Scottish hooligans may have jeopardised England's 2018 bid

Blackleaf · Scottish hooligans may have jeopardised England's 2018 bid

After hundreds of Scottish football hooligans went on the rampage in Manchester last night, England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup may have been jeopardised.

Rangers thugs went on the rampage after a giant screen in Piccadilly used to show the match broke down. The fans even attacked the workmen who were called out to repair the screen....

Rampaging Rangers fans 'may have jeopardised England's bid to stage 2018 World Cup'

15th May 2008
Daily Mail

Rampaging Rangers fans are a "disgrace" who could have jeopardised England's bid to host the 2018 football World Cup, Gordon Brown warned today.

The Prime Minister hit out at the supporters involved in violent clashes with police in Manchester last night - and said public drinking laws would also be reviewed.

"What happened last night was a disgrace," Mr Brown told reporters at this regular Downing Street press conference.

"It was a minority but it was completely unacceptable and for that to happen in a public place where the Manchester authorities had made available the facilities for people to enjoy the match.

"They have good reason, both the police and the authorities, to be very angry about what happened."

The FA is making a £15 million bid to bring the World Cup back to England for the first time since 1966 - a move sparked by the Prime Minister himself.

He said: "I want to do everything to avoid us being put in a position where we might be at risk of an application for the 2018 World Cup not being acceptable because of this.

"We've got to make sure we deal with problems and deal with them whenever they happen so we are looking at this as a matter of urgency."

"We do have laws that enable us to control drinking in public places where there is a risk of disorder. We will have to look at these laws for the future.

"Whatever the carnival atmosphere was at the beginning, the fact that it degenerated as a result of the minority being engaged in violence will lead us to have to look at this.

"The Home Secretary will be speaking to the Chief Constable about what happened," he said, praising the response of the Greater Manchester force.

One fan was stabbed and police made 42 arrests in hours of violence during and after Glasgow Rangers' defeat to Russian opponents Zenit St Petersburg.

Fan fury: The moment a police dog bites one of the rioting Rangers fan on the leg

Stand-off: Riot police with dogs pen a group of drunken Rangers fans in a doorway

Fifteen police officers, as well as a police dog, were left nursing a catalogue of injuries as hundreds of riot police and supporters fought running battles.

A lone police officer was tripped up and stamped on as he faced up to a baying mob of hundreds of Rangers fans, video footage showed today.

The officer was among seven riot officers seen retreating down a city centre street at about 10.15pm yesterday as they were vastly outnumbered by charging supporters.

CCTV images show the officers attempting in vain to keep the fans at arm's length as missiles of cans, bottles and rubbish are thrown at them.

Six of the officers eventually turn and run but one of the officers confronts the pack. He is punched before one of the mob trips him up and he falls to the ground.

The male officer is then set upon in Newton Street by a gang of about 20 fans who kick and stamp on him on the ground.

Rangers fans clash with police on the streets of Manchester last night

He eventually makes his escape as a stream of fans proceeds onwards, several with their arms aloft in celebration.

Greater Manchester Police said the officer suffered bruising to both arms, sore ribs and a puncture wound to the elbow, but was now recovering from his injuries.

In other footage released by police, a large group of supporters are seen to vandalise a car near a set of traffic lights as they smash the windows of the vehicle.

In a statement, police said the images portrayed the "measured response taken by officers in the face of mindless thuggery".

Another senior officer was hit so hard his electronic earpiece was left embedded in his head and had to be removed by doctors.

A third policeman was bottled over the head and another lost his front teeth after being head-butted by a Rangers hooligan.

Ambulance crews also came under attack in the violence and two paramedics were reportedly also injured.

Aftermath: A man crouches by his wounded friend amid the debris of the riots last night

Five men arrested for wounding with intent on suspicion of stabbing a rival Russian fan have been released - and it appears the knifeman has escaped.

Sixteen men are currently being held for public order offences, four for assault and four for violent disorder and affray. There were further arrests for throwing missiles, possessing an offensive weapon and criminal damage.

Some may appear in court this afternoon, after they have sobered up this morning.

Police chiefs said they were left "sickened and disappointed" with the behaviour of some fans.

Across the city centre this morning streets were strewn with rubbish, cans of beer and broken glass after an estimated 100,000 Rangers fans descended on Manchester for the big game.

An army of council workers will begin moving the mountains of rubbish but the Rangers' fans own reputation - and that of the city's for hosting events - may take longer to clean up.

Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran of Greater Manchester Police said: "A minority of thugs have overshadowed what should have been a great occasion."

