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The story
On October 30, Kashima Antlers announced it had punished 12 supporters for interfering with venue operations during a home match against Kashiwa Reysol (Mercari Stadium). One supporter who breached the buffer zone around the visitor area before kickoff and instructed other fans to approach was banned indefinitely, while 11 supporters who refused to leave the area in front of the visitor gate after the match received one- to two-match bans. On 5ch, attention focused less on the punishment itself than on reactions that “getting off this lightly is too soft,” along with questions over whether the J.League would hand out additional sanctions and how the severity compares with punishments given to other clubs for similar incidents in the past.
J1 side Kashima announced on the 30th that, following its home match against Kashiwa Reysol in round 12 of the league season (Mercari Stadium), it had banned one Kashima supporter who interfered with venue operations indefinitely, banned one supporter who entered a restricted area for two home matches, and banned 10 supporters who got unnecessarily close to the visitor area for one home match.
According to the club, during players’ pre-match warm-ups, some Kashima supporters approached the visitor area, and one of them entered the buffer zone. After the match ended, security staff temporarily closed the visitor gate to prevent trouble, but 11 Kashima supporters continued to linger in front of the gate.
After identifying the 12 individuals involved and questioning them, the club handed out punishments once they admitted to the violations. The one supporter who instructed others to approach the visitor gate received an indefinite ban. The supporter who breached the buffer zone before the match and then approached the visitor gate afterward received a two-match ban, while the remaining 10 received one-match bans.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That's the part that actually matters.
Who cares about some watered-down in-house slap on the wrist.
Honestly, this is way worse than Urawa Reds' infamous "Japanese Only" banner incident (a 2014 racist-banner scandal).
A fitting punishment would be 5 home games behind closed doors plus a roughly ¥100 million fine.
Kashima gets a free pass no matter what, thanks to Zico's legendary status (the Brazilian great who built the club's identity).
Even when Kashima supporters occupied the food court at a Kashiwa home game and hit players with flagpoles, Kashiwa ended up with the bigger fine.
And that was with Reysol fielding their reserve squad…
Totally dominant.
Things changed once they brought the starters on in the second half.
A slap on the wrist like this isn't going to deter anyone.
Young fine man
And the fact that it just slides through like it's normal shows how finished the J.League is.
but Kashima Antlers are the real "Sontaku-lers" (a pun on "Antlers") when it comes to getting let off the hook.
In baseball, this would just be a "call the police" level incident…
For Urawa it could even mean a points deduction or losing their license.
For Mitsubishi's (Urawa's) stadium ops — who either do nothing or pour fuel on the fire when something happens — fines and punishment are just par for the course.
It's only the clubs with incompetent operations that screw up who get punished.
Guess there are just a lot of idiots?
They didn't have to copy the ugliest part of world soccer culture too.
Japan could probably manage without a buffer zone.
Urawa and Kashima are tight, you know.
This happens everywhere, doesn't it?
Though Mitsubishi (Urawa), who can't handle it and keep messing up, get punished basically every time.
If anything, Urawa's front office has actually gotten its act together lately.
They've started giving frequent progress updates even while an investigation is ongoing.
Kashima might be the only club that refuses to take a firm stance and instead just keeps defending its "Infight" ultras group.
When a group causes this much trouble collectively, you'd expect the same response as last year, when Marinos and Sendai banned the groups involved from using banners, megaphones, and drums in their supporting activities — Infight should obviously get the same activity ban.
And yet Kashima keeps defending them. The huge crowd of Kashima supporters who sing chants alongside Infight are complicit too.
Background and Key Points
At J.League matches, it’s standard practice to set up a no-entry “buffer zone” to keep home and visiting supporters from making contact, and entering it or getting unnecessarily close is itself a rule violation. This punishment is a club-imposed entry ban, and today’s announcement does not address whether the J.League will impose any additional sanctions on top of it. On the thread, many commenters felt the punishment was “too light” when compared to Urawa Reds’ “Japanese Only” banner incident and past trouble at Kashiwa matches, while other posts praised how Mercari Stadium’s operations staff handled the situation — opinion was split. It’s worth keeping in mind that punishment standards and discretion vary by club and by incident, so simply comparing severity at face value may be premature.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Soccer] J1 Kashima punishes 12 supporters over venue interference in Kashiwa match — instructing approach to visitor gate, lingering, breaching the buffer zone…“.
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