Rotherham United can confirm that the club has been working closely with South Yorkshire Police in respect of a number of fan behaviour-related incidents which have taken place at first team fixtures in recent weeks.
The club are once again disappointed to be issuing a statement of this nature, particularly as we continue to collaborate with the EFL and other footballing authorities to highlight the need to eradicate anti-social behaviour from the sport.
We can, however, confirm that we are pleased to have not only identified a number of perpetrators, but also to have issued them with appropriate club bans to ensure that following Rotherham United both home and away remains a safe and enjoyable experience for all of our supporters.
The club can confirm that the individual who invaded the pitch in our home game against Norwich City has been identified and subsequently interviewed by South Yorkshire Police and banned from future games at AESSEAL New York Stadium.
It was also brought to our attention by safety staff that two supporters who appeared to assist the pitch invader in his attempts to avoid being detained by club stewards have also been identified and issued with club bans.
Further incidents involving a missile being thrown onto the field of play and an altercation between a supporter and a match official at full-time remain under investigation with CCTV footage of both under review as we look to identify the offending parties.
More recently, our South Yorkshire derby win against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane was marred by the throwing of a pyrotechnic onto the field of play – endangering not just supporters in that sold out away end, but also our players and those of the Blades on the pitch. Having remained in dialect with Sheffield United and South Yorkshire Police, we are pleased to confirm that we have identified the individual in question, who has now also been issued with a club ban.
In spite of all of the above, we do recognise that the actions of the aforementioned are NOT representative of our fan base of a whole, who we continue to proudly associate ourselves with.
However, this message is one of zero-tolerance towards all forms of anti-social behaviour and aims to serve as a reminder that supporters guilty of it will not be welcome at Rotherham United.
Everyone has the right to watch football matches in our company in a safe environment and we will continue to take action to ensure that anyone found to be guilty of anti-social behaviour is reprimanded with accordingly.