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Continuano le polemiche relative all’ assegnazione a Roma della finale di “Champions’ League”.della prossima settimana tra Man U e Barcellona; la novità è che questa volta i giornali britannici accusano le autorità di avere troppo spesso chiuso gli occhi. I “tabloids”, infatti, evidenziano ancora la scelta pericolosa di giocare in quella che chiamano “Stab City”. Ricordano passate tensioni tra fans inglesi e polizia o ultras italiani, indicano percorsi da evitare ( fermata della metropolitana Flaminio e Ponte Duca d’ Aosta ) e polemizzano sulla figura di Achille Serra, definito “tifoso romanista che viaggiò due volte per Manchester sull’ aereo della squadra” e che avrebbe trattato con un pugno eccessivamente duro tifosi ospiti italiani e stranieri in svariate occasioni e casi di accoltellamento ad opera di supporters di casa con superficialità. Polemica stucchevole, anche perchè l’ arrivo al seguito del Man U dei “Men in Black” potrebbe essere anch’esso fonte di altrettanti problemi ed in Inghilterra episodi violenti continuano a ripetersi. Un gruppo di tifosi dello Stoke City, la cui “firm” di riferimento è nota come “Naughty 40”, ed uno del Wigan si sono affrontati in una rissa che appare essere stata organizzata preventivamente. Infatti, uno dei tifosi biancorossi sarebbe stato visto e sentito telefonare a qualcuno della fazione rivale poco prima che accorressero i sostenitori della squadra che sabato scorso ha affrontato lo Stoke City. Un locale avrebbe subito danni per circa 1200 sterline a seguito del lancio di bottiglie e mattoni anche contro le finestre. Intanto le autorità gallesi preposte difendono la decisione di non avere multato il Cardiff per gli incidenti avvenuti in occasione dell’ ultimo derby con il Swansea, nella cui occasione fu ferito anche l’ arbitro dal lancio di una monetina mentre altri incidenti avvennero all’ interno ed all’ esterno di “Ninian Park”.
Stoke FC and Wigan FC hooligans trash Crewe pub
Crewe Chronical
20 May 2009
by Belinda Ryan
FOOTBALL thugs wrecked a Crewe pub and terrorised the landlord and customers when rival gangs clashed on Saturday.
“Trouble flared at The Express in Mill Street when two sets of fans, understood to be from Stoke and Wigan, began smashing windows and hurling bottles and glasses at each other in the early evening.Joint licensees Mick Crawley and Shirley Partington believe the violence was organised.Shirley said a group of seven Stoke fans had a drink and then asked about another Crewe pub said to be frequented by Wigan supporters. Wigan had played Stoke at the Britannia Stadium that day.“They went outside on phones and were heard saying ‘we’re only 500 yards away from you’,” said Shirley.“The next thing there were about 20 other lads outside. They ran at the pub. They were baiting the lads inside.”Bottles and bricks smashed through windows.“The lads were leaning in the door and the gangs were throwing bottles at each other. My customers were stuck in between,” said Shirley, who is writing to Wigan Athletic and Stoke City football clubs to complain.Mick said: “Everybody was calling the police and they were here within about 10 minutes. I’ve never known anything like this before. It was terrifying and upsetting.”One man went to smash a television with a pool cue.Mick added: “I asked him to just give us a break as they had already smashed the place up. He did put it down.”Shirley’s 10-year-old granddaughter Ella was upstairs.“She was terrified,” she said. “She was very upset when she saw the damage later.”Repair work will cost more than £1,200.Shirley added: “Our customers have been brilliant.“They helped us with the clearing up inside and we were able to open up the following day.”This weekend a number of bands are playing at The Express as part of the Crewe Volume Festival.Organiser Toby Robinson said: “It would be really nice if everybody came to The Express and supported them..”Inspector Paul Broadhurst. of Crewe Police, said: “We think it was an incident between two lots of fans.”He said no-one local was involved in the trouble adding: “The Express is a very well run pub and we don’t have trouble there.”
