Today, I was travelling back from the midlands, from a family wedding with my daughter. Unfortunately the trains were altered, due to someone throwing themself in front of a train earlier on in the day. The train we had to get on was from Rugby to Euston. There was a group of about 10 Liverpool fans on the same train travelling down to London for their game against Fulham. They were drinking and using extremely bad language. Now I am no prude, and i can swear with the best of them, but when my 10 year old daughter, looks at me and says, "Daddy, can we go and stand outside, because I don't like what they are saying", things are bad. I went up to them and said, that I appreciated they wanted to have fun, but could they please tone the language down, as I had a 10 year old daughter with me, and I did not want her to be subjected to such language, the abuse I got from one of the group was unbelievable. he stood up and asked me what my '****ing problem' was. I told him that at that moment in time, it was the language he was using. He then made a moved towards me, but his mates pulled him down and pointed out to him that I had been polite to them and asked a reasonable request. They apologised to me and said they would watch their language. Within 10 minutes it all started again. So I went to what seemed the most reasonable one of them, and again repeated my request. This time, a couple of them started moaning and saying that it was typical to moan about poor scousers having a good time, and everybody wanting them to stop having fun. I told him that at one time Liverpool fans were the most respected of fans, but unfortunately there were always a few that spoiled it, and today was a classic example. The next bit was the most sickening thing I have ever heard. One of the fans asked why the train had been delayed and re-routed etc. When he was told he started singing, and a few joined in with him, to the tune of 'here we go here we go here we go'...they started singing, 'suicide suicide suicide.....' It was then that I said to my daughter we would move. We walked through 3 carriages looking for a member of staff to complain to, but we couldn't see any. When we finally got back, my daughter disappeared upto her room. I asked her if she was ok. She said she was fine. When she came down she shoed me a letter she had written to Richard Branson, saying how upset she had been about bad men travelling on one of his trains, using bad language that scared her. I hope she gets a reply, but I won't be holding my breath. I now have no time for Liverpool fans whatsoever. What little sympathy I may have had for them has now well and truly vanished. They are scum.
Maestro, I'm upset for you and your daughter, but unfortunately, I am not surprised! This sort of behaviour is in my opinion directly due to the PC brigade not allowing corporal punishment to bring these hooligans back into line!
imo always hated them and always will , always want sympathy for hillsbourgh , but never mention heysel do they. they caused 39 italian fans to lose their lives, because they went on a rampage. The Heysel Stadium disaster (French: Drame du Heysel, Dutch: Heizeldrama) occurred on 29 May 1985 when escaping fans were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Juventus of Italy and Liverpool of England. Thirty-nine Juventus fans died[1] and 600 were injured.[citation needed] Approximately one hour before the Juventus-Liverpool final was due to kick off, a large group of Liverpool fans breached a fence separating them from a "neutral area" which contained Juventus fans. The Juventus fans ran back on the terraces and away from the threat into a concrete retaining wall. Fans already seated near the wall were crushed; eventually the wall collapsed. Many people climbed over to safety, but many others died or were badly injured. The game was played despite the disaster in order to prevent further violence.[2] The tragedy resulted in all English football clubs being placed under an indefinite ban by UEFA from all European competitions (lifted in 1990–91), with Liverpool being excluded for an additional year and fourteen Liverpool fans found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and each sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The disaster was later described as "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions
That's pretty disgusting behaviour, you get those type of supporters at any club, I don't know if you can call all Liverpool supporters bad because I know some pretty decent ones. Sorry your daughter had to witness nasty and vile people, no one that young should witness that sort of thing, but credit to you for polity asking them to stop it, shame they're a bunch of idiots and didn't listen.
Well as Drunky says, full credit to you Maestro for standing up to them, I'm not sure I'd have had the guts to do it. I wouldn't have trusted them not to pull a knife or do something stupid, even on a crowded train. It's not just Liverpool fans though, I was on a train passing through Nottingham which I had the misfortune of sharing with a load of United fans. All drunk as skunks, swearing in front of kids (their own and others), and generally being a nuisance. And when this daft old bint was asked why they were all going back to London, she replied "Just because I don't live in Manchester, and wasn't born in Manchester, doesn't mean I can't support the best team in the world!". It says it all really. There were very loud cheers from everyone else when they all got off.
Here is her letter, completely as she has written it... Dear Mr. Branson, I am writing to you to complain about the ill and bad manners of some of your Virgin train passengers. Earlier today me and my dad were boarding one of your trains to Euston and heard about 10 men swearing because they were drunk. To prevent this from happening again I think that you should tell your employees to stop selling alcohol, or to tell them to warn passengers not to bring alcohol on to one of your trains. I was very upset about this. I hope you take my complaint into consideration Yours sincerely ................... aged 10.
It'd be really nice if something came out of this, but sadly I think Branson is too busy cross-dressing and spilling drinks over Tony Fernandes to care. It'd be nice if they could put a "football special coach" on, where they just wheel out some old decrepit coach and stick all the hooligans in it, they must know when to expect them. It'd be nicer still if people could behave appropriately in public, but as always a minority ruin it. please log in to view this image
Considering the train was packed, then no. Plus why the should a 10 year old be made to feel unsafe by a bunch of drunk morons?
It's unacceptable behaviour and inconsiderate to other passengers. When someone polity(not violently) ask them to keep it down and they react aggressively, that's not OK. Think they did move carriage anyway, but the fact a 10 year old heard it all is bad enough and they shouldn't had to move because some people can't handle a drink.
To give my honest opinion on this, it's not a reflection on LFC. Your daughter is bound to be scared by lairy lads but it sounds as though they made an effort to pipe down. I have sung and heard much worse than that on the terrace and there were frequent suicides that delayed the tube in London so I've heard dozens of decent people make comments about being inconvenienced by suicide who were completely sober. I'm not saying your 10-year-old should understand that, but had it been me I would've let them get on with it and just moved in the first instance. As a man in his twenties and thirties I've been scared myself by that sort of thing at times! My advice would be to make sure she doesn't get a complex about trains. Make sure that letter goes off to Mr Branson too!
Personally, I thinks it harsh to tar all Liverpool fans with the same brush. As you rightly said, a small minority ruin for others, whats to say you didn't just encounter a minority group? Both as a human and a father, I certainly don't condone what you experienced
She shouldn't. That goes without saying. But you shouldn't be surprised when drunken bellends act like drunken bellends. A group of drunken lads on a day out going to watch football are never going to create the most pleasant of atmospheres, especially for a young child, like your daughter. And you'd never be able to reason with a drunk group of lads anyway, so the best solution for you would've been to move from the carriage, even if it isn't fair or right that you have to move because of a small minority of idiots on a carriage. Very relevant and mature, as usual. I'm not defending them or condoning their behaviour, I'm just not sure what Maestro expected to happen by trying to reason with a group of drunken lads.
I'm sorry to hear what happened M but I don't think you can generalize from a small group of drunk fans to a whole club. If it had been Norwich fans behaving like this would you want to be tarred with the same brush. I can understand how angry you are & protective you feel towards your daughter ... but reconsider you hatred for L'pool fans when you calm down. There are quite a few nice ones on this site
