Season 07/08 - May

Zenit St Petersburg - Glasgow Rangers, PART II

Source: thesun.co.uk

Fan knifed in Rangers riot

A FOOTBALL fan was stabbed and 30 others arrested as violence surrounded last night’s UEFA cup final.

Riot cops repeatedly clashed with supporters in Manchester’s city centre.

Trouble flared during and after the match between Zenit St Petersburg and Glasgow Rangers.

One Russian fan was knifed in the back outside the City of Manchester stadium prior to kick-off.

And dozens of Rangers fans were hurt in battles with baton-wielding cops in the city’s Piccadilly Gardens — a designated supporters’ zone.

Bloodied yobs were seen throwing chairs and tables at police in full riot gear.

An onlooker said: "Hundreds of fans rushed at the police who charged back at them.

"It was a war zone. There were bottles flying everywhere and guys getting dragged to the floor."

Witnesses said the situation rapidly worsened after a Rangers fan was knocked down by a passing minicab, sparking mayhem as angry supporters shattered the motor’s windows.


Clashes

Yobs also smashed the front of a Boots chemist and there were reports of looting.

Cars were wrecked in the streets around Piccadilly Gardens — the scene of other ugly clashes earlier in the evening.

Around 10,000 gathered to watch the match on a big screen there.

But the atmosphere turned nasty at 7.30pm — 15 minutes before kick-off — when the screen broke down to the dismay of furious fans.

Police were pelted with bottles and cans and sporadic clashes broke out.

Onlooker Morgan Jones, 28, said: "The screen suddenly went off. A huge chorus of jeers rang out when everyone assumed the authorities had switched it off deliberately.

"A minority of fans started kicking off and lobbing things."

The stabbed fan’s injury was said not to be life-threatening. Cops arrested six people in relation to the incident.

Disgusted local Simon McClean, 28, said: "We were promised a world-class sporting event but we’ve ended up with a town centre that looks like a rubbish dump. There were fans urinating in the street."

Seventeen fans were held for minor disorder outside Rangers’ Ibrox ground — where 25,000 watching on three giant screens saw their team, led by Barry Ferguson, lose 2-0.










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Source: http://www.theherald.co.uk

Riot police called in amid angry clashes as giant screens fail

Rangers fans clashed with riot police in Manchester after the city's plans for a massive street party descended into farce.

Supporters were left angry when the giant screens meant to be showing the game in the city centre fan zones failed to work due to "technical difficulties".

Disgruntled supporters, or most of them, sensibly streamed away from the zone in search of somewhere else to watch the match after having waited all day to see it.

Gary Maitland, 22, from the Castlemilk area of Glasgow, said: "I'm outraged. I waited there for about five hours. We spent a lot of money to come down from Glasgow. What are we gonna do now?"

A spokesman for Manchester City Council said they did not know what had gone wrong with the screen but were working fast as they could to fix it. But it never was fixed.

Until the game began, police had praised fans for their behaviour and said only eight arrests had been made, pre-match, mainly for minor public order offences.

However, as tempers flared around the city's Piccadilly Gardens, riot police were deployed around the fan zone. A short time later they clashed with the fans. After backing off for a while and being pelted with bottles and cans, police charged the crowd. Officers hit several of the fans with their batons, and then backed off.

The police then returned to their line and the fans returned to their line. Police charged fans twice more, pushing them back. After one clash, a supporter lay on the ground and appeared to be injured.

Fans filmed the police with their mobile phones, while officers hit them with shields and batons. The trouble, however, was over as quickly as it began. A full-scale riot was averted and, shortly after the final whistle blew, all that was left in the area was the debris in the streets.

The realisation that the match would not be shown in either Piccadilly Gardens or Albert Square dawned on the supporters around 10 minutes into the game, sparking outbreaks of trouble.

A Uefa merchandise store was abandoned and its contents handed out to the hundreds leaving Piccadilly Gardens. Some fans cursed the Manchester authorities, saying the screens should have been tested in advance of the game.

