Man Banned from Football Matches for Five Years after Lighting Flare in Stadium

A man has been banned from attending football matches for five years and fined £2,000 after being found guilty of lighting a marine flare at the Riverside Stadium.

During a Middlesbrough FC and Stoke City match on Saturday 28^th October 2023, Owen McAvoy was seen to ignite a marine flare under a plastic banner in the stands.

He was identified from photographs and later arrested in connection with the incident. He was convicted on 13^th August of possession of a marine flare during the period of a designated sporting event in a designated sports ground.  

McAvoy, aged 21 from Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, was fined £2,000 and on Tuesday 29^th October, he was issued a banning order for five years at Teesside Magistrates Court, preventing him from attending any football games in the United Kingdom for the next five years.

PC Chris Hilton, from the Matrix Team’s Football Unit, said: “Possession of a flare or any kind of pyrotechnic in a football stadium is a criminal offence, however, lighting one in a crowd of thousands of fans has obvious dangers which could have led to mass panic and potential injuries. 

“Incidents like this won’t be tolerated and I hope that today’s banning order will stand as a warning to others that, should you irresponsibly bring a flare or other pyrotechnics into a football stadium, and furthermore proceed to light them, there will be consequences. We will work together with Middlesbrough FC to ban those people from attending further football games.”