Is this another nail in the football coffin ?

[la gran siete]

MANCHESTER United fans have joined the chorus of condemnation at the shocking attack on the ambulance transporting Alan Smith from Anfield on Saturday - but urged supporters of both sides to keep the incident in perspective.

Medical staff have expressed their revulsion at the behaviour of the Liverpool fans who threw missiles at the ambulance and directed chants ’Munich scum’ towards Smith, who was receiving treatment after breaking his leg during United’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat.

The incident followed some sickening chants inside Anfield after Smith had collapsed in agony after blocking John Arne Riise’s free-kick late in the game.


Why cant people realise its just a sport and nothing else

[mrtbag]

It's not another nail in the coffin because yet again, it's an exreme minority of people who took part.

They didn't have tickets for the game. Were outside the ground, and for all anybody knows, are not even football fans.

Mindless thugs on a street, that's all. Nothing to do with the game.

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by mrtbag

It's not another nail in the coffin because yet again, it's an exreme minority of people who took part.

They didn't have tickets for the game. Were outside the ground, and for all anybody knows, are not even football fans.

Mindless thugs on a street, that's all. Nothing to do with the game.

What about the mindless thugs inside the ground with tickets who were just as bad when he was being treated?

same old, same old.

[overkill]

Originally Posted by mrtbag

It's not another nail in the coffin because yet again, it's an exreme minority of people who took part.

They didn't have tickets for the game. Were outside the ground, and for all anybody knows, are not even football fans.

Mindless thugs on a street, that's all. Nothing to do with the game.

The chants were made inside the ground. I find it astonishing how people are so happy to brush over incidents like this nowadays. Once, the media over hyped the least sign of violent or disruptive behaviour, now with the amount of wedge involved in the game, it's suddenly 'all down to a minority'.

This of course, is flying in the face of recent figures which show jumps in football related violence each time they are sampled. The 2001 season for example, saw over 3,500 arrests for violent behaviour at matches and an 8.1% jump in arrests on the previous year. While these figures are small beer compared to the 70's, they still show that complacency is a dangerous thing when to comes to acts of hooliganism at football matches.

Dismiss these scumbags as an extreme 'minority' at your peril.

[Nebby]

Don't worry my peanut hugging friend, football is very much alive and kicking.

[mrtbag]

Oh sorry, there was me forgetting that all the countries football fans were at anfield that day. Don't get me wrong, I agree the behaviour is disgusting, but let's not blow it out of proportion.

3500 arrests in a year. How many actually went to a game in that same period. 350,000? more?

My point is, as a whole, football violence is still peformed by a minority of fans.

[overkill]

Originally Posted by mrtbag

Oh sorry, there was me forgetting that all the countries football fans were at anfield that day. Don't get me wrong, I agree the behaviour is disgusting, but let's not blow it out of proportion.

3500 arrests in a year. How many actually went to a game in that same period. 350,000? more?

My point is, as a whole, football violence is still peformed by a minority of fans.

Don't get me wrong, I agree MrTbag, that this incident shouldn't be blown out of proportion. Although stoning an ambulance, if it happened in a town centre, would attract the medias attention just as much........

The danger is, as we've seen at Millwall, that rather than trying to use hooliganism as a rock to beat the game with as they did in the 80's, the media and establishment are now doing their best to ignore a growing problem.

I know at the moment it's 'only' a few thousand, but the danger, as my uncle once said about hoolies in the 70's is, is that if we ignore them they will only get stronger and attract more of their kind.

I really don't think the game could stand a return to 'those' days.

[Nebby]

Actually, I think the media and establishment have finally wised up to the fact that the behaviour of these "fans" is not solely a football problem.

No, these are the same idiots that run riot through our towns and cities night after night.

They don't just turn into mindless thugs the minute they pass by a football ground - they're like it all the time.

[Clio_Master_1.2]

Mindless violence.... grrrrrrrrr idiots aint they?

[johnscarlet]

Originally Posted by mrtbag

3500 arrests in a year. How many actually went to a game in that same period. 350,000? more?

1.3 mil fans a season at Old Trafford alone . And thats a low estimate

John

[overkill]

Originally Posted by johnscarlet

1.3 mil fans a season at Old Trafford alone . And thats a low estimate

John

Huh?! The ground holds 67,000? Where did you get 1.4 million from? As these are 90% season ticket holders we can also rule out 'different' fans turning up each week as we used to see in football. Hence the true figure (divided by 19 - for leauge matches) would still be around 67,000.........

The figure MrTbag gave was for a weekend aggregate of attendances.

[johnscarlet]

Originally Posted by overkill

Huh?! The ground holds 67,000? Where did you get 1.4 million from? As these are 90% season ticket holders we can also rule out 'different' fans turning up each week as we used to see in football. Hence the true figure (divided by 19 - for leauge matches) would still be around 67,000.........

The figure MrTbag gave was for a weekend aggregate of attendances.

20 home games x 65000= 1300000 .

Originally Posted by overkill

The 2001 season for example, saw over 3,500 arrests for violent behaviour at matches and an 8.1% jump in arrests on the previous year. While these figures are small beer compared to the 70's, they still show that complacency is a dangerous thing when to comes to acts of hooliganism at football matches

Where does it say weekend ? I read it as 2001 season if its just liverpool figures

20 home games x 45000 = 900000 .

Its a tiny percentage , I wonder what the percentage of arrests in an average town centre is on a friday night .

Anyway , I agree that we shouldn't get complacent

John

[overkill]

Originally Posted by johnscarlet

20 home games x 65000= 1300000 .



Where does it say weekend ? I read it as 2001 season if its just liverpool figures

20 home games x 45000 = 900000 .

Its a tiny percentage , I wonder what the percentage of arrests in an average town centre is on a friday night .

Anyway , I agree that we shouldn't get complacent

John

You never total the whole lot! 67,000 people watch Man Utd each week. The total is (and always has been) a complete distortion as x amount of million did not watch (at the ground) Man Utd (or anybody else).


It was for a weekends figures not Liverpools. Still, better ask MrTbag as either or both could be wrong!

It is a tiny percentage, but it's distorted by the Police's unwillingness (by contrast with the 80's) to arrest these days rather than just detain and release. This marks a return to the 60's and 70's style of policing games.

[JohnG]

The police just tend to stick banning orders on people, which means that they can't go within so many yards of the ground. So they cause the trouble just outside of that area before or after the game.

[Henry]

If football players are getting booed whilst lying injured, then I think there's more than a little of the "Boy who cried Wolf" going on.

With the amount of time they spend rolling around on the floor "in agony" when they're barely or not even been touched, it's little wonder that the crowds are more than a little sceptical about players injuries.