Season 01/02 - December

Millwall FC - Portsmouth - 13/12/2001

Source: BBC

Millwall supporters attacked a group of Portsmouth fans in the Windmill Pub near Waterloo Station. Eye-witnesses told how Portsmouth appeared to summon Millwall by mobile telephone. When Millwall arrived they attacked the pub with bottles, bricks and dustbin lids.
Portsmouth responded by throwing back everything they could lay their hands on. Every window of the pub was smashed while most of the furniture in the pub was either broken or ended up outside. Of the 100 people involved, all got away. After the match a Portsmouth supporter was brutally attacked outside the New Den.

French police warn of hooligan threat - 29/12/2001

Source: Reuters

Soccer hooliganism is on the increase in France and could get worse, according to a confidential police report disclosed by daily Le Parisien. The report shows that 106 persons were injured in crowd incidents halfway through the 2001-2002 season compared with 69 at the end of last season and 96 two seasons ago. It cited Paris St Germain fans as the worst and said hooligans were getting younger and younger and often acted under the guidance of older fans with a known hooligan record. 'The Parisian hooligan scene has seen since the start of the season a renewal of its elements, who are younger and more determined,' the report said. 'Led by older Parisian hooligans and by former fans banned from attending matches, those delinquents indulge in organised acts of violence following a new method,' the report added. The police said that instead of acting in small dispersed groups, hooligans now confronted police forces in compact groups of about a hundred fans. 'It's going to become more and more dangerous,' prosecutor Anne Vosgien, in charge of hooligan cases, told Le Parisien. The newspaper also cited Olympique Marseille, Girondins Bordeaux and St Etienne fans as among the most active in France. The worst crowd trouble this season in France took place before and after the clash between PSG and Marseille at the Parc des Princes last month when 44 persons were injured and 22 detained.

Huddersfield Town - Stoke City - 29/12/2001

Source: BBC

Hooligans from Stoke’s "Naughty Forty" and "Under 5's" firms fought Huddersfield supporters throughout the day. In the worst incident Stoke fans smashed up and set fire to the White Hart pub, causing extensive damage.
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Source: Huddersfield Daily Examiner - 31/12/2001

Soccer fans go on the rampage

Dec 31 2001

By Rosey Hamilton, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner


SOCCER fans went on the rampage in Huddersfield town centre on Saturday afternoon.

But a massive police operation kept rival gangs apart.

Police believe gangs of Huddersfield Town and Stoke City fans had planned to confront each other before the match at the McAlpine Stadium.

Police were kept busy as the gangs of hooligans rampaged through the town centre.

In the worst incident, Stoke fans smashed up and set fire to the White Hart pub in Cloth Hall Street before the game and caused extensive damage.
Chief Insp Chris Hardern, in charge of the police operation, said officers managed to keep apart the gangs.

At the match, 50 officers - supported by 16 mounted police - kept the crowd of 16,041 fans in check.

Officers reported an unprecedented animosity between rival fans.

Chief Insp Hardern said: "A group of 120 Stoke fans turned up in the town centre at midday, causing some problems. It was quite obvious they were intent on disorder between themselves and Town fans.

"Although there may have been some scuffles, we managed to keep the two sides from meeting.

"But some shoppers were anxious as fans ran through the town centre."

Sean Lithgow, landlord of the White Hart, spoke of his terror as thugs began chanting: "Let's burn the pub down."

Mr Lithgow said: "We shouted last orders at 1.50 and they went berserk.

"Some of them were throwing bottles and glasses, and they then set fire to the snug area. They threw a chair on the gas fire and the chair set alight. We put it out with fire extinguishers and there was a lot of smoke.

"The police were outside, waiting for the fans to come out."

Mr Lithgow ushered his staff upstairs to safety once the rioting began.

He added: "We are never having away fans in here again. It has just spoiled it.

"It shook me up. I have been manager for 12 years and never seen anything like this before."

