Super League club hit supporters with lifetime bans after recent incidents

Sadly, Hull KR’s brilliant 2023 season was sullied by some unfortunate fan incidents such as at the game against Salford Red Devils and the Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan Warriors at Leeds Rhinos.

The Robins were punished for both incidents by the RFL and at the supporters’ council meeting in December, Hull KR’s official fronted up to these issues with Chief Executive Paul Lakin saying: “There were a couple of incidents in the North Stand in September, one involving a flare and another incident when a fan ran onto the pitch and verbally abused the match official.”

Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer Craig Franklin revealed fans had suffered lifetime bans: “Sometimes people do not always see how situations are handled. Instead of stewards running in directly and evicting fans which could escalate the situation in the short term, the culprits are followed then handed over to the police who evict them from the stadium discreetly.

“In some instances, for safeguarding and duty of care reasons, we may monitor until our safeguarding officer is able to determine if there’s any potential vulnerabilities and establish how the individual will return home safely. We want to be clear, just because fans don’t see immediate ‘action’ inside the stadium bowl, every incident is dealt with, and in some instances this year, season long or lifetime bans have been issued.”

Fans have criticised stewarding at the club and on this, Franklin added: “There are different types of stewards on duty for a match day. One group of stewards are in position on the emergency exits and they stay at these positions throughout and are not permitted to leave their station because if action is required they are there in position for the evacuation.

“There are also SIA stewards who have additional responsibilities around the ground regarding fan control. There are also response teams, they deal directly with incidents as the need arises. Therefore, we have some stewards that cannot move and we have mobile stewards. At times the Stewards receive bad feedback but depending if they are SIA (Security Industry Authority) qualified or not, determines if they are legally able to intervene in a situation.”