Gary Neville has called for Birmingham City to receive a points deduction for the incident that saw Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish punched by a fan in the Second City derby.
Nine minutes into the clash at St. Andrews, a City supporter entered the field of play and attacked the Aston Villa captain from behind.
Fortunately, Grealish was uninjured, but Sky pundit Neville has insisted that the Blues must be punished harshly.
Taking to Twitter during the match, Neville wrote: “The club are going have to take a huge punishment for this to act as a deterrent in the future.
“A points deduction or empty stadium for 10 games!”
https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1104718744608223232
OPINION
Neville is absolutely right on this one. It would be harsh on the thousands of fans who have gone to enjoy the match innocently , and on the players who have worked hard all season, but there has to be some kind of deterrent to prevent that kind of cowardly act happening again. Everybody associated with Birmingham City will be horrified by the incident, and the pitch invader is a fan in name only. You can’t really reason with somebody like that, but if they feel so strongly about their side that they are willing to enter the field of play to attack a player from behind then perhaps the threat of damaging their club’s hopes of promotion will make them think twice. Whatever the punishment is, this has to be made an example of, and if that means a harsh punishment that affects the club and its fanbase, then so be it.