I don't see how this can be anything more than a token gesture; the idea that most football fans can be conveyed in specific coaches is fundamentally flawed.
Total aggregate football attendance in 2015-2016 was 30.7 million across the four divisions in England, how many arrests were there so a percentage could be worked out?
Exactly; the problem isn't football as such, it's the fact that some people like to get drunk, be rowdy and behave badly. They often look for an 'excuse' to behave this way; it may be horse racing but football is the most popular sport and the most attractive to many people.
I understand that you mostly go to smaller clubs, I can imagine the fans are well behaved!
It's the fans of the big Premier league clubs that are the problem!
This is inaccurate. Having been to big and small games, there are bad eggs everywhere, the difference is that once you reach a sufficiently large group of rowdy people then you really notice them and peer pressure kicks in. So you notice it more with bigger events and bigger teams. It is not true to suggest that the behaviour of the average fan of a smaller club is going to be much better than those supporting larger clubs.
I think it has been said already, but who’s to say all those going to a match would want to be in such a carriage? I’ve been to many away games and I’ve generally found for each of those who may want to be loud on the train there is an equal number who may want a quieter journey.
Very true, but then those who want a quiet journey would get one. The bigger issue would be getting all the rowdy people in one coach. I suspect that may not be achievable, and even if it was achievable, you wouldn't be wanting to mix the teams up. I was with a group of forum members when an incident occurred on an XC journey from Birmingham only a few months ago, but I doubt any proposals here would prevent such an incident occurring, based on the nature of it.
As a Liverpool fan who travels home and away I have seen very little bother on the trains. The worst behaviour I normally see is every Friday and Saturday evening heading out of Lime Street and it is men and women heading home to Widnes, Warrington, Runcorn and beyond (Not football fans)....
True, horse racing supporters can be bad too.
I'm afraid anyone who thinks football fans don't cause trouble on the railway is, to put it in the nicest way, incredibly naive.
I am not sure what you are saying here. If the suggestion is that anyone who is a football fan is likely to cause trouble, that clearly isn't true. However it is true that there are people who cause trouble on the railway who look for an excuse to travel, and one weekend that may be a horse race and another weekend that may be a football game. It's not your average football fan causing these problems, and football is such a popular sport, the football is really used as an 'excuse'.
Get on a train with football fans on, you will not find a carriage filled with people drinking tea quietly reading their kindles or chatting with their friends about where they're off on holiday next year.
You will actually find that a significant proportion of those attending matches will be doing as you describe. But you don't notice them and may not even realise they are going to a football game. I'd say a higher proportion of horse racing fans are badly behaved than the proportion of football fans who are badly behaved. But you will see badly behaved people board at York on trains going to certain destinations (which I won't name
) on a Saturday night regardless of sporting activity. It's just you get more of them if an event has been on. The problem isn't the sport, it's a cultural issue.
A significant proportion will already be drunk at 10 in the morning, shouting and chanting is common. They'll often travel in thuggish groups which intimidate other passengers. Tearing seats out and light fittings and panels down from the ceiling arent uncommon. There are regular attacks on staff from them.
Yes this does happen, but these people end up so drunk when they get into the ground that they cannot possibly appreciate the actual match. These people are a minority of fans. If you go into a stadium you won't see most people staggering around totally drunk. It's a significant minority. But the football is just an excuse and they'd still do this if football didn't exist
If they got on the trains, shut up and sat quietly in their seats, then got off where they were meant to and walked quietly off the station I can guarantee nobody, industry police or passenger, would have a problem with them.
But most do this!
It isn't just football fans - rugby and horse racing fans, and probably other sports too, cause the same issues; viz Cheltenham races. And equally it isn't all football fans causing the trouble, there's plenty who are good as gold on the railway.
This is the only part of your post that is proportionate. I agree!
But whether you're a football fan or not, it shouldn't be difficult to see the big issues they cause the industry.
The problem is caused by people who want to behave like louts, those people look for an excuse and football has the misfortune of being an excuse used by a significant number of them but that does not mean football is the catalyst.