Official UEFA Cup 07/08 Thread

[Summers]

Disgusting. I saw the videos earlier today, and I wish every one of the fans who was involved in attacking two police officers could be shot in the stomach.

The fact that they gang assaulted, like fucking animals, men who live to protect us and keep us safe is fucking disgusting. Bannings and fines should be handed out.

But Rangers get a lot with a lot - as Villa fans know.

[IAceI]

The guy who got jumped on has given an interview, think he said that he was attacked by Rangers fans, and at the same time when he tried to run away, a Rangers fan grabbed him and ran him to safety and got him out of harms way.

It's typical. There's always some bad fans, and there's always some good fans.

People just want to make fun of their bad fans, and the fans of the team want to defend their fellow fans. When usually, neither people are right.

But I agree with Sum, attacking a policeman is just wrong. All this "they weren't capable of stopping them", to be fair though, why should the fans have to charge like stampeding bulls in the first place?

Also can someone give me a link to where all these Zenit St. Petersburg fans were chanting racist stuff? I'm not doubting it happened, it's highly likely from an Eastern Bloc country but just want to read it and see. And I think complaining about a pitch invasion is just a bit low, if Rangers had won they'd have done the same and it'd have been brilliant and fantastic.

[Captain Kirk]

It was more just highlighting Manchester's inability to control anything that day.

[Dan]

To be fair, it's not easy to control 120,000 mad Scots with a weeks warning.

[therockbox]

The fans without tickets were told not to travel by the police and numerous supporters groups.

The blame lies entirely with the fans on this occasion.

[Summers]

The people blaming the Mancs and the police are completely ridiculous.

[TMM]

There's a reason police start planning for these things weeks/months in advance, but they only had about a week to prepare for ridiculous numbers, so no it is not their fault, it is the fault of a 100,000 drunk Scots who started drinking the second they arrived and were hammered hours before kick-off.

[Lineker]

This never would have happened in London.

[METALMAN]

There's a reason police start planning for these things weeks/months in advance, but they only had about a week to prepare for ridiculous numbers, so no it is not their fault, it is the fault of a 100,000 drunk Scots who started drinking the second they arrived and were hammered hours before kick-off.

100,000 drunk Scots? I think not.

[Captain Kirk]

More like 200,000 and only a minority caused trouble when I got to piccadilly station it was a sea of blue noone without Rangers tops look at how many in the riots had RFC tops on I know there was quite a few but it seems quite weird that the majority of rioters didn't have Rangers tops even though 99.8% of fans had Rangers tops on.

[ADG]

Just to add my two cents to this having been down there and seeing it first hand, there's a lot of blame to go around.

Manchester Council itself is at blame for a lack of preparation. Saying they only had a week to prepare is bullshit, they had months to face up to the possibility that a British team could get to the final. Tottenham, Everton, Aberdeen and Rangers all were still in the competition after the group stages, there was always a significant chance one of them could have got to the final. To not prepare for that eventuality is entirely their own fault. Manchester looked at the semi-final draw and expected the glory game of Fiorentina versus Bayern in the final. They didn't consider Rangers getting through and when they did they panicked and were indecisive about what to do. Their entire course of action with the final was flawed. They anticipated 100,000 fans yet only put in plans that would cater for roughly 30,000 of them (at a stretch). The "fan zones" were badly planned. Albert Square had FOUR portaloos for 10,000 people, TWO small screens and no security barriers or police presence actually in the crowd. Piccadilly Gardens was the same in the afternoon with the police seemingly soaking up the carnival atmosphere. The police spent more time during the day acting as tourist information rather than police officers, happy to direct you to a shop for more alcohol and pose for pictures. To complain about the mess is also ridiculous. I saw two bins in Albert Square, both small wheelie bins. They were overflowing within minutes and then moved away.

The police have to take some of the blame for their response. In no way am I attempting to justify the horrific acts of a minority of the Rangers support, attacking the police is simply wrong, but the police, when they did finally kick into gear were heavy handed with a lot of fans not involved in the rioting. Their response with services in the city was idiotic. Instead of allowing a lot of downhearted fans to leave the city, they closed down all the bus and train services and told all the taxis to get off the streets. This left A LOT of fans with no way of getting to where they were staying and so had to sleep in a bus station (like me). Couple that with the fact they shuttered every public toilet they could and told all pubs, bars, restaurants, take aways, cafes and 24 hour newsagents to close wasn't a great idea either.

Attempting to say the blame lies with the fans as a whole for choosing to go down isn't right at all. I went down to watch a game of football and enjoy myself in what is likely going to be the biggest game in Rangers history for quite some time. I didn't go down to fight and neither did the 199,500 other well behaved fans that were there. A small minority - a lot wearing Chelsea shirts as it happens - were there to cause trouble.

And one final thing, having 24 hour licensing laws is quite clearly not helping this situation. If you allow fans to be drinking from 10 in the morning, then turn around and tell them after nine hours that they're not going to see the game, that is just inviting trouble.

[Summers]

How dare police be heavy handed with people who are drunk and rioting. What are they thinking? Rioting never hurt nobody.

[ADG]

How dare police be heavy handed with people who are drunk and rioting. What are they thinking? Rioting never hurt nobody.

With the rioters fine, be heavy handed, but not with those not involved in it, which is what I said.