An estimated 100,000 had travelled to Manchester with only around 20% securing tickets for the game - leaving the majority hoping to watch it on the screens.

Mark Lyon from the Isle of Wight said he gave up a family holiday to attend the game. Mr Lyon, from Ayrshire, said: "This is a joke, an utter joke and Manchester may experience more hassle than it was expecting because of this. People have spent hundreds if not thousands of pounds to get to this shambles."

David Miller, from Stevenson, Ayrshire, said: "Manchester has made a fortune out of us and this is how we are treated. You can bet if it was Man United playing or Chelsea this wouldn't have happened."

David Farries from Cumbernauld added: "There's guys fighting one another in there now. Rangers fans are turning on Rangers fans. This wasn't the day it should have been."

Fifteen minutes after the game had kicked off there was some good-natured respite after a false alarm swept the thousands that Rangers had gone a goal up.

Cans of beer were cracked open in celebration and thousands turned to their mobile phones for confirmation only to have their hopes dashed.

It was from this moment that the mass exodus from Piccadilly Gardens began as supporters began the search for screens showing the game.

A number of bars surrounding the area had quickly pulled their shutters down when it emerged that the game would not be shown. The irritation among the supporters grew when it emerged that the fan zone in nearby Albert Square was also on the blink.

Before kick-off the scene in both zones resembled a cross between New Year's Eve in Trafalgar Square and Last Night of the Proms as fans swelled several of the city's squares and thoroughfares. Supporters' polo shirts were a gauge to just how far many had travelled from Scotland's central belt through to Sydney, Australia and California.

Manchester locals stood back in bemusement as the hordes sang and drank their way through the hot afternoon. By 6pm the combination of the heat and beer proved too much for some who, regardless of the screen situation, would not have seen the game anyway.

Alcohol to blame for violence at Uefa Cup final - 15/05/2008

Source : Telegraph.co.uk

It is half an hour after the final whistle at the Uefa Cup final and a wave of Rangers fans sweeps down a Manchester street. A lone policeman backs off; he is struck by an object thrown by the mob. He tries to run; he slips and is overwhelmed like an antelope brought down by a pack of wolves.

One policeman was hit so hard that his earpiece became embedded in his head and had to be surgically removed. Fourteen others suffered injuries ranging from broken ribs to a dislocated shoulder. Some 500 people needed hospital treatment while five Rangers supporters were arrested after a Zenit St Petersburg fan was stabbed after the final whistle at the City of Manchester Stadium. Those who came to clean the streets found them covered with urine and excrement.

That was the price of staging the Uefa Cup final. The cause of the violence was the failure of one of the big screens in Piccadilly Gardens, where 10,000 Rangers fans had gathered to watch what turned out to be a feeble performance by the champions of Scotland. They might have got the screen working again were the engineers sent to repair it not been pelted with bottles. Some supporters began fighting among themselves.

The night of May 14 was the date when football hooliganism returned to the streets of Britain. Or did it? There may have been upwards of 175,000 Rangers supporters in Manchester for the night of the Uefa Cup final and, if you assume the 500 injured and 46 arrested were all Scottish, it represents 0.3 per cent of the total number of Scots in the city. You would have had a greater proportion from a stop the war march, especially if most of the demonstrators had been drinking cans of Stella from dawn.

Greater Manchester police initially thought some 50,000 would make the journey. They were unprepared for the phenomenon of Scottish football.

But the guilty men are the supermarkets, who were selling crates of lager from 6.30 in the morning. It needs no kind of degree in civic planning to know that if you ply a vast crowd - especially a crowd as likely to be let down by the result of the night as Rangers were - with alcohol for hours on a hot day, there will be trouble.

When Rangers travelled to Florence for the semi-final, there was a complete ban on the sale of alcohol while free food and soft drinks were handed out. Florence was not sacked. And Manchester, a city that made £25 million from the event, was not the victim of football; it was the victim of something older and more potent - drink.

