Club response re: Doncaster

We take the safety and enjoyment of both sets of supporters very seriously and the below comments have been compiled with the help of our Safety Officer Brian Slater.

Pyrotechnics.

All fans are subject to targeted searches as is the case for all matches at the Spotland.

This means that not every person is subject to a full pat down search as in some cases this would be unnecessary (children, those in ill health and in some cases senior citizens) and in some cases, illegal.

Stewards do have the right to search all who enter the ground and that right is written within the ground regulations which are on display at the turnstiles and on the club’s website. However this right does not extend to physical searches of what are construed as “intimate” areas of the body and it does not extend to any physical search of minors. As such there is only so much a steward can do to try any stop items such as pyrotechnics from being brought into any ground.

The club can assure you that anyone identified as bringing a pyrotechnic into the ground would be handed over to the police and removed from the ground, as did happen on Saturday.  Unfortunately in large groups it is not always possible to identify individuals responsible and for obvious reasons we cannot hand over to police or eject from the ground anyone without definitive proof of their offence.

That being said, CCTV footage is always reviewed and handed over to the Police and any subsequent identifications made thereafter will result in criminal proceedings. I would expect any away club to take their own action against those individuals and we have liaised with Doncaster Rovers on this.

In terms of searches

1) We had sufficient searchers outside of all open away turnstiles. They are all SIA qualified and experienced in the search process.

2. We have CCTV footage showing stewards actively carrying out their duties and police present outside the turnstiles were also witness to this

3. We display on all entry points the ground regulations reminding all who enter of what the prohibited items are.

4. An identification was made of an individual who handled a smoke canister. This individual was handed over to police.

5. CCTV footage is being reviewed and handed over to police as part of our information sharing agreement. Any identification of individuals will result in prosecution by police and action by their own club.

The decision to close gate 6 was deemed by the safety team at the time to be the correct one under the circumstances. In no circumstances where there is the potential of disorder after the match would the safety team consider allowing both sets of fans to mix in such close proximity.

Stewards or for that matter the club do not have any legal right to detain spectators inside a football ground…that right is only available to and enforceable by the Police. As such it was deemed that opening both home and away exit gates at opposite ends of the ground was required.

For the majority of games during the season, seats in the away stand are sold on an unreserved basis. This means that people can choose to sit where they want upon entry. It is therefore even harder to identify individuals if they have pre paid for tickets. In this instance as is quite common, supporters could also pay on the day. 

When selling on an unreserved basis For it is common practice in any stadia, to reduce the capacity of that stand by 10%. This is done for the simple reason that people do not choose to sit next to strangers and as such it is not unusual to find empty seats “dotted” throughout the stand and therefore the full capacity of the stand is never achieved.

For a match where the anticipated attendance is less than the capacity of the stand itself, this deduction does not cause the club any problems. Only when the Club anticipates a capacity crowd will they take the decision to make the game all ticket and will sell seats on a reserved basis, thereby making people occupy those potentially vacant seats.

The current away stand at Spotland has a capacity of 3504 seats , which includes 15 disabled spaces and 15 helper seats. With a small variance, each seating block contains, on average 490 seats.

For a below capacity away crowd, the safety officer would inform the stewards which section of seats to net off. We routinely net off the seats closest to Pearl Street, as historically, this is where much of the conflict between Home and Away fans has occurred.

Doncaster Rover were sent tickets to pre sell before the match.  They sold tickets at a ratio of two thirds of their final attendance, which meant that a third of their crowd on Saturday walked up and paid on the day. Therefore it is not possible to net off too many seats before the event. For example, if we had only allowed Doncaster fans to use the middle two blocks in the Willbutts Lane stand we would not have had enough seats to accommodate them, which potentially would have led to disorder and away fans standing and occupying the concrete apron in front of the seats thus endangering the safety of the players.

As a suggestion going forward a recommendation would be to look at the purchase of another section of netting for matches where pre sold tickets, Police or away club intelligence suggest that no more than 1500 away fans will attend. It would be possible to therefore net off Block T (next to Pearl Street) but also Block N (next to Sandy Lane). This would leave the club with Blocks O – S (2442) seats, less 10% for unreserved ( 2200 seats available).

With the netting we currently have, the safety officer has confirmed he will always choose to net off the blocks at the Pearl Street end for historic reasons and therefore making the remainder of the stand available for use. Preventing away fans from occupying seats at the Sandy Lane end is currently only possible with a heavy steward presence. This of course has cost implications to the Club and requires the co-operation and goodwill of away fans, which was absent for a small minority of Doncaster fans on Saturday.

In addition to the above, we have received correspondence from Doncaster Rovers’ Head of Operations stating the following

‘The Doncaster Police Football Intelligence Officer attended the match and we are working with him and British Transport Police to identify any individuals involved in disorder both during and after the match.  Our Safety Officer has also offered to support the Rochdale Safety Officer to identify individuals and provide appropriate sanctions.

 As a club, we will also be reissuing a reminder to all supporters regarding the zero tolerance to pyrotechnics before the forthcoming fixtures and will be increasing our search and monitoring of this at the games.  The issues at the Rochdale game will also be highlighted to other Safety Officers when Doncaster play away to assist the host club in preparing for the appropriate measures to manage this minority safely.

 Once again, my apologies on behalf of the club for the behaviour of a small number of people who travelled to Rochdale with our supporters.  Their behaviour is not, and will not be tolerated and we assure you we will work with all parties to identify the individuals and provide appropriate sanctions.’

I hope you can appreciate how seriously we take your correspondence and we still have some work to do in reviewing the situation.

Naturally I have a lot to do to try and grow the profile of the club which should in turn benefit everyone connected with Rochdale football club. I look forward to getting to you during my role.

In the meantime if you have any further questions please get in touch firstly with Gina (copied in) to start with as she will help manage my diary over these next few months.

Yours sincerely,

James Mason

CEO Rochdale AFC