UEFA to reprimand XXXXXXXXX fans

KdjaCL

XXXXXXXXXX supporters have been identified as the worst behaved at European matches in a report to be handed by UEFA to the British Government in Brussels on Tuesday.

The report, which has been compiled by undercover police agents from a neutral European force over the last four years, will be given by UEFA president Michel Platini to British sports minister Richard Caborn.

UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said: 'The incidents involving XXXXXXXXXl fans have been well known to us before the trouble at the Champions League final, which involved XXXXXXXXX fans last week.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/2007/0603/liverpool.html

Aww crap the club name is in the link, easier to blame a club than admit your own ineptness.


kdjac

Chucky the tree

if they had been known to cause trouble, you'd think they'd make sure was in perfect order for CL final then wouldnt you?



Or not, eh william.

Guy:Incognito

UEFA wrote:

Gaillard added: 'You must ask yourself why at the same match, with the same conditions, there was no trouble with the Milan fans - only the Liverpool fans.'

So when UEFA say Liverpool fans were fighting, who were they fighting with? themselves?

They made great fuss of the fact there were clashes between the fans in athens, but no apparently it was just Liverpool fans.

I'm actually surprised they didnt use thsi oppertunity to lump in English fans in General. Nice easy target that no one objects to pointing their fingers at. The Europeans would love the chance for a bit of "I told you so".

mike65

William Gaillard is viewed as a dope within UEFA - and thats not my speculation twas said by another UEFA big-wig "off the record". He seems to have it in for Liverpool and Platini (idiot Blatter clone) will love this.

edit. Here's Gaillard speaking before the game

"The two groups of supporters have a tradition of good behaviour and at this point we are expecting that to continue."

Mike.

therecklessone

I'll wait to see the actual report before I draw any conclusions.

As for Gaillard? Responding to the news that Conservative MP Michael Howard had criticised preparations for the final, he said "It is very easy to say it is not a suitable stadium, coming from the man that invented the poll tax."

mike65

That kind of reposte illustrates perfectly why Gaillard is a joke. He did'nt address the issue, he attacked the questioner. btw Spurs fans got mashed at Seville remember, what did UEFA do about that? Fu0ck all as Spurs is a English team and we know what UEFA thinks of Prem sides do'nt we?

Mike.

therecklessone

mike65 wrote:

That kind of reposte illustrates perfectly why Gaillard is a joke. He did'nt address the issue, he attacked the questioner.

He should get a week's holiday from UEFA. I wonder who grants access in Nyon?

mike65 wrote:

bte Spurs fans got mashed at Seville remember, what did UEFA do about that? Fu0ck all as Spurs is a English team and we know what UEFA thinks of Prem sides do'nt we?

Myself included. Still no word from them about events that evening, bit harder for them to blame drunken English hooligans when Met Police and the UK embassy had observers in the crowd reporting on the robocops' thuggery. Also, the prospect of law suits from Spurs fans (the club have over 300 individual accounts from fans affected by Spanish plod, and provided a forum just before the end of the season for affected fans to put questions to a senior QC) helps focus the mind...

Dub13

UEFA smear campaign

Tony Barrett Link

So it's official then, Liverpool fans are the worst in all of Europe.

Worse than the Italian fans who left the wife of a police officer widowed. Worse than the French fans who held an anti-semitic rally which turned violent and resulted in the death of an officer from the Gendarmerie. Worse than the Inter Milan fans who on one occasion launched a scooter from an upper tier of the San Siro and on another caused a Champions League quarter final match to be abandoned by hurling flares on to the pitch.

Worse than the Man United fans who clashed with riot police in Rome.

That's right, in the past four years Liverpool fans have been on the rampage across Europe and have caused more death and destruction than any of these incidents.
Except, of course, they haven't. Only in UEFA's (and the News of the World's) eyes has their behaviour been the worst in the whole continent. Now what would make UEFA contradict everything we know to be true to come out with such an outlandish and unfounded slur?

Let me think........

Could it perhaps me that they're trying desperately to whitewash what really happened in Athens prior to the European Cup final and their own shambolic organisation?
Far be it from me to suggest it but that is what it seems like.

