Tottenham fans injured in Rome/Lyon

[Skooner]

I'm in now way condoning what has happened but with regards banning clubs/countries there are some differences which were why English clubs did get banned and others haven't. As someone said earlier we seemed to be the only league/country that caused trouble outside of our own country. If you do it in your own country then it seems to be seen as something for the local authority to deal with appropriately but it is a different ball game when the local police aren't used to dealing with a particular type of supporter.

Also, incidents like this one don't tend to happen at the stadiums.

Although it seems pretty evident that this was Lazio fans it could just as easily have been a random bunch of scumbags picking on tourists. As a club Lazio do seem to attract this sort of support and do nothing to prevent it but there is nothing they could do to stop an attack like this even if they wanted to, whereas if a club has sold tickets to their own supporters and they then cause trouble inside a stadium on a regular basis then it is easier to apportion an element of blame to the club.

[northbank123]

To be honest incidents like this have happened so regularly in Rome in particular that they don't need to prove that they were Lazio fans. I know it's nowhere near on the same scale but there are loads of examples of sports teams being effectively sanctioned for the behaviour of individuals not necessarily affiliated with them (e.g Pakistan cricket team, etc). If the club(s) can't work with the local police to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen, and is dealt with completely if it does, imo they shouldn't be allowed to play in the CL. I know I'll probably get one or two responses about how people wouldn't have batted an eyelid in the 80s but in 2012 it's completely unacceptable for innocent fans to regularly be attacked on the basis of the team they support when going to watch a tie under UEFA's jurisdiction, and even worse for them to allow it to happen time and time again at the same venue(s). UEFA have to take serious sanctions against clubs who fail to ensure the safety of away fans at the game and also in the preceding/following days: it's their responsibility to liaise with and help fund extra police.

I'd be interested to know whether or not supporters of non-British teams have encountered the same treatment when playing in Rome? I know some foreign hooligans (allegedly) target English fans because of the reputation they still have for hooliganism.

[MK Gould]

Right, I'm going to go back to even before I was going to games....i.e. at least 20 years before many of you were born !!

Do any of the (even) older gooners (or maybe ask your grandads!) on here remember us having problems with Lazio in 1970? Think the problems were more on-field, but I think it was a bit of a war at the time.

[I Hate Hleb]

I know that the players were involved in a bust up with their Lazio counter-parts at an after-match reception (with even Bertie Mee allegedly getting in the thick of it) but I'm afraid I would have been too young to be following Arsenal abroad in those days.

[DB10GOONER]

Alot of this harks back to the England team's fans "impact" in Europe too. Most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans. You've basically all been tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately your reputation precedes you.

It's shocking what English clubs have been banned for, yet the Italians, Serbs, Turks clubs etc STILL get away with it, and often quite worse (use of knives etc).

Strange leftfielder this one, but I remember the Landsdowne riot. That day in a Dublin pub Engerlish fans had been boisterous and a bit rowdy. And then some Gooners and Mancs kicked off. Against each other.

[northbank123]

Alot of this harks back to the England team's fans "impact" in Europe too. Most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans. You've basically all been tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately your reputation precedes you.

It's shocking what English clubs have been banned for, yet the Italians, Serbs, Turks clubs etc STILL get away with it, and often quite worse (use of knives etc).

Strange leftfielder this one, but I remember the Landsdowne riot. That day in a Dublin pub Engerlish fans had been boisterous and a bit rowdy. And then some Gooners and Mancs kicked off. Against each other.

Apparently when Wales played in Italy in 2003/4 (aside from hoards of Italians chasing small groups of away fans) the Italians turned up expecting a bit of a ruckus with some of the particularly rowdy away fans, only to find the Swansea and Cardiff fans scrapping between themselves. Celts huh?

[MK Gould]

Alot of this harks back to the England team's fans "impact" in Europe too. Most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans. You've basically all been tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately your reputation precedes you.

It's shocking what English clubs have been banned for, yet the Italians, Serbs, Turks clubs etc STILL get away with it, and often quite worse (use of knives etc).

Strange leftfielder this one, but I remember the Landsdowne riot. That day in a Dublin pub Engerlish fans had been boisterous and a bit rowdy. And then some Gooners and Mancs kicked off. Against each other.

I would imagine that most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans and English speaking Irish fans supporting English clubs.... We're all in this together bud !!!

[OneBardGooner]

and they only went to see the Pope

What position does he play!?....I heard that without him they don't have a prayer of progressing!

I hate the scum along with everyone else, but if it is a ' regular Football Fan / family man etc supporting his club' then hope he recovers - I mean he's gonna suffer again when we rip em a new one at the Toilet anyway!

