We are about to discuss one of the most complex issues facing non-league football right now.
So, grab yourself your favourite beverage and take a seat.
For this one, I want you to put down your club colours. Put down your hats, your scarves and your shirts. Because I do not want you looking at this through the lens of Redditch United, or any other individual football club. I want you to look at this through the lens as somebody who genuinely cares about non-league football.
Because I believe non-league football is under attack.
For generations, a football club has been the centrepiece of pride in a local community.
It is somewhere people come together.
Somewhere families go.
Somewhere friendships are made.
Somewhere people share stories, history, a beer and a bit of social interaction.
But increasingly, we are seeing football grounds being targeted as venues for antisocial behaviour, particularly by groups of young people who are not necessarily there because they support either of the teams playing.
And that is a really serious problem. We saw this first hand at our recent fixture against Halesowen Town on August Bank Holiday.
There was a significant amount of antisocial behaviour inside the ground and what followed was a significant amount of negativity across social media channels. This is not only having a negative impact on our two clubs, but on football as a whole.
We had intelligence from the police before the game and I want to put on record our thanks to them for their continued support.
What, on the surface, might have looked like an ugly clash between Halesowen and Redditch supporters was actually far more complicated.
To prepare we had increased SIA security & police support.
We had additional stewarding.
We had made fundamental changes to the fabric of our ground to enable segregation.
And despite all of that, we still saw ugly scenes involving large groups of people on both sides of the segregation.
One of the perceptions is that we as club won’t deal with the issue, as we would rather take the gate income from their entry as this would put us at a financial advantage. When you breakdown all of the additional financial strain that segregation and additional security staff put on the club, this perception is laughable.
When you dig a little deeper, you start to understand that this was not simply an issue between two sets of football supporters.
We now understand that a significant proportion of the people in the Halesowen end had travelled together from Birmingham. Many had links to other clubs across the Midlands. Similarly, a significant group in the Redditch United end had travelled from Cannock.
It appears that our fixture was simply chosen as the venue for their antisocial behaviour, which is incredibly concerning. This was a Step Three football match at Tier Seven of the English football pyramid. Yet the intelligence gathered through social media was serious enough for the police to put a dispersal order in place around Redditch town centre on the day of the match.
Just stop and think about that for a moment.
And remember, this is a game that previously has never had to be segregated, which demonstrates how quickly things are developing.
We appreciate that we can alter things moving forward to try and prevent this happening again. Some statements on social media make fixing the solution seem so easy but that is never the case.
The Police have stated that they are dealing with similar issues on a national level. The concern is not simply about antisocial behaviour at a football match. It is about the welfare of young people who are travelling significant distances, often unsupervised, to situations where there is a genuine risk of confrontation, disorder or harm. That should concern all of us, regardless of which club we support.”
Why are people travelling significant distances to a non-league football match, when they have no genuine connection to either football club, and with the intention of causing trouble?
And more importantly, what are we (the Royal we) going to do about it?
As a football club, we have had to make some difficult decisions.
From today we have changed our ground regulations so that anybody under the age of 18 attending a match must now be accompanied by an adult who takes responsibility for them.
I completely accept that this will affect some genuine young supporters. That is not something we take lightly. But our responsibility has to be to provide a safe environment for everybody who comes through our turnstiles. We have tried other things in the past and this is now the next logical step. We have deliberately used 18 as the age threshold because it provides a clear and easily identifiable point at which people can independently demonstrate their age.
We have, however, also tried to find a way of protecting our genuine young supporters.
This season we introduced a fantastic youth season ticket for supporters aged 14 to 18 and students, costing just £49. That works out at just £2.33 per game.
Supporters in that category are required to provide photographic identification and basic next of kin information. We believe that gives us an additional safeguarding mechanism, so somebody with a valid youth season ticket can still attend independently.
We are now talking to other local football clubs about whether a similar system could be adopted, and whether these cards could potentially be recognised at other grounds. I do not believe this should be a Redditch United system, I think this could potentially become something that is used across non-league football.