She added: "I've watched them commit damage, assault my officers and I'm really sickened and disappointed."

An injured and bleeding fan, dressed in Union Jack shorts, is treated by paramedics

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council said: "We are having a full inquiry into the failure of the screen in Piccadilly Gardens.

"The vast majority of fans spent a peaceful evening in our city centre in a spirit of friendship and respect. But this has been spoiled by the bad behaviour of a minority. We cannot tolerate missiles and bottles being thrown."

Scores of bleary-eyed fans awoke hungover and shivering in the early morning, heading for the train station to begin the journey home, after sleeping in doorways for the night, using their flags as blankets.

Privately it is known that city officials wanted "anyone but Rangers" to get through to the final.

Publicly the council promised a warm welcome, with a relaxed attitude to fans drinking on the street - normally outlawed - and three fan zones with big screens.

Beer was on tap from off-licences with supporters carrying crates of cheap lager around - Tesco opened at 7am, 18 hours before kick-off.

Thugs: Rangers fans pose beside a car which was smashed up seconds earlier

No excuse: Furious Rangers fans took their frustration out telephone boxes in the city centre

Excitement mounted all day, as did the alcohol levels, with some fans spending hundreds of pounds on travel and hotels just to watch the game in the fan zones.

Throughout the day the atmosphere had been friendly but when a "technical hitch" hit the screen in Piccadilly Gardens, many fans, already heavily drunk, turned nasty.

Violence broke out at around 7.30pm and the trouble continued for around five hours.

The broken big screen was pelted with bottles, as were riot police as they moved in to try to quell the trouble. Police and council officials blamed a "minority" of fans for the violence.

Rangers fans blamed the local council's "shambolic" organisation, but another said the behaviour of his fellow supporters left him "ashamed to be a Scotsman".

Clean-up: The streets of Manchester were left strewn with more than 100 tonnes of rubbish

Costly: The clean-up of is expected to cost Manchester hundreds of thousands of pounds

There were similar dejected scenes in Glasgow, where 25,000 fans had watched the match on giant screens at the club's home ground, Ibrox Stadium.

On their return to Scotland, the Rangers players are expected to take part in a parade of honour on an open-top bus, which will travel through the city.

Paul Johnson, 25, from the Knightswood area of Glasgow, said: "I'm absolutely gutted. We were so close to a historic victory for our club but we just couldn't perform on the night.

"It was just a dream for us and we didn't quite make it."

Rangers lost the match 2-0.

Hair of the dog: Two Rangers fans drown their sorrows with a liquid breakfast this morning

dailymail.co.uk

Corby Boy

Glasgow Rangers Hardcore Supporters = Scotland's Shame.

Rangers should have points deducted as a deterrent and lifetime bans for those caught on camera.

Last Scottish Club in a Euro Final, Celtic in Seville 2003 - How many arrests, rioting?

No need for it and it disgrace's our country.

Cymro

I agree that those Rangers fans seriously let down the club and Scottish football on Wednesday. I'd seriously considered going along to Manchester with an old work friend on Wednesday, had it not that we'd no way of been able to get a place to stay I'd have gone. To say I'm glad I didn't go is an understatment! As you said Corby, after the huge praise heaped on Celtic fans in Seville this was an opportunity for Rangers fans to equal that, while the vast majority of fans did just this, the minority that acted like pricks of the highest perdigree ruined all this.

I'd be quite happy for UEFA to fine Rangers for this with that price being transfered to the cost of tickets and merchandise for fans. Only by penalising the fans directly will this kind of yobbish behaviour stop.

Still, on the brightside - it could ruin Englands chances of the World Cup! Every cloud does have a silver lining! Cool

macnumpty

No one covered themselves in glory. RFC were positively encouraging a six-figure number of fans down when it was obvious that the capacity wasn't there. Manchester City Council and the GMP had no idea what was heading their way, and supermarkets like Tesco were plugging booze at every opportunity then claiming to be responsible after easing off... despite only doing so because the Council told them to. A disgrace all round but the worst one to take is the bunch of apes sticking on a blue shirt and lying to the world by calling themselves 'supporters'. They are nothing of the sort. Evil or Very Mad

Still, if we're spared the cringeworthy sight of a bloke in a rubber dragon suit as per the Euro 96 opening ceremony, then something good will come out of it. Wink

Lord Pitsligo

The Daily Mash sums it up nicely, as usual:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/spo...-england-of-scotland-20080516956/

parkhead_rfb

how many rangers fans does it take to change a lightbulb?

