Luton chief executive Gary Sweet is expecting punishment for the pitch invasion to celebrate Luton getting to the Championship play-off final but said it’s almost impossible to stop what has now become an end-of-season football institution.
Despite requests not to, the Hatters supremo admitted the club were expecting the scenes that greeted the final whistle at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night, when fans streamed onto the field of play after their team’s first ever EFL play-off win sent them to Wembley to face Coventry City at the expense of Sunderland.
Fines have been doled out for last season’s play-off pitch invasions, which saw Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp attacked by a Nottingham Forest fan, who was later jailed, while Luton players and staff were abused by Huddersfield fans in similar scenes, with then Town boss Nathan Jones calling the Tykes contingent an “absolute disgrace”.
While there were no repeats of those ugly scenes at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday, this term there has been a big football-wide push to warn supporters of the illegality of incursions onto the pitch.
And in their own message prior to the semi-final Luton said they were already ‘under scrutiny from the Football Association for multiple smoke devices, missiles thrown and pitch incursions during the Watford match, as well as a single smoke device and a missile thrown in the away game at Reading.’
Huddersfield were fined £70,000 for the pitch invasion last term and Luton in their message to fans also added that, ‘with one of the smallest playing budgets in the Championship, a substantial fine could be the difference between signing a player this summer or not.’
However, the celebrations still spilled over the advertising hoardings after a 3-2 aggregate victory over Sunderland was confirmed on a evening where everything went right as goals from Gabriel Osho and Tom Lockyer overturned the Black Cats’ first-leg 2-1 lead.
Pitch invasions have been a relatively regular feature across football at the end of campaigns and particularly at Luton during a decade in which the Hatters have won promotion three times and now stand on the precipice of the Premier League.
And though the scenes were celebratory, Sweet knows that won’t stop Luton being slapped with a costly fine.
Speaking to Talksport, the chief executive, who has also been named Championship Chief Executive of the Year by the Football Business Awards, said: “Of course we’re expecting some kind of repercussion, but it’s going to be impossible to stop a pitch invasion.
“Unless we have 8,000 stewards you’re not going to stop it, so our objective was to keep the away and home supporters apart, which we did, protect the players, which we did, and then just allow people to enjoy themselves without really trouble. So I think we ticked those boxes.
“They did come on, there was no trouble, there weren’t the scenes you saw in some grounds last year when some players were abused. There was quite a bit of respect between the two sets of fans, in some way it was quite good to see.
“It was our duty to try and stop people from coming on the pitch, which we did that before the game and during the game, so we did everything possible.
“I think in some ways, the best way to do it is allow them to come on the pitch at the right time, delay the event, get the players off and allow them to come on the pitch.
“It’s become a bit of an institution around football stadiums everywhere on the last game of the season, it happens everywhere.
“So I think it’s going to be difficult to avoid that event especially when you win a game like that last night, in the situation we won it. It was full of energy, supporters have got energy.
“It was all pent up, so we kind of knew they were always going to do it, it was just about how we managed it and I was quite pleased with that.”
However, Luton have hit one supporter with a ‘lengthy ban’ after a widely circulated video on social media showed him striking Sunderland Amad Diallo in the back as the forward tried to retrieve the ball from infrant of the stands.
In a statement, the Hatters said: ‘Luton Town is aware of an incident involving a home spectator and a Sunderland player during last night’s Championship play-off semi-final at Kenilworth Road.
‘A lengthy club ban will be immediately issued and the incident is now also subject to a police investigation.
‘Luton Town wishes to clarify that any such supporter behaviour is not acceptable in any way and will take swift, appropriate action to ensure that similar actions do not happen again.
‘No further comment will be made by the club at this time.’
