English football’s battle against illegal flares and smoke bombs

Jonnie Carrington was celebrating the goal that put Bradford City 2-0 up against Newport County last weekend when something flew past, landed on the seat in front, and his daughter, five, began screaming.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “She’s a shy, timid little girl and this was only her second ever game. I didn’t know if she was scared because it was noisy. Then we smelled the smoke.

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“It was in the seat in front of us, one to the left. She was absolutely screaming her head off, traumatised, crying, not knowing what was going on. She stood there thinking it was a fire. We didn’t know where it had come from.”

“Absolute smoke,” is how he describes it.

Bradford City and West Yorkshire Police have spent the past week identifying those responsible for the pyrotechnic thrown from the upper tier of the home Kop stand, injuring one fan in the lower section. The pyrotechnic, Jonnie later learned, “had bounced off the arm of the guy in front of us”.

It is a criminal offence for fans planning to enter a stadium to carry smoke bombs, flares or fireworks, including when en route to a match. A 2017 video from Leicestershire Police, filmed in response to FC Copenhagen fans letting off flares at the King Power in 2016, shows why.

In the video, a thermal imaging camera scanning a flare recovered from another of Leicester’s Champions League games showed the flame reached 555°C (1031°F) at its core. The firefighters involved in the demonstration said they would only ever use a flare like it in full protective gear, not least because the flame burns so low — close to the hands — and projectiles can career off in all directions.

A 2014 Wembley Stadium training video on pyrotechnics says handheld flares and coloured smoke bombs cannot be extinguished. Its flame would burn for more than a minute.

At Bradford, there is an additional emotional layer. The ground was the site of a fire that killed 54 Bradford fans and two from Lincoln in 1985. Some of the 16,704 at the match against Newport on last Saturday would have also been there during the fire 37 years ago. Coincidentally, before the Newport match Carrington had taken his daughter to the memorial to explain the club’s history.

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Returning to his experience in the stand, he says: “Two stewards came running up and everyone around us was screaming: ‘Get it! Put it out! Put it out!’. A guy ran across from a couple of rows back and chucked his bottle of water on it. My little girl was absolutely petrified.”

Carrington and his daughter withdrew to the concourse and considered going home until she watched the stewards dispose of what was left of the flare. They returned to their seats.

“Every time everyone was standing up, she started crying again because she didn’t know what was going on,” says Carrington. “She was in fear again. Five minutes before that, people were shouting because there was a smoke bomb. She was just on edge, petrified it was going to happen again. Those around her tried to reassure her that it was a freak event.”

Carrington has since sat down with his daughter and found YouTube videos, including some of the aforementioned training clips, to explain what happened. “We’ve said it’s like a bath bomb, but a bath bomb for football. I’m not going to lie to her and say that it’s nothing. She knows about bonfire night, about fireworks.

“She’s a shy and timid little girl, but she’s a strong girl. You’d look at her now and think nothing’s wrong, but my only worry is that on matchday morning, next week, will she want to go? Will she have a recollection?” The club’s mascot, a giant chicken called Billy Bantam, is going to walk Carrington’s daughter through the turnstiles to ease any lingering anxiety.

English football has a growing problem with the use of pyrotechnics inside grounds this. On the eve of this new season, the Football Association, Premier League and EFL came together to introduce new measures and stronger sanctions to tackle increased anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Among those changes, endorsed by the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), was heightened focus on those “carrying or using smoke bombs or pyrotechnics” at football matches. Any fans identified would face an automatic club ban.

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“These bans could also be extended to accompanying parents or guardians of children who take part in these activities,” a joint statement issued by football’s governing bodies said.

“We are contacted by supporters on a fairly regular basis who have been caught jumping on the pitch, or with pyro in the stands, and without exception they regret doing it,” said the FSA’s chief executive Kevin Miles.

“Whether they had positive intentions or not is irrelevant in the eyes of the law — pyro and pitch incursions are illegal, you will be prosecuted and you will be banned by your club.”

The EFL have been actively campaigning for the use of pyrotechnics to be stopped since 2017, when all 72 clubs signed up to a Chairman’s Charter to clamp down on the illegal use of smoke bombs and flares.

