If the English FA has their way both Millwall and West Ham United will be paying dearly for the actions of their fans on August 25th, 2009.
That night millions of British, and indeed soccer fans worldwide, saw images of hooliganism and match day violence that haven’t been seen since the bad old days of the 1980s when bands of rowdy English soccer fans were considered the scourge of Europe.
Today the FA issued a multitude of charges they want both clubs to answer, and the penalties could include forcing the clubs to play matches behind closed doors, and their supporters being banned from attending live soccer games for life.
According to an official statement the FA has issued the same set of charges to both clubs. These are:
• Failure to ensure their supporters refrained from violent, threatening, obscene and provocative behavior.
• Failure to ensure their supporters refrained from racist behavior.
• Failure to ensure their supporters did not throw missiles, harmful or dangerous objects onto the pitch.
In addition, as they were the home side, West Ham have been charged with failure to ensure that their supporters did not gain access to the field of play – a result of two different pitch invasions by Hammers fans during the game.
During the course of the evening in question both Hammers striker Carlton Cole and Millwall's Jason Price were subjected to racial taunts and the targets of flying objects hurled at the pitch. 200 seats in the Upton park ground were damaged and an entire block of toilet facilities was badly damaged.
Outside the ground, one man was stabbed and taken to hospital and several others received minor injuries in a number of different scuffles.
Both clubs have 14 days to respond in writing to the charges.
Soccer pundits say that the FA has no choice but to come down hard on both clubs, as any signs that the bad old days of soccer hooliganism might be creeping back into English soccer will seriously damage the country’s high profile bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018.
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