Aston Villa match halted due to crowd trouble
Villa’s Europa League tie against Young Boys was stopped for several minutes due to fighting among the visiting Swiss supporters.
Thursday’s match at Villa Park was stopped for around five minutes after Donyell Malen had put the home side 2-0 up as visiting fans in the lower tier of the Doug Ellis Stand appeared to fight among themselves and with the police.
Several were escorted out of the ground by officers, while bottles and then several seats were thrown.
Villa’s players had been pelted by bottles thrown from the away end when celebrating Malen’s 27th-minute opener.
The scorer and England international Morgan Rogers appeared to be hit, the former on the head.
Trouble brewed again when Malen then scored Villa’s second in the 42nd minute.
This time Villa’s players kept their distance but tempers instead frayed between the fans and police.
Young Boys captain Loris Benito approached the visiting supporters, seemingly in a bid to calm things down. Instead, it only made things worse.
Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov spoke to both Villa boss Unai Emery and opposite number Gerardo Seoane before play restarted after a delay of several minutes.
The game finished with a 2-1 win for Villa.
Young Boys' supporters have a track record of causing trouble on the road in Europe.
In 2023 they were fined nearly £9,000 and hit with a one-match Uefa ban following trouble during a Champions League game at Manchester City. They were also ordered to pay for damage caused to City's Etihad Stadium.
They are currently under the threat of an away ticket ban for European competition following trouble in a match against Celtic last season.
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