
We met senior club staff, senior police officers, stewards and representatives of Eintracht Frankfurt. They explained to us the measures taken to ensure safety for all fans and residents during the journey of away fans to the ground. We saw for ourselves the policing and stewarding arrangements inside and outside the ground to ensure safe entry to the stadium and the searches to prevent dangerous objects, including pyrotechnics being brought into the ground. There was a considerable and conspicuous presence of police and stewards, as well as specially trained sniffer dogs.
We were pleased to observe that there was no trouble from away fans around the stadium or on entry to the ground, nor any evidence of pyrotechnics in the away end. The one incident of a pyrotechnic being thrown from the South Stand after the third Spurs goal is being dealt with by the Club.
We were also able to observe the stewarding and safety measures in the away section during the game. Steve spent the majority of the game standing at the back of the away section with security, supporters’ liaison officers and stewards. There was no real trouble and any aggression or other potentially inflammatory actions were dealt with effectively by the stewards.
We are sure you will agree the Frankfurt fans were in good voice and contributed significantly to the atmosphere in the stadium. We were very pleased to observe, and have explained to us, the very effective safety and security operation and to witness a very positive outcome in the stands and on the pitch.
Great credit for that must to the safety and security team at Spurs and we thank them for the vital work that they do and for giving us the opportunity to witness that at first hand.
The Trust has received complaints from fans about migration and overcrowding in the safe standing section of the South Stand on Wednesday night, with reports of gangways not being cleared. We have raised this with the Club who are looking into it. We know this is not the first time this has happened.
Finally, whilst there was a good atmosphere and a positive result for the team, it is concerning that attendance was 55,108 for a Champions League game with nearly 7000 empty seats. We made the point to the club again last night: ticket pricing for these fixtures has been too expensive and this has had a negative impact on attendances at both home group fixtures so far. We regret that the Club did not act on the concerns we previously expressed and did not change its pricing for the remaining group fixture. We hope that lessons will be learned for future matches.
THST Board
14 October 2022