Finally, stewards will become a familiar scene during local football matches. One hopes that this latest introduction will get off to a good start. In this sense, a few fundamental issues must be ensured even before the full enactment and implementation of the new law regulating stewards.

Highly trained team members would be required, each playing a vital role in ensuring the health and safety of the ground. Showing people to their seats and meeting and greeting fans from all over the island will require stewards to monitor and direct crowds and provide directions and they would have to appreciate that their duties will be wide-ranging and sometimes challenging. Matchday stewards will be an integral part of football, every bit as important as players. Without the stewards, games could not be played. It is as simple as that. They will have many critical responsibilities including assisting with the circulation of spectators, preventing overcrowding, reducing the likelihood of disorder and much more. Football stewards are the eyes and ears of the pitch and they will need to know it like the back of their hands as well as understand how to report potential problems to supervisors, control and other relevant agencies. Last, but not least, customer service should be at the heart of what they will be doing by not classing the people coming through the turnstiles as supporters but as customers. The overwhelming number of people who go through the turnstiles are law-abiding men, women and children with no intentions other than having a good day out and supporting their team. It should be drummed into stewards’ heads that they should treat people accordingly.

It will be imperative that stewards get adequate security training to operate in their role. Football stewards ensure the safety of spectators who come to a football game, but also the safety of players on the pitch. Abroad, an NVQ Level 2 Spectator Control is a qualification that all stewards at a designated football ground must gain and perhaps, as was done in Serbia, a UEFA-sponsored programme, aimed at training stewards to work at football matches, could be launched in Malta, as part of a groundbreaking safety and security initiative. The Spectator Safety qualifications provide the required knowledge and experience to work as a steward on sports grounds. Those who hold this qualification are taught how to deal with accidents and emergencies, learn to control the entry, exit and movement of people at spectator events and how to manage crowd problems. I suggest that football stewards should also have door supervisor training. Being a football steward and a door supervisor are actually both very similar roles, yet undergo very different types of training. Again, abroad, it is a legal requirement that those who work in the security industry undergo SIA Licence Training and hold a valid SIA Licence. Those attending door supervisor training undergo conflict management training, as well as intense physical intervention and are assessed through multiple-choice exams and a practical assessment. Door supervisors come into intense and often dangerous incidents on a daily basis that can range from drunk and disorderly customers to violent and aggressive encounters. Door supervisors however should be highly trained professionals who are equipped to deal with these kinds of incidents. These are the kind of skills that an active football steward in Malta could utilise in their role while on the sidelines of a football pitch.

In terms of basic customer service training, there should be more of a cross over between corporate hospitality and the stadium safety teams to ensure those who have paid for the cheapest ticket in the stadium are made to feel as welcome as those who are getting five-star treatment. The knowledge that fans will return week after week, month after month and year after year should not mean complacency when it comes to customer service. Stewards can create a welcoming environment and contribute to setting the tone. And, yes, do give stewards discretion. A bag an inch too big with only a few items in it will cause no harm. Is a child really going to hurl a Fruit Shoot towards the pitch? An old man is very unlikely to have a knife or drugs under his flat cap, so he should not be made to remove it.

Supporters much prefer – and respond better to – those whom they see regularly in their part of the ground. Mutually respectful relationships reduce the likelihood of poor behaviour and disorder. Therefore, the MFA should bring more stewards in house, pay them well, find out and use what additional skills they have (such as a second language or first aid skills) and make them truly feel part of a family. The benefits are endless.

I hope that the MFA will get stewards out of those (often poorly fitting) bright yellow or orange coats we are accustomed to seeing abroad and get them into smart “Games Maker” type uniforms we saw at the Olympics. Or at the least, it should ensure and enforce good dress codes. Who wants to be greeted by a burly, 6’4” steward who has tucked his trousers into his/her boots paramilitary style and is wearing sunglasses despite the fact it is raining cats and dogs? What message does that send? It must also be ensured that stewards know football fans well – set reasonable tolerance levels not zero tolerance. The MFA must make sure they will be capable of intervening in a way that calms rather than escalates. Critically, stewards being hands-on should be a last resort and not a first resort, and they should be trained to police standards of restraint.

So next time you arrive at a football game with your family, remember that the stewards probably just want a nice fixture just as much as you want those all-important three points.

 

Dr Mark Said is an advocate