Mansfield football fan faced jail after losing passport and breaching banning order

Andrew Chambers was banned from attending the World Cup in Qatar as part of the order imposed by magistrates in Manchester, said prosecutor Katherine Wilson.

Ian Pridham, mitigating, said Chambers was caught on video holding a flare, after taking it off a fellow fan, at a match last year.

He received a three-year football banning order, six-month conditional discharge, and was ordered to pay £107 costs, after admitting possession of a flare at a sporting event following the FA Youth Cup final between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, at United’s Old Trafford stadium, in May 2022.

However, Mr Pridham said, he never got any paperwork setting out the full terms of the order.

The club he supports withdrew his season ticket, Mr Pridham said, but he managed to keep his job as a Department for Work and Pensions work coach after an eight-month disciplinary procedure.

When he received a letter from the police, Chambers could not find his passport and telephoned them.

“He still hasn’t found his passport,” said Mr Pridham. “He has never been to the World Cup.

“It would have been helpful if someone had advised him to contact the passport office to cancel his passport.

“Otherwise he is going to have to surrender a passport he doesn’t have every time there is a World Cup.

“I hope the court wil take the view it is lesser harm and lesser culpability.”

Chambers, aged 56, of Shirland Drive, admitted failing to comply with a banning order, made under the Football Spectators Act 1989, on November 14, last year.

Magistrates in Mansfield fined him £182 and ordered him to pay a £73 surcharge and £85 costs.