Thirty minutes before the game starts, everything is surprisingly calm and under control. Some police officers take a quick break to warm up their food, while others pause to rest and stretch.
The match specialists in the Manchester constabulary have been preparing since August for this one.
The risk assessment for potential violence during the game is labeled as ‘substantial’. Outside the stadium, various police units such as the dog team, a horse unit with Irish thoroughbreds, a drone unit, a motorbike team, and officers on foot patrol, all equipped with body cameras broadcasting live feeds back to the base, are on high alert.
Officially, 3,700 Rangers fans have made the journey from Glasgow. The true number is estimated to be more than 10,000.
To prepare for one of the most intense matches of the season, a comprehensive 37-page manual has been prepared for the police unit. How do you manage security for a match like Manchester United versus Rangers? How do you prevent this intense fixture from turning into chaos?
Under the leadership of Chris Sykes, a Gold Commander, this 450-strong unit, seem ready. Alert, prepared, educated.
Thursday nights in Europe seem to have become an invite for rampant hooligans to incite violence across Europe, usually across continental landscapes. Nobody is leaving anything to chance here.
A 37-page booklet was created to prepare the police unit for Man United against Rangers
Officially, 3,700 Rangers fans made the trip, but the true number is estimated to be over 10,000
There were brawls off the pitch, with a number of incidents taking place in the stands
News is breaking of a notable clash in the city centre between fans. Twenty-six arrests, but it was contained and Sykes is grateful for that. Perhaps this will pass without incident, and everyone can go home until the next one. Sadly not.
A night of drama on the pitch, with United winning 2-1 with a late goal, is matched by trauma off the pitch.
Among the incidents for Assistant Chief Constable Sykes and his team includes mass infiltration of more than 1,000 Rangers fans into the home end at Old Trafford, supporters being thrown violently down stairs, arrests for tragedy chanting, fans hounded out of their seats and young children left in floods of tears.
This was to be a night where a steward would go on to be assaulted, an emergency worker was attacked, a fake ticket would be intercepted for fraud, two medical emergencies took place, costing one 88-year-old fan who had a heart attack their life. A total of 39 people ended the evening in police custody.
Mail Sport was invited behind the scenes into Greater Manchester Police matchday HQ to see how they handled one of the most high-risk football fixtures of the season. And this is our report.
There are three large flat-screen TVs on each side of the Gold control room. One showing an overhead view of the plaza outside the Old Trafford megastore, another showing a front on view of the away end, a third angle close up to the away turnstiles, while other screens show four cameras at a nearby tram stop and another is for the drone unit.
The final screen is turned off. Not one of them will show the football match that sparks such chaos later that night.
With 90 minutes to go until kick-off a 37-page booklet specific to this match is passed around. In it there are pages of intelligence on notorious Rangers supporter groups as well as mapped-out areas of the city that represent causes for concern for violence.
One of the groups, the Union Bears, are soon of particular interest outside the away end when a large flag is confiscated. There are question marks if all have valid tickets for entry.
Over 1,000 Rangers fans are estimated to have been in the home end at Old Trafford
Mail Sport was granted access to the police’s inner sanctum for the Battle of Britain clash
Chris Sykes, a Gold Commander, and his 450-strong unit prepared diligently before the game
Three large flat-screen TVs on each side of the Gold control room showed areas of interest
The overall threat assessment for the visit of Rangers is ‘substantial’. Memories of the 2008 riots, where 130,000 Rangers fans descended on the city for the Uefa Cup final defeat by Zenit Saint Petersburg, remain fresh.
That was an evening dubbed ‘the worst night of violence since the Blitz’ across the city which saw paramedics, police officers – 39 of them – and fans on both sides attacked. A police dog was also harmed that night while dozens of arrests were made and 7.5 tonnes of rubbish and debris flooded the city. The scars of that night are not lost on anyone at police headquarters this time around.
This is a high-level operation that is on par with resources pooled for a Manchester derby. It works out at around 162 fans for every officer.
Sykes is a busy man, dipping in and out of the room as he seeks updates from various policing units, all of whom are delivering immediate intelligence.
A Bronze Commander – third in the policing food chain and a level held for inspectors and police sergeants – is in position in the safety control room over at Old Trafford monitoring stadium cameras, which are not visible to Sykes and his team back at base. With the game not being shown anywhere in the Gold or Silver command rooms, intelligence from those on the ground is crucial. Goal alerts are sporadically shouted up from different corners of the room.
The first major flashpoint of the evening comes close to 6pm, when two rival supporter groups have clashed on Great Ancoats Street in the city centre.