Furniture, glasses and bottles were damaged and the carpet in the snug will need to be replaced.

Police evacuated the pub and escorted the group of about 120 Stoke fans to the McAlpine Stadium.

They did not make any arrests at the pub.

Firefighters arrived just as the fire had been put out. They ventilated the pub, which was full of smoke.

They returned around 4.30pm, to deal with a chimney fire which was a result of the earlier incident.

Police marshalled a group of Stoke fans along the ring road to the stadium, to avoid confronting a group of Town fans near the Thirsty Scholar pub.

"My officers said they had never seen so much animosity between the two sides of fans," said Chief Insp Hardern.

"There could have been a lot more arrests, but we picked out the ringleaders. It was a very successful operation."

After the match, Stoke fans were taken to Huddersfield railway station and seen off on the 5.30pm train to Manchester.

Five Stoke fans and two Town supporters were arrested. All are due to appear before Huddersfield magistrates.

Cardiff City - Bristol City - 29/12/2001

Source: BBC

The Bristol City hooligan group of around 300 was escorted from the Old Monk pub to the ground. On the way they were ambushed by Cardiff’s "Soul Crew", at Grangetown Station. The police baton charged the Cardiff hooligans. During the game coins, cans and bottles of urine were thrown. Innocent fans were terrified. Cardiff hooligans racially abused Bristol City fans and ripped up seats. After the game, Bristol fans returning to their cars and coaches were pelted with stones. Cardiff hooligans then fought with police for up to an hour. A local photographer was beaten unconscious.

Celtic football fans ‘riot’ on plane - 14/12/2001

Source: Irish Examiner

SIX passengers were arrested last night after a serious outbreak of public disorder on board a flight carrying Celtic football fans.

Two female flight attendants were allegedly assaulted although neither needed hospital treatment.

The jet had to divert to Cardiff Airport after the crew sent out a mayday call following the disturbance on board, described by aviation sources as a “riot”.

Police surrounded the Glasgow-bound Boeing 737 as it landed with 148 passengers and crew on board.

An RAF Sea King helicopter was alerted after the mayday call was made but stood down once the plane landed.

Police were last night interviewing passengers and crew from the plane which was operated by the Gatwick-based charter airline Astraeus.

Celtic, who on Thursday night played Spanish club Celta Vigo in the UEFA Cup, said they were “extremely concerned” about the incident.

In a statement, a spokesman for Astraeus said: “We can confirm that an Astraeus Boeing 737 en route from Santiago in northern Spain to Glasgow had to divert to Cardiff. It landed safely at 3.30pm following a disturbance on board involving a number of people.”

He went on: “We are currently investigating whether there were any injuries to crew or passengers, or any damage to the plane.”

Superintendent Colin Jones of South Wales police said the cabin crew were “very, very traumatised” by the incident.

“The vast majority of the passengers were behaving themselves but it was the mindless minority that were responsible for this disorder,” he said.

“There have been six arrests and some more may follow.”

The arrests were for criminal damage, public disorder and assault.

Supt Jones said: “cabin crew were shocked and tearful when he met them. But passenger Steve Prince said the incident had been “blown up out of all proportion”.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the people on board were well behaved,” he told BBC Radio Wales.

“There was certainly nothing like a riot taking place. There was no fighting and no one was drunk.

“We are all very concerned. It is the good name of the club at stake here."

Atalanta Bergamo - Inter Milan - 02/12/2001

Source: Tifonet

Before the game, Atalanta Ultras tried to reach to visitor sector, well protected by police forces in high number that day. Atalanta group used bottles, fireworks, but they didn't manage to force de "Polizia" line. During the game, all remained calm. After the game, police let the 700 Inter fans left the stadium only at 18H15, when all the "area" was clear.