It has not had the desired impact. According to the Home Office’s statistics for the 2019-20 season, the most recent on record with fans in attendance, the use of pyrotechnics was reported at 309 of the 2,663 games included in the period for which data was collected.

There have been a number of incidents already this season. The Football Association is investigating the Carabao Cup game between Ipswich Town and Colchester United after crowd trouble, which culminated in families being struck by chairs. Pyrotechnics were also thrown onto the pitch.

“The Colchester supporters threw two flares onto the pitch, with one almost hitting a ballboy in the head,” Ipswich Town supporter Jody Richardson told The Athletic. “Stewards and security were on the scene immediately, with stewards on the pitch clearing the flares, and checking and moving the ball boy that almost got hit.

“Myself and my children felt worried for the people below the supporters that threw the flares, as underneath has disabled supporters. Everyone around us was concerned for supporters’ safety in that area.

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“I just wish people would think and be more considerate to others, especially families with young children and disabled supporters who can’t perhaps move as quickly as others. The smoke that can cause breathing issues for the vulnerable. There really is no place in football grounds for these things.

“Stewards perhaps should be more thorough when searching supporters. Unfortunately, if supporters want to sneak flares in to a football ground, they will always find a way. Those that are identified with flares should receive lifetime stadium bans as a minimum, in my opinion, from their respective clubs, plus whatever punishment the police see fit to impose.”

One problem is availability. Ring-pull smoke bombs are sold for as little as £3 on the internet. The FA, Premier League and EFL last month wrote to policing minister Tom Pursglove to request a review of regulations governing the sale of pyrotechnics. The hope is to restrict them to professional venues and displays.

Football’s governing bodies have also asked TV broadcasters to ensure pyrotechnics are not the focal point of coverage. The argument is the more regularly it is seen by viewers, the more it is replicated at grounds up and down the country. The same applies to pitch invasions, with broadcasters encouraged to avoid normalising what amounts to criminal behaviour. The FA, Premier League and EFL also want the Home Office to take action against fan-filmed videos, with TikTok and Twitter thought to accentuate the issue.

Richarlison, then of Everton, did little to help matters last season when throwing a smoke bomb back into the crowd at Goodison Park during goal celebrations in a Premier League game against Chelsea in May. The Brazilian was later charged by the FA for improper conduct and spoken to by Merseyside Police.

If club bans are an automatic punishment for perpetrators this season under the new rules, there is also the potential for pyrotechnic use to result in a Football Banning Order (FBO) through the courts.

Those span a minimum of three years (although can be appealed after two) and prevent fans from attending all regulated football matches in the UK. Conditions are drawn up for each individual banned that can include handing in a passport when England play overseas. Breaching an FBO can result in criminal charges and even a custodial sentence.

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One Leeds United fan was given a three-year FBO for throwing a smoke bomb in the club’s Premier League match at Aston Villa in February. Two Nottingham Forest fans were also given the same punishment when letting off smoke bombs during the FA Youth Cup final defeat to Manchester United in May.

“Smoke bombs can be dangerous, both for those who are carrying them and those in the close vicinity when they’re activated,” Inspector Craig Berry, of Nottinghamshire Police’s football unit, told the Nottingham Post.

“As these supporters have found out to their cost, smuggling these items into grounds is a criminal offence that can lead to a football banning order of up to five years. The message is clear: such devices are dangerous and are not welcome within football stadiums.”

The EFL has this week written to the communications departments of its 72 clubs, asking them to begin social media campaigns involving management and players that calls for an end to the use of pyrotechnics and throwing missiles.

Even though four arrests were made during last season’s FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley for “being in possession of pyrotechnic devices”, the devices can be easily hidden when entering stadia, making prevention difficult. At one of those games, a nine-year-old required medical attention after being burned when picking up a discarded flare.

“I just want to know why people think it’s acceptable to bring it into the football grounds,” says Carrington, the Bradford City fan. “It’s a firework. It’s made of flammable materials. I want to know why people think it’s funny.“

(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)