Vinnie Jones has issued his verdict on the incident that saw Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish attacked by a Birmingham City fan on Sunday.
The former Wimbledon man was quick to condemn the incident, but called into question the level of security surrounding the professional game.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “There’s millions of pounds in the game and we have students and young kids acting as stewards. 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.”
OPINION
Jones is right that something more needs to be done, but realistically, what would professional security have been able to do to prevent the attack on Grealish yesterday? They couldn’t have stopped the invader entering the field of play, and they couldn’t have done a more effective job of catching him before he hit the Villa captain, so it’s hard to see what difference it would have made. Fundamentally, the only surefire way of preventing somebody from running onto the field is to have security lined up all along the perimeter forming some kind of barrier, and that’s never going to happen, for obvious reasons. The emphasis, therefore, needs to be on deterring repeat incidents through punishment, and that’s where the relevant governing bodies really need to make an example of this act. A stadium ban clearly doesn’t work, so perhaps points deductions or severe fines would be a better way to make fans stop and think twice.