Alan Shearer wants Birmingham to be handed a severe punishment after Jack Grealish was allegedly assaulted when Aston Villa won 1-0 at St Andrew’s in the Second City derby on Sunday.
Grealish, 22, scored the winning goal despite the first-half incident, but all that has been talked about after the game is how fans have been getting onto the pitch after similar things happened at Hibernian and Arsenal.
Shearer wants Blues to feel the full force of the FA and EFL with a points deduction and a stadium ban to stamp out this behaviour as soon as possible.
“Absolutely disgusting,” said Shearer, as shown on the BBC Sport website.
“I think they should have the strongest possible punishment, which means points deduction or playing behind closed doors.
“Someone’s going to get hurt, either a player or an official.
“If they do not stamp this out now, they have to come down heavy then someone will get hurt in the future.
“They have to do it, I don’t see them having a choice other than the strongest possible points deduction and playing games behind closed doors.”
OPINION
Shearer is right, the FA and EFL needs to come down heavy on Birmingham after what happened to Grealish. Although it was one idiot in a crowd of over 26,000, Blues have to be made an example out of to discourage other people from doing the same thing in the future. It happened at Hibernian when a fan ran onto the pitch to confront Rangers captain James Tavernier on Friday while someone also ran onto the pitch and appeared to shove Chris Smalling in Arsenal’s win over Manchester United on Sunday. Luckily Grealish was not hurt badly on Sunday but it could have been so much worse and with the wave of knife attacks on the streets lately, it is only a matter of time before something serious might happen. It might not be fair on the Blues fans who just turn up and support their team, but even they might agree that a stadium ban is the best way forward here. It’s not just a punishment for them, it’s a warning to anyone else who plans on doing something similar.