Paris SG - AS ST-Etienne - 10/05/2008

Source : Mail + The Canadian Press

120 PSG hools with a lot of old faces, before the game.

Stadium security and a small group of riot police had to intervene during halftime to separate PSG and Saint-Etienne supporters in the Auteuil end of the stadium and prevent large-scale clashes.

Rangers - Zenit (pics)

Source : Mail















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Source : Daily Mail


Confrontation: Riot police confront angry fans as a police dog bites a Rangers supporter


Fan fury: The moment a police dog bites one of the rioting Rangers fan on the leg


Stand-off: Riot police with dogs pen a group of drunken Rangers fans in a doorway


Thugs: Rangers fans pose beside a car which was smashed up seconds earlier


Clean-up: The streets of Manchester were left strewn with more than 100 tonnes of rubbish


Costly: The clean-up of is expected to cost Manchester hundreds of thousands of pounds

Russia to use 6,000 police, troops secure Champions League final - 15/05/2008

Source : The Canadian Press

Russian police will use an unusually large force to provide security at Wednesday's Champions League final in Moscow.

Six thousand police and Interior Troops on foot, in vehicles and on horseback will be on duty in and around Luzhniki stadium for the match between Manchester United and Chelsea, Interior Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin said Thursday.

That is 15 to 20 per cent more police and servicemen than are normally on hand for major sports events in Moscow, Gribakin said at a news conference that included a video link from London with representatives of fan clubs of the two teams.

Tens of thousands of English fans are expected in Moscow for the match.

Asked for an assurance that police would not treat fans with unnecessary roughness, Gribakin said police will enforce the law but will not go overboard.

"Everything will be done according to the highest international standards," he said.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Russia would do "everything" to prevent violence and "ensure that there are no acts of revenge" following the stabbing of a Russian fan ahead of Wednesday's UEFA Cup match in Manchester between Zenit St. Petersburg and Rangers.

Mutko said Russian authorities would also do their best to make the English fans' visit as pleasant as possible, but stressed that it was a two-way street and that much depended on the visitors.

"We'd like you to also respect customs and respect the people who live in this city in this country," Mutko said.

He warned against violence by fans of the losing team.

"Of course, many fans of the team that loses will be disappointed - as they were yesterday with Glasgow," Mutko said, adding that he hopes the fans coming to Moscow will be more orderly.

"Yesterday in Manchester I saw what seemed like 100,000 (Rangers) fans, standing on all the central streets, running, drinking. Frankly speaking, I would not like to see this in Moscow in this way," he said. "I want it to be a celebration."

Mutko said that while Russia had no control over who received tickets allotted to the clubs, authorities trust that "tickets will be given to people who will not come here to debauch or with the intention of ruining the match or destroying something here."

"They will come for football," he said.

He said that if the clubs provided lists of fans known to be hooligans, they would likely be denied entry to Russia even if they had a ticket.

Gribakin said that Russia, through Interpol, had requested information about violence-prone English fans who might travel to Moscow for the match, and would watch them closely.

"Naturally, special control will be established over these individuals, but not in a way that seriously infringes ... their rights and freedoms," he said.

More than 15 British law enforcement officials will be on hand to help organize security, Mutko said.

Russia has waived visa requirements for fans with tickets to the match. They can stay in Russia between May 17-25 provided they show their ticket when entering and leaving the country, Foreign Ministry consular department chief Vyacheslav Pavlovsky said.

English-speaking operators will be on hand to answer emergency calls on match day, and information will be available in English in subway stations, officials said.

While police-escorted buses will be provided to take fans from airports to the stadium and back, Mutko said their use is not mandatory and there would be no unusual restrictions on the movement of the visitors.

"We are a free country," he said. "You can go wherever you want."

Ireland : Bray Wanderers - Drogheda United - 09/05/2008

Source : Bray People

Hooligans riot after big match

VIOLENCE erupted outside the Carlisle Grounds last Friday night when rival fans clashed following a triumphant Bray Wanderers 1-0 victory over Drogheda United. Witnesses said at least two people were hit by objects thrown by the rival groups, with Drogheda fans standing directly outside the Carlisle Grounds while the Bray fans stood outside the bowling alley.

