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Post by Harry on May 16, 2008 17:03:06 GMT
This was reported on heavily in the Russian media while I was there -the public perception of Britain (remember to them the difference between Scottish, Welsh, Northern Island etc. is largely lost) generated by the whole process was very negative - there is a VERY strong image of British football fans there as been troublesome (some teams in Russia also have notorious fans like Millwall say does here btw) and the reaction from some locals who were chatting to us was that had they started up in the city we were in he would have readily supported the use of armed police to shut them down. The police in Russia while not the heavy handed gangsters of popular repute are closer to an army than a police force we would recognise. The thugs who carry on like this damage their own countries reputation elsewhere but considering their likely IQ I doubt that worrries them too much. I think the minority of fans reflect badly on the team but I do not think that it is fair to lablel all supporters as a result. Let us on the nationalist/republican side bear in mind that when the LoveUlster march collapsedi n disaster we pointed out that a minority of small minded thugs led to that result - here again this would seem to be the case and a few hundred people can do a lot of damage as I have been accidentally caught in riot situations on three occassions (most frighteningly the polll tax riots here where I was only going to meet my mum who worked near the main shopping street) and the damage I have seen a few hundred people cause on one of those occassions was terrific. Yeah good points pal  |
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Post by Jim on May 16, 2008 17:20:48 GMT
Ok so you don't want to deal with facts in relations to the numbers. Fine. I know Jim what the scummy bastards done. I'm making no excuse for their behaviour. I'm pointing out for the fucking 4th time that at least 98,000 supporters attended Manchester and behaved and enjoyed themselves. I'm accepting the damage that was done to the name of RFC. I don't really support RFC, i just hate dirty Celtic. My sister was there at picadilly. She was allowed into the park at 1915. She travelled to manchester as she knew their would be big screens. Fans were allowed to drink all day in the streets. Thousands of people there to watch the big screen and watch their team in the biggest game of their life and the fucking screen fails. Drunk and then unable to watch the game. recipe for disaster. She saw the last 5 mins of the game at her hotel room. She also said she saw no police in riot gear before the trouble so that pours questions over claims Police were out for trouble. I don't but that at all. Fact is people were upset and frustrated and they reacted appallingly. English Police are soft touches?? WTF. You've been in England a year or 2 and you know the lot  Mate! I've acknowledged that! I hope those 98,000 fans had a brilliant time in Manchester, its a great city. Maybe I am a bit biased because I support celtic and can't stand rangers at all and the other day really sealed that, on a few city forums even the lot supporting rangers before the match where absolutely raging and said they hope they never host rangers again. The screen fails mate and they started bottling the engineer! So he said to himself fuck it and left. There was another screen 5 minutes away and according to the MEN yesterday a good 10,000 couldnt be arsed and not a whole lot walked the 5 minutes to Exchange square, and started fighting with each other and with everyone around. The police were not out for trouble! That was one of my original points, infact its being said that they were having a policy of turning a blind eye for most of the day so trouble wouldnt kick off, and when the workers in Picadilly station just stopped working because of the trouble the transport police were powerless because they werent allowed to do owt else, so they told the staff at the train station to just stay in the staff-only areas and let them run rampant until they fuck off. Thats why they are soft touches. They wherent ready for the situation and didn't know how to handle it, I can't think of the last time the GMP had a crowd to control that massive that wasn't from Manchester or Liverpool. The GMP particularly, I don't know about the other forces. Even the City council wasnt expecting that many, the entire city was taken by surprise as more and more came in. Liverpool would be able to handle it, Glasgow would be able to handle it, but most crowd that go to Manchester for Champions league games or whatever else don't come on that scale. Last time I can think of the city being taken over was Celtic and it was only about 40,000. |
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Post by Wasp on May 16, 2008 20:05:08 GMT
There's only one team I support, and Harry's with me on that one. Rangers and Celtic can go Fcuk themselves. I am with yous as well but you don't support Arsenal. ;D ;D ;D |
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Post by Jim on May 17, 2008 2:15:40 GMT
Can't picture a manc saying that mate they're all feckin Irish anyway.
Don't know a single mancunian without an Irish connection. Not one.
TBH as much as I love Celtic, they're nothing to my love for City. Theres no competition there for my affections. CTID
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Post by Harry on May 17, 2008 12:09:02 GMT
Jim the whole of RFC have been let down by these thugs. The behaviour of the majority of fans doesn't matter now because these idiots have ruined it for us all.
However all this talk about violence in British football etc. I think Manchester was quite mild to what happens across Europe almost weekly. We have cleaned our act up over here and actually lead the way for the rest of world football.
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Post by Jim on May 17, 2008 17:11:09 GMT
I agree Harry to a certain extent, there has been worse incidents before and there will be worse in the future, but it was by no means mild or tame either.
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