Apparently, they have a dossier of "25 incidents" over the last four years to prove their point but unless they can come up with incidents where the behaviour of Liverpool supporters is anywhere near as bad as those listed above then I'm afraid their dossier will be shown up to be exactly what it is - a desperately cheap shot in their increasingly nasty smear campaign. And when their best examples of this apparently disgraceful behaviour come down to a few flags being nicked from the Olympic stadium and tickets being snatched from kids then we really are into the realms of the ridiculous.

Those who snatched tickets before the final have been condemned on this blog and by the majority of Liverpool fans. But are those who did it really worse than those who killed a police officer in Italy? Do me a favour.
What worries me most is if the roles had been reversed and Liverpool fans (or any other English fans for that matter) had killed an officer of the law then we would now be banned from Europe. That's the way UEFA have operated for years. English fans cause trouble and they're condemned and hit with the most severe sanctions. Italian or Turkish fans cause trouble - and over a long period of time - and they're hit with petty fines. My second big worry is while UEFA are rewriting history, no-one from Liverpool Football Club has spoken out on favour of the fans.

Now I know it's the closed season and I know everyone's entitled to a holiday but in the age of the internet and mobile phones surely it's not beyond the call of duty for some high ranking LFC official to come out in our defence. Even from a corporate point of view - and we all know that's the one that matters most in the modern game - the Liverpool "brand" is taking a hiding.

In the absence of anything from the club, every news operation in the country is dining out on UEFA's smears. Sky Sports News - a close relative of the News of the World - keeps on running that same 15 second snatch of footage from Athens which shows about three lads bunking in as if it provides concrete evidence of what UEFA is claiming. If Liverpool say nothing then UEFA's version of history will become the accepted version of events and it will be used against the club and its fans for evermore. Surely that provides enough motivation to provoke a response. If not, then are we to believe that Liverpool share UEFA's views of the fans?

The ironic thing is, or maybe it's not ironic when you inhabit UEFA's world of double standards, just two years ago we were being praised as Europe's finest fans in the world during the post-Istanbul glow. That was despite the fact that this damning dossier was by then two years old and we were, as it transpires, well on our way to being named as Europe's worst.

Another irony is that just before the final our friend William Galliard was telling anyone who would listen that there would be no trouble in Athens because there was no recent history of problems involving fans of either Liverpool or Milan. Now he's got us down as the biggest gang of rapists and pillagers since the Vikings took Europe by storm.

Could it possibly be that now he's rewriting history to cover his own arse?
All these 25 incidents that have got the Liverpool fans marked down as Europe's worst happened before the final in Athens.
So if they are so bad why wasn't this reflected in the organisation and the security for the game.

If you were told that there'd been 25 burglaries in your street then would you leave the front door wide open and turn the alarm off? And if you did would your insurance company not laugh in your face when you told them you'd been broken into?

UEFA are having it all ways. They're now saying Liverpool fans are the worst in Europe but nothing they said or did in the lead up to the final suggested they believed this then.

The only thing that's changed since is their organisation has been shown up to be a sham and they want the spotlight pointed in another direction.

It's no surprise that they've pointed it at us because they see us as their get out of jail free card and unless someone from Liverpool FC comes out in defence of their fans then they will succeed in getting away with it.

Mossy Monk

Dub13 wrote:

Tony Barrett Link

So it's official then, Liverpool fans are the worst in all of Europe.

Worse than the Italian fans who left the wife of a police officer widowed. Worse than the French fans who held an anti-semitic rally which turned violent and resulted in the death of an officer from the Gendarmerie. Worse than the Inter Milan fans who on one occasion launched a scooter from an upper tier of the San Siro and on another caused a Champions League quarter final match to be abandoned by hurling flares on to the pitch.

Very true. This whole thing is a load of bollocks.

mike65

When the report is released (if it ever is to the public) I'll look fowards to the
detailing of what constitutes an incident.

Mike.

Stky10

Yeah I think UEFA could well regret digging this particular hole for themselves. They've left themselves wide open for a wide variety of comebacks and reprisals, and it might go down badly with the G14. Their failure to admit any failures around the organisation of Athens looks bad on Platini as well. As the greatest European footballer of his generation, he would have been given the benefit of the doubt where technocrats like Johannson and Blatter would not, but the poo from this will stick to him.

