Dier ‘had to jump into crowd after spotting his brother in trouble’
Friends say midfielder was right to confront fan FA, Spurs and police to undertake investigations
Eric Dier felt he had no choice but to enter the crowd to row with a supporter after spotting his brother in trouble, friends of the Tottenham Hotspur player have claimed.
The midfielder has no issue with the security, but feared stewards had not spotted an altercation brewing between his younger brother, Patrick, and a supporter.
Friends spoke to The Daily Telegraph yesterday to clear up confusion over Dier’s actions, as the Football Association launched an investigation into the extraordinary scenes that followed Tottenham’s FA Cup defeat by Norwich City.
Dier climbed 10 rows of seats before shouting “that’s my brother, that’s my brother” in the middle of the stadium’s West Stand.
According to one friend, Dier always looks up to spot his family as he walks towards the tunnel after matches and was concerned to see Patrick apparently in a confrontation. Patrick, 22, who works in new media, is said to have approached a supporter shouting abuse at Dier just moments after his side lost the fifth-round tie on penalties, and asked: “Why are you doing that?”
“The fan was screaming abuse at Eric after the end of the shoot-out,” a friend said. “Patrick was standing very near him and basically asked why he was doing that. Eric saw them and thought there could be a problem for his brother.”
Dier, who had been walking towards the tunnel, turned on his heels and climbed into the stand. “He went in the crowd and the fan scarpered, no punches thrown, no real altercation as such,” the friend added. The FA, Spurs and the Metropolitan Police have responded by announcing investigations, but the friend of Dier has suggested the stewards “could have been more proactive”.
Stewards failed to stop Dier as he climbed over advertising hoardings and into the crowd. A club source claimed Dier was supportive of the stewards’ actions, saying: “Stewards are there to observe fans, they’re not expecting a player to come off the pitch and enter the stand.”
The FA will almost certainly ask Dier for his version of events, but Jose Mourinho, Spurs’ head coach, says he hopes the club take no action. “I think Eric Dier did something that we professionals cannot do, but in these circumstances every one of us would do,” he said.
“Because when somebody insults you and your family is there and you get involved with the person that is insulting you, in this case a younger brother, I think Eric did what we professionals we cannot do. But I repeat, probably every one of us would do.”
Dier, who had scored a penalty in the shoot-out before watching his team-mates miss three spot-kicks, was walking towards the tunnel at around 10.30pm when he looked up to the left of the stand in front.
The incident was caught on camera by fans, who expressed astonishment at Dier climbing over the advertising hoarding as the other players walked down the tunnel.
The supporter who enraged Dier normally sits a row in front of his family, it is understood. After shouting at the fan, Dier was led away by security staff. Mourinho speculated that the man behind the abuse was not a real fan because he was in a corporate seat.
“Of course, some are Tottenham fans, but I think a lot of corporate, a lot of invitation, a lot of people with special status and probably it’s the place of the stadium where I sometimes have doubts over if they are the real Tottenham fans, because these are the ones who support the boys until the last,” he added.
The altercation will be another worry for Mourinho, whose side’s form is unravelling after an initial revival when the Portuguese replaced Mauricio Pochettino.
Their run of defeats includes a 1-0 home loss against RB Leipzig in the Champions League, defeat at Chelsea and a 3-2 home loss against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend that left Spurs in seventh place in the Premier League.
With leading strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-min still missing with injuries, Tottenham are fully stretched and Mourinho again said some of his players were exhausted.
“I am not going to say what everybody knows, but I have to say Steven Bergwijn, it’s too much for him to play so many minutes like he is doing,” Mourinho said. “I prefer to call Lucas [Moura] a hero, he is playing every minute of every game in every position. Harry Winks was completely dead. We had many, many players in trouble.”
The last time a high-profile Premier League player took on a supporter during an FA Cup match was in February 2018, when Sergio Aguero hit out at a Wigan fan. The Argentine swung an arm before he was restrained by a member of City’s staff. However, the FA announced within days that he would not face disciplinary action after it was alleged he had been spat on.