The Chief Superintendent from Specialist Operation, Colette Rose, operating as the Silver Commander, briefs in a meeting at 7.10pm observed by Mail Sport that 25 fans ignored a dispersal order, before scenes turned ugly in the city with bottles being smashed as fans clad in black and wearing balaclavas came together. Footage online is soon being analysed.
Custody vans are immediately commandeered from other districts as 25 arrests are made for violent disorder. Sykes is eager to see his team nip the first major flashpoint in the bud early to stop escalation, with thousands of Rangers fans being marched down Deansgate towards the stadium.
The high-level operation, on par with resources for a Manchester derby, worked out at around 162 fans for every officer
It is also outlined in the Silver Room – nicknamed the ‘Engine Room’ due to it holding a crime team, intelligence team, council reps for Salford, Manchester and Trafford, British Transport Police, North West Ambulance Service, and Transport for Greater Manchester – that an away fan has been arrested for fraud for trying to gain unlawful entry to the ground.
Two more away fans are arrested for tragedy chanting – an act of goading as fans sing offensive songs that reference fatal accidents or stadium disasters involving players or clubs, often with Manchester United it is around the 1958 Munich Air Disaster where 23 people, including a number of the Busby Babes, died.
There is also mild concern that 150 fans had left the Bowlers Fanzone event, housing 2,000 Rangers fans who have travelled down without tickets near Trafford Park two and a half miles away, with their exact whereabouts unexplained. The rep in the room for Trafford Council is however satisfied that the self-contained event should pass without incident. It does.
The Silver Room is full of staff incredibly highly experienced with football operations. Chief Superintendent Rose, for example, was a key pillar of UK Football Police’s team running operations out of Germany for Euro 2024.
But as fans begin to make their way into the ground after a ‘low level of disturbance’ (a term determined by officers when no weapons, particularly knives, are involved in clashes and no serious injuries have occurred) it quickly becomes apparent via social media, as well as reports from police spotters on yellow ladders adjacent to the plaza outside Old Trafford, that away fans have infiltrated home sections of the stadium.
Inside the stadium the safety of supporters is the club’s responsibility as it is private property, and while GMP determine how many officers go into the ground initially, any further resources must be paid for by the club.
The most recent data from GMP shows that Manchester United were billed £1.39million for policing costs in the whole 2022-23 season.
The overall threat assessment of Rangers’ visit was classed as ‘substantial’
Rangers returned to Manchester 17 years on from their Uefa Cup final, in what became described described as ‘the worst night of violence since the Blitz’
Memories of 2008 had remained fresh ahead of Rangers’ trip to face Manchester United
Mail Sport‘s joke about Sir Jim Ratcliffe rolling his eyes at another bill, on a day where the club told fans ‘difficult choices’ would need to be made to ease their losses, totalling more than £300m over the last three years, helped cut the tension. United sources dispute any suggestion they are hesitant to pay necessary policing costs.
It takes United 10 minutes to decide that the sheer volume of away fans in home sections of Old Trafford, estimated to be north of 1,000, was now more than stewards can handle. One additional PSU (police support unit) is requested.
A PSU is made up of 25 officers and immediately sets about three areas of concern where larger groups of Rangers fans have come together. There are now around 100 officers inside the stadium, which sources say is typical for a fixture of this kind.
While a team is deployed to enter the stadium, a clip is going viral on social media of Rangers fans in a home end concourse chanting: ‘Just like Glasgow, your city is blue.’
Other clips show pockets of Rangers fans gathered together and refusing to move out of seats, with affected United fans stranded in stairwells. United point to the layout of Old Trafford, which allows fans in the same area to congregate together with freedom of movement.
‘It was an absolute s***show from start to finish and it felt even worse than Galatasaray at home last season,’ one Manchester United season-ticket holder told Mail Sport.
‘Everyone knew Rangers would be taking a lot of fans down and everyone who’s been watching football long enough knows there’s always the odd element of away support in the home section, but this was on a different level.’
This was incredibly problematic for United, not least after the disorder of Galatasaray fans last season for a Champions League group stage match, when the Turkish club took over swathes of home sections.
Police Support Units were deployed to areas inside Old Trafford
Rangers fans dressed in black and wore balaclavas in the Old Trafford away end
For Assistant Chief Constable Sykes, there is now a decision to make on whether a holdback (keeping Rangers fans in the away end in the ground until home fans have dispersed) is required. Intelligence is also being gathered on where fans could head post-match, with Storm Eowyn at risk of scuppering many routes back to Scotland.
What quickly becomes apparent is that all of those who had infiltrated the home end would not be able to be escorted into the away end. There were too many spread out around the ground, and insufficient space given only a nominal number of seats are left unoccupied.
There are always gaps left in the away end to accommodate for a small number of infiltrators but the PSU unit quickly communicated that there were far more Rangers fans among the 73,288-strong crowd than spare seats allowed for.
