Interesting to see that there are no regulations and common procedures how to deal with pitch invasions during regular matchtime. In Austria the usual procedure is this: Ref abandones the game due to failure of security and risk to the opposing team and if it's a pitch invasion by home supporters the game is judged as 3:0 to the visiting team (if they were not leading by a higher margin) . Home side will have to pay heavy penalty and a few games behind closed doors. This does not apply to pitch invasions after the game to celebrate championship, staying up and so on which are usually tolerated (But police will set-up a separation line on the field to seperate visiting supporter and opponents frome the home fans in such a case).

Still remember Hans Krankl, star of Rapid Vienna at this time and cancelled out with injury in the last game of the 1983 season, limping with his crooks to the Rapid following and preventing them single handed to strom the pitch in the dying minutes fully aware that this would have led to a penalty verification and the loss of the title for Rapid. And this was an away game for Rapid.

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Doesn't that suggest that some sort of legal or other formal action may be in the offing? You usually scream and shout when there's no other way of making yourself heard. You stay quiet when you know there's a formal procedure about to kick in.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

I wonder what would have happened if they didnt score the third ?

Im not even sure given the frenzy that the crowd had worked themselves into that the game would have been finished

In perverse way I hope it doesn’t die down, basically because I do not want Everton to get away with this

You are right there mate . But could you imagine the uproar if it was Ronaldo or Salah or DeBruine , that was chased with a flare ? the whole league would be suspended, and be looking for a 10 point deduction and a hefty fine . Whereas id say the FA are more interested in punishing Patrick for kicking the scum bag or Eze for getting in the way of a mad man running around with a flare . T

With respect, there's far too much revisionist history here and elsewhere in this thread (for instance, the criticising of Lampard for his comments about fans celebrating on the pitch. He was quite right). The problem is not that Everton fans invaded the pitch; it's society. It's the way the fan who confronted Vieira behaved, not that he was on the pitch that's the issue and that has nothing to do with football at all.

I, like at least a few others here, had one of the greatest nights of my life on a First Division footbal pitch after an invasion. Yep, I was on it after Swindly scored against Burnley, and I was back on it, celebrating wildly when the final whistle blew. I spent the last 15 minutes of the game more or less standing beside Budgie's goal post as the police couldn't get us all back onto the Holmesdale.

Lampard is absolutely right; why shouldn't fans be able to express their joy? No one attacked the Burnley manager (or players) that night. No one felt the need to.

The problem isn't football. It's forty years of Conservative rule (an inter-regnum by faux-Tory Tony Blair notwithstanding) that has created a malignant, resentful, haves and have-nots society that, predictably, manifests itself in anger and aggression. Dispossess enough people for long enough that you create a disadvantaged underclass and then act surprised when society turns violent? Well I never. The supporter who provoked Vieira is of his time, not of football itself. If you want to solve the problem, look at the inequalities in society, not at the game.

Every Palace supporter who was there that magical night in 1979 knows full well what Everton supporters experienced last Thursday and has no problem with their behaviour at all (in general). Pretending Everton is the issue is kidding yourself. If you want to blame someone for what happened at Goodison, a good starting point would be Margaret Thatcher.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.