none. they just throw bottles at it if it doesnt work.

they are ra peepul. Aberdeens highely likely to be next.

kevin04

alot of jokes going around about them, my fave is

the dog that bit the rangers fan had to get put down, it picked up Rabees from the Rangers fan.

macnumpty

I quite like the one about Rangers organising a pre-season friendly against the GMP, as they're the only people we can attack in Europe. Very Happy

linoleum

but.but.but.

there is another thread on this forum about the recent g20 protests.

posters spouted forth about the innocents attacked by the police and if the riot gear and uniforms were removed they would be arrested for their thuggish behaviour.

also police referred to as scumbags for allegedly beating a man.

the police are referred to as animals.

talk of aggresive riot cops.

talk of evil protesters (but the reality is different).

i cannot seem to find any such posts about what ahppened in manchester. i mean surely there is not an agenda here and such things are only brought up when the agenda suits?????!!!!!!

surely not.

pictures here of rangers fans battered and bloody on the ground, now, if that was some g20 protestor.....................

Rinty

You are free to raise the subject. Just because there doesnt happen to be a thread on a subject doesnt mean people are avoiding the subject are showing bias. It simple means that no-one raised it here. Personally I have discussed this many times, cant remember whether we discussed it here or not.

Stop seeing "liberal" conspiracies and just debate like a grown up.

linoleum

i find it interesting that there does not appear to be a thread or a post about police brutality in machester against rangers fans.very interesting.

as for mr. rinty, i don't care if you discussed it in the pub or at your work. there is nothing in here about police brutality against scottish football fans who may well be friends, rekatives and neighbors.

if you have discussed it as you say, i'd be keen to know if you slammed the police and defended rangers fans as keenly as you did in the corresponding g20 thread.

jamesieboy

There does seem to be glaring double standards here.

I was at manchester and found the mancunians really friendly.

Certainly the police took a bit of a pasting for a long time and no doubt retaliated .. eventually.

It was an experience and i wouldn't have missed it for the world. The atmosphere was 'very special'.

200,000 according to Radio Manchester. Has there ever been a travelling support like that in the history of world football?

I took my teenage son and he ended up watching the game in a bookies, and witnessed a pickpocket being caught by some Rangers fans and being thrown through a plate glass window..after being headbutted.

But hey! SH*t happen when you pick someone's pocket.

The consumption of alcohol was unbelievable. And I have no doubt that had Celtic been there, given how easy it is to reach for every ned and nutcase in the country, then there would have been the same amount of alcohol consumption and the same amount of trouble.

To suggest that Celtic fans are somehow angels compared to those of Rangers is creating a false impression. Many Celtic fans are neds and many have criminal connections as well.

Remember Glasgow gangster Louis Rodden getting shot just before a Celtic game in Amsterdam a few years back?

Rinty

jamesieboy

Yes, Cumnock won 1-0.

I always find it strange that the national press do not report the trouble that happens surrounding these derbies.

I find it even stranger that there is so much trouble between towns which are not much more than villages. And the younger generation in that area (or at least a fair part of them) are preparing to take up where their parents left off.

linoleum

[quote="Rinty"][quote]as for mr. rinty, i don't care if you discussed it in the pub or at your work. there is nothing in here about police brutality against scottish football fans who may well be friends, rekatives and neighbors. [/quote]

This is mental!

If you want to start a thread you can.

There is no obligation for the people who visit this forum to discuss every subject or every issue raised by a subject.

there is now a debate on this as you have started it.

I could easily list lots of things we didnt discuss here and cite it as evidence that people are avoidingthe subject. Â But it doesnt work that way.

From what we can read there were Rangers fans treated shabbily by police, and there were Rangers fans who attacked police.

I wouldnt be cheering on either.

Can we actually hear your views on the policing at Manchester rather than your paranoid rant that we are avoiding the subject, presumably that includes the Rangers fans who are forum members.

For the record I support Celtic, Cumnock, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, in that order and have seen poor behaviour by all of those fans and have also seen poor behaviour towards those fans from police.

On Saturday, the younger Cumnock and Auchinleck fans had a pitch battle in the centre of Cumnock, they were out of order and the police handled it well. Â But there will be other times when the police make things worse and cause trouble. Â It's impossile to hold a permanent view on police action, each situation demands its own analysis, surely.

