Worrying legal loophole sees Chelsea Women pitch invader avoid punishment

The supporter who ran on to the field during the Women's Champions League clash between Chelsea and Juventus on Wednesday has avoided any legal punishment due to an outdated law which does not recognise women's matches as official games.

A man clambered out of the Chelsea end and on to the pitch, filming himself on what looked like a leisurely stroll as no security challenged him whatsoever, with Blues forward Sam Kerr growing tired of the infraction and slamming the invader to the ground.

Even after that, the man was allowed to walk off the pitch on his own accord, with two stewards ushering him away from afar.

In the men's game, such an act would see a pitch invader physically dragged off by police, with section 4 of the 1991 Football Law stating: "It is an offence for a person at a designated football match to go onto the playing area, or any area adjacent to the playing area to which spectators are not generally admitted, without lawful authority or lawful excuse (which shall be for him to prove).”

As noted by The Athletic, women's matches are somehow not actually considered as 'designated football matches'.

Neither Champions League nor WSL games fit the criteria, with the ancient rules only applying to teams from an official men's league. As a result, there is technically no law forbidding pitch invasions during women's games, unless that invader commits a crime while on the pitch.

What year are we in again?

Women's games do not even have a routine police presence, with officials only attending matches if previous intelligence suggests there may be a problem. As nobody expected any issues between Chelsea and Juventus, nobody was there to stop the pitch invader.

“We do have to think about player safety," said Chelsea manager Emma Hayes after the incident. "We’ve seen in the growth of the game there is this sense of the players being more in demand. It should serve as a reminder to us all in our stadiums and with our stewards we’ve got to put player protection first.”

This law is definitely going to get changed soon, and the rulemakers can consider themselves lucky that this invader meant no harm.