Big Red Richie: I've seen many a post on RAWK and other sites in the last six months from people replying to post on various subjects,
where they or others get lambasted for 'being a grass'.
Following Liverpool away I have seen some awful incidents. The
occurrences of the last few days have just brought the problems into
sharp focus.
There have always been gobturkish delights that followed Liverpool,
and any other football club for that matter, but certainly in the
last eighteen months or so I think it has got steadily worse,
certainly from my own perspective and observations.
Whether it be petty theft, wiping out shops(La-cost - Barcelona 2002
anyone ) scousers beating up fellow followers because they are
OOters, racially abusing the locals, throwing bottles across squares
because there wasn't a bin within arms length, soaking other teams
fans because they had the audacity to want to walk through a certain
street etc.(Chelsea - Cardiff to name but one), and a lot worse.
There will be some of you out there that say it has always been that
way, and you are probably right , but it certainly seems like the
problem has gotten worse in the last couple of years.
After the events of this week, there are a number of diehard fans (myself included) who are having a long hard look at wether we should
be bothered with the hassle of travelling to away games in future.
I know a couple of people who go everywhere to follow LFC who have
been pondering this one all season. I think that they've just seen
enough to make up their minds.
For all of the rhetoric that comes from official sources, media and
the like, ultimately it's up to the fans to police themselves to a
certain extent.
I've lost count of the number of occasions that I've sat on an away
coach and had to listen to vile racist abuse thrown about at locals,
opposition players, even our own players and own fans. All from
the 'crew' of anywhere between five and fifteen feral merchant
bankers on the back seat who don't have a braincell between them.
Sitting there smoking dope and snorting turkish delight.
All for a laugh, don't ya know laaa.
I made the mistake once of asking if they would tone it down a bit,
and was probably lucky to not end up in hospital, or worse. The funny
thing is not all of these merchant bankers are young lads who you
could pass off as they don't know better. Certainly, a large amount
of the scrote's are lads under twenty, but there is a hardcore that
go right up into their forties.
On our plane home from Athens there were a couple of incidents that
made me think.
A group of about eight , were generally being **** all the way home.
Before we had even boarded the plane one of them had given another
passenger a dig or two. And then preceded to threaten the lad all the
way home. It's funny how they are always big and hard when they are
mob handed.
Something has got to give, but at what point as fans do we try to
police ourselves without putting ourselves at risk of violence or
threats from other 'gangs' of fans.
I'm all for trying to police our own, but when there is just yourelf
and a mate, and they are mob handed, at what point do you just bite
your lip and say nothing unless you get filled in. Any yes I've seen
a few or our fans getting a good hiding from our own fans in the last
couple of years, and mostly for something absolutely trivial.
Do we start taking footage on mobile phones, and reporting it the the
club?
......... Oh no, sorry. That makes me a grass, doesn't it.
At what point do we say enough is enough, or the alternative is that
genuine fans will start jibbing the aways off and the only ones that
will still be going to them are the gobturkish delights that give ALL
of us a bad name.
To be honest, there isn't an answer to this one, but somethings got
to give or we'll end up being back in the dark days of the 70s and
80s.
.
