At the outset I’ll declare that I’m a Pompey fan through and through. That being the case, while many of you were looking forward to your Easter eggs last weekend I was more excited at the prospect of attending one of England’s great football derby matches – Southampton versus Portsmouth, this time around at the former’s St Mary’s Stadium.
These are two big family clubs but, over the years, intense rivalry has often descended into scenes of pretty serious violence on match days (with 12 people jailed following the fixture in February 2010 alone).
This season, with both of these nPower Championship teams having so much to play for (Southampton chasing automatic promotion to the Premier League while Pompey fight to stave off relegation to League One), it was no surprise that this fixture had been anticipated with a great deal of excitement by Saints and Portsmouth supporters alike.
However, for the local police, business owners and those working at the ground – most notably individuals tasked with safety and security duties – last Saturday’s game was also greeted with some trepidation.
Planning ahead for the game
Managing the security of 32,000 football supporters (the capacity at a sold-out Saint Mary’s Stadium) is a huge task at the best of times, but given the nature of this local derby you can be sure that planning began months in advance.
In truth, it was this attention to detail that meant the fixture thankfully occurred without any major incidents (there were only five arrests, six people ejected from the ground and some minor damage caused). Indeed many supporters talked about a rather subdued atmosphere before the game.
Much of the success of this latest football security operation was down to what was referred to as ‘The Bubble’: a technique used by Hampshire Police to ferry 3,200 away supporters to and from the ground for an early 1.00 pm kick-off in order to limit pre-match drinking.
Away fans from Fratton Park were required to use 40 official coaches for the short journey up the M27, and only when inside the ground would they receive their tickets. The police also closed off sections of road on the approach to the ground to ensure the safe passage of vehicles.
There was an increased uniform presence on display for home fans arriving at the ground, while high metal fences separated both sets of supporters.
Meanwhile, fans of both teams were searched at the turnstiles in case they were carrying missiles, weapons, flares or smoke bombs that could have been used for unlawful purposes.
With 250 police officers on duty during the game, the ‘border’ of high visibility vests could be clearly seen as it flanked all sides to keep both sets of supporters away from each other (of course, they couldn’t stop the in-ground banter between fans for the entire 90 minutes).
Also, at all times the surveillance cameras and alert ground staff team members kept a watchful eye on all off-pitch activity.
Important element of the sporting experience
It’s a shame that past actions of the few have caused such drastic measures to be taken. Travelling to a football match or indeed any sporting event has always been an important part of the day out.
That said, as the British Olympic Association’s chairman Colin Moynihan observed in a Press Association announcement, police and security chiefs could never completely eliminate the threat of “one idiot” disrupting events at the London 2012 Olympics.
Later on Saturday evening these words were vindicated when a lone protester – Australian Trenton Oldfield – wreaked havoc at the Boat Race, causing increased concern over the strength of security measures in place for the Olympic events in the summer.
In recent years modern sports stadiums around the country have invested heavily in visible deterrents and covert security systems including the very latest surveillance cameras (often connected to IP networks), access control, people counting/turnstile management, fire and smoke detectors and intruder alarms.
However, the general manager of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Gerry Toms, was quoted on the BBC website at the weekend as saying: “The whole purpose of public events… is to allow the people to engage with what’s happening in front of them… and, in doing so, of course you have to give up certain parts of security you would like.”
The high drama at St Mary’s Stadium last Saturday ended with a 2-2 draw, but it would be fair to say that Hampshire Police and those from both Portsmouth and Southampton Football Clubs responsible for overseeing the safety and security operation of the fixture were the real winners in the end.
Jamie Wilson is security marketing manager (EMEA) at NICE Systems
