‘Dangerous and chaotic’ scenes as fans stuck outside ground

THIS was the most anticipated Women’s Super League game of the season so far but thousands of fans found themselves stuck outside the Emirates in scenes described as ‘dangerous’ and ‘chaotic’.

More than 46,000 tickets had been sold for the top-of-the-table clash and there were big queues at nearby Underground stations and on the approach to the stadium. Both Holloway Road and Arsenal were forced to shut more than 30 minutes before kick-off, with passengers unable to get off trains due to chaos on the platforms. Supporters then found themselves crammed closely together by turnstile entrances. Mark Easton, the BBC’s Home Editor, was caught up in the queues and described the scenes as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘quite dangerous’. Arsenal insisted they had the same number of staff as they do for men’s matches but supporters criticised the decision to close stations and the process to get into the stadium.

A club statement read: ‘Our matchday operation was the same as every other fixture and event at Emirates Stadium. ‘An early kick-off combined with a number of new supporters to our stadium, coupled with 50 per cent of supporters arriving in the last 20 minutes before kick-off resulted in busy turnstile areas.’

The last time Chelsea played Arsenal at the Emirates there was a crowd of just 8,000, though there were still hold-ups with fans getting into the ground. This is not the first time there have been issues with big crowds at women’s matches. Thousands of fans

Squashed: queues at the Emirates

were late getting into England’s Euros matches played in Brighton and the same problems occurred for World Cup qualifiers in Doncaster and Stoke. With more WSL games being played in bigger stadiums, there perhaps needs to be better planning in place.