Special Report: Do English football grounds need protective corner netting?

After Rio Ferdinand was struck by an object (believed to be a key-ring) in last weekend's Manchester derby, there has been yet more speculation as to whether players need more protection from fans sat around the pitch. However, many Premier League managers and players have come out and said that protective netting is not needed. General consensus would appear to be that better stewarding is needed to help spot the hooligans who throw objects onto the pitch. Today, I take a look into whether or not English football needs protective corner netting.

Rio Ferdinand quite obviously took the incident as a joke. As he later tweeted after the incident saying: "Whoever threw that coin, what a shot! Can't believe it was a copper 2p....could have at least been a £1 coin!"

Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has today come out to say that he is not in support of protective netting. He also added that he believes an improvement in stewarding is a better idea, "It's not a consistent thing. Stewarding is a better policy."

Brendan Rodgers followed along the lines of Sir Alex, by coming out and saying that he was also against the idea of netting. He then commented that a few supporters should not ruin the enjoyment of a game for the majority of fans who are well behaved.

As a football fan, who regularly visits games, I have to say that the thought of netting obstructing my view is certainly not a pleasant one. I agree with Sir Alex's point of stewarding being a better policy. However, I have to ask the questions: How much can stewards do? And can they really spot everything that goes on in the crowd? For me the answer to both of those questions has to be no. Despite these problems with stewarding, it does not make me look any more positively on netting. Thankfully though, it is not my decision to make as to whether netting should be used and so, we will have to sit back and wait for the FA to make a decision.