PHB

I'm kinda disappointed with UEFA. I expected them to criticise Liverpool fans a lot, and justifyably so, but if these events keep happening, people are going to die, and until UEFA realise that they have to take total repsonsibility for everything, people are still going to die.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Parry responds...

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N156095070604-1103.htm

The Muppet

The suits are just trying to pass the buck as usual, The minority of fans that stole tickets etc didn't do the clubs reputation any favours but from what I have read UEFA should ultimately be braught to book over the whole fiasco.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Even if uefa did take the blame there is no excusing what the fans did. Now it is massively unlikely that UEFA will ever take the blame, when have they ever ? They have repeatedly screwed over fans playing big games in crap venues (liverpool twice being stuck in them) and never come out and taken any responsibility for it. There should be some nature of minimum requirements for the CL final and the Uefa too for that matter and I cannot se how something as fundamental as that can be ignored again and again and again.

Ardent

Gaillard backtracks:

Liverpool fans the worst in UEFA study
Mon Jun 4, 2007 12:59PM BST

BERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Premier League side Liverpool's supporters have been branded the most troublesome in Europe, according to a report compiled from international police statistics.

UEFA said on Monday it would be handing the study to sports minister Richard Caborn during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"There have been over 25 incidents involving Liverpool supporters since 2003, some of them small, some more worrisome," UEFA spokesman William Gaillard told Reuters.

Gaillard insisted though that UEFA were not labelling Liverpool as Europe's worst club, since the statistic did not take into account the severity of the incidents.

While European football has been rocked by fatal cases of hooliganism this season involving French and Italian fans, Gaillard said the problems with Liverpool often involved supporters trying to enter stadiums without tickets.

"We cannot compare apples and oranges," Gaillard said.

"The problems with Liverpool have not been big enough to earn the club any sanctions from UEFA which means we are probably talking about a few small groups causing trouble outside of the stadiums.

"This is not about saying that Liverpool are the worst club. But we received this police report and thought it was a relevant time to pass on our concerns to the sports minister."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/footballNews/idUKSP29493220070604

Thanx 4 The Fish

interesting that he says there that the actions have not been bad enough to warrant any sanctions from UEFA, in direct contrast to what he originally said.

Wonder how his credibility is looking these days. :rolleyes:

Dub13

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

interesting that he says there that the actions have not been bad enough to warrant any sanctions from UEFA, in direct contrast to what he originally said

Very true,some Italian teams have had sanctions from UEFA playing games behind closed doors etc yet we are the worst in Europe.Thats a bit strange IMO.

Let's not forget that these same supporters who Mr Gaillard is claiming are now the worst in Europe were praised by Uefa President Michel Platini after our semi-final victory against Chelsea only last month, commended for their behavior in Istanbul in 2005 and actually honored by Uefa at a gala dinner in Monte Carlo in 2001 as joint Supporters of the Years with Alves after the UEFA Cup final."

Guy:Incognito

How can they justify playing major games in stdiums that dont have turnstiles?

KdjaCL

Ridden Rock Solid


kdjac

therecklessone

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

There should be some nature of minimum requirements for the CL final and the Uefa too for that matter and I cannot se how something as fundamental as that can be ignored again and again and again.

There are clicky

mike65

Just read that link and NO mention of crowd control!

A permanent TV surveillance system in colour that is able to monitor the movement of spectators, as well as their behaviour inside and outside the stadium. This installation must also be able to produce still shots of any troublemakers, which can then be distributed immediately to the security officers / stewards in the stadium.

would have read better if they also had

Entrances to venue must have accountable system for reading tickets and counting of spectators with fixed turnstyles and ticket scanners.

Mike.

GuanYin

In fairness, UEFA have always been a joke of an organisation. Not quite on the level of FIFA, but they repeatedly have officials say things that aren't offical stances and either get involved where there is no need or refuse to get involved when there is need.

