Why did the Home Secretary visit Brentford’s GTech stadium on Thursday 18th August ?
The one certain fact about Priti Patel’s visit is that it was meant to be about football. According to the Home Office website: ’The Home Secretary Priti Patel has visited Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium to see the valuable work that football clubs, the police and sport bodies are doing to prevent antisocial behaviour and increase fans’ enjoyment of the game after disorder at matches last season’ (Home Office website). The Brentford website says ‘The sole purpose of the visit was to see our new safe standing sections and to discuss our efforts to create and maintain a safe environment on matchdays’.
Who invited her?
The idea of the visit came from the Home Office in conjunction with the Premier League. The GTech stadium is a convenient one for London-based politicians to visit to provide a background to promote policies about football. Last year the then DCMS Secretary Oliver Dowden visited the stadium as part of the follow-up to the Government’s ‘Fan-Led Review’ of English football.
Who did the deal on the detail ?
On a visit like this a senior minister like Ms Patel would always bring their own media advisors who would negotiate the details with the hosts and the visiting media. As hosts Brentford FC agreed that the questions to Ms Patel would be filmed against the background of the interior of the Gtech Stadium. The invited journalists and photographers agreed with the Home Office to share their material with other media in what’s called a ‘pool’. They also agreed that they would not publish or transmit anything until the Saturday morning which is when the Home Office wanted the story released. This kind of ‘embargo’ arrangement is common between the Government and media, it has advantages for both sides.
If the visit was meant to be about football why was Ms Patel interviewed about asylum seekers being sent to Rwanda ?
It is quite common for politicians of all parties when visiting a location for one purpose to expect to be asked about other subjects. The ‘pool’ broadcast journalist therefore asked her: ‘Home Secretary, why did you tell Parliament that Rwanda was a safe country when we now know that your advisor said that’s its somewhere where the government kills and tortures its opponents’. This was a reference to a revelation in a High Court case on Tuesday, the visit to Brentford was the media’s first chance to put that revelation to her in person. She duly replied.
Why was the first time that we as fans heard about the visit in an interview about Rwanda not about football?
The media side did not see why the section of the interview about Rwanda needed to be held under embargo until Saturday morning. The Home Office agreed. Brentford FC would have had no say in this.The video clip of the question and answer duly appeared on the BBC and ITV News websites.
Neither broadcaster mentioned that the interview had been done at Brentford but Bees fans immediately recognised the distinctive coloured seats in the background. They had no way of knowing why Ms Patel was at the stadium.
What was the reaction from fan groups to seeing that clip?
BIAS released a statement on Thursday evening which got significant take up on social media.
First thing on Friday morning Bees United issued a statement explaining for the first time why the visit had happened.This created further comment on social media.
Why was the Club’s own statement so short?
The Club issued a ‘clarification’ on Friday morning:
The last sentence seems to have been an attempt to explain that the story would become clearer on the Saturday without breaching the embargo on what exactly the story was.
Did the Club have any option other than to agree that an interview on a range of issues could take place with the stadium as a background?
All the arrangements for filming were agreed between the Home Office and the Club. In the comments on the BU Facebook page Bees fan Ralph Collins wrote: ‘No need for her to be photographed with the stadium behind her..should have been kept inside where we have plenty of lounges large enough to accommodate the requirements’.
So what was the embargoed story that was apparently the whole point of the visit ?
Good question. The Sky News version was; ‘Speaking at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “There is no place for the ugly scenes we saw at some matches in England and Wales last season, and it is good to see the positive work being done by clubs like Brentford to ensure our stadia are safe places for families and children to enjoy the beautiful game’.
But the Sun claimed an ‘ exclusive’:
‘England fans face a World Cup travel ban over anti-social behaviour at matches, the Home Secretary last night warned.Supporters risk surrendering their passports for the duration of the Qatar tournament if they attack or abuse players and fans. Priti Patel speaking exclusively to The Sun on a visit this week to Premier League side Brentford, is determined not to let the small minority ruin matches for true fans’.
The BBC did not run the story at all on its website or news bulletins but Radio 5Live interviewed the Chairman of the Football Supporters Association who said there was nothing new in her remarks about the World Cup, the Government already had powers to stop people who were subject to banning orders from going to the World Cup. There was very little coverage of the story anywhere else apart from the Mail.
So what’s BU’s bottom line take on it?
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the visit was planned by the Home Office to promote a warning by the Home Secretary of the power to punish these who behave badly in stadiums by stopping them from going to the World Cup. Only the Sun and Mail actually ran that story. Brentford was there to provide a photo opportunity background, no more no less.It is a sign of how far our profile has risen that we get chosen for events like this.
We will never know if the Home Office envisaged in advance there could be an additional opportunity – to get Ms Patel on the record responding to the revelation earlier in the week about her decision to ignore a warning from an advisor on the Rwanda issue. Intended or otherwise, that was the outcome.
Having Brentford as the background for that too and the circumstances in which the Rwanda story emerged before the football one was what created the storm. When sport and politics mix the law of unintended consequences comes into play.
Here’s what two BU members told us:
Russell Wallman: I entirely accept that Brentford must engage with Government Ministers – whoever they may be – on football-related matters. However, allowing Priti Patel to use the visit as an opportunity to seek to defend her policy concerning refugees was a serious mistake which has caused real damage to the reputation of the club; not least, I imagine, amongst the local community.
David Hylton: Whilst the Premier League and by invitation, BFC, were hopefully accepting this ‘opportunity’ in good faith, the adage, never mix politics and sport, rings true yet again. Without entering the debate about the non-sporting topic raised by the media, it is and always will be a risk to invite politicians to discuss a single subject, particularly if they are associated with a currently contentious policy. Football has enough problems without being dragged into issues outside the beautiful game. I hope BFC learn from this harsh lesson and decline such advances in the future.