Birmingham investigate coin attack

Birmingham have vowed to ban for life the supporter who allegedly threw a coin at Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel during Saturday’s Barclaycard Premiership match at St Andrews – if they can identify the culprit.

The incident occurred during the second half after Lucas Neill had scored the decisive second goal for Rovers in a 4-0 win.

Friedel handed the coin to referee Graham Barber and he included the incident in his match report to the Football Association who have invited Blues to put forward their observations on the matter.

The club could be in severe trouble as they were warned to their future conduct – as well as being fined £25,000 (€35,430)– following crowd disturbances in last season’s derby matches against Aston Villa.

City have condemned the actions on Saturday and are co-operating fully with the Football Association and West Midlands Police over the matter as well as promising to increase CCTV monitoring of the crowd at future matches.

A club statement said: “Birmingham City Football Club does not and will not tolerate the throwing of coins or any other objects by spectators at St Andrews.

“Reports that a coin was thrown onto the pitch at Saturday’s game are being treated extremely seriously by the club.

“Furthermore the club believes that behaviour of that sort has no place in football. But, contrary to some newspaper reports which alleged that multiple coins were thrown on to the pitch, the club understands that it was in fact a single object.

“A single coin was found on the ground and thankfully no-one was hurt. The club is co-operating fully with the FA in its investigations and is currently examining CCTV footage from Saturday’s match.

“Any evidence which is obtained from the CCTV and witness statements will be passed to West Midlands Police and in addition the culprit will be banned from St Andrews for life.

“Whilst the club believes this is an isolated incident, they will be stepping up their CCTV monitoring of the crowd to ensure there is no repeat of this unacceptable behaviour.”