Russian player just been on news saying English are to blame as much as Russians...?....yes we have idiots but ffs man.
It's an embarrassment that Russia are still in the tournament. If you lot had kicked off today, they'd have had no problem throwing you out.
They don't and won't send anyone home just idle threats as usual. Personally it's mountains out of molehills just a little squabbling no different to every night in town
I don't think they are alone either, General. Watching the Hungary v Austria game and there are scores of black t-shirt wearing young blokes celebrating behind the goal when Hungary score. Rather sinister looking. It seems that the eastern Europeans have been let off the leash, so to speak, they sat and watched from behind their Iron Curtain for all those years and now, maybe, is their time to grab the limelight? Football hooligans have moved on, it seems as though these loonies have been training for this. Mind, picking on nerd fans, woman, kids and wheelchair fans foes not make you a tough guy. Pussies.
Interesting picture on the BBC site. please log in to view this image Now these lads aren't just sitting around sipping a cool beer in the afternoon sun. There's hands clapping, pointing and, basically, they're inciting trouble. It's not difficult to sit in a bar and have lots of drinks and not cause trouble. If rugby fans can drink on a near industrial scale and not cause problems then why can't these? And other countries' fans seem to manage too. I bet there's not many Icelandic fans going around thinking that they're cock of the walk and inciting trouble. The sooner that the FA is told that zero tolerance means that the better. An expulsion wouldn't do any harm to be honest.
Whose fans are they? It's not easy to draw any conclusions from that picture and to be fair clapping your hands and singing is not a crime, and boorish behaviour doesn't mean you are there to fight. That said, some of them probably are, or they are getting involved when they shouldn't. I do wonder if the French police see shouting and singing as an aggressive act that needs quelling, when in this country the police see it for what it is and wouldn't do anything until there is violence involved. Anyway, the Russian ban will only happen if they kick off in the stadium again as far as I can tell.
I never said that it's a crime. I never suggested that it was. But what it often is, is offensive to others and remember that the visiting fans are the visitors, and more often than not is an incitement and most certainly can be seen as threatening. I've seen these situations escalate countless times and it doesn't take Stephen Hawkins to realise that pack behaviour is never conducive to a peaceful situation. Fans of any nationality who gather in mobs and act, as you say, boorishly are never welcome by anyone. What beggar's belief is that these clowns think that this is preferable than actually sitting talking, and drinking with the locals. If the fans gather in groups, trash cafes and make life unpleasant for the others in the cafes in town then the police should step in. In fact they should step in if they are causing problems in town even if they are noisy. The average idiot of the English football yob doesn't understand that everyone is pleased to see them. And until they learn to fit in with the locals wherever they land then they never will be welcome and each incident makes it harder to be accepted the next time. As I say, if rugby fans can go out, have a cracking good time, get pissed up and cause no problems then why can't these? And frankly having lived in places like these the last thing I would want to see are English football fans coming to visit. As it happens the only time when there was little trouble was when I was in Antwerp when Newcastle came to play. Or, let's put it another way. Why would anyone think that this acceptable behaviour?
What do you know for fact from that photo though? There seem to be a lot of assumptions about what is going on? That they are English, pissed, being loud, hand clapping, inciting trouble. They could easily have been sitting quietly with the locals and a bottle has just been thrown at them. That would get them up out of their chairs, pointing fingers. To quote a photographer I follow online, "photography is a lie".
Yes, they could. But as a punting man I would hazard that this wasn't the case. I've seen this lot at play since the seventies and you know what? Nothing changes. So back to the question that I lobbed back: do you think that it's acceptable behaviour to go into cafes, in a mob and start chanting? Not singing, but chanting. Rugby fans sing, football fans chant. I don't know what it's like in Upside Down Land at the moment but up here this sort of behaviour by any set of unruly people is frightening and no-one outside of that crowd wants it. What I do find somewhat alarming is that you think that it's somewhat acceptable. Go to most cities in a crowd and act as a bunch of boorish twats and I can tell you that no-one is your friend. Less so when some idiot incites another idiot and it kicks off. As I have said before, what is wrong with behaving as would a rugby crowd do? Hell's teeth, Fredor, you live in a country whose two main exports are rugby and cricket and look at the difference between the three sets of followers and then tell me that the England fans don't have an problem and that the rest of the world have a problem with them.
Firstly, of course, some of the behaviour is unacceptable. I started this thread saying as much. But you can bet all you like, you don't know what was happening in that picture specifically so don't tar everyone with that brush. As for general chanting, no not a particular issue with it to be honest depending on when and where it's done. In the fans village, fine. In and around the town before a match, fine. It's a football tournament so it's to be expected. Chanting is the least of the problems at the Euros. Secondly, I'm not Fredor. Thirdly, who is Stephen Hawkins?
Ah, I see more harmless chanting and singing was evident last night in Lille. Apologies, General Lee, for the mix-up. I was, as I said elsewhere, two-thirds the way through a bottle of excellent Durham Gin on a solo-run and people got a little mixed up in my head.
The picture above was of England and Wales fans in a pub in Lille town centre, having a drink. A few Russians turned up and next thing chairs are being thrown at each other and an English fan is then pictured flat out on the floor presumably hit by something. Not sure who started it but all reports are that the England fans have repeatedly been provoked. Now, if this had happened in Newcastle city centre during a competition I would have been outraged and rightly so. Therefore, I am not going to be hypocritical and defend anyone involved in this stupidity. Oh and just who would want to go the Word Cup in Russia in 2018?
Why was I dragged into this I never opened my mouth ? I have no doubt if it rains next week I will get the blame
These thugs put the good name of wummery to shame. Whatever happened to the intellectual savagery of posting a tictac comment that explodes a person into needing full psychiatric assessment? Bloody savages... Duh... Me have hands... Me smash things... I'm just going on Russian forums and making incest jokes
