OK, I've had a long and detailed call from Carl Capewell, who is the Senior Safety & Security Manager at City. He reports to Luke McDonnell, who in turn reports to Danny Wilson. A surprisingly open and frank conversation, which (to a certain extent) has answered satisfactorily all my queries. To summarise as follows:
* The two Chelsea fans who were witnessed spitting and throwing items onto SS1 were arrested by GMP at the match and subsequently charged with public order offences. They will go to Court and will have banning orders imposed. The club have chosen NOT to publicise this, despite objections from the Security team at City.
* The CCTV system at City is 10 years old and is not fit for purpose in identifying offenders in Level 3, because it mirrors the North Stand layout. CCTV camera's have now been positioned on the roof of the South Stand in the hope that it can now pick up any Level 3 illegal behaviour. The CCTV system will be upgraded when orders are placed for the Arena CCTV system, when the two systems can be aligned.
* Increased signage has been added in the away end which specifically details missiles, pryro's and spitting - advising any caught will be arrested, charged and brought before the courts. Football banning orders will be implemented. This will be supported by messaging on the TV screens in the concourse.
* Plastic pint pots are now not available in the away end for all PL games (or in Level 2/3 for expanded away followings for cup games). The beer will be served in orange paper cups, easier to identify when being thrown and easier to spot by stewards when being brought into the stadium from the concourse. He did mention that Asahi objected strongly to this because paper cups affect the taste of their beer!
* For the Arsenal game on Friday the first FOUR rows of seats in L2 will be netted off. This allows the club to place supporter facing stewards and police in front of the first row without affecting viewing lines of spectators, all in enhanced fluorescent jackets to provide a visible deterrent to any potential idiots. He described this line of stewards/police as a "colour show" as is used in European stadiums for high profile games.
* Although the Arsenal game is officially a "medium risk" event, City will be deploying a "high risk" level of stewarding/police for the game. Bizarrely, the Club initially planned for a 4:30pm Sunday event, which would have been regarded as "high risk". The move to Friday night has reduced the risk apparently.
* The club have requested 5 x GMP PSU groups for the game on Friday, each PSU (Police Support Unit) is 27 officers.
* There will also be an additional 100 stewards in place on Friday night.
The club is looking at several options to erect netting for future Cup games with expanded away allocations. City will be the first Premier League club to erect netting, so it has to be right and this will be in place next season.
Reading between the lines, the security team do not agree with the softly, softly "holistic" approach to calling out the behaviour of away fans at the Etihad. This is borne out by the club not publicising the arrests made at the Chelsea game, whilst making statements calling out alleged homophobic chants by City fans.
That's it, in a nutshell. Make of it what you will, but Friday will be the acid test.
Up the fucking Blues.