Genuine football supporters should not be prevented from supporting their clubs because a minority want to use football grounds as somewhere to cause trouble.
But this cannot be solved by football clubs alone. Non-league clubs are being targeted as venues for this antisocial behaviour as we currently do not have the infrastructure to successfully manage it as well as professional clubs. At step three of the non-league pyramid we fall out of the jurisdiction of many laws and regulations. And with this means we struggle to get the support that larger venues receive.
We need help.
We have already engaged with Redditch Borough Council about additional fencing and the challenges we face when we have segregated fixtures at the Valley Stadium.
That includes access and safe transport to and from the ground which this highlights another fundamental problem. The main entrance to our football ground does not even have a pedestrian footpath. It was only around 18 months ago that we managed to secure street lighting along the only vehicle access route to the stadium, a road that anyone walking to the ground must also share.
The Valley Stadium is the largest spectator facility in Redditch and hosts the biggest events in the town.
Yet the stadium, which is owned by Redditch Borough Council and leased to the football club, still reflects its history. The Valley Stadium is not just a reflection of Redditch United, it is a reflection of the town too.
We moved to the Valley Stadium in the 1940s. The majority of the stadium you see today, including the main stand and terraces, dates back to the 1970s.
The football club has invested heavily in the facility over the years. We have done total renovation of the main stand, including adding ramps and accessible lifts. We have installed an artificial pitch that hosts football for over 1000 participants each week. We have developed the ground to be one of the most energy efficient by installing air source heat pumps for our heating and hot water, installed LED lights into every fitting including the pitch floodlights and now have the building powered predominantly be solar power. This has enabled us to become only the second club in the world to achieve certified carbon neutral status. Something that is yet to receive any formal recognition from our local governance.
But despite this we still don’t have pedestrian access to our main entrance. We have no accessible entrance to our segregated area and the access and signage to this much needed separate entrance is dilapidated or absent.
The basic make up how people access the ground is way beyond our control. We have petitioned for action but this has been constantly rejected.
We now need support from Redditch Borough Council and the Football Foundation to bring the stadium up to the standards expected of a modern football ground.
That means safe access.
Proper accessibility for disabled supporters.
Appropriate lighting.
Improved CCTV.
Secure segregation.
Safe movement of supporters around the stadium.
And facilities that allow us to properly manage the risks that modern football now presents.
We are currently lobbying the Football Foundation for support to improve CCTV coverage, strengthen our segregated areas and ensure that the area used by our visiting supporters has basic facilities such as accessible toilets and accessible access.
These should not be luxuries.
They should be standard requirements for a modern football ground.
And this is where I think the Football Association, the Football Foundation, local authorities and our Leagues need to start looking at this collectively. Our issue is one that is shared by many clubs up and down the country.
Our grounds are being targeted for a very simple reason. Many of them do not have the infrastructure that modern football requires. That makes them easier targets for people who want to cause trouble.
So, what can we do?
Well, we need football clubs to work together.
We need local authorities to support their clubs.
We need the FA and Football Foundation to recognise the changing threat.
And we need supporters to play their part.
And when I say supporters, I do not just mean Redditch United supporters. I mean every genuine supporter of non-league football across the country.
If you see antisocial behaviour at a football ground, report it.
If you feel unsafe, report it to a steward.
Do not ignore it.
Do not simply film it and put it on social media.
Tell somebody.
Because if we allow this to become normal, we risk changing the very thing that makes non-league football special.
Football grounds should be places where communities come together.
They should be places where children can watch football and where families can spend a Saturday afternoon. A sacred place where supporters can stand together, have a beer, sing, argue about refereeing decisions and go home talking about the game.
They should not become places where people travel from outside the area simply to cause trouble.
So, for this one, forget your club colours.
Forget whether you support Redditch United, Halesowen Town, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Worcester City, Bromsgrove Sporting or anybody else.
Look at this as a non-league football supporter because if we genuinely care about non-league football, we need to protect it. And we need to do it now.
This might look like a short-term trend but if we do nothing, it could become one of the biggest threats facing non-league football in a generation.