[DB10GOONER]

Alot of this harks back to the England team's fans "impact" in Europe too. Most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans. You've basically all been tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately your reputation precedes you.

It's shocking what English clubs have been banned for, yet the Italians, Serbs, Turks clubs etc STILL get away with it, and often quite worse (use of knives etc).

Strange leftfielder this one, but I remember the Landsdowne riot. That day in a Dublin pub Engerlish fans had been boisterous and a bit rowdy. And then some Gooners and Mancs kicked off. Against each other.

I would imagine that most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans and English speaking Irish fans supporting English clubs.... We're all in this together bud !!!

True, MK. More than once was in a tight situation abroard because of our Arsenal jersey's and when we made it clear we were Oirish the locals were cool as fuck with us, "no hard feelings, we only want the English" etc. Even saved one or two pommies by letting them pretend they were Oirish too!

But to be honest with the exception of Copenhagen we would just avoid the shit by drinking in the "nice" (read "expensive" and "tourist") areas.

[MK Gould]

Alot of this harks back to the England team's fans "impact" in Europe too. Most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans. You've basically all been tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately your reputation precedes you.

It's shocking what English clubs have been banned for, yet the Italians, Serbs, Turks clubs etc STILL get away with it, and often quite worse (use of knives etc).

Strange leftfielder this one, but I remember the Landsdowne riot. That day in a Dublin pub Engerlish fans had been boisterous and a bit rowdy. And then some Gooners and Mancs kicked off. Against each other.

I would imagine that most Europeans don't differentiate between England fans and English fans and English speaking Irish fans supporting English clubs.... We're all in this together bud !!!

True, MK. More than once was in a tight situation abroard because of our Arsenal jersey's and when we made it clear we were Oirish the locals were cool as fuck with us, "no hard feelings, we only want the English" etc. Even saved one or two pommies by letting them pretend they were Oirish too!

But to be honest with the exception of Copenhagen we would just avoid the shit by drinking in the "nice" (read "expensive" and "tourist") areas.

Sure we're all Oirish, to be sure, to be sure.....especially if we get Juve or PSG in the knock outs !! See you in the pub!

[BournemouthRED]

Hope the lad makes a full recovery! Sounded pretty nasty, nothing will get done about it! I imagine it will be the same the next time a uk club goes over there!

[Barriecuda]

There's an old fashion scrap between two willing sides, and then there's premeditated aggravated assault. This just isn't acceptable.

The only thing that I wonder about, is the severity. A literal 'mob' of people with balaclavas and weapons seems quite over the top for a random assault on some English football supporters. I wonder if words were exchanged prompting the offenders to return in numbers. We may not know.

I just really hope it wasn't innocent fans that got assaulted, because that kind of thing is completely uncalled for. Don't get me wrong, no matter what the situation this kind of level of brutality is not warranted. But to think that 30 people could just randomly assault a small group so maliciously with absolutely no motive, I like to think basic human decency is better than that.

[northbank123]

They were wearing gas masks, not really indicative of a hastily-assembled mob due to an exchange of words, seems like a premeditated assault on a group of fans. Touching faith in humanity but have you not seen the stories about Italian fans every time a British team plays out there? Stabbings in back etc and seemingly always involving weapons.

[MK Gould]

I don't believe for one minute that this was any sort of revenge attack for something that happened earlier. Not unless it was of the "....you looking at my girlfriend..." variety!

And it sounds like two of the injured were American and Bangladeshi tourists....

I know that English fans got a bad press back in the day, but at least there was an element of firm v firm! Time and time again, the actions of these "hard" Lazio ultras does nothing to dispel the stereotypical image of Italians being cowards (codardi in Italian I think)!

[safcftm]

Don't worry, I'm sure Platini will sort the problem out by banning all English clubs for 10 years.

Seriously though, the Italian fans are a bunch of cowardly *word censored*. There's a load of *word censored* follow Spurs as well and they go around attacking innocent people including women and kids but I would imagine a lot of them are banned from traveling abroad, chances are the lads who were attacked in Rome were just normal fans out to enjoy an away game and, if so, its a disgrace. In fact, even if they weren't normal fans it's still a disgrace that the cowardly pricks need massive odds in their favour and need bats and knives, soft *word censored* would probably get battered all over Rome if they tried to actually fight, even by Tottenham's scarfers.

Wish something would be done about it but, as usual, it won't. Might be paranoid but if it was Spurs fans doing that at a home game I reckon we'd hear a lot more about it from UEFA.