Liverpool to Ban Pitch Invader from Anfield

You’re the fan of a football club and you’ve just seen them score their seventh goal of the night in a historic 7-0 thrashing of their bitter rivals. So you do the obvious thing, namely hopping the advertising hoardings and rushing out to celebrate with the players.

Or at least for some reason it seems like the thing to do at the time. Maybe you think you’ll get a picture with the players. That there’ll be few if any major, long-term consequences. That it’ll be a story to tell your mates at the pub for years to come—that time you managed to involve yourself in that match against Manchester United.

That the payers you cheer for will at best be disgusted by you is quickly set aside, as that they might be made to feel at risk by your actions. You’re young, dumb, and caught up in the moment. And you go. Then you slip, almost injure Andy Robertson, get torn into by Jürgen Klopp, and banned.

That last bit can now be filed under long-term consequences after the club released a statement saying that it will investigate the incident “and ban the individual pitch runner” from Anfield and, potentially, all Premier League grounds.

There are formal steps to follow when investigating a pitch invasion, apparently, so the individual hasn’t been banned yet, but Liverpool are clear that’s the end result of invading the pitch—and it’s an end result that needs to be stressed, a reminder of consequences necessary to help curb such incidents.