It annoys me that the Wednesday side of things has just become a footnote. Once again, not because I think they're more to blame, but that it distracts from the real problem, which is a football one not a Leeds one, IMO.
I agree - when people like Michael Owen say that they would not want to take a child to a match you do wonder what's going on. The atmosphere is getting worse again (at many grounds and not just Leeds) and it's only because crowd control in terms of hoardes of away fans not being able to get into the home end or vice versa that we haven't had the scenes we saw in the 70s and 80s. As someone who satrted going regulalrly in 1984 I have no desire to go back to those days quite frankly! I don't want to start a huge politics debate but it is as much as a society problem as it is a football one and people need to remeber that when pointing fingers. When we buy our season tickets the club don't carry out interviews with 20 character witnesses to ensure you will behave yourself and I've never seen anyone go to a ground wearing a tee shirt saying "I'm only here to attack the other team's goalkeeper" so what can they do?
I wouldn't be concerned about taking a child to a normal 3pm Saturday KO, but a night time derby match? Wouldn't risk it in a million years.
We played Luton in the cup 10 years ago and it was the worst i've ever seen at Vicarage road. I was in a stand where many families sit, which was attacked by Luton fans, and couldn't believe how many people took their kids. I wouldn't have. I do take my nephews to afternoon games sometimes though and like you say it's sound enough. You just have to tell them not to tell their parents all the new words they've heard (especially from their uncle Dan!)
Yeah, I remember how my first match (a cup game against Liverpool) opened up a whole new world of swearing opportunities.
I wasn't worried about taking my wife and 10 year old son to a Leeds match a few years ago as it was the last game of the season. Little did I know that with 10 minutes to go the Ipswich fans were being confronted by mindless bloody yobs wanting to kick the **** out of us! Coins and lighters were being thrown into our section and my young lad was traumatised by the experience. Grown men picking on innocent kids is the act of scum, we weren't to blame for your relegation that season and yet we were being set upon. Sorry But I ****ing hate Leeds and everything connected to your vile club. I hope the FA finally grow a pair and ban your fans from travelling to any league ground for the rest of the season!
I was there, booing and chanting at the tiny, minuscule minority who went to your end along with the other 95% who remained in the stands. I'm sorry about your experience but your clearly not an impartial commenter so your comments really don't help anything. What do you think the FA's reaction to the Sheffield Wednesday fans should be? Or to the Carlisle, Millwall and Huddersfield fans who have attacked our players/ex players? The 13 thugs who were arrested for what happened to you don't make my club "vile".
Simon I recognise from your posts on here that you are a genuine Leeds fan and not someone who revels in thuggery but you have not once condemed the behaviour of the minority! The arguement that you keep coming up with is a feeble attempt at justifying the actions taken by some of your supporters. Just because it is only a small minority doesb't make it acceptable! 5% is way too many and there should be a zero tolerance on all football hooligans and in serious cases the club must be forced to play their games behind closed doors. I mistakenly believed that we had moved on from the 70s & 80s but it appears that there is still an unpleasant under current bubbling under the surface at your club as well as a few others.
I have condemned it on a number of threads including this one if you'd actually really bothered to look. Also the 5% are those who were on the pitch at ER, the majority of whom were just dicking about taking pictured of themselves. Only 13 people out of that entire crowd were judged to have been involved with what happened to you.
This is cracking! Basically, let's just name every club in the country and pretend their fans are every bit as bad as Leeds' fans. Bollocks. Just bollocks. The last time you turned up to be turned over at Portman Road, your well behaved fans were banging on the coach windows, shouting obscenities and making '****er' gestures at kids walking past. And I don't mean teenagers; these were little children with their parents. And it wasn't a minority; there were 3 coachloads of the delightful lads. There was the usual 'banter' during the game, before the kick off of which at least 2 'fans' were ejected, then you kicked off afterwards and guess what? Arrests. Never seen it from any other club - including our fiercest rivals, the Budgies. And I've missed 1 game in 10 years. Your club is not scum, but lots and lots of your fans are. And the icing on the cake? I see Aaron was involved with the EDL! Lovely chap!
If you were to read the stories from Hillsborough the other night without any names 100% of football fans would have made the educated guess of "Leeds" not just because of their past but in my time as a football fan Leeds have been so close to that line that no one has any sympathy for the "mindless minority" excuse as even with the radical improvements in football hooliganism, Leeds seem to still have a nack of giving it an opportunity back into football Yes there are idiots at other clubs... As you've mentioned Millwall etc. But (to use percentages) 95% of football in the UK is 100% rid of ridiculous situations like this, to the point that I've never seen anything following Ipswich and this is just another mark on Leeds' chargesheet which is now pretty long...
Cheers Hawks, It seems to have all quiet now. I've been looking forward to some responses from our Leeds visitors but they seem to have lost their voice (or keyboard)......
Or it's the next day and they got bored of the biased ****e. Alan Smith was attacked by Huddersfield fans. Shane Lowry was attacked by Carlisle fans. Casper Ankergren was attacked by Millwall fans. Clint Hill was attacked by Sheffield Wednesday fans. What did you have to say about those?
i can only speak for norwich fans on this, but every single time i've been to a norwich v leeds match, there has been trouble. just to put that into perspective, there has hardly ever been trouble at any match involving norwich in the last twenty years. there was a major incident at leicester a few years ago and the odd scuffle with ipswich, yet EVERY SINGLE MATCH WITH LEEDS, something has happened. i'm afraid that isn't a coincidence...
Unfortunately I agree with you, however it's also stupid to suggest that it is still any more than a small minority or that all Leeds fans are "vile scum". A higher proportion of scum is still a very small proportion.
It just doesn't sink in to the Leeds fans, even the OK ones don't think they have a problem different to anyone else. Lets just spell it out nice and clear Leeds United has a severe problem with hooliganism and general nastiness, it is a fact. Its not some small minority, it runs to the core. When I look at at the away fans its not 1% 2% generally acting like morons, its about a third of the support. Kids dressed in tracksuits and baseball caps, spitting, sticking there middle fingers up, their moronic parents egging them on. Just a truly nasty group of individuals. Leeds United are the only team I would applaud going bust, your obviously not all horrible, just far too many for me to ever want to see you at Carrow Rd again.
Except you're wrong, but it's stupid to expect objectivity and fairness from people it seems. No-one's addressed the issues I raised about previous incidents where fans have assaulted players that have gone unnoticed, because they're not "dirty leeds".
Can I ask if Sheffield Wednesday are also vile scum? Or do you suffer from the same selective hearing problems as Dave Jones?
How dare you say everyone else is wrong on this. You still don't get it, you don't need to concern yourself with other clubs, if they have occassions where violence happens then that does not mean Leeds United doesn't have serious problems with thuggery. Your club needs to take a long hard look at itself and realise these people need kicking out. Is it "fair" that we have to put up with these large groups of scum thinking they can do what they want, antagonising families, just looking for trouble. Don't come on here asking for fairness, you clearly don't deserve because your still in essence defending the actions of your fans. Your just not seeing the seriousness of what your club stands for in supporters eyes all over the country. You should be busting a gut trying to change it, all I ever read from your lot is saying its a small minority. It's not.
