Carlisle United looking to reform football troublemakers

Carlisle United will now look to use restorative justice as opposed to immediate long-term bans to deal with young rule breakers on match days.

It follows a series of incidents at the club such as abuse, projectiles on the pitch, pyrotechnics and the most public being a number of fans telling an opposition goalkeeper to 'hang himself'.

So far over a dozen fans have taken part in the scheme, with no re-offending having happened at the time of writting.

The clubs chief executive Nigel Clibbens said: "It's not just a come in for a chat and then everybody disappears. It's uncomfortable for young people to come in and face the music.

"Often these are young children and in the heat of the moment they do silly, silly things.

"If people do see it as a soft option we take it away from them. We take a pragmatic approach to each individual circumstance, but there are associated punishments with this. We have cooling off periods, we do suspend fans."

Mr Clibbens feels that bans for younger fans won't actually have much of a long-term impact, and hopes that this method of punishment can invoke a deeper change in behaviour.

"(Bans) can disaffect them from the club that they love, and is often a really big part of their lives.

"It solves a problem for the club but doesn't do much good in the long run. We understand that in the heat of the moment supporters can do silly things, bad things."