"I had more security at my wedding" – Vinnie Jones calls for professional security at football matches
Former Wimbledon midfielder Vinnie Jones has called for professional security staff to be hired at football matches to help protect players from pitch-invading fans.
There were three high-profile incidents over the weekend in Scotland and England, starting with Rangers captain James Tavernier being confronted by a fan at Hibernian's Easter Road on Friday night.
A Birmingham City fan then ran onto the pitch and threw a punch at Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish at St Andrew’s on Sunday, before Manchester United defender Chris Smalling was shoved by an invader during his side’s defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
All three supporters have been arrested, but Jones backed the Professional Footballers’ Association’s call for an inquiry into why a fan ‘was able to run onto the pitch virtually unchallenged and assault a player’ during a fixture as highly-charged as the Birmingham Derby.
“There’s millions of pounds in the game and we have students and young kids acting as stewards,” Jones told talkSPORT.
“I had more security at my wedding.
“Professional security, that’s what we need. You go to a nightclub, there isn’t just some student there.
“I think that’s weak, banning them from the ground. This might be the first game he’s been to. That’s not going to hurt anybody.”
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.