This latest debacle by them is pretty much par for the course.

mike65

Gaillard starts tacking his sails

By Mark Ledsom

BERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Premier League side Liverpool's supporters have been branded the most troublesome in Europe, according to a report compiled from international police statistics.

UEFA said on Monday it would be handing the study to sports minister Richard Caborn during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"There have been over 25 incidents involving Liverpool supporters since 2003, some of them small, some more worrisome," UEFA spokesman William Gaillard told Reuters.

Gaillard insisted though that UEFA were not labelling Liverpool as Europe's worst club, since the statistic did not take into account the severity of the incidents.

While European football has been rocked by fatal cases of hooliganism this season involving French and Italian fans, Gaillard said the problems with Liverpool often involved supporters trying to enter stadiums without tickets.

"We cannot compare apples and oranges," Gaillard said.

"The problems with Liverpool have not been big enough to earn the club any sanctions from UEFA which means we are probably talking about a few small groups causing trouble outside of the stadiums.

"This is not about saying that Liverpool are the worst club. But we received this police report and thought it was a relevant time to pass on our concerns to the sports minister.

:rolleyes:

Mike.

Dub13

Fat lot of good that will do now,half the media outlets in Europe have reported that we are the most troublesome fans in Europe.

PHB

A pretty good article on this

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Fiver/0,,2095250,00.html

GuanYin

Way to backtrack. Gaillard seems like a spa.

How anyone can brand Liverpool fans the worst in Europe is beyond me. Have any of the UEFA executive ever been to a Rome derby? Or even a Millwall match?

Guy:Incognito

Jesus, people trying to blag their way into grounds constitutes dangerous incidents now?

Wherever there is lax security, there will always be people trying to get in for free. The problem escalates when the event is being run in shambolic fashion like the cl final. I'd hardly consider it a problem anyway, its not liek people burgling houses, your talking about people trying to get in to a match that they couldnt get a ticket for.

The Muppet

Liverpool FC should go after him and seek his resignation, His comments were a disgraceful slur on the club and it's decent fans.

There have been over 25 incidents involving Liverpool supporters since 2003, some of them small, some more worrisome," UEFA spokesman William Gaillard told Reuters.

25 incidents in four years, you could get that in one night on O Connell street.

Guy:Incognito

The Muppet wrote:

Liverpool FC should go after him and seek his resignation, His comments were a disgraceful slur on the club and it's decent fans..

I'd imagine the G14 are loving this and will throw their weight right behind Liverpool too.

Thanx 4 The Fish

PHB wrote:

A pretty good article on this

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Fiver/0,,2095250,00.html

A pretty good article ? Do you really think that it is good or do you just want to link to a paper to slag off liverpool again ? I am just curious as this is your normal MO and I really do not see anybody bar somebody trying to stir trouble seeing this as a good article.

cupthehand

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Liverpool will not face any sanctions by UEFA following a report into security problems at last month's Champions League Final, senior sources at European football's governing body said on Monday.

Citing the document, to be submitted to the Minister for Sport Richard Caborn on Tuesday, sources confirmed no action will be taken against the club, despite evidence that a number of Liverpool fans were to blame for the trouble in Athens.

"The report draws up some proposals, not sanctions. There will be no disciplinary action taken against Liverpool," one UEFA source told Reuters.

UEFA previously blamed Liverpool fans with forged tickets or those with no ticket for forcing their way into Athens' Olympic Stadium on May 23 for the match against AC Milan, while dozens of fans with genuine tickets were refused entry.

When Liverpool fans tried to enter the stadium, the situation threatened to escalate out of control and Greek police fired tear gas and used batons.

But although the report acknowledges that the trouble "was at the Liverpool end" and their opponents "were not to blame", it does not point the finger at the club or the majority of its fans.

"The report is more of a narrative on what happened from start to finish and proposes how to deal with it better in the future such as better police cooperation and a better strategy," another source said.

Ironically, the report will highlight the benefits of police tactics already used by British police forces at football matches, the source said.

BLAME GAME

UEFA, Liverpool and British authorities will hope news of the report's contents will calm tensions in the aftermath of the match which has led to a war of words over who was to blame for the trouble.

