Fans are not always just spectators. Some who attend a match, will run onto the field. There are various reasons why they would do it. It could be due to a match being boring and thus adding some excitement to the game. Some just want to garner attention and others might be upset at how their team is performing and they might want to distract the attention and focus of certain players. Regardless of the nature, These invasions can be harmful.
This was brought to life in a Euro 2024 match between Portugal and Turkey. After the Portugese won 3-0, Cristiano Ronaldo was still cutting a frustrated figure at times as several fans invaded the pitch to try to take selfies with him.
So many breaches of stadium security at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund marked a concern for Portugal manager Roberto Martínez who told reporters that "we were lucky that the intentions of fans were good."
He also said, "We all love a fan who recognises the big stars and the big icons in their lives … but there are very, very difficult moments if those intentions are wrong – the players are exposed and we need to be careful with that."
UEFA said that safety and security were it's "ultimate priority" and that "additional safety measures will be deployed in the stadiums to further meet the requirements of the tournament, and to prevent such incidents."
Initially, a young pitch invader made his way across to Ronaldo, who happily posed for a selfie and grinned as the boy tried to sprint away from the stewards who eventually led him off.
Then, when a second older fan had the same idea and put his arm around Ronaldo as he took a selfie while the stewards tried to shake him off, the Portuguese star threw his hands up in frustration.
Later, other fans were tackled by several stewards before they reached Ronaldo, though, one steward inadvertently tackled Portugal’s Gonçalo Ramos as he rushed to get to the fan and the striker fell onto the grass.
UEFA added that any incursion onto the pitch "will result in expulsion from the stadium, a ban from all tournament matches and the filing of a formal criminal complaint for trespass."
Despite the chaos, Portugal captain, Bernardo Silva, who scored the first goal after an assist from Ronaldo, told reporters that he found the constant invasions "annoying" rather than dangerous.
When it comes to pitch invasions, it seems that football is the most popular.
Pitch invasions are not uncommon but not as frequent nowadays in top-level football but, historically, it was common for the supporters of the winning team in a major match, such as a Cup final, to flood onto the pitch after the final whistle. For example, in Kenneth Wolstenholme's famous "Some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over—it is now!" comment on the BBC's television coverage of the 1966 World Cup final. "They" were fans who had encroached onto the pitch before the end of extra time.
Counterintuitively, despite the fact that the 1970s and 1980s were a time where fans were barricaded in the stands by the use of fences, pitch invasions were not uncommon; when the barricading form of crowd control was abandoned after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, pitch invasions became rarer.
Several reasons may account for the decline in pitch invasions. After the Hillsborough disaster, terraces were required to be converted into all-seater stands, from which it is somewhat more difficult for spectators to physically rush down in order to reach the pitch—especially in large numbers and from higher rows of seats. Moreover, pitch invasions were criminalised in 1991 in the UK under the Football Offences Act.
There is also the concurrent and substantial increase in the cost of tickets, especially for seating in the lower rows, leading to these seats increasingly being occupied by wealthier fans who are much less inclined to risk legal, professional or other consequences which could arise from invading the pitch.
Pitch invasions still do occur, however, especially in the lower divisions, where terraces are still permitted, tickets are much less expensive, and there is less policing and security.
There are numerous examples in football. I will go through a few.
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United in the FA Cup. Manchester United were 2–0 down with 15 minutes left of play. However, Manchester United scored three times in 5 minutes and their third goal caused many Manchester United fans to invade the pitch in celebration.
West Ham United vs. Millwall, in a Football League Cup match. After West Ham equalised, fans invaded the pitch but did not cause a major disturbance. After West Ham scored twice more, hundreds of their fans invaded the pitch and riot police were hastily deployed. It took over six minutes for the police to clear the pitch. Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, was quoted as saying that the violence between West Ham and Millwall was "a disgrace to football" and the invasions were widely condemned by the FA and the players.
Manchester United vs. Liverpool on 2 May 2021. Fans stormed the pitch 2 hours before kick off to protest the Glazer Family. This ultimately led to the match being postponed, some fans even protested outside the team's hotel.
There are numerous incidences that have been made; not in football. It happens in all sports.
In rugby union, pitch invasions have occurred throughout history. Some particular moments have become the most infamous. In the past, additional security support has been constructed at stadiums due to foreseen trouble. An early example of this was the 1924 Summer Olympics, when a wire fence was constructed to protect United States player.
In 1971, during the Springbok tour, hundreds were arrested after they tried to disrupt Test matches between the Springboks and Australia in response to South African Apartheid policies. Some people even attempted to saw down goal posts and dig trenches in the surface at the Sydney Cricket Ground to try to stop a Test match going ahead. In Queensland, a state of emergency was issued following fears prompted from the behaviour of people at the previous Tests. Due to the success of the protests in disrupting the event, the Australian Cricket Board cancelled the South African team's imminent tour due to security reasons.
Worse actions were taken place a decade later. This time around, it was a tour of New Zealand. At Rugby Park in Hamilton (now the site of Waikato Stadium), 350 people pulled down a fence to invade the pitch and the police were forced to cancel the match after arresting a number of people after they got word that an escaped prisoner was piloting a light plane to fly around the stadium. The last Test match at Eden Park, in Auckland, was disrupted after protesters threw flour bombs and other objects onto the pitch to disrupt the game.
