THE arrests made at Arsenal when rivals fans started fighting following sick chants from Villa fans regarding Eduardo's leg break by Martin Taylor's highlights a worrying trend flourishing in the stands.

Derek Davis

Sport comment:

Monday Issue

By Derek Davis

THE arrests made at Arsenal when rivals fans started fighting following sick chants from Villa fans regarding Eduardo's leg break by Martin Taylor's highlights a worrying trend flourishing in the stands.

Offensive, sick and vulgar chants of course are not particularly new, but do seem to be more prevalent these days.

Arsenal's first game after the Eduardo incident at the Emirates' was marred by Villa fans making reference to Heather Mills in relation to the player's injury, which understandably provoked an angry response.

You can't go to an Ipswich game, especially away, without morons making reference to the Ipswich killings and what they perceive are the effects of that.

There were scuffles at St Mary's on Saturday as a couple of Saints fans nearest to where the travelling Town fans were seated were ejected and sadly the need for action is becoming more commonplace.

Art Portman Road recently a fan was banned by the courts after making racist remarks and happily that sort of incident is on the decrease because people now it is not acceptable.

Efforts to stem abuse have in the whole gone down well at football with concerted campaigns against racism.

But people will chant stomach-churning references to the Munich air crash, with deadly consequences as was shown last week when a man was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a Manchester City fan who sang it in a Cheadle Hume pub.

The London bombings brought about sick chants at the time with Hull fans being berated for their taunts at QPR.

It seems the humourous chants are disappearing from the game

The gormless chants of 'stand up if you hate the scum' sang just about anywhere lacks any sort of humour or substance, and seems more of an excuse to stand and annoy stewards than anything else but becomes repetitively boring.

Compare that with the more witty - 'You have no history, you have no history,' sang by Liverpool fans to Chelsea supporters who responded by saying “You have no future, you have no future.'

And the timeless: 'The Bill, The Bill, it's just like watching the Bill' when the police come out ten minutes before the end.

While football has always been a rough tough world, where the tongue can be as painful as a Richard Naylor tackle, the age seems to be losing its humour to a less savoury salutation.

Anti-social behaviour and violence has not left football and it can be quite shocking when it happens at usually well-behaved clubs like Ipswich last month when some Town fans clashed with Watford followers near the North Stand.

But it is happening and we all need to make a stand. Fans can report individuals anonymously if needed and action will be taken if clubs are made aware that the ordinary supporter will not accept such behaviour.

WE are constantly told that East Anglia is not a footballing hot bed but once again teams from the region have fared well in the FA Vase.

Needham Market and Lowestoft are both in this morning's draw and an all-Suffolk final is possible. Well done to both clubs.