The atmosphere worsened ahead of Tuesday's report when a top UEFA official indicated that the document would identify Liverpool as a problem club, pointing to 25 incidents involving the English club.

However, both UEFA and British government officials said they were not seeking a confrontation when Caborn meets UEFA President Michel Platini on Tuesday in Brussels.

Caborn called on Monday for "an end to the blame game".

"This is not about UEFA versus Liverpool or UEFA versus England fans, we must all stop playing the blame game and stop pointing fingers at people," he told Reuters.

William Gaillard, advisor to UEFA President Michel Platini and the official at the centre of the dispute, told Reuters:

"Yes the troublemakers were Liverpool fans, but these were a minority of Liverpool fans. As I said the day after the final, 99 percent of Liverpool fans are fine, but this minority causes the problems.

"They need to be taught that attending a game is not a right it is a privilege which you must pay for. You can't take a tube in London for instance without for a proper ticket."

GATES OPENED

The report will say there was a moment of panic when the Greek police rightly opened the gates to prevent further trouble, stating that "a few hundred of the many thousands of supporters took the law into their own hands".

"The report says Liverpool stewards, who are capable at home in their own stadium, were unable to be influential on the night," the source said,

The UEFA document also includes evidence from various Liverpool fans with legitimate tickets who were forced to sit on each other's laps -- or stand up -- as a result of forged duplicate tickets.

A second report and more detailed report will be collated and sent to the Home Office in the coming weeks, UEFA said.

It confirmed that a probe was also continuing into how around 800 Liverpool supporters got tickets in the Milan end which were known to be distributed to AC Milan.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/070604/2/stxy.html

PHB

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

A pretty good article ? Do you really think that it is good or do you just want to link to a paper to slag off liverpool again ? I am just curious as this is your normal MO and I really do not see anybody bar somebody trying to stir trouble seeing this as a good article.

If I wanted to slag off Liverpool I would, it's pretty easy really, I wouldn't need an article to do it.

I think this article points out how wrong both sets of people are. UEFA should cop on and fix their procedures. Liverpool should find out which group of 5000 fans attempted to storm into the stadium and ban them for life. Both groups are massively at fault, and both sets fail to recognise the problems they both have. This article points this out, so yeh, I think it's a pretty good article.

jesus_thats_gre

Was a pretty poor article in fairness. Shockingly bad actually.

GuanYin

PHB wrote:

If I wanted to slag off Liverpool I would, it's pretty easy really, I wouldn't need an article to do it.

I think this article points out how wrong both sets of people are. UEFA should cop on and fix their procedures. Liverpool should find out which group of 5000 fans attempted to storm into the stadium and ban them for life. Both groups are massively at fault, and both sets fail to recognise the problems they both have. This article points this out, so yeh, I think it's a pretty good article.

It's shockingly badly written and very tabloidish. In fairness, to paraphrase Dylan Moran, if I stuck a broom handle up my ass and bounced up and down on a trampoline, in an elevator, I could write a better article on the walls.

PHB

It's shockingly badly written and very tabloidish. In fairness, to paraphrase Dylan Moran, if I stuck a broom handle up my ass and bounced up and down on a trampoline, in an elevator, I could write a better article on the walls.

Hey, I'm not saying the guy is a magical writer, I'm talking about the point it's making, and the point it's making is not being made by anyone else in the media that i've seen. If you're going to start judging football articles by the quality of writing, I think you'll be in for a shock

GuanYin

PHB wrote:

Hey, I'm not saying the guy is a magical writer, I'm talking about the point it's making, and the point it's making is not being made by anyone else in the media that i've seen. If you're going to start judging football articles by the quality of writing, I think you'll be in for a shock

Well tabloid-ish covered it I think. The point he's making is tainted with what I can only perceive as his (and your) prejudice.

You see alot of these type of blurbs, usually they latch onto a point someone has made elsewhere in an intelligent and coherent manner and try bring it down to the lowest common denominator, or lower again if they can.

Honestly, I have no love for Liverpool and I think it's a pile of crap of an article, then again, it is the Guardian and if you've ever watched their soccer commentaries or read their coverage you'd know they pride themselves on being sensationalist piss take artists.