Our film critic counts the points missed in a film about Seventies football hooliganism
The Times
21 May 2009
Kevin Maher
Awaydays
“Awaydays reeks of authenticity. Its late 1970s Birkenhead setting is revealed in painfully precise yet always poetic detail. Here, in lugubrious browns and greys, against the lapping waters of the Mersey, football hooligans in adidas windcheaters and floppy wedge haircuts drink alcoholic sludge from jam jars and cut wild Stanley scars into the faces of oncoming aggressors.Post-punk staples from early Cure and Joy Division rattle away relentlessly on the soundtrack while our slap-happy heroes — the fierce Carty (Nicky Bell) and the fey Elvis (Liam Boyle), both Tranmere Rovers hardmen — dream of trainers, nightclubs and escaping the crushing tedium of their lives. For Carty this means losing himself in the guttural violence of a punch-up. For Elvis it means losing himself romantically in Carty’s gaze.The film is a decade-long labour of love for its writer and producer Kevin Sampson, on whose debut novel it is based. The book is Clockwork Orange-lite, full of unreconstructed male aggression, sexual bravado and protagonists with paper-thin humanity. The movie is a vast improvement and uses the book’s taxonomical tendencies (fashion labels, bands and fans are mercilessly documented) as a shopping list for the art director Lucienne Suren — there is not a single trainer, an Ultravox B-side or a wisp of wedged hair out of place.And yet, and yet. Dramatically, Awaydays is often unsatisfying and can lurch episodically from scene to scene as Carty, a 19-year-old tax office clerk still wounded by the death of his mother, endures a punishing rite of passage among the elite Rovers hatchet men, known as the Pack. Here Sampson and the director Pat Holden spray the movie with themes and plot points that never totally cohere. Elvis’s homosexuality, for instance, is played out in almost every single encounter with Carty through the unrequited Bambi-eyed gazing of Boyle. But it has little impact on the plot — a series of encounters with other hooligans and Merseyside harridans — and is handily dispensed with in the final act.Elsewhere the movie seems to set up Carty’s incestuous passion for his sister Molly (Holly Grainger), featuring a strange cross-cut scene in which the latter, in steamy flush-faced close-up, listens to heady music in Carty’s bedroom while he enjoys drunken back alley sex with yet another slatternly Scally. This conceit, also, is eventually dropped.Even the movie’s much-vaunted and allegedly controversial fight scenes are only half-compelling, though possibly crippled by the low budget. The sight of six extras dressed as policemen wrestling with two dozen actors in a Liverpool sidestreet never quite conveys the rampant terror of 1970s hooliganism.And still, despite everything, Awaydays has power. Boyle, like a younger, leaner Daniel Craig, demolishes close-ups. His Elvis drifts in and out of heroin addiction, displays sudden psychotic urges to head-butt strangers and has an endless supply of pithy one-liners as he stares dreamily at the noose in the centre of his council flat. He is the complex magnetic core in a movie permeated with pathological hair-trigger masculinity.And all around him the movie drips with atmosphere. The evocative sense of place is overwhelming, and perhaps the real star. Birkenhead in 1979 may not have been like this. But it is now.”
When in Rome, don’t turn your back is the grim warning for Manchester United fans
The Times
19 May 2009
Tony Evans
Supporters attending the Champions League final must beware the threat of the capital’s knife-wielding Ultras
“In Nyon, they can afford to take a different view. Uefa’s bigwigs will be sitting in their Swiss headquarters looking forward with glee to next week and the Champions League final in Rome. They will expect to experience the phrase many people associate with the Eternal City: la dolce vita.There will be no need for football’s aristocracy to pay heed to yesterday’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office warnings about the dangers of the Italian capital. It will be different for the supporters of Manchester United, in particular, and Barcelona. If they are not careful and neglect to listen to the advice, they will become painfully familiar with another local term: puncicate.This is a word used by Rome’s “Ultras” — Roma and Lazio — to elevate their practice of stabbing opposing supporters in the buttocks to a cultural symbol. It evokes duels in the Renaissance period and is a way of making the attack from behind something more than the work of a cowardly sneak. In its essence, it means being stabbed in the back. Well, Uefa has made millions in profit doing this to fans, so why should it care now?It was 25 years ago that the culture of stabbing in Rome came to the attention of British fans. Liverpool beat Roma on penalties in a European Cup final in the same Stadio Olimpico that United will play at next week. The response of the home supporters was to run wild. Scores of Liverpool fans were stabbed and slashed in 1984 but the kneejerk reaction in Britain was to blame “the English disease” for the trouble. Those who were there told a different story. No one