Witnesses said at least two people were hit by objects thrown by the rival groups, with Drogheda fans standing directly outside the Carlisle Grounds while the Bray fans stood outside the bowling alley.

Fans squared up to each other, shouting threats, pushing and shoving in the middle of Goldsmith Terrace soon after the match had ended.

Witnesses reported at least two of the men being hit on the head by missiles.

They were holding their heads and shouting in pain,' said a witness.

Gardai arrived on the scene and received help from Bray Wanderer's stewards, as well as some of the older Drogheda fans who hauled their younger counterparts away from the melee.

Despite the intervention, some of the thugs persisted in their attempt to lure others into the middle of the road for a fight.

Both Drogheda United and Bray Wanderers managment said they were unaware of any incident having taken place after the match.

Livorno - Torino - 11/05/2008

Source : Marca

During 2nd half, local fans threw many missiles onto the pitch. Missiles like firecrackers, bottles, toilets stuff and bricks.
Referee stopped the game for 2 minutes at 85th minute of playing.

Italy: no away games for last games - 15/05/2008

Source: http://www.rai.it (thanks to the sender)

Inter fans won't travel to Parma for the last game of the season, for security reasons.
Parma police chief refuse to receive Inter fans, like his colleague from Catanie who refused Roma fans.

Lens : troubles in training ground - 15/05/2008

Source : MadeInLens.com

This morning Lens coach Jean-Pierre Papin arrived in front of the french press with only a few words for journalists.
These last ones were astonished but Lens communication speaker said it's because a few minutes before, at the end of the training, Julien Sablé, a local player, was assaulted by a few fans.
It also seems someone entered the players room.
Fans also assaulted Papin.

France: SCO Angers - Brest - 16/05/2008

Source: mail (thanks to the sender)

A fight opposed 15/20 Brest fans to about the same number of locals, near the stadium.
Brest lads charged and locals immediately retreated.
2/3 locals layed on the floor.
Angers used firecrackers, bricks and umbrellas.
Three Brest lads were arrested after this fight.

Lille OSC - RC Lens - 10/05/2008

Source: mail (thanks to the sender)

Phone calls were exchanged with Lens mob to have an off the game before the game but they refused.

So, the day of the game about 80 Lille lads waited.
This mob was a tidy one, composed by many old faces (+ 40 year old)

Finally, Lens phoned to announce they won't come.

At the end of the journey about 100 locals caused a few scuffles with police forces, with a few arrests.

France: Sedan - Grenoble - 16/05/2008

Source : Football365

Sedan : 2 people serioulsy injured.

Severe troubles occured near the Sedan train station, opposing supporters from Sedan and Grenoble, with a total of 7 fans injured, including 2 seriously.

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Source: mail (thanks to the sender)

Grenoble view

Grenoble mob waited in another town, Charleville Mezieres, waiting other lads.
At 6.25pm everyone was up for it and took the road to Sedan.
Scouts announced a local mob of 40/50 lads with many weapons.
Some minutes after, about 30/40 Grenoble lads saw locals which immediately charged with bottles, batons, a trash can...

The fight took place for about 10 minutes just in the middle of the train station.
Many damages were caused.
Finally both mobs stood their ground.

Carlisle vs Leeds: Arrested fans face banning orders - 16/05/2008

Source: BBC

Cumbria Police say they will pursue football banning orders against 14 people arrested during Carlisle's clash against Leeds United at Brunton Park.

The force was determined to prevent a repeat of the trouble which flared when the two teams last met in the city in November last year.

A police spokesman said there were no major disturbances and that most arrests were for low-level offences.

Of those, 13 were local fans and one was from the Wakefield area.

Ch Supt Andy Davidson, who co-ordinated the police operation, said: "There was real potential for trouble given that both teams had a lot at stake, but it was pleasing to see that the vast majority of supporters recognised that both teams had done well throughout the season and on the night.

