FA Rule E21

FA Rule E21 explains a Club's responsibility for ensuring that its spectators behave appropriately. 

It states that:

E21 A Club must ensure that spectators and/or its supporters (and anyone purporting to be its supporters or followers) conduct themselves in an orderly fashion whilst attending any Match and do not: 

E21.1 use words or otherwise behave in a way which is improper, offensive, violent, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting or provocative;

E21.2 throw missiles or other potentially harmful or dangerous objects at or on to the pitch;

E21.3 encroach on to the pitch or commit any form of pitch incursion;

E21.4 conduct themselves in a manner prohibited by paragraph E21.1 in circumstances where that conduct is discriminatory in that it includes a reference, whether express or implied, to one or more of ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, religion or belief, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation or disability. 

E21.5 it shall be a defence to a Charge in relation to Rules E21.1 to E21.3 (only) if a Club can show that all events, incidents or occurrences complained of were the result of circumstances over which it had no control, or for reasons of crowd safety, and that its responsible officers or agents had used all due diligence to ensure that its said responsibility was discharged. 

However, when considering whether this defence is made out a Regulatory Commission will have regard to all relevant factors including: 

• The extent to which the Club has discharged its duty;
• The severity of the issues involved;
• The extent to which similar issues have occurred previously in which case whether the Club took sufficient action in preventing further such incidences.

E21.6 For the avoidance of doubt Rule E21 shall apply to the conduct of both a Club’s home and/or away supporters.

If a County FA believes that a Club's spectators have not behaved appropriately they may raise a misconduct charge against the Club. 

The most common examples of this would be if there is a mass confrontation involving spectators during a game, or if spectators use abusive language towards opposition players or the match officials.

More Information

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