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1985 Luton riot

The 1985 Luton riot occurred before, during and after a 1984–85 FA Cup sixth-round football match between Luton Town and Millwall on 13 March 1985 at Luton Town's Kenilworth Road ground in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It was one of the worst incidents of football hooliganism during the 1980s, and led to a ban on away supporters by Luton Town which lasted for four seasons. This itself led to Luton's expulsion from the Football League Cup during the 1986–87 season. The club also began to enforce a membership card scheme, which Margaret Thatcher's government attempted to have adopted at grounds across England. Kenilworth Road was damaged, along with the surrounding area, and a year later was converted to an all-seater stadium.

Background
Millwall's association with football hooliganism became strongly apparent with their rise in the English game during the 1980s. Millwall's Bushwackers were already one of the most notorious hooligan firms in the country by 1985, while Luton Town had their own fringe of hooligans in the MIGs. The Den, home of Millwall, had been the scene of a riot seven years earlier, when during another FA Cup sixth-round match against Ipswich Town, Millwall-aligned hooligans had injured dozens of their own club's supporters. On the day of the match, Luton were second from bottom of the top division, while Millwall were third in the third tier. s helped to clear the pitch; the match began on time, with many watching from atop the Bobbers Stand after climbing the floodlight pylons. ==Match details==
Match details
{{footballbox ==Match events==
Match events
Luton started the match, kicking towards the Millwall supporters. After only fourteen minutes, the match was halted as the visiting fans began to riot again. The referee took both teams off for twenty-five minutes, before bringing them back on to complete the match. Brian Stein put Luton ahead on thirty-one minutes, and the home side led by this score at half-time; when Luton continued to lead the match as it entered its final stages, the fear became that the pitch might be invaded once more in order to have the match abandoned and therefore prevent a Millwall defeat. Fans attempted to disrupt the match, but extra police managed to keep control. Some seats were removed, and one of these was thrown and hit a match steward in the head. Luton goalkeeper Les Sealey, who had to stand in front of the Millwall fans during the second half, received a missile to the head, and a knife was also found in the goalmouth after the game. ==Aftermath==
Aftermath
Despite having reached an FA Cup semi-final, Luton manager David Pleat was left "feeling empty". However, their league form improved so much that they finished 13th in the First Division. Eventually finishing second in the third tier, Millwall won promotion to the Second Division only six weeks later. The Football Association (or The FA) commissioned an inquiry, which concluded that it was "not satisfied that Millwall F.C. took all reasonable precautions in accordance with the requirements of FA Rule 31(A)(II)." A £7,500 fine was levied against Millwall, though this was withdrawn on appeal. Luton Town were ordered to construct fences around their ground, a decision that was also reversed. Chelsea chairman Ken Bates claimed that he intended to erect electric fences at Stamford Bridge to avert such an incident at his club. Luton Town announced a £1 million overhaul of Kenilworth Road soon after – the club would spend £350,000 on a new artificial pitch that summer, and £650,000 on converting the ground to an all-seater. Work on the stands began during the summer of 1986, but was not finished until 2005. There have been many incidents of football hooliganism among Millwall fans since this incident. On 9 January 1988, forty-one Millwall fans were arrested at Highbury after a disturbance at an FA Cup third-round game which was quickly labelled by the public and media as "The Battle of Highbury". Membership scheme and ban on visiting supporters The Luton Town chairman, David Evans, reacted by imposing a ban on all away supporters from Kenilworth Road from the start of the 1986–87 season. A club membership scheme was also introduced: Luton Town supporters' personal details were taken by the club and all fans would be required to carry their membership cards to be admitted to matches. The football hooliganism "War Cabinet", set up following the incident by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, attempted to have such schemes adopted by clubs nationwide without success. The first match of the identity card scheme was the First Division match against Southampton on 26 August 1986. The Football League insisted that Luton relax the ban for League Cup matches, but when Evans refused to allow Cardiff City fans to visit Kenilworth Road for their second-round tie, the club was banned from the competition for that season. The FA announced that Luton would be allowed to maintain their ban on visiting supporters in the FA Cup, but also that they would allow other clubs to ban away support from Luton. In response, Luton eased the ban slightly – 500 tickets would be given to certain clubs, with this number doubling should the match pass without incident. The suspension of away support continued for four seasons, and, from a policing standpoint, was a success – during its enforcement, not one arrest was made either inside or outside the ground. Despite this, and the support of Bedfordshire Police for the scheme, Luton Town repealed the ban before the start of the 1990–91 season. ==References==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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