listened.However, the past decade has forced people to take notice of the risks supporters take if they attend an away match against Roma. Liverpool’s two games against the club in 2001 left more than 20 visiting fans in hospital; United have been involved in a number of incidents in the Italian capital, the worst in 2007 when 11 supporters were stabbed; and Middlesbrough and Arsenal supporters have been slashed in the past three years.Gianni Alemanno, the Mayor of Rome, may respond to critics of his city by pointing out that there is more knife crime in London but he fails to recognise that his is the only city in Europe where visiting football supporters are routinely and specifically targeted with blades.Some of the city’s most significant figures appear to have turned a blind eye to the doctrine of puncicate. Achille Serra, the former head of police, is a Roma fan — he twice travelled to Old Trafford on the team plane. He was renowned for going easy on the Ultras — he would allow groups to gather before and after games in places police had designated no-go areas — before he left his post to pursue a political career on the national stage last year.A number of his comments suggested that he viewed the Ultras’ exploits with barely disguised approval. Puncicate, he once said, was simply the fans “drawing first blood” from their opponent. Visiting supporters, whether Italian or foreign, tended to receive harsher treatment from Serra’s force.The leadership of the police has changed and a tougher line towards the Ultras has been taken but the suspicion remains that the Roman force still do not offer the same levels of protection and patience towards visiting supporters.The problem is Roman. There would be few fears if the match was being held in, say, Milan. But Uefa must have its way. And picking unsuitable venues for its showpiece games seems to be the theme of the past few years. Istanbul, Athens, Moscow and Rome were questionable choices.If it was not so serious, Uefa’s decision to give the final to this city would be laughable. As it is, it could have you in stitches. Literally, if you are a United fan and off to Italy next week”
FAW defend handling of Ninian Park coin controversy
Wales Online
20 May 2009
by Chris Wathan
“WELSH football bosses have defended their controversial decision not to punish Cardiff City for the coin-gate controversy that marred the South Wales derby.The Bluebirds have been told they will not face disciplinary action for the horrific incident in the Ninian Park clash with Swansea that left referee Mike Dean needing treatment.After taking six weeks to inform the club of their ‘You’re in the clear’ findings, the FAW have come under heavy fire for their stance.The decision to reprieve Cardiff comes just weeks after Northern Ireland were fined almost £9,500 by Fifa for a similar incident in their World Cup qualifying fixture with Poland.And former World Cup ref Graham Poll yesterday claimed it showed a reluctance to act with strength against such incidents.Poll also questioned why Cardiff were not fined following the £3,000 semi-suspended fine handed out by the FAW to Newport after assistant referee Alan Sheffield was hit by a coin during the 2006 FA Cup clash with Swansea at Newport Stadium.“Too often referees are accused of behaving differently with the biggest clubs… and yet it seems that the FAW have fallen into that trap as well,” rapped Poll. “ Newport were fined heavily and yet Cardiff City – once again – escaped.”But FAW chief David Collins last night backed the results of his organisation’s probe, and insisted the case did not warrant comparison with Newport.“That was down to the behaviour of a number of Newport County people,” Collins argued.Asked about clearing Cardiff, Collins said:“The compliance department conducted a thorough investigation.“And I have to say South Wales Police were very upbeat and complimentary in Cardiff’s response, taking the action that was possible and reacting quickly in identifying the person, who has since been charged.“It was a regrettable situation and the fact the referee was injured just makes it more so. But we had a thorough investigation and the action taken by Cardiff was deemed appropriate.”Collins rejected claims the decision would come under scrutiny, especially after the delay in the investigation drew criticism from commentators across the border.“I think we can be satisfied with the process and I believe our compliance department was in contact with their counterparts at the English FA with uniformity in mind,” said Collins.Dean was struck and cut by a coin thrown by a supporter in the Bob Bank area of the ground during the first half of the Championship clash between the South Wales rivals.After publicly condemning the supporter’s actions, Cardiff were believed to fear a fine for the incident that was live on television.Cardiff’s efforts to quickly identify, eject and ban the culprit seem to have helped the club avoid formal action.Yet Northern Ireland’s similarly swift action did not stop world governing body Fifa handing out a 16,000 Swiss Francs fine when Swedish official Stefan Wittberg was hit by a coin thrown by a supporter at Windsor Park during the game against Poland on March 28.Although the incident occurred in international football rather than at Football League level, it is an example of the severe punishments that can be handed out for such scenarios.The decision not to take action has come under fire from Poll, who argued it does not send out the correct message.