During a 2002 Tri-Nations match in Durban between South Africa and New Zealand, a drunk South African fan, Pieter van Zyl, scaled a perimeter fence, ran onto the pitch and tackled referee, David McHugh, leaving McHugh with a dislocated shoulder and having to be carried from the pitch on a stretcher. Springbok lock, AJ Venter, punched van Zyl and All Blacks flanker, Richie McCaw, wrestled him to the ground whereupon police and security arrested him. van Zyl was convicted of trespassing and assault. He was sentenced to three months in jail, fined $275 and banned for life from attending rugby matches in South Africa.
Another incident involving the South African team took place at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia when an intoxicated Samoan fan, with his face painted in the red and blue of the Samoan flag, ran onto the pitch and attempted to tackle Springbok Louis Koen as he was kicking a goal in the late stages of a pool match against Samoa. Koen kicked the goal but also managed to inadvertently knock the fan unconscious with a kick to the head, as the fan had tried to tackle Koen around the legs.
During a 2011 Top 14 match between Basque rivals Biarritz and Bayonne, players from both teams were involved in a brief off-the-ball brawl. Among them, Biarritz' Basque star and France international, Imanol Harinordoquy. His father, Lucien, ran onto the pitch to attempt to defend his son but was quickly wrestled to the ground by Bayonne players and taken from the pitch. The elder Harinordoquy issued an apology after the match, with his son choosing not to comment on the affair
In cricket, it used to be common practise that at the end of Test matches, for the crowd would invade the pitch to watch the presentation from the pavilion balcony. In the UK, this tradition ended in 2001 after a steward was injured in a pitch invasion at a One Day International (ODI) match between England and Pakistan. Invading the pitch can now warrant a £1,000 fine and a lifetime ban from the ground. Post-match presentations are now held on the field or in a room within the venue restricted from public access and displayed on a video scoreboard if available.
In August 1975, vandals protesting the imprisonment of alleged armed robber, George Davis, invaded the pitch of the Headingley Cricket Ground before the final day of the Third Ashes Test between England and Australia, digging holes in the field and covering one end of the pitch in oil. This led to the first-ever declaration of a Test ground being unfit for play, resulting in the match being abandoned and declared a draw. This was significant as it denied England a chance to tie the series and potentially retain the Ashes; Australia eventually took back the Ashes.
In 1982, a pitch invasion at the WACA, led to Australian bowler, Terry Alderman, suffering a shoulder injury when attempting to apprehend one of the intruders.
Two ODI matches at the Bourda ground in Georgetown, Guyana, have had their results disrupted by pitch invasions. In 1993, the crowd invaded on the last ball of a match as the West Indies ran a second run to tie the score against Pakistan. In 1999, the crowd invaded on the last ball of a match as Australia ran a third run to tie the score against the West Indies. In both cases, the fielding team had a chance of effecting a run-out to prevent the tying run, had the crowd not invaded. In both cases, match referee, Raman Subba Row, declared the match to be tied.
A well known example is the Sydney Riot in 1879. This was an instance of civil disorder that occurred at an early international cricket match. It took place on 8 February 1879, at what is now the Sydney Cricket Ground (at the time known as the Association Ground), during a match between New South Wales, captained by Dave Gregory and a touring English team, captained by Lord Harris.
The riot was sparked by a controversial umpiring decision. When star Australian batsman, Billy Murdoch, was given out by George Coulthard, a Victorian employed by the Englishmen. The dismissal caused an uproar among the spectators, many of whom surged onto the pitch and assaulted Coulthard and some English players.
It was alleged that illegal gamblers in the New South Wales pavilion, who had bet heavily on the home side, encouraged the riot because the tourists were in a dominant position and looked set to win. Another theory given to explain the anger was that of intercolonial rivalry, that the New South Wales crowd objected to what they perceived to be a slight from a Victorian umpire.
The pitch invasion occurred while Gregory halted the match by not sending out a replacement for Murdoch. The New South Wales skipper called on Lord Harris to remove umpire Coulthard, whom he considered to be inept or biased but his English counterpart declined. The other umpire, future prime minister, Edmund Barton, defended Coulthard and Lord Harris, saying that the decision against Murdoch was correct and that the English had conducted themselves appropriately.
Eventually, Gregory agreed to resume the match without the removal of Coulthard. However, the crowd continued to disrupt proceedings and play was abandoned for the day. Upon resumption after the Sunday rest day, Lord Harris's men won convincingly by an innings.
In the immediate aftermath of the riot, the England team cancelled the remaining games they were scheduled to play in Sydney. The incident also caused much press comment in England and Australia. In Australia, the newspapers were united in condemning the unrest, viewing the chaos as a national humiliation and a public relations disaster. An open letter by Lord Harris about the incident was later published in English newspapers and caused fresh outrage in New South Wales when it was reprinted by the Australian newspapers.
A defensive letter written in response by the New South Wales Cricket Association further damaged relations. The affair led to a breakdown of goodwill that threatened the future of Anglo-Australian cricket relations. However, friction between the cricketing authorities finally eased when Lord Harris agreed to lead an England representative side at The Oval in London against the touring Australians in 1880; this match became the fourth-ever Test and cemented the tradition of Anglo-Australian Test matches.
It's quite clear that invasions of these nature are not always pleasing to see or being on the receiving end of it. Once a person invades the pitch, there's no telling what will happen. Based on the circumstances, it can be hard to judge what the invader/s are going to do. I suppose the only ones who will know are psychics and those who have ESP.
Human beings can be unpredictable at times.