Caseworker Amanda Jacks is often the first line of defence for beleaguered supporters in England and Wales battling for a fair go. Getting fans clued up on their rights is just the first step.

au.fourfourtwo.com caught up with Jacks in London to find out what it takes to be a fans rights warrior after a series of similar protests in the A-League.

So what does a FSF caseworker actually do?
I wear several different hats but primarily I’m here to help and advise football fans who may have a complaint against their football club or the police. I’m very lucky because I’ve got two very good lawyers working with me – one who picks up criminal cases and another who picks up civil cases. If legal intervention isn’t needed then we’ve got an internal complaints system which involves, initially, making your complaints to the football club. If you don’t get satisfaction there you take it to the league and if they still can’t resolve the issue then the final step is the Independent Football Ombudsman who will adjudicate on the complaint.

You have a football ombudsman?
If you asked 100 football fans if they knew of the existence of a football ombudsman, I’m guessing the majority would say no. Although in all fairness, a lot of fans will probably never need those services so there’s no real need for them to know the process exists.

Can you tell us a little about the Watching Football is not a Crime (WFINAC) campaign?
Primarily it’s about making football fans aware of the fact they do have rights and they can complain. The policing has got a lot better but some police forces or some individual police officers still treat football fans like hooligans from the 70s or 80s. So we’re still living with that legacy today. For example you could arrive at a town for a football match, get off the train and the police could be filming you. They might make you wait until there’s a large group of you and then escort you to a pub and effectively make you stay there until just before kick-off when they’ll escort you to the ground. Now that doesn’t happen every game but it still happens too often for our liking. We also help supporter groups work with the police to improve communication between fans and police. What we’re trying to do is encourage the authorities to see supporter groups as part of the solution and not just the problem.

Back in 2008 you teamed up with the civil rights organisation Liberty to fight for 80 Stoke fans who attempted to attend a match at Old Trafford. What happened there?
Effectively a group of fans were held in a pub, put on coaches back to their home town and prevented from going to the football match for no good reason. So we asked Liberty if they could help and they brought action against the Greater Manchester Police. As a result (the police) had to pay out compensation (totalling about $290,000) to all the fans they had prevented from attending the match.

Was that seen as a breakthrough case?
That was very significant. The trouble with our legal system, and it may be the same in Australia, it can take years for such actions to come to a conclusion. That was actually concluded relatively quickly because Greater Manchester Police were in the wrong. They had no option other than to hold their hands up. But we’ve got round about half a dozen ongoing cases where we think the police have acted unlawfully in how they treated football fans.

So are banning orders on the increase in England?
They’re actually remaining more or less steady. They’re round about the same for the civil applications but for criminal applications the arrest figures are falling. As a result the number of criminal banning orders is falling as well. You can find all the information on the Home Office website.

That’s interesting because Football Federation Australia regards information about the number and breakdown of banning orders as confidential.
That is one thing here – the authorities are very transparent with their numbers. Sometimes if they’re not proactively releasing information we have to use Freedom of Information Act requests but there’s no problem here getting that information and really I don’t see why that information should be withheld.

Western Sydney Wanderers recently held a silent protest over 20 disputed banning notices. There’s certainly a feeling among some fans that security and police are heavy-handed.
Heavy-handedness doesn’t surprise me – we get that here. We’ve got lots of groups here, mostly comprising young men that call themselves ultras. Now in Europe there in an ultra-movement that is very political, in some cases it’s extremely right wing and generally very, very nasty. The ultras here are more groups of young men who want to do no more than bring atmosphere, colour, banners, streamers, drums to their grounds and just create an atmosphere. There is a slight problem with flares and smoke bombs being used more and more. I know we see them a lot in Europe. I’m not a lover of flares; I think they’re quite dangerous. Smoke bombs aren’t quite so dangerous but I wouldn’t want to be standing next to one when it’s let off. But the people who use them, it doesn’t mean they’re football hooligans, it just means that they’re passionate and they want to bring a bit of atmosphere to the grounds and they think that smoke bombs and flares contribute to that. But these groups do come under quite a lot of pressure from stewards and the police simply because I think they’re misunderstood.

Do you think 20 disputed banning notices for one club in one season indicates a problem?
It does and it also indicates that (fans) are not necessarily taking part in criminal activity because otherwise I’m sure people would be arrested and charged. I would imagine that if it’s anything like here, they’re probably a bit boisterous, a bit over the top and that is deemed as anti-social behaviour. Here we have a big problem with clubs wanting to attract more families and of course a football stadium should be open to everybody – there’s no dispute there. Everybody should feel comfortable inside a football stadium. But they think that nice mums and their lovely clean wholesome children will be scared off from going to the football if the atmosphere is a bit raucous. But that’s what football is all about. Those newest to the game, I think, should be respectful of the fact that not everybody wants to watch football in the same way. Some people just want to sit and absorb the game and watch every kick of the ball. For other people it’s a different experience. They want to be part of the game and contribute and take part in an atmosphere that, yeah, some might see as a bit rowdy – but for many many more people, it’s no more or less than traditional football supporter behaviour.

One Wanderers fan was ridiculed by security because he had his back to the game while geeing up the active support.
That’s sounds very familiar. There’s a lot of stewards who are very good stewards, who understand football fans and who understand crowd behaviour. But equally a lot of clubs employ security contractors who might be nightclub bouncers. They have no understanding of football fan behaviour, no tolerance of football fans and a very minor incident will turn into a major incident because of the way the stewards handle it. You’ve got remember that these people have paid a lot of money for their ticket - upwards of 30-odd quid. We don’t want the red carpet, we don’t want to be called sir or madam, but we do want to be treated in line with the money we are paying to support our teams. I think some clubs lose sight of that. I was talking to a Chelsea fan the other day and he went to see Manchester United and as he walked up to the stewards to be searched the steward said, ‘put your f****ing arms up’. He paid £50-odd to be spoken to like that. So it sounds like we’re not of different continents at all.

The FFA makes no apologies for the fact banned fans have no right of appeal.
Well, that’s outrageous. If a fan is told ‘you’re banned – end of’ that’s where I come in and guide them through their rights and what they’re legally entitled to. If someone made a complaint about you to your employer, you would have a recognised process to go through. In a democracy, I think it’s quite frightening that any organisation thinks they can go against the basic rules of innocent until proven guilty and the right to a fair hearing. Why football in your country, and to some extent here, seems to think it’s above that law and the basic tenets of justice is beyond me – I think it’s actually quite frightening.

So are fans in England becoming more aware of their rights?
Yes, far more aware and there’s far less willingness to just put up with how they’re being treated. Again, to be fair, most people here will go to a football match and not have any real contact with the police and have no problems with the stewards, it’s only right to acknowledge that. But that in no way negates the more negative experiences.

What can Australian supporters do if they feel they’re not getting a fair deal?
First of all look up your equivalent of our Data Protection Act. I would be very surprised indeed if you don’t have something like that which enables fans to find out exactly what information is being held on them. Encourage dialogue. Get these (fan) groups formalised with a recognised leader so that the leader can talk to the club about what they want to do and what they want to achieve and hopefully persuade them that they’re the backbone of their football club, not trouble makers, that they’re just people who are passionate about their club. Dialogue and communication is key - but if that doesn’t work, then maybe more protests to get their voices heard.