Wednesday 26 August 2009

Spot the idiots

Football fans of a certain age will remember the weekly violence of the 70's and 80's. It was a time when it was difficult to attend football matches without encountering it personally, especially if you travelled to away games. It was a dark time when football fans with no interest in trouble were seen as fair game simply because they supported another team or came from another town or city. It drove crowds down over the years and depressed the game. I should also say that there was an added element of excitement and fear about going to games as a youth in those days because of it and that the trouble was largely minor in the sense of the consequences (arrests and injuries etc). I'm not condoning it but trying to put it into perspective and recognising what I experienced at the time.

As we know, it largely died off in the 90's as a result of improved policing and stewarding at games, police intelligence and the fear of early morning wake-up calls that would follow if you became known to the authorities. Jail sentences also helped. The trouble that did occur in the 90's was small scale and largely organised away from the stadiums by those who wanted to fight. Not a big problem as far as I was concerned. Most of those involved were banned from matches anyway and were tempting fate for a jail sentence.

In the last ten years we have seen the emergence of "youths" who have been mimicking their fathers and posturing at football. They looked hopelessly out-of-date and unmatched for the policing and technology of the 21st century. To be fair to them, they have largely, pciked up the mantle of seeking other youth firms and so the trouble has tended not to bother Joe Normal. However, the police and technology have slowly been decimating the youth as they have been jailed in high profile cases across the country.

In the circumstances, why on earth would you want to get involved in trouble in such a public way nowadays? Why would you run onto the field of play (an instant ban) just to jump around like a 12 year old? When you are a fat 40 plus who should know better like too many of those on the pitch at Upton park last night, you really are a sad case. So they will only be barred, but why would you do it? They were never going to get at Millwall fans, enclosed at the other end of the ground and surrounded by stewards and police. It was just showing off and the only people impressed were themselves.

As for the trouble outside the stadium last night, I suspect it was largely a throw-back to yesteryear and that it was the 40 plus brigade (and men in their 50's!) who still have a hatred for old rivals. The streets around all football grounds nowadays have extensive cameras and the police should have been prepared with their Hoolivans, the helicopters were certainly out. The fact that the trouble appears to have been so widespread and yet there were so few arrests, tells you that they were largely unprepared and did not have the manpower for arrests as they struggled to keep rival fans apart.

The police will now begin an extensive exercise to identify as many of those involved as possible and arrest them in dawn raids over the next 12 months. Any Millwall fans arrested as a result who can be shown to have arranged to travel without match tickets and who met fellow fans before going to West Ham will have little defence against conspiracy charges and disproportionately long sentences. The police will access mobile phone and text records and the hooligans will be bang to rights. Hopefully the first swoops will be before 19th December which might deter some of the even more stupid Millwall "fans" from venturing ticketless to the Valley.

5 comments:

  1. Frankly Dave, Milwall is a football club followed by neanderthal fuckwits. It has a long record of causing grief anywhere and everywhere. You would have thought after 40yrs the football authorities would act against the club in a manner that befits their continued behaviour. Don't hold your breath.
    Incidentally i do not completely absolve the West Ham 'fans' from blame, last night. But it was exceptional rather than normal for them.

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  2. It does look like the authorities were just not prepared enough for this game. If you'd asked me I would have said this would have happened if it was not controlled sufficiently well.

    I've never understood football fighting, and due to my age and my parent's protection, I have had very little exposure to it.

    Like you I would like to see the punishments so extreme that these individuals never think it's worth doing again.

    As I don't much like West Ham I'd be happy for them to ban thousands of their fans for life. One clip showed a chap organising the crowd to move towards the riot police. On the basis that he wasn't suggesting they ask to make friends I'd be happy to send him and all his friends to Afghanistan, give them a gun and ask them to show us all how 'ard they really are!

    The TV is now asking the question about the effect this will have on our World Cup bid in 2018. I actually think this is a red herring, but it should focus the minds of the authorities to dish out severe punishments, and to prevent this from being allowed to happen again.

    I just hope, like you do, that none of this type of behaviour is seen anywhere near The Valley in December!

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  3. I think our game will come under even closer scrutiny by the OB, but I do worry that it will be a game when Millwall's followers of trouble will come out instead of their 8,000 or so real fans.

    Anyone who has witnessed football hooliganism or frankly has not lived under a rock for 20 years had the same thoughts when the draw was made and paired these two together. Reducing the Millwall tickets only inspired more idiots to only attend the organised meet ups and not the game.

    As Dave said in the 80's any normal man, woman or child could have got caught up with hooliganism but it would be mighty unfortunate now.

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  4. Nobby - I agree; if Millwall had been given more tickets then most (if not all) of their fans would have been in the ground watching the game at kick-off. They would largely have travelled together and been easier to police. The fact that hundreds didn't get tickets but still wanted to show-up meant they were less likley to aim for any of the immediate stations and instead travel in groups from here, there and everywhere making them much harder to control.

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  5. The match in December will surely follow every other Charlton v Millwall match over the years. The 50 year old thugs will be there in samll clusters with their little bands of followers having made sure they have tickets in the home stands. It's bound to kick off in small disturbances throughout the ground. Its about time Millwall was closed down, although we would end up with some of their mob then (although we ended up with some of them when we were in the Prem). Having said that, West Ham are definitely as much, if not more to blame for the other night and should be thrown out of the cup.

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