Ms Reay, 23, threw a flare at a referee as she attended a football match
A female football fan is all set to become the only woman in UK to be banned from all soccer grounds after she threw a flare at a referee, according to a report in Metro. Twenty-three-year-old Abbie-Leigh Reay was arrested for the act during a match between Tranmere Rovers and Forest Green Rovers on January 29 this year. Her favourite team Tranmere Rovers was beaten 4-0 in the top of the table clash.
A footage captured by a CCTV installed in the stadium showed Ms Reay celebrating after the flare landed on the pitch near Lee Swabey and Forest Green goalkeeper Luke McGee. Police stopped Ms Reay while she was leaving from Tranmere's Rover Stadium, she was arrested and later interviewed at home, the report in Metro said. It added that at Sefton magistrates court in Merseyside, Ms Reay, of Bebington near Birkenhead, denied a charge of throwing a flare onto a football playing area under the Football (Offences) Act 1991 but she was convicted after a trial.
"She said she felt it hit her and landed on the floor and then in a kind of panic she has thrown it away. She mentioned that she was just scared and that it was burning near her so she picked it up. She didn't know what to do and her first thought was to throw it away on the pitch," PC patrolling Prenton Park said in a statement.
Ms Reay now faces a Football Banning Order which could prohibit her from visiting any sports ground in the UK, said the report. Despite the arrest, she posted a picture with her friend and wrote, "Before it all went downhill."
Ms Reay in a statement said that the flare was brought by some "lads" behind her. She also clarified that she did not celebrate when she threw her arms in the air.