No such thing as an ‘off season’ for Football Unit Inspector

9 July 2024

While it may be the off season for the West Midlands’ six professional soccer teams, there’s no such thing as the off season for Football Unit Inspector Rich Cox.

As well as preparing for next season’s football fixtures, Rich focuses on cricket and policing high-profile domestic and international fixtures at Edgbaston.

They include the men’s Test between England and West Indies at the end of July, and Birmingham Bears home games in the T20 Vitality Blast and Birmingham Phoenix Edgbaston fixtures in the Hundred.

Rich, a West Midlands Police Federation member, runs the Force’s football unit and its policing of cricket during the summer months.

“There are 10 officers who work for me, and we cover the six clubs in the West Midlands – Aston Villa, Wolves, West Brom, Coventry, Birmingham and Walsall," he said.

Next season

“In the close season, as well as the preparation for the next season, I add cricket prep and deployments on top.”

Rich’s work starts ahead of the season when he meets with David Clarke, the stadium safety officer at Edgbaston, to map out the fixtures and when and where resources will be needed.

“Last year we had the men’s Ashes, England v Australia, this year it’s England against the West Indies,” he said.

“On top of that you’ve got T20 games, the Hundred and the T20 Finals Day at Edgbaston in September.

“We map out the games. We map out what the club wants and for how long, is it across the whole day, most of the day, resourcing levels and specialisms.

Edgbaston Cricket ground is a busy policing area in the summer.

“Sometimes it’s quite a light touch, sometimes it’s in-depth, it depends on what’s ahead of us.

“For example, at England v Australia last year, on the back of Just Stop Oil, we had an in-depth resourcing model built around protest and protestor removal as well as public order policing.”

Rich said there are similarities as well as differences between policing cricket and football matches.

“Some of things we face are similar such as alcohol induced behaviour, hate crime, misogyny, pitch incursions,” he said.

“Some of them cross over between football and cricket.

“Issues we don’t often get at cricket is that tribal allegiance and fighting between fans.”

The officers tend to operate on the concourse areas underneath and behind the stands on Edgbaston’s big cricket occasions.

Stewarding

“On the ground, you will have a serial of officers working in pairs and you will have a Taser pair,” said Rich.

“You can quite conceivably go the whole day and not see them, or see them just once or twice.

“Their job is not to be proactive within the seated area, that’s a stewarding operation, it’s more behind the bowl, the bar areas, and the concourse areas where people, unfortunately, sometimes get involved in things they shouldn’t do.”

And Rich was full of praise for the way Edgbaston handles spectator behaviour and safety.

“They have a really good approach to stadium safety, stadium reputation, and behaviour,” he said.

“They take a very proactive approach to people wanting to watch cricket and enjoy cricket, and they don’t want people swearing, fighting, or going onto the pitch.

“They’re very much like a football club, that if you break the ground safety regulations you will be ejected.

“The club understands that to eject people early is the right move, it sets the tone and removes the problem.

“It’s a very good tone to set,” he added.