FNB Stadium hooligans to face the music

This is according to Stadium Management South Africa’s (SMSA’s) CEO Bertie Grobbelaar, who told SABC Sport recently that they have since opened a case against these football hooligans.

Grobbelaar revealed that the fans who were responsible for throwing missiles at Ntseki and also damaged chairs at the stadium could soon be arrested.

"You've got 20 000 to 30 000 spectators attending a fixture to support their team, support the sport they love and then you've got certain individuals that mess it up. The implications of that goes far further than a game played behind closed doors,” Grobbelaar said.

 “There's commercial implications, there's sponsors involved, there's TV sponsorships involved and as a collective, we need to take action. From the stadium management side, the safety at sports and events act allows for criminal charges to be instituted for contravention of the act and after the incident we did so."

Back in 2018, a similar incident occurred at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, where again Chiefs fans ran amok after their team had been eliminated in the Nedbank Cup semifinals by Free State Stars, and damaged the stadium property and broadcasters' equipment, an incident that led to yet another former Amakhosi head coach Steve Komphela vacating his seat.

Grobbelaar says they are following how that matter was followed because there were successful convictions in that case.

"I think there were additional charges there. My focus is to enforce. The act allows us and the act dictates to us how we should manage events to be safe and secure but the act also applies to spectators. An obligation on spectators to act in a certain way. So, my focus is to enforce what the act allows us to do," he added.

Guided by the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act (SASREA), Grobbelaar says they have since laid charges against the perpetrators and he’s hoping that the process to identify them will not be a complicated one, since there’s video footage to identify them.