Yeah that was part of it amongst what i said. When did Anfield get closed cos of them chants or The Den when Millwall fans waved their flags?
Those responsible got football banning orders, but as they were in the minority, they were easy to nick. If you have an entire stand singing those songs, you obviously can't nick them all, so they end up with a behind closed doors game. I suspect in the same circumstances, it would happen here.
BOOM. Indeed they did, I forgot that one. It was really loud too from West Upper so a lot were joining in. Give the man a coconut. Its a serious point, it doesnt matter what league it was in, it just happens to be Italy so I know about it. The authorities are trying to set a dangerous precedent and who knows where it could lead? Abuse to oppo fans has been part of terrace life since, well terraces first appeared. Football needs fans more than fans need football and it's time to take some power back.
I'd agree that terrace chanting is part of the game and needs to remain, though I draw the line at taking the piss out of people dying.
I agree modern disasters are pushing the boundary - Hillsborough is no laughing matter. Neopolitans had cholera a long time ago. I think on every single visit I've made to Valley Parade I've heard City fans sing the deplorable "Burn Bradford Burn" song. That's worse than what Milan fans sang.
I have to say i've never heard us sing that once at Bradford. Likening it to 'Your not English anymore' i think is downplaying what they actually sung. Like yourself i follow Italian football, and the rules that they have brought in are right i just think they need to be applied with more common sense. You can liken them to Hillsborough or Munich chants, but not the common things about Jeremy Kyle etc...... I think the authorities have clamped down on this to show they mean business, where as in England they don't so they have no need to crack down. Its like if one racist chant was sung in England you wouldn't close a ground, where as you would in Italy. As it is still common place in Italy where as it isn't as much in England. You have to take the whole picture into account and that is why i agree with the closure.
So are you saying stadiums should be shut for such chants here? We all know the songs sung by certain clubs against certain oppo - all the media know it, the FA know it, the fans know it. So why do we sit back and accept it? Are we saying here that we're behind what they're trying in Italy with this standpoint?
Ive honestly heard it on more than half a dozen visits. It's not as if Id just sit here and think of a song at this moment to make a point about something we could sing to an opponent we hardly ever play nowadays.
I think taking the piss out of peoples deaths is way beyond banter and should be stopped, I'm happy for them to use banning orders or banning all away fans, whatever it takes. Otherwise, if they're not stopped, then the pressure will increase on all other football chants which are clever and funny, while also being insulting and these should not all be lumped together.
Were there any arrests in the Spurs v West Ham match? I don't see the issue with Spurs using it as a badge of honour. It's hardly offensive to them if they're celebrating the fact they've got Jewish fans/ owners.
It is strange that every one of us could look down a fixture list, know when these chants will be sung yet nobody seems to want to do anything about it. It seems to be the 'brush it under the carpet' approach as if they did close sections of stadium it would damage the wholesome, polished image of the EPL they've tried so hard to cultivate across the world. "Problems in stadia are a foreign issue, they dont happen here."
But they are doing things about it, Millwall fans have been banned for signing about Galatasary, Man United fans have been banned for singing about Hillsborough, Liverpool fans have been banned for singing about Munich, it happens all the time. You're just pretending it doesn't happen here, to continue your 'Italian football gets a bad press' campaign.
But saying "youre banned" means **** all. Last season when Man Utd visited Anfield and there was a supposed truce tv cameras caught both sets of fans singing "the songs". Did the stadiums or stands get shut? Did fans get banned from the next fixture? Im not pretending nothing happens here - it doesnt happen here. I dont recall a stadium or stand ever being closed for singing banned songs that we all hear.
From my experience in Italian grounds (not for past 5 years)there was never any stewarding or police actually in the stands were the ultras went.The only exeption being in the away bit vs. Roma when riot police with batons looked after about 2000 of us and then got us out of Rome at high speed with out-riders and helicopter cover. In the curva it was the ultras who ran the show and as a consequence and racism was the order of the day .Due to the inability to single out the culprits the club was either fined or stadium closed.My Italian mate was shocked when we had been fined for racism saying he had not heard any.(he was being genuine).I told him I was glad we had been punished because every time a black player touched the ball he had been racially abused.He just did not hear it. Fans in the curva did not stick to the allotted number they were given therefore tracking individuals was very difficult. Sometimes banter is just that.Sometimes it is not.There was a thread about the late Ray Harvey on hear and some of our brave racists on here could have experimented on banter with Ray when he was in his prime.He may have clarified for them if they had over stepped the line
The original post was about the unlikely alliance of rivals over the perceived overzealousness of officialdom in reaction to regionalist chanting inside Italian stadia. Then you post some irrelevant pseudo political **** about Berlusconi. Bizarre....
That's because the journos don't know what they are , and they vary from ground to ground, and the tunes/words change. They just don't like the IDEA of regionalist insults which invariably involve 'terroni' or 'La Meridione' or 'il Mezzogiorno'. Basically the hardworking North believe they subsidise the workshy, dirty, corrupt South. 'Grazie Aetna' or 'Grazie Vesuvio' are common graffiti, as is 'Benvenuti in Italia' to visiting Southern fans. 'Terroni lavatevi' (='terroni- wash youselves' ) is another common one. Italy has not been a unified country for 200 years yet, regional identities are still very strong.
