Birmingham nightclub suspended after Cody Fisher stabbing

• Following Boxing Day events, Crane’s license was suspended for 28 days.
• Cody Fisher’s “dance floor altercation” revealed “disorder and drug use.”
• Crane said it was focused on “helping support the fullest possible investigation”.

The license of the Birmingham nightclub where a 23-year-old football player was fatally stabbed has been suspended for 28 days.

After the police claimed that there had been “severe management failings” at the Crane nightclub, Birmingham City Council convened an emergency meeting.

Cody Fisher was killed amid “a scuffle on the dance floor,” said to the West Midlands force, and police subsequently saw “a scene of disorder and drug usage.”

The suspension is in force awaiting the outcome of a full review hearing, which will happen later.

Following the Boxing Day events, managers of the Digbeth club declared that they were collaborating with law enforcement (26 December).

According to a sergeant, after the stabbing, the club’s security guards requested police assistance with crowd control while other “oblivious” employees were “wandering about all over the area” and starting to clean up the murder scene.

“They have started to clean the dance floor further down from where the deceased was; officers shouted at them to stop,” the sergeant said.

“While officers are doing CPR, you can see people are just wandering around in the scene freely. As soon as we had more officers on the scene they were removed and the whole dance floor was cordoned off and the area was made sterile.

“There were hundreds of small drugs bags and nitrous oxide canisters all over the dance floor. These include the small and the very large nitrous oxide canisters with balloons.”

In a statement issued after the hearing, the nightclub said it was focused on “helping support the fullest possible investigation”.

“It cannot be business as usual at the Crane and we have not opposed the temporary license suspension requested by the police,” it said.

“It is much too early to comment on details or individual anecdotal accounts surrounding this appalling event; these must be sifted and assessed with care, and we welcome that.

“We recognize that issues such as checks and security facilities employed at the venue on that evening must come under close scrutiny, and whilst our contracted security staff are qualified professionals licensed by the SIA, this will nevertheless be the subject of a careful and detailed review.”

In relation to the stabbing, police said they had detained a 22-year-old male in London at around 03:30 GMT on Thursday.

He is the third individual to be detained on suspicion of murdering Mr. Fisher, a left-back for Stratford who also played for Stourbridge and Bromsgrove Sporting, two non-league clubs. The athlete also held a coaching position at a school in Redditch, Worcestershire.

Four more people have been detained on suspicion of helping a criminal.

A post-mortem analysis has determined Mr. Fisher died from a stab wound, and police have seized a knife from the scene of the crime.

The Monday game between Stratford Town and Bromsgrove Sporting, for whom Mr. Fisher played more than 50 times, has been postponed.

A statement from the Southern League on Stratford Town’s website said: “The cruel and savage events of Boxing Day that resulted in the fatal stabbing of Stratford Town’s Cody Fisher has brought hurt and pain to so many.

“Stratford Town [is] advising the league that players, management, staff and supporters are struggling to overcome the incident and request time to seek professional help for those that need it and as such, as a club, are in no fit state to fulfil the fixture.

“The league and its board sends its best wishes to all those affected, hoping that the pain begins to heal.”

In a statement on its website, Bromsgrove Sporting said: “A request was made to the league by Stratford Town to postpone the match as their players, some of whom were with Cody on that night, will need more time and support to come to terms with what has happened.

“We at Sporting fully understand and support Stratford’s players’ feelings.

“Some things are more important than football.”

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