Police are investigating a fight that broke out after a group of away Nottingham Forest fans unveiled a flag in the home end at Peterborough United. Peterborough officials said a small number of Reds fans unfurled a Ukrainian flag with the Forest crest in the South Stand of the London Road Stadium.
It happened during Forest's 1-0 win on Saturday (April 23). The Reds sold out the away allocation and Posh officials had been working to prevent Forest fans from buying tickets in the home end.
Peterborough said the incident had upset home supporters. And the club added that stewards had to diffuse the situation and re-direct resources while staff had been dealing with a medical incident elsewhere in the stand at the time. Cambridgeshire Police are investigating what happened.
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A spokesman for the force said: "Police were made aware of an incident between opposition fans towards the end of Saturday's match in the Peterborough section of the crowd. Additional information has subsequently come to light which suggests criminal offences took place.
"No arrests have been made at this time but officers are investigating and will work with both clubs to review materials and determine the next steps. Cambridgeshire Constabulary is committed to taking positive action where criminal behaviour ruins the safe enjoyment of football. This includes the use of Football Banning Orders, where proportionate, to help prevent future harm."
A video posted online shows an altercation in the stand after the flag was unveiled. In a melee which ensued, it appears that punches were thrown. Sam Surridge's well-taken header just before half-time was enough to win the game for Steve Cooper's side in a game that relegated Peterborough and saw the Reds' good form continue in their hunt for promotion from the Championship.
In a statement, Peterborough explained the steps taken before kick-off in the club's efforts to prevent Forest fans from sitting in the home end. A spokesman for Peterborough said: "When the game between Peterborough United and Nottingham Forest was heading for a sell-out in the away end, we placed an embargo on our ticketing system preventing supporters from purchasing tickets for this game who were not registered before a certain date.
"In the build-up to the fixture, we worked closely with Nottingham Forest and the authorities, and we identified a number of supporters who had managed to buy in home areas mainly who had pre-empted tickets selling out and purchasing tickets prior to the embargo. There were also examples of local individuals with an account registered previously purchasing tickets on behalf of Forest fans.
"We were also able to identify more through social media posts and all of these individuals had their tickets cancelled and refunded. One of the challenges for us as a football club was that, due to the close proximity of both teams, and the fact that a sizeable amount of both clubs' supporter bases extend into geographical areas, [it] meant that we couldn’t reject people based on postcode alone.
"The club was pro-active to try and prevent any potential problems that could occur on the day. We continued throughout the build-up to put out information regarding ejections and a number of fans were moved / ejected on the day from home areas.
"Unfortunately, in one specific area of the South Stand, a small number of Nottingham Forest supporters unfurled a Ukraine flag with the Forest logo and the place name, Spalding, across it, which caused upset and anger within that area. At the time this incident was ongoing, there was a medical emergency taking place in the lower tier of the stand, but stewards were re-directed to diffuse the situation.
"The club does not condone the behaviour of the supporters involved and an investigation is ongoing to identify those involved. The club would like to appeal to anyone who has any footage or evidence of any incidents that occurred - please send to info@theposh.com. We also encourage supporters to use our text service on matchdays (text PUFC plus your message to 60066) which is closely monitored in real time by our safety team.
“The club would like to thank the vast majority of supporters inside the stadium for their behaviour on what was our biggest league attendance of the season. The club will be making no further comment." Nottinghamshire Live contacted Nottingham Forest for comment.
