I would like to bring to the attention of the competent authorities the lack of security at most of our football grounds.

In particular, Luxol sports ground, which was the venue of the season’s first Under 16 league match, had only one entrance/exit, no barrier between rival supporters and no police present.

During the mentioned game, a fight broke out between supporters of the same team and only stopped after about 40 minutes when the police had to be called in. Women and children present were put at risk and the players on the pitch completely lost their concentration.

For now, it seems the YFA is content with having each team nominate a steward to protect the referee and control crowd trouble.

This is just not good enough!

Now that supporters are having to pay to watch Youth FA matches, there is no excuse for not having police present at each league game.

I would like to appeal to the YFA to take serious action and ensure that proper security is in place for all youth football matches in future.

This will surely be done once some innocent supporter or child gets hurt so immediate action should be taken to prevent this happening in the first place.

Ing. Anthony Bartolo

Pembroke