"The small amount of trouble was alcohol fuelled, and we will now prosecute the offenders and apply for football banning orders to ensure that this minority of troublemakers cannot disrupt the enjoyment of the game for the rest of the fans."

Carlisle lost their chance to book a spot in the League One play-off final when they were beaten 0-2 by the visitors.

Moscow: We don't want Manchester's violence - 16/05/2008

Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

The Russian government has warned Manchester United and Chelsea fans heading to next week's Champions League final in Moscow that it will not tolerate a repeat of the mob violence which followed Rangers' Uefa Cup final exit on Wednesday.

The Glasgow side's fans were condemned by police for going on the rampage in Manchester following their team's 2-0 defeat by Zenit St Petersburg. The scale of the trouble has forced the city council to scrap plans to show the Champions League final on large screens.

The Russian Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, warned English fans going to Moscow to behave respectfully, saying no facilities were being laid on for those without tickets, and that drinking alcohol in the street would not be tolerated. He added: "We will have everything different here... of course the fans of the losing team are going to be disappointed. We would like to call on the fans to appreciate there is always a winner and a loser."

On Wednesday night, 41 people – 40 of them Rangers followers – were arrested for offences ranging from public order to theft, possessing drugs, carrying weapons, criminal damage and assault. Eleven were charged, 11 released on bail and 12 received cautions. Five Rangers fans held on suspicion of stabbing a Zenit supporter were freed without charge. Another Rangers fan and the only Zenit fan arrested were also freed without charge.

Yesterday, Manchester police released CCTV footage showing a gang of up to 200 fans chasing officers before catching one and kicking and stamping on him. The assistant chief constable, Justine Curran, said the mob was "like a pack of baying wolves".

The city council said it had abandoned screenings of the Chelsea and Manchester United match because of the "bad behaviour of a minority". Sir Richard Leese, the council leader, added: "We cannot tolerate missiles and bottles being thrown. We are sorry to disappoint United fans but there can be no big-screen showing of the final." An estimated 200,000 Rangers fans packed into Manchester on Wednesday afternoon. Those with tickets for the match, at the City of Manchester Stadium, numbered no more than 35,000, That left upwards of 160,000 to watch the game on big screens at three city centre locations.

Police were initially pleased by the carnival atmosphere that saw the streets swathed in the red, white and blue team colours of the Scottish side. But things turned sour after kick-off when the giant television in Piccadilly Gardens stopped working. Fans were asked to go to the velodrome to watch the game instead but some refused and turned their rage, and their bottles, on police. At least 15 riot officers and a patrol dog were injured in the running battles and fist-fights which ensued.

AS Nancy - Rennes - 17/05/2008

Source : The Canadian Press

Nancy fans also ripped up seats and threw them on the field after the final whistle at Stade Marcel-Picot.




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Source: mail (merci àl'expéditeur)

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5gzow_incidents-de-fin-de-match-nancy-ren_sport

FC Sochaux - Paris SG - 17/05/2008

Source : The Canadian Press

Prior to PSG's match at Sochaux, PSG fans fought among themselves in the visitors section.

200/250 PSG lads in town with many old faces. We pushed our way through. We fought with Auteuil fans (SUPRAS) during ten minutes. At the end of the game, cops used cs-gas.







VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu5Us-eiF3g

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/psg/video/x5hhp6_incident-sochaux-psg_sport

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/psg/video/x5gyqb_sochaux-psg_sport

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/psg/video/x5gynr_sochaux-psg_sport

Three Bulgarian clubs given crowd bans - 13/05/2008

Source : Reuters

Bulgarian premier league clubs CSKA Sofia, Levski Sofia and Botev Plovdiv were given crowd bans after hooliganism marred their matches on the penultimate day of the season on Saturday.

Newly crowned champions CSKA have been ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors and fined 3,000 levs ($2,372) for the behaviour of their fans during the ill-tempered 1-1 draw against bitter rivals Levski.

