Football fan injured in assault before Birmingham vs Stoke as police launch probe

A football fan was attacked on the streets about 30 minutes before kick-off at St Andrews as Birmingham prepared to host Stoke in the Championship on Saturday afternoon

Posted Sunday, August 15, 2021 by Dailystar.co.uk

Birmingham's St Andrews stadium pictured before the game against Stoke on Saturday

A football fan has been released from hospital after being assaulted before Birmingham vs Stoke.

West Midlands Police have confirmed that they have launched an investigation after a 23-year-old man suffered a broken nose.

They will be reviewing CCTV footage in a hope to identify the individuals involved in the incident, as football's ugly head was reared once again.

Earlier in the day, fans of Manchester United and Leeds United were seen fighting in Manchester city centre before the two teams faced off in a Premier League encounter.

Writing on social media, officials said: "We’re investigating after a man aged 23 suffered a broken nose when he was assaulted on Barwell Road, in Small Heath, at around 2.30pm today.

"We understand a small disturbance broke out involving fans preparing to watch #BIRSTK.

"He's now been released from hospital.

"No arrests have been made, but CCTV is being reviewed and investigations continue.

"Anyone with information has been asked to contact us via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk or @CrimestoppersUK anonymously on 0800 555 111.

" Quote log 2251 of 14 August."

Football violence is back in the news after shameful scenes during the summer's Euro 2020 competition, particularly around the final as England took on Italy.

Scuffles broke out near to the ground between rival fans - and even those supporting the same nation.

On the pitch, Birmingham and Stoke played out a goalless draw, extending the unbeaten starts to the season for both teams.

Stoke boss Michael O'Neill said: "We didn't do enough to win the game. I didn't feel like we were ever going to lose it to be honest.

"We dealt with what we knew we were going to deal with, which was a lot of long throws and balls into the box. We dealt with that very well.

"We can't have 30 seconds for every throw-in, that's where the time goes. Then we had three minutes at the end. That's just the nature of the game and there's a lot of games in the Championship that end up like that.

"If you're going to get out of the Championship, you have to aspire to be a better team than that and obviously that's what we're trying to do."