“There seems to be a reluctance to act with strength, to act to say… ‘this is not acceptable,’” said the retired Premier League official.“The point is if you keep saying, ‘ah, well they’ve acted swiftly, well done,’ nothing will change and it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing had the referee said ‘I’m abandoning the match.’“That’s happened in Europe. It’s happened to Anders Frisk, one of the most senior referees in history and I’m not sure that’s not the right thing to do.”Cardiff fan David Roberts, 24, admitted the charge of throwing a missile towards the pitch and received a £200 fine and a three-year banning order at Cardiff Magistrates Court – although he denied throwing the coin that hit Dean and insisted he had only thrown chewing gum.Still, the decision not to take formal action will be put under the spotlight with the FA believed to be reviewing missile-throwing incidents in the recent Milwall-Leeds League One play-off games in a year when players and supporters were called to uphold the ‘Respect’ campaign with regards to attitudes to referees.The FA would not comment on the FAW’s decision, insisting the matter was solely dealt with by officials based at Cardiff Bay.Swansea City have also declined to comment on the findings, although numerous supporters have registered their disappointment with the lack of action taken.Many fans have slated the FAW decision, describing it as ‘disgusting’ and insisting Cardiff have been treated leniently.At the time, Swans’ skipper Garry Monk said there had been a number of coins thrown from different areas of the pitch.But Cardiff chairman Ridsdale has welcomed the FAW decision as a vindication that the club made every effort to deal with the situation.“The FAW have said we took every possible step we could reasonably take to ensure that type of incident did not occur,” he said.”
Foreign Office warns fans how to avoid grief in Rome
Guardian
19 May 2009
By Mike Collett
LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – Up to 10,000 Manchester United fans are expected to travel to Rome without tickets for next week’s Champions League final against Barcelona, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said on Tuesday.In a statement, the Foreign Office warned fans which metro stops and other areas of the city to avoid because of the fears of widespread trouble surrounding the match in the Italian capital.There have been many stabbings, fights, muggings and thefts involving overseas fans in Rome for a number of years and the Foreign Office has warned United fans to take every precaution.Typical of the advice handed out is: “Do not take the metro to the Piazzale Flaminio or use the Ponte Duca D’Aosta bridge as there has been trouble along this route to the stadium on many occasions.“UEFA threatened to take the final off Rome if AS Roma’s Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United last season was marred by a repeat of the violence that hit United’s previous two visits.That did not happen but Arsenal fans were attacked before their team knocked out Roma in a last-16 second leg in March.In a statement, the FCO says it worried about the number of fans making the trip which is estimates will be 30,000. Twenty thousand fans are expected to travel with tickets.”Whilst last year’s Champions League Final in Moscow saw exemplary behaviour from British fans, the Foreign Office is concerned that the sheer amount of fans travelling to Rome could lead to safety issues in the Italian capital,” the FCO said in the statement. “It has therefore worked in close collaboration with the Italian authorities to put in place stringent safety plans, as well as offering crucial tips and advice to fans before they travel. These can be seen in full on a dedicated webpage on the FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk/football).”
DREAM FINAL
The Foreign Office also says that the excitement generated by “the dream final” between two of Europe’s most glamorous and successful clubs, will lead to more last-minute decisions to travel to Rome next week, thus increasing the likelihood that British fans will experience difficulties.”One in five Brits neglect to take out any form of travel insurance and this number dramatically increases with last-minute planning and short stays.”The FCO is particularly worried that the current economic climate means that more fans will be cutting corners and will decide against taking out travel insurance. This could have potentially disastrous consequences for football travellers, as a fall in Rome resulting in a broken leg could cost up to 2,500 pounds ($3,900) without insurance.”Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, added: “We are delighted to be hosting such a fantastic event and we have worked hard to ensure that all visitors have an enjoyable and trouble-free stay in our city. Rome welcomes the British fans with open arms, and we look forward to celebrating this great sporting festival together.”