PHB

Ah yes, if I criticise Liverpool it must be cause I hate them. In case you hadn't noticed, I spent most of my time pointing out how UEFA were completely inept in the initial thread about this.
Then when I point out an article which points out how both sides are just hiding their head in their hands, it must be because I'm anti-Liverpool.

To be honest, I think the responce to the post proves the very point. It's always about somebody else, it's always them doing something wrong, it's never the people who are also at fault. And anybody who points that out, will get the responce of, OMFG< YOU ARE LIKE SO ANTI_LIVERPOOL< LIKE FFS< STOP FLAMING.

Jesus christ like

GuanYin

PHB wrote:

Ah yes, if I criticise Liverpool it must be cause I hate them. In case you hadn't noticed, I spent most of my time pointing out how UEFA were completely inept in the initial thread about this.
Then when I point out an article which points out how both sides are just hiding their head in their hands, it must be because I'm anti-Liverpool.

To be honest, I think the responce to the post proves the very point. It's always about somebody else, it's always them doing something wrong, it's never the people who are also at fault. And anybody who points that out, will get the responce of, OMFG< YOU ARE LIKE SO ANTI_LIVERPOOL< LIKE FFS< STOP FLAMING.

Jesus christ like

You know what the word "perceive" means? yes?

PHB

I do yes, and you think my points are, what was the word you used, 'tainted', by what you 'perceive' to be my prejudice.

RE*AC*TOR

Jesus Christ. I have to say, I heard the reports over the weekend and I somewhat took it at face value, and was quite disspointed to be honest. I had held the view for a while that Liverpool fans generally good natured and not prone to violence etc. But as alot of people know there is a movement not to cover trouble at grounds in england in recent times.

However, this is quite evident that UEFA are trying to deflect blame in a fairly severe way over the security etc in Athens. So its a fact that alot of Liverpool fans turned up without tickets, which by and large Milan fans didn't do. Those Liverpool fans shouldn't have been allowed get anywhere near the entrance to the ground.

Like the person falsely accused of rape though, this kind of slur might linger with Pool fans, and that's unfortunate.

Guy:Incognito

Is Wembley due to get a final anytime soon? At least then when the game goes off without incidents like what happened in Athens, it will be in no doubt that Uefa are a bunch of tools and a lot of other countries are ill prepared for these games.

Anyone know what the stadium in Moscow is like for next years final? Have they turnstiles at least?

Thanx 4 The Fish

PHB wrote:

Ah yes, if I criticise Liverpool it must be cause I hate them. In case you hadn't noticed, I spent most of my time pointing out how UEFA were completely inept in the initial thread about this.
Then when I point out an article which points out how both sides are just hiding their head in their hands, it must be because I'm anti-Liverpool.

To be honest, I think the responce to the post proves the very point. It's always about somebody else, it's always them doing something wrong, it's never the people who are also at fault. And anybody who points that out, will get the responce of, OMFG< YOU ARE LIKE SO ANTI_LIVERPOOL< LIKE FFS< STOP FLAMING.

Jesus christ like

And the oscar for best going over the top in defence of a poorly written article on a bulletin board goes to...................(Drumroll)

Of course it's PHB....

I think you will find that there is no doubt that some liverpool fans were foolish and wrong in the extreme, but that is nothing that hasn't been said already on this forum, but Jesus H Christ, can you not see that poorly written sensationalist piece of toilet paper for what it is ?

Which bit of this rubbish gave you the biggest giggle ?

"a predictable level of whining on Merseyside that was so high-pitched only dogs with particularly good hearing could make it out it. Luckily, the Fiver's highly literate pooch Despond was able to translate and, for an extra bowl of Winalot and a 10-minute scratch of his flea-infested tum-tum, was happy to tell us what Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry had to say."

Hahahahahaha a talking dog.....

Bongo FC are giving the glad eye to the aforementioned jug-eared crowd-pleaser Franny Jeffers.

Hahahahahahaha he has big ears and he called him jug ears....

