You didn't need to be a genius, there were hundreds of lads openly tooting coke in the street immediately outside the ground.
That should have been a police matter outside the ground if there were 'hundreds of lads openly tooting coke in the street' There were 25,000 empty seats inside the stadium so over crowding wasn't the problem. Those employed to control and protect public safety were lacking here but, like Hillsbourgh it's easier to blame 'ticketless, drunken and drugged up football supporters' for everything. Back in the day fans sneaking into Wembley without tickets for big games used to looked upon as a bit of a giggle. It's always gone on, not on this scale obviously, but this was England biggest game since 1966 and it was common knowledge that there were 25,000 empty seats inside the ground. Did the Club Wembley lot all manage to get a ticket ok ?
The police were probably engaged in a covert operation dealing with littering and arresting old men urinating in public...
In principal, I'd agree with you, but on this occasion, it was absolutely the fault of pissed up/drugged up fans. Tickets for international tournaments are sold by EUFA/FIFA, so Club Wembley members don't get any.
Fair comment. I must say if I'd have been there without ticket, ( and I wouldn't have been) and I knew there were 25,000 empty seats in the ground I'd have tried the old 'slip the bloke on the gate a tenner' trick to get in. Wouldn't need to be coked up either. Done it to get a table in the West End on occasions and it works every time.
I think we all need to ask ourselves if we'd really want to be there anymore? I'm no Angel,nor am I a prude,but the disregard for authority in general and the behaviour on display that day is starting to point towards lawlessness and anarchy taking over...Not for me!
In my experience, the "slip a tenner" trick works best if you are relatively sober, dressed appropriately and generally have the demeanour of someone who is not going to cause aggro once inside and cause an inquiry about who is letting in people without tickets!
I once saw ticket-less Carl Rooney at an away game, can't remember where it was, and he said to a steward 'I'm coming in', he repeated it ,and I later saw him in the ground!
I find it really worrying that when we have thousands of fans behaving disgracefully and putting lives in danger (and I dont mean smoke bombs, I mean throwing bottles into crowds, forcing their way through crowded areas and fighting amongst themselves near young children) The blame is put to the authorities in failing to control it. We know that you should expect trouble at major football matches and it does appear that the organisers weren’t prepared for what happened, but surely if we are looking to put blame on anyone, it should be the people that caused the trouble. Without them, you don’t need police and stewards. Blaming the authorities is just an attempt to remove the responsibility fro individuals for their own behaviour. We are lucky that the final didn’t turn into another Hillsborough. And I cannot help thinking that if people had been killed, the ridiculous and dangerous behaviour of a freakishly large number of fans would have been buried in history and it would all be about the police failings. alcohol and drugs absolutely are the driver for this. You don’t tend to hear about riots at bettys or WI events because they tend not to happen. I’m a data person and I can be pretty sure that there would have been a very close correlation between the amount of alcohol and drugs consumed over the day and the level of trouble. It probably wasn’t happening mid morning. That’s exactly why organisers tend to schedule high risk matches at lunch times.
I guess the difference here is that at Hillsborough the police did something crassly stupid and people died. In the summer the blame is probably shared by the drug fuelled fans and the authorities.
Reminds me of an old uncle, man of few words and not a great traveller. 'I've been to London. Once. Din't like it'.
Sounds like my grandad. Only ever ventured abroad once, during WW1. After WW1 the furthest he ever went was on holiday to Blackpool. When. I went to France in the early 1970s I said you want to go and try something different. Don't need to, seen it. People sat outside at cafes with striped umbrellas...