hrowing coins is spiteful, pitiful and self-defeating and the idiots need to be banned for good... they won't be missed

Can you explain to me what makes an idiot at a football match dig into their pocket and pelt an opposition player with loose change? It’s pathetic, dangerous and I just do not understand it.
Whatever you think of Luis Suarez, seeing the Liverpool star pummelled with coins during Tuesday night’s 4-0 derby win against Everton was depressing. Have we really sunk this low, that this is how spectators react to one of the best players on the planet, whatever colour shirt he wears? Is this all so-called ‘fans’ can conjure up in the name of ‘support’ for their team?
It’s spiteful, pitiful and also self-defeating: nothing seems to inspire Suarez more than knowing he has rattled the opposition. But then again, you wouldn’t expect those who chuck coins to be the brightest of the bunch.

Missile: As Suarez takes a corner in from of the Anfield Road end, the Liverpool player comes under fire

Flashpoint: Suarez holds a coin after apparently being pelted by the travelling support

The police call them ‘missiles’, objects that are thrown from the stands. This reflects the damage they can cause – remember the blood pouring from Rio Ferdinand’s cut left eyebrow in December 2012? – but rather over-glamorises a lamentable action. It is feeble to throw coins, after all; to hide in the relative anonymity of a baying crowd and chuck loose change onto the pitch like a petulant child throwing stones in a schoolyard. It is sad to see, and it needs to stop.
The most pressing concern is for players’ personal safety. They are professional sportsmen, and they have a right to ply their craft in a safe environment. It is utter nonsense to suggest they ‘just have to get used to it’; that it ‘is all part of the game’. It is not, and it never has been. There is no skill in throwing a two pence piece onto a pitch.
But there’s a bigger picture here, too. Has it really come to this, that so-called ‘fans’ cannot support their team vocally or taunt the opposition with witty chants, but have to resort to pelting players with coins? It is depressing, quite frankly.

On the pitch: Referee Lee Probert points to the bottle thrown onto the pitch by a fan at Millwall v Wednesday

Bottle job: A beer bottle is thrown from the stands during Millwall's 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday

Throwing coins is a not purely a modern trend, but it is becoming more prevalent. The high definition cameras of Premier League coverage that is beamed around the world only seems to make the matter worse, too; reinforcing the often tired, lazy stereotypes about people attending football matches purely to behave like animals. They are not tired or lazy stereotypes in this instance: they are true.
There is an argument that what happens in a football ground is only reflective of wider society, albeit forced into much sharper focus by the restrictions of time and space and the prevalence of high emotion. Yet people do not throw coins in the street. They throw them into collection buckets or fountains for good luck, in underarm acts of generosity. They do not lob them, overarm, with venom and intent to hurt.

In the heat of battle: Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand doubles up after being hit by a coin

Battle scars: Ferdinand shows off his cut after being hit by a coin during last season's Manchester derby

People would think you were mad if you started committing such violence in a city centre. So why is it suddenly deemed acceptable, by a small minority at least, when you have paid in excess of £50 to enter the gates of a stadium? It is still violent, dangerous madness.
Football’s governing bodies are, finally and slowly, showing some willingness to crack down on men and women who throw verbal epithets at players or opposition fans.

Target: A coin is thrown at Liverpool's Jamie Carragher during a game at Arsenal in 2002

Take that! Chelsea's Didier Drogba throws a coin back into the crowd after scoring against Burnley in 2008

Now is the time to get tough with the coin throwers. Players have been punished for reciprocal actions – Didier Drogba received a three-match ban for throwing a coin a Burnley fans in 2008, and Jamie Carragher was sent off for reacting to Arsenal fans in 2002 – yet the deterrent does not seem strong enough for spectators.
Ban them from stadiums and pursue criminal action. The message needs to be loud and clear; one of zero tolerance and no second chance. They will not be missed: they are just the weak wimps hiding in the crowd, the unnamed animals bringing decent supporters into disrepute, after all.