A former Scotland Yard detective has been left furious after footballers “lumped in” with rioters earlier today.
Speaking at a news briefing, Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged that the police will be on “high alert” this weekend with football “added in the mix”.
However, this has sparked outrage from football fans and former detective Peter Bleksley who claimed that this is just “lazy labelling” from the Government.
Speaking to GB News he said: “This is lazy labelling like they have done when they say everybody who stupidly threw a brick at a police officer is a far-right thug.
Peter Bleksley accused the government of lazy labelling
GB News
“It is just lazy, ill-thought out and painting people with a broad brush with not an awful lot of evidence with which to support it.
“Football has come a very long way since the 70s and the 80s when it was riddled with rampant violence and you will now go to any football ground in the country, playing at any level, and find families and children in unprecedented numbers.
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“So this is lazy, it is wrong, and it is prejudicial.”
GB News host Dawn Neesom agreed and said that she is “angry at being tarred with the same brush” as rioters “purely because she follows the sport”.
Bleksley said: “I've been on the end of some very rough-handed treatment from police through following my beloved Queens Park Rangers.
“This can be when I've done absolutely nothing wrong, other than arrive in a city that's not mine on a train with some fellow football supporters.
Police will be on "high alert" as the football begins this weekend
GETTY“We have been to hurt, we have been shoved, we have been pushed, we have been abused.
“Sometimes it goes with the territory, less so I must say in recent times than at the hands of the police back in the 90s.
“Many millions, quite literally millions, of decent law-abiding football fans have been besmirched by this lazy language it's just bone-idle, lazy terminology applied to millions of people without a shred of evidence.”
The riots caused violence and disorder last weekend
PA
It has also been claimed that convicted rioters will be banned from attending football matches as part of existing rules under the Football Offences Act.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson told the BBC yesterday that she is confident that football clubs and other sporting societies don't want people supporting them who have “caused such violence and disorder”.
The matches will begin this evening including championship games with Preston and Blackburn where there have been riots in recent days.