Football authorities set to hold key meeting over escalating fan violence after latest missile incidents

Football’s authorities will hold talks over the worrying trend of fan disorder after a spate of incidents in the Premier League.

Two men were arrested after objects were thrown in the direction of Antonio Rudiger during Chelsea’s 2-0 win against Tottenham on Sunday. That followed the arrest and charge of a teenager after bottles were thrown at Aston Villa players as they celebrated a goal against Everton on Saturday.

The Premier League is meeting with the EFL, the FA and the UK’s Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) this week in an urgent bid to address the issue.

They will also speak to clubs over the next steps to be taken following recent events, which come after the head of the UKFPU, Chief constable Mark Roberts, raised concerns over cases of anti-social behaviour among young fans.

There has been a rise of incidents throughout the English game. Recent figures showed there were 802 arrests in the first six months of the season – rising 47 percent from 547 in 2019-20.

There 759 incidents of disorder, which includes missiles and hate crime. That was a rise of 36 percent.

On Monday, Chelsea condemned the incident involving Rudiger while Met Police are trying to identify more people responsible for throwing missiles from the away end.

“The throwing of objects at matches is completely unacceptable,” said a Chelsea spokesperson. “We will be working with Tottenham Hotspur and the Police to identify any offenders and we will collectively take the strongest possible action against them.”