Bolton Wanderers - Wigan Athletic - 15/12/2001

Source: BBC

A policeman was hit over the head with a bottle as trouble broke out in Bolton town centre after Wanderers' Premier League clash with Charlton. The 40-year-old suffered a deep cut and was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital where he needed eight stitches.
Police were called to the York Hotel in Newport Street shortly after 6.30pm on Saturday after receiving reports that up to 100 Bolton fans were causing a disturbance. When they arrived, a crowd of about 60 soccer fans had gathered outside the pub and a glass bottle was thrown at the officer. Police are investigating reports that there was an "organised fight" involving Bolton and Wigan supporters. One man was arrested for being drunken disorderly offences. Supt Don Brown of Bolton police said: "Police have analysed CCTV footage in the town centre in an attempt to identify the person responsible for the injury to the officer."

NEC Nijmegen - Roda JC - 23/12/2001

Source: Soccer Fans

After NEC-Roda JC (23-12-01) there was a incident between a group of NSC (Roda) and HKN (NEC) because at the first match of the season against roda one HKN member was beaten by +/-25 people of Roda he was beaten to hospital. So for the homematch there were some little plans but what we aspected was that not many roda hools were come to NIJMEGEN (roda has a good firm the last 2 years but they do it only at there home ground) but there was a small group of Roda hools 10-12 men and NEC was with 15 people the most RODA hools were running away when they saw the NEC mob but 2 stand there ground!they were getting some real punches.

Viktoria Zizkov - FC Banik Ostrava - 02/12/2001

Source: hooligans.cz

150 Banik supporters travelled to this match and was escorted to the stadium straight from the stadium. A small group of 17 hools got apart from main group and went to the meet point of Bohemians supporters, who were getting ready to Opava that day. On this place Banik hools attacked them. Bohemians (25 + 5 Slavia) were armed, thrown stones, but still, they were beaten very badly. Victory for Banik.

Rovers - Plymouth Argyle - Cup - 18/12/2001

Source: forum

This is my account of what happened in the week between Rovers and Plymouth.

I know Plymouth are a decent and active firm and i also accept that not all their lads were there on Tuesday night for the FA cup clash with us, but they did bring a good 30/40 lads and there was some action.

I have to admit this is the best we've been this season as quite frankly we've been a disorganized firm this season (Oxford) but on Tuesday there were good signs that we are getting it back together like 99.

I'd say we had about 60 lads out on Tuesday - not amazing numbers but considering our league position not bad.

There was a bit of action with mainly Plymouth getting slaps or ran, on one occasion a Plymouth lad was knocking on a house door trying to seek cover from a few fuming Rovers lads, the Plymouth lad had mouthed off the Rovers lads and legged it only to be caught, the next thing is he's knocking at a door crying, a Rovers lad then steps over a small wall and cracks the Plymouth lad. - Its debatable whether this was a proper lad, Plymouth are claiming it was a youth player but he looked about 24-26 so in my opinion, from his dress and attitude he was a proper Plymouth lad.

Also throughout the night we ran a few Plymouth lads, they decided on fronting us near our pub the JC, they were mustering about six and we had four, they still legged it though even though they had better numbers (they could have even put up a good fight coz this was around 5pm and there weren't many proper Rovers lads around at this time.

Really other than Plymouth getting ran on the night and a few slaps given out it wasn't that eventful...if Plymouth brought more numbers it could have been tastier, nevertheless it seems we are finally getting ourselves together now.

Roll on March.

Squader

AS Roma - Liverpool FC - 05/12/2001

Source: Liverpool Echo

THREE Liverpool fans were stabbed before last night's Champions League match with AS Roma.
They were treated in hospital but their injuries were not serious enough to stop them seeing the 0-0 draw. Police in Rome were unable to confirm reports that a fourth supporter was stabbed after the game. There were ugly scenes leading up to the group B game as coach-loads of Liverpool fans arrived at the Stadio Olympico.
A missile was hurled at one bus smashing a window and police halted the arrival of the rest of the away supporters while they rounded up around 50 Roma fans. After this, Roma fans fight against police outside the Curva Sud, several tear gas has been shot.