situations are dynamic and fast moving the police may act without a hand over of primacy of control. To protect the interests of the football clubs some have issued a ‘memorandum of understanding’ to clarify the club’s position in the unlikely event of a serious issue were to arise. That said were such an incident to happen final decisions on primacy of control would probably be determined by a judicial review.

 

They must take after the staff at Oakwell then because our matchday service is appalling!