Liverpool fans: Europe's most dangerous marauders since Attila the Hun and chums

Vile vicious liverpool fans why can't they all just...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That's not the whistle blowing at the end of another hard day in Wigan's satanic mills

Literary genius that lad.....
pretty good article :rolleyes:

Dub13

Its only when a cock up like Athens happens that you release how good the Police in the UK are at crowed control.On any Sat the Met in London could have to deal with anything up to 20 large groups of fans traveling all over London,and they very rarely have an incident.

GuanYin

PHB wrote:

I do yes, and you think my points are, what was the word you used, 'tainted', by what you 'perceive' to be my prejudice.

Well in the context of the article, because thats what we're talking about I said it was "tainted with what I can only perceive (again in the context of the article for the writer and your agreement with it) is prejudice.

How does that translate to:

PHB wrote:

if I criticise Liverpool it must be cause I hate them

it must be because I'm anti-Liverpool.

And anybody who points that out, will get the responce of, OMFG< YOU ARE LIKE SO ANTI_LIVERPOOL< LIKE FFS< STOP FLAMING

So no, not if you criticise Liverpool you're anti Liverpool, but if you think that tripe has an intelligent slant then it can be perceived so.

Actually, your reponse was about on a par with the article in terms of over-reactionary sensationalism, so it may explain why you like it so.

Im not a liverpool fan nor do i condone hooliganism , but there are alot more teams that should not be in the CL. AC Milan should not be there, the whole Italian league should be disqualified for all what went on there.

With regards to fans in the CL, i seem to recall Turkey being the worst, yet nothing was done about that .

In saying that, i was in Liverpool during the world cup during Englands first match with my girlfriend. I found myself in the middle of a riot, this was never shown on the TV. Infact it was covered up. But if measures are taken against liverpool, well it should be taken accross the board with all other teams in all other countries.

PHB

Which bit of this rubbish gave you the biggest giggle ?

This bit I liked most

"Lift! Sweep-sweep-sweep! Lift! Sweep-sweep-sweep!" That's the sound of Liverpool FC and its fans using big bristly yard brushes to sweep the bad behaviour of their supporters in Athens on Big Cup final night under the carpet. "Lift! Sweep-sweep-sweep! Lift! Sweep-sweep-sweep!" And that's the sound of the cleaner at Uefa HQ who's just been told to sweep the bout of bureaucratic bungling that encouraged this tomfoolery under the carpet.

I thought it was quite apt.

---

Well in the context of the article, because thats what we're talking about I said it was "tainted with what I can only perceive (again in the context of the article for the writer and your agreement with it) is prejudice.

How does that translate to...

Well tabloid-ish covered it I think. The point he's making is tainted with what I can only perceive as his (and your)[b/] prejudice.

So no, not if you criticise Liverpool you're anti Liverpool, but if you think that tripe has an intelligent slant then it can be perceived so.

So that's basically it, I could re-iterate my rant again, but it's quite simple, if I don't agree with your nice viewpoint, it must be because of bias, which is why my 'sensationalism' was talking about.
p.s. I wasn't just criticizing you, I was pointing out the laughableness of some of the other responses as well, such as

I am just curious as this is your normal MO and I really do not see anybody bar somebody trying to stir trouble seeing this as a good article.

Necronomicon

If I was a Liverpool fan, I'd be really pissed off.

Gaillard's remarks were out of line, and could be potentially hurtful if local police and stewards take them to heart and decide to be a bit more stringent when Liverpool fans come to their town next season.

He should have apologised instead of trying to dig his way back out of his hole, he's just come out of it looking like an even bigger tool for it.

Stky10

Some interesting articles about the fallout of this

http://www.thisisanfield.com/columnists/2007/06/gerrard-puts-uefa-straight/

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/article.php?id=3060093

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=459951&in_page_id=1951&ito=newsnow

ciaran76

I think there is a big blame game going on here and both sides should sit down now while its still fresh and sort out so that something like this doesn't happen again.

Of all fans in the world Liverpool fans should have know about rushing into a stadium without tickets that is 1 thing that shocked me.

UEFA (and the city officals where ever the final is being held) out of all the finals they manage to host they should know better then to let fans get within 2 miles of the ground without a ticket.

zing

Platini has now said that Liverpool fans are officially not the worst fans in Europe. Which leaves Gaillard looking like a complete twat.