Monday 11 March 2019 14:00, UK
Who is to blame after a weekend of ugly pitch invasion scenes? How do we avoid a repeat of the unsavoury incidents? Sky Sports' experts give their views...
Fans invading the pitch has come into the spotlight after a weekend of incidents. Two fans were arrested for separate pitch invasions on Sunday, when Jack Grealish was punched during Aston Villa's game against Birmingham, while Chris Smalling was pushed during Manchester United's defeat to Arsenal.
That followed an ugly incident on Friday where a fan was also arrested following a fracas involving Rangers captain James Tavernier during Friday night's 1-1 draw at Hibernian.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor labelled such incidents "disgraceful" and called for action before it is "too late and there is going to be a tragedy."
Graeme Souness took a hard-line view in regards to the individual offenders, insisting the invader at the Emirates should never be allowed to return to the stadium again.
"Some village is missing another idiot," Souness said after Super Sunday ."Name him, shame him, and ban him for life with no chance of ever coming back into the stadium and say this will happen to anybody else who comes onto the pitch.
"He will have his 30 seconds of fame but then he can never come back and watch Arsenal, that's what should happen to him. He's just a village idiot who wanted his 30 seconds, ban him for life."
Jamie Carragher believes it is the clubs that have to be looked at, and how match-day security is conducted.
"I don't think it's enough just banning the individual," Carragher said. "What can a club do? How many stewards would you need? You'd probably need 500, but if somebody wanted to get on the pitch you are not going to be able to stop them unfortunately.
"But I think there has to be sanctions to the club, even though in some ways it's not their fault, but the supporter might feel they are hurting their club. If they get banned on their own it's just him, but if it affected the whole club…"
Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, though, issued caution from the authorities, insisting there are issues to consider before the blame is laid firmly at the offending club's door.
"If you are going to start invoking point deductions on teams then the problem that you have got is that home fans could go into the away end," Robinson told Sky Sports News. "Look at the Tottenham-Arsenal game, if one of those two thought they could get points deducted by simply going in the other end and then running on the pitch, then there could be an element of sabotage.
"Punishing the individual is definitely right, but security measures have to be looked at around the ground. Whether it is about closing the first two rows in a stadium, putting people on every entrance to the pitch.
"It is very hard to secure the pitch without seeing any form of physical barrier, which we obviously never want to see again. To secure these so called soft areas, where there are not stewards in abundance, it is very hard to police the perimeter of the pitch."
Former Rangers striker Neil McCann thinks that there is a wider problem, with player celebrations playing their part.
"I don't think you can play it down," McCann said. "I think we are all in a position where we have all been abused from the terracing and you can put up with a certain extent. Some of the things that are levelled at players now is going beyond acceptable.
"I'm not only talking about idiots who want to come on and go for players or think they can celebrate. I am talking about when a goal is scored. Referees are punishing players when they cause a surge when they leave the field of play and they can be cautioned, but fans have to understand they can't come on to the field of play at any time. And these people who are deciding they are going to come on and attack players should be jailed.
"It's a society problem as well. You are dealing with individuals who are mindless. I heard an interview when we did a game the week before the Hibs match and they were speaking about passion. That's not passion, it's just clear stupidity."
