Best defence is a show of force

Ian Ridley believes last week's violence underlined a need for more police Chelsea's displaced England midfielder gains the security of a point as peace is restored to a heavily protected Bridge

THE disc jockey was playing the Annie Lennox song "No More `I Love You's" as the mayhem subsided, but there never were any in the first place. To those of us whose formative footballing years were spent in London in the Seventies, keeping heads down on the walk to grounds and conversation on the terraces non-committal, last week's trouble at the Chelsea v Millwall FA Cup fourth-round replay was predictable and a long way from the dark days of hooliganism.

The police knew as much, hence their huge presence, which cost £40,000, five times the usual amount. Amid the broken glass on Fulham Broadway, to which all the exits at Stamford Bridge lead, one fan was asked if there had been much fighting outside the ground. "Before, during and after," he replied.

In that was the modern truth about football-related violence: much of it occurs away from stadiums, where the video camera's evidence does not extend. It is easy enough to avoid and those who want to get involved can do so in private. Police operations, conceived during the experiences of the Seventies, then honed during the Eighties, have improved the environment for the law-abiding inside, and that work should not go to waste now.

Much of the shocked reaction is due to the rarity these days of such scenes. But this was no riot, though its seriousness should not be underestimated. The Millwall striker Dave Mitchell, who was manhandled and spat at by a fan, the 11 police officers who were injured, the small boys carried out in tears of fear and the Chelsea stewards assaulted by their own fans would testify to its gravity.

Following examples of fan misbehaviour in the Cantona affair and at Ewood Park, the issue of fences was suddenly back on the agenda, but the FA's chief executive Graham Kelly, who was at Hillsborough six years ago, said they were unlikely to return.

Unfortunately, the idea is not so easily dismissed in these post-Taylor Report days of all-seater stadiums, where capacities and crushing can be more easily controlled. There should be a more immediate concern, however.

As they inquire into the events at Chelsea - and it was the home club's fans at fault, not those of Millwall - they and their Premier League would do well to examine anew the role and training of stewards. Some clubs employ stewards from professional security companies working alongside ordinary people now expected, it appears, to act as bouncers as well as ushers and peace-keepers, all for between £10 and £30. The fall-out rate is likely to rival that of teachers in inner-city schools if there is much more of recent events.

Clubs have to pay for police inside grounds, the public for those outside. At Chelsea there would normally be 10 inside for a low-risk fixture, 70 for a high-risk match. Some 300 of the 400 on duty last Wednesday were inside.

Clearly the clubs wish to avoid the costs, and the police themselves prefer to be confronting crime on the streets. "The policy of the Association of Chief Police Officers is that we would wish to hand over to properly trained stewards," Commander Tony Rowe, who was in charge of last week's operation, said. "But I must stress `properly trained'."

One could only agree with Pele last week urging fans to remember the game was a celebration, but in the anger of defeat those whose pride and lives are blindly intertwined with a football club are likely to over- react. Pressure cookers need lids.

With all the money now available, the Premiership clubs - at which these problems have been of late - could afford proper stewarding, professionally trained in liaison with the police. And, for all their qualms, more police.

It is doubtful whether more police would have directly averted the Cantona and Ewood Park incidents, but their mere presence can be a preventative. "There is no situation so bad that a policeman cannot make it worse," Dominic Behan once observed, but football is an environment improved by the sight of a blue uniform. It is not so much that Chelsea should be punished, more that policy be reviewed.