And intelligence came in that despite Manchester United’s claims that hospitality tickets were under the ‘strictest possible measures’ that only fans on their database prior to the Europa League draw taking place could purchase them, evidence appeared online from November where VIP packages were on sale via Rangers’ website offering non-away end seating.
‘Category A match ticket close to the half way line of Old Trafford (Not allocated in the away end),’ read the article advertising the ticket. With Rangers earning ticket requests more than six times over their allocation, selling hospitality seats in the home end was inevitable.
The advert was legitimate for the 200 Category A tickets that are mandated to be made available to the visiting team per UEFA competition guidelines. United typically offer their allocation of the tickets to club guests and sponsors but Rangers broke no rules by choosing to sell them.
‘The queues to get into K-Stand – the lower section of the East Stand behind the goal – felt even longer than usual. It took me about 30 mins – and there were Rangers fans outside the turnstiles, milling about and giving it large. It was no different inside the ground, with pockets of Rangers fans popping up around us and to the left of K-Stand,’ the season ticket holder added.
‘I’d say for the last five minutes fans spent more time looking at the scenes in the stands than the actual game, at least around us. I saw a few Rangers fans being chased down in the concourse after the game and mates who sit on the other side of the ground saw it kicking off in the West Lower towards the end.
Thousands of Rangers fans were marched by police down Deansgate towards the stadium
Man United fans said it became clear where Rangers fans were in the home end after their goal
‘To tell you the truth, I and so many of those around me are ready to turn it all in. This club is a shambles.’
Others spoke of similar stories of horror. Children in floods of tears, United fans inadvertently being struck by blows as some supporters took policing into their own hands by attacking infiltrators.
‘When Rangers scored it became crystal clear where their fans were situated in the home end,’ a female fan told Mail Sport. ‘The chaos broke out immediately, going from verbal abuse through to fists being thrown. It was scary.’
‘Plenty of Rangers fans in N4404 (North Stand),’ another explained. ‘Young fan behind me in tears and I got inadvertently headbutted while in the crossfire of some United fans taking offence to the splattering of Scottish fans celebrating their consolation goal.’
Last night, despite United’s protestations that they did all they could to prevent the problems that occurred, a number of fans turned on the club and accused them of touting.
United have digitised their tickets in a bid to clamp down on touting but senior officials accept that they cannot eradicate it entirely and there is an art to navigate the QR code method – fans receive a live QR code on their app a few hours before kick-off – that is in place with tickets supposed to be registered to just one cellular device.
‘I was with my two children and there were 100s if not 1000s of Rangers fans in there,’ one fan furiously explained.
‘There’s no way that many registered fans have passed on their ticket, especially given how only one device can be used! United have put money before fan safety tonight!’
Clashes occurred in the stands after Rangers fans in the home end celebrated their goal
United sources stressed an investigation would be undertaken imminently to understand how so many home tickets ended up in the hands of away fans. They have vowed to take the most serious sanctions against any fan found guilty of selling their ticket or passing their ticket on.
By now the control room, while calm and controlled, is a hub of activity. Tensions inside the ground, with Bruno Fernandes scoring a stoppage time winner, have escalated significantly and there is growing concern that it will spill out to disorder outside.
All the while the ambulance service are providing updates on two fans who suffered medical emergencies unrelated to fan clashes, one of whom died at the age of 88, and transport teams are working on a route to get 45 away coaches away from Manchester as quickly as possible.
By this point in the night, approaching the final whistle, arrest numbers are now up to 39 with 26 for the pre-match violent disorder, five for drug offences, three for common assault, one of which saw a steward attacked, one for assault of an emergency worker, one for fraud and obstructing police with a fake ticket, one for affray, and two for tragedy chanting under an RA Public Order and S4A Public Order – a criminal offence under Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 in the UK, which involves intentionally causing harassment, alarm, or distress to another person through threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour.
It’s 10.38pm by the time the final debrief takes place in the ‘Engine Room’ and Assistant Chief Constable Sykes is briefed on intelligence of potential flashpoints in the city centre at a pub that is open until 3am. Officers are immediately deployed to the area.
Man United sources vowed to investigate how home tickets ended up with away supporters
Concerns were raised Man United’s late winner could have led to trouble outside the ground
That aside the messaging is positive for GMP, many staffers having been on since early morning.
Five months of planning has come down to one flashpoint before the game in the city with more than 70,000 fans safely guided to and from the stadium.
But the headline on the night is the infiltration of away fans and how United fluffed their own plan when they too had a five-month running start at it.
‘Abysmal,’ as one friend in the Stretford End summed it up on text. ‘Worst I’ve ever seen it.’