Do you have an opinion at all, other than that you want to hear everyone elses opinion?[/quote]

credit where credit is due, a fair response even froma celtic fan.

jamsEY, i also spent a great day in manchester, saw no trouble and only found out about it the following morning.

i agree with your point on the celtic fans, their hypocrisy is astonishing over causing bother but hey, they have never been good at irony. only tonight i hear them complaining about the final old firm game not being plated on a bank holiday weekend and it is bias toward rangers by the spl and the police. conveniently forgetting it was their marrauding and vioelnt fans 10 years ago who went on the rampage on a may holiday weekend when rangers won the league in their own midden and caused the police to carefully consider when final old firm games of the season are played.

Rinty

I havent seen anyone describe the Celtic fans as angels or compare them with the Rangers fans. Are you sure you two are in the right forum? Have you mistakenly carried on a debate elsewhere?

jamesieboy

I don't think you've been looking, Rinty.

My friends and I, who are all football fans, are of the opinion that the majority of the press is anti-Rangers, who themselves don't help matters much by constantly shooting themselves in the foot.

Yes, there is a sizeable minority who are out of order at Rangers but Celtic supporters are certainly no angels either.

I think we are all agreed that the board at Celtic F C have a much better public relations machine and are better at milking the 'we. the victims' mentality.

People should support their local team - simple as that.

Rinty

Is ther anotherb thread and debate taking place elsewhere?

I am confused. I thought this debate was about the members of this forum being anti-rangers as there hasnt been a thread on the police action, while there was one about the g20 police.

I am not engaged in a conversation about whether one set of fans have more or less idiots than the other.

When did Celtic come into it? Are you sure you two are not adding posts to this mistaking it for another thread?

jamesieboy

It's about football and this is a football thread.

As you may have noticed some people on this forum are in the habit of digressing.

linoleum

aye, the celtc fans do like to portray themselves as victims, usually when they get beat,thats when they get pyoor offended about what rangers or hertz or killie fans have been singing.

they are not particularly good at irony either, their complaints about the games after the split are hilarious and very ironic. remeber when phil o;dinnel died and the old firm game had to cancelled last year as the club was grief stricken (aye the same phil o'donnel who was roundly booed by the celtc support when he signed on a bosman for sheffield wednesday and was generally regarded as a failure during his time at parkheid). why did they not ask to have a game cancelled when celtic legend and employee died? never heard a straight answer on that issue.

the celtc fans are a disgrace at times, i know it,you know it,they donn't know it.

Rinty

ah, i c, both of you, simultaneously, have 'digressed' from the debate about whether our-scotland is biased against Rangers, to a new debate about whether celtic fans are hypocrites.

I know it sounds silly, but I almost wish that Parkie was back, then we could leave these two to debate with him, and we could get on with it while they argue about which gangsters are the hardest, which fans are the worst behaved, which fans are more hypocritical than others.

To get back on subject. I dont think that there is anything in the allegation that this forum is biased because there wasnt a thread about the police in manchester.

Firstly, there wasnt a thread about the police at the G20, it was about the protesters and developed as the news developed.

Secodnly, the absence of any subject from the forum does not mean that there is a bias or censorship. The debate are started with members, those members have points they wish to make. If no-one was posting about the police at manchester last year, then that includes the Rangers supporters here.

I dont know what team all of the mods support but I know 'the boss' is a Killie fan. I cant see their being bias going on the majority of the threads I have read as the majority of active users of the site are quite hostile to the old firm in general, probably deservedly.

agentmancuso

linoleum

very few sellik fans are not hypocrites.

Reluctant Hero

agentmancuso

Reluctant Hero

Rinty

"very few sellik fans are not hypocrites."

Can you explain how you manged to find this out, what size was your survey and what is you classification of 'hypocrite'?

We have largely avoided this forum being a celtic/rangers slagging match and I dont think you will find much in the way of sdupport for trying to start that sort of debate. There are plenty of forums where you can do this, in my opinion.

I have been a Celtic Supporter since I was a small child, and cant even begin to figure out how I could have such a general view on such a large number of people. How do you get your figures?

linoleum

[quote="Rinty"]"very few sellik fans are not hypocrites."

Can you explain how you manged to find this out, what size was your survey and what is you classification of 'hypocrite'?

We have largely avoided this forum being a celtic/rangers slagging match and I dont think you will find much in the way of sdupport for trying to start that sort of debate. There are plenty of forums where you can do this, in my opinion.

I have been a Celtic Supporter since I was a small child, and cant even begin to figure out how I could have such a general view on such a large number of people. How do you get your figures?[/quote]

well, only this morning on celtic forums that mob are complaining about rangers fans singing bad songs.those complaining about that are hypocrites.

Rinty