CSKA, who have won their 31st league title, were fined a further 10,000 levs ($7,905) and given another one-match home ban after fans threw objects on to the pitch and broke the window of the Levski bus outside the stadium.

The punishments, imposed on Tuesday, will affect CSKA's first two home matches next season.

The Bulgarian Football Union's (BFU) disciplinary commission gave second-placed Levski a one-match crowd ban after hundreds of supporters damaged seats and clashed with riot police.

Levski, who were also fined 3,000 levs ($2,372), will host Slavia in the oldest Sofia derby in an empty stadium on Saturday.

Botev Plovdiv were given a crowd ban for the third time this season.

Botev, who played their matches against Marek Dupnitsa, Levski and CSKA behind closed doors, will start next season with a home match with no spectators after crowd violence marred their match against Litex Lovech.

They were also fined 11,000 levs ($8,696).

RC Lens - Bordeaux - 17/05/2008

Source : The Canadian Press + La Voix du Nord

Angry fans invaded the field at Lens after the loss and police had to form a line to hold them back.









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Source : Mail (photos : Lens62.com)










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VIDEOS :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xI1xfXFphg

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/psg/video/x5h83y_les-supporters-lensois-envahissent_sport

Bellinzona - St Gallen - 17/05/2008

Source: http://www.ticinonline.ch

Vihren - CSKA Sofia - 17/05/2008

Source : TSR

Bulgaria rocked by final-day crowd violence

Bulgarian football was rocked by another outbreak of crowd violence as rival fans clashed during CSKA Sofia's game at Vihren on the final day of the season on Saturday.

A group of Lokomotiv Plovdiv supporters, who travelled to the southern town of Sandanski to fight CSKA fans, attacked the CSKA enclosure from outside the stadium, throwing missiles, stones and bottles, according to police reports.

One man was seriously injured and several suffered minor injures while the match was held up for 10 minutes in the second half as police struggled to restore order.

Champions CSKA won the match 2-1. They clinched their 31st league title earlier this month in front of an empty stadium at Botev Plovdiv, themselves being punished for crowd violence.

Trouble continued outside the ground, the CSKA team bus pelted with stones while police said they had arrested 40 fans on Saturday night. Six policemen suffered minor injuries.

"We detained the hooligans and they'll be charged on Sunday," police commissar Konstantin Tatyanov told reporters.

"The fast-track system, set up to process cases of football hooliganism quickly, will be used."

CSKA's management had considered ordering their players off the pitch but after consultation with match officials decided to finish the game.

This season's Bulgarian championship was plagued by crowd trouble, boycott threats and intimidation with several atches played behind closed doors.

"These hooligans should go to prison. There's no place for them at the stadiums," CSKA's chief executive Emil Kostadinov said.

"The state should enact much more severe sanctions against football violence."

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Source : FOCUS News Agency

40 fans of Lokomotiv Plovdiv arrested

Policemen from Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria averted a clash between the fans of CSKA and Lokomotiv, according to the official press release of the police. The information reads that a total of 40 fans of the Lokomotiv team, who allegedly started the fight, have been arrested.

Bulgaria : Botev Plovdiv - Litex - 17/05/2008

Source : FOCUS News Agency

6 policemen were injured in the incident, which happened during a game between the teams of Lokomotiv and Pirin (Blagoevgrad).

Poland: Iglopool Debica - Stal Sanok - 17/05/2008

Source: youtube.com

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=9JJCFrX-cLM

Football hooligans in Blagoevgrad face two years in prison - 18/05/2008

Source : FOCUS News Agency

The football hooligans, fans of the team of Lokomotiv Plovdiv, who thrashed the bus of the CSKA team, threw crackers and attacked the CSKA fans and police while in Blagoevgrad, face up to two years in prison for their actions, the regional police Commissar Konstantin Totyanov said in an interview for FOCUS Radio.

BSV 91 Borna - 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig - 18/05/2008

Source : Forum

Bulgaria : Cherno More - Spartak Varna - 17/05/2008

Source : ole-bg.com