Disorder at Malmö FF-Elfsborg Match: Consequences and Solutions

At half-time in the match between Malmö FF-Elfsborg, there was a fight between security guards and Elfsborg’s supporters. That after the fans tried to remove the net that is between the infield and the away stands. Then supporters threw drinks and flares at the guards. That caused the match to be postponed.

In the second half, Malmö FF’s supporters celebrated with fireworks, which caused the fire alarm in the arena to go off. Then the match was postponed again because the fire brigade had to get to the arena and check that everything was correct.

– Once again, we have seen widespread disorder that delayed the match by over an hour. The small part of the supporter culture that engages in this, their decision to engage in this transcends everyone else. It is a small percentage that takes the right to destroy for many others, says the Swedish Football Association’s chairman Fredrik Reinfeldt and continues:

– This is extremely well prepared. Both teams used blankets that were laid out allowing people to change and dress up and get past the masking association, fully aware that they were committing disorderly conduct and possible violations of the law but not being able to be held accountable for what they were doing.

He continues:

– It is very cowardly behavior and it is a serious problem for Swedish football. The exclusion strategy we use will need to be reviewed because there will be new disruptions that will affect us very negatively.

Do you have control over your arrangements?

– These are disturbances of order on a level that we do not see many times in other international football and which delay the matches.

– There was a big controversy between security guards and Elfsborg’s supporters when they tried to remove the net. But we could all witness when they threw drinks over the guards and threw flares. So there was serious disorder committed. But it also applied from Malmö’s side with extensive pyrotechnics, where there were even more who masked themselves in order to escape prosecution or possible suspensions. It is a limited part of the audience, but it is far too many and it has consequences that are negative. We need to make more efforts to get rid of it.

What needs to be done?

– We should not engage in collective punishment, as was the case a few years ago. Legal principles apply to all people in Sweden. You must be held accountable for the actions you commit. We have formulated this in an exclusion strategy, those who commit disorderly conduct must face organizer suspensions or prosecution and thus access bans. But that presupposes that we can identify the people. That is why you are masked. We have to discuss how we can do that.

– I could see that on Malmö’s side, after they had masked themselves, very large amounts of bengals were distributed among the supporters who had masked themselves. We have to ask ourselves how did it all get in? How can such extensive amounts of pyrotechnics get in? Here, clubs and Swedish football must increase their efforts to mitigate this.

2023-11-12 18:27:00
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