Football has a huge cocaine problem

THERE are questions to be asked on all sides when it comes to the disgraceful and saddening scenes which unfolded at my club at the weekend. Time will tell how those events might have been avoided. We have to let an investigation take its course. But none of that takes away from the fact that up and down the country, all clubs have a problem with behaviour from a minority of fans. It’s why I’m not remotely surprised by what happened on Sunday. It’s been coming.

There is a societal problem going on here. I’ve been going home and away for 40 years and since Covid it’s getting far worse — teenage lads are behaving like lunatics, whether it’s throwing beer in the concourse, throwing flares or worse. The cocaine problem at football — and in society more generally — is a huge one. There’s evidence of that every weekend, at the back of the toilets where people have been sticking stuff up their nose. You see white powder in cubicles up and down the country on any given matchday now. And it’s not just in football. I know a lot of fans who simply don’t want to travel away these days.

I said as soon as the fourth round draw was made that this was a derby that Albion didn’t need or want and now we find the club’s reputation tarnished by disgraceful scenes that have played out on national TV. A ballboy got hit. That’s shocking. This isn’t what the Albion are about. We’re so proud of our family-friendly club, who have done initiatives like ‘Kids for £1’ to help grow the fanbase. But now the perpetrators have put a bad light on the club and we will have to accept the consequences.