Pitch Invasions: Football's Forbidden Fruit

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

The problem is, it looks so tempting. That expanse of green, green grass stretching out beyond the advertising boards, just waiting for you to escape from your terraced prison and run all over it. The signs reminding you that entering the field of play is a criminal offence only make the urge greater. It is forbidden fruit. The equivalent of Chief Wiggum asking Ralph, "What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?"

The chances are that if you've been watching football for an extended period of time, you've invaded the pitch. Or, if you haven't, you've definitely thought about it. You probably wouldn't need a reason, but if you did there are plenty: exuberance, celebration, intoxication, frustration, protest, attention-seeking, taunting the opposition with an impromptu display of gymnastics, whatever the hell this bloke was doing, memorabilia collection – all human emotion is here.

Most pitch invaders will tell you variants of the same story. Take Manchester City fan Andrew Davies: when Rob Taylor scored the goal that took Joe Royle's City back into the top flight, the elation spread to Andrew's legs, which subsequently took him onto the field. "All of a sudden, the default position of the City fans – expecting the worst and 'Typical City' – gave way. We won. Lots of like-minded people thought the same and all of a sudden there was a pitch invasion. What I remember was a drunken cacophony of joyous City fans, hugs with random strangers and patio furniture being held aloft on the Maine Road pitch."

Andrew's tale is typical. Conversations about pitch invasions almost always involve fans having a momentary blackout, a sort of ecstasy-induced trance that causes them to lose themselves for a minute, then come to shortly afterwards, surprised to find they're celebrating on grass rather than concrete. Much like the strangled 'Yurrrsssss' you hear after a goal, or a referee getting hit with the ball, pitch invasions have their roots in joy and positivity. Even those who have, shall we say, taken a slight diversion from reality, frequently do so with positive thoughts in mind. But, without wishing to kill your burgeoning buzz too much, these moments of excitement have consequences.

Incursion on to the pitch is a criminal offence in England – and, incidentally, incursion means anywhere beyond the stands, so if you fall over the advertising boards while celebrating a goal, you're in trouble sunshine. There are 23 ground regulations for football in Blighty, which nobody usually reads and can generally be summarised as 'Look, don't be too much of a dick', but the rather clinical-sounding 'incursion' is the big one.

The ostensible reason is safety – for players, for officials, for everyone. It's the 'what if he had a knife' justification, not unreasonable given the past instances in which fans have confronted or even attacked players after crossing the touchline. There's also the theory that if one person goes on then dozens, hundreds, thousands will follow.

While that's not an entirely unreasonable view, football takes an absurdly draconian attitude to this sort of thing, even when the intent is clearly not to harm. Banning orders will be applied for as a matter of course, and frequently the consequences can be more severe. "When Manchester United were away to Arsenal last season," says Amanda Jacks from the Football Supporters Federation, "Rooney scored a winner and about half a dozen fans went tumbling over the barriers as the crowd surged forward. Clearly they weren't trying to run on the pitch, it was just the momentum that carried them over. They all got arrested and charged with pitch encroachment. One pleaded guilty, the others pleaded not guilty, but the magistrates were pretty disparaging that the case had been brought at all."

While the law might not place a great deal of importance on this sort of situation, you could still find yourself in bother. "Even if a banning order isn't given by the court…the chances are the home club will still ban them," adds Jacks.

Remarkably, according to a safety officer at one Football League club, invaders often don't realise that what they're doing is an offence – despite the large signs at every ground spelling out exactly that – and are rather alarmed when they're bundled off by a steward or, if they're unlucky, police officer.

And you could lose more than just your season ticket: the business of a Championship fan who was arrested following a derby match last season was affected and his car attacked, while the penalties for regular invaders can be severe. The infamous Jimmy Jump – a Catalan whose real name is Jaume Marquet i Cot – has found his way onto the field during the finals of Champions Leagues, World Cups and European Championships among others, and has been in court so many times for his antics that he has met financial ruin. "I have no money," he said in 2014, "My total debt is around $350,000 (£220,000)." He claimed that around half of his monthly income is now channelled away from his account to pay the assorted fines he has accrued over the years. Quite a price to pay for running on to a football field to take the piss out of Luis Figo.

It's reached the point that there's a legal firm dedicated entirely to helping football fans who fall foul of regulations like this. "So many supporters needed specialist advice," says Melanie Cooke of Football Law Associates, "on the basis that football fans are prosecuted in a different way to general crime offences. Inevitably, someone arrested for a football-related offence – even if it's their first – will be charged, rather than cautioned, even if it's very minor. I had one client who had a can of Coke on him and he was arrested and charged."

It wasn't that man's first offence but he was eventually acquitted, essentially because the magistrate in question seemed to have some common sense. Nevertheless, it illustrates how football, as an industry, goes after those that make it look 'bad'.

"I think it's to do with protecting the 'brand' of English football, especially with the Euros this year," explains Cooke. "I think there's a drive to make sure there's as little potential as possible to damage [the image of the game]."

It isn't just individuals who are at risk of punishment. Every time a fan makes their way on to the pitch, the referee has to include it in his report. This goes to the FA, who'll get straight on the phone and ask said club to explain themselves. If too many of those calls are made, the FA can basically punish the club in whatever way they like. A fine is most likely, but in particularly egregious cases a points deduction is possible. They really, really do not want you running on their precious grass.

Still, pitch invasions can serve a rather more noble purpose than a well-oiled 19-year-old showing off to his mates. At the end of last season, the relationship between Blackpool and their fans had reached an all-time low. It followed years of neglect, non-existent investment and various 'fees' taken out of the club by its owners, the Oyston family. This state of affairs had taken them from the Premier League to League One, the club being reduced to a husk and in active conflict with its support. Thus, those fans felt they had little option but to launch some form of protest. They did so during the final game of the campaign against Huddersfield, invading the pitch in such numbers that the match was eventually called off, and the club fined £50,000. You may have seen the chap in the wheelchair trundling on with the massed ranks.

"The motivation was to bring to the attention of the football world at large the dire situation the club has found itself in, and the breakdown in relations between the fans and owners," says Kevin Boroduwicz, secretary of the Blackpool Supporters' Trust. "In effect, it was a cry for help. We'd appealed to the Football League board to assist us and been ignored, so I think it felt like the last opportunity we had to make our case."

To give an illustration of the behaviour of chairman Karl Oyston, as some fans tried to get into his box at Bloomfield Road (which quite obviously is not on) he had to be told by the police to stop 'beckoning and enticing' them. Some of those fans are currently involved in court proceedings over the incident.

Pitch invasions are part of a strange world where something that often comes from joy or momentary exuberance can be punished so harshly. But this is football, where all human emotion lives – good or bad.

@nickmiller79