Lokeren 16yrs today!!

[BlindEyeSeesAll]

Brilliant away trip.

It's all a bit hazy, but I'm sure a had a great time.

 

[ccr]

Is that forest still there ? The amount of people using it as a rest room , must have destroyed most of it.

 

[nmc]

Remember it well. Stayed in Brugge - lovely town.

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Big stink about this one... In which Bernard Halford came out with no credit.....

At first the club announced unless you booked with the official travel partner - Thomas Cook (who just happened to be the clubs official shirt sponsor) you couldnt get a ticket. Flights were something lii.ke £145 day return and the club said it was competitive.

I was secretary of the Centenary Supporters Association and spoke with the club and said this was a cartel and was a restriction against fair trade.
I had booked flights for £11 plus £4 tax each way from Stansted to Charleoi and €11 each way Charleoi to Antwerp on the train. Staying over night.

I threatened to produce a banner at a home game saying "Thomas Cook, we dont give a f**k" behind the south stand goal..... And the club told me i was being extreme.....
The rules were then changed with City stating you could make your own way to Lokeren but any English fans going to the game had to be bussed in from a nearby motorway service station and into the stadium. Any English fans in Lokeren during the day would face arrest.
I was asked to go on BBC GMR and stated as a European citizen that I had the right to be in Lokeren at any time of the day and go about my legal business.
The evening before the game, I received a phone call from a producer at GMR saying they had spoken with the Lokeren police and they had no issue with City fans being in Lokeren as long as they behave themselves.
They had also spoken with Bernard Halford who insisted the club was being led by gthe Lokeren police....
GMR wanted me to speak live in the morning, then Halford and then the Lokeren police (unbeknown to Halford).
So off i go first saying as a european citizen i can go anywhere i want legally.
Followed by Halford saying he is only going off on what

Interesting story mate!

What did Bernard say in the end, did he apologise?

 

[bladdered]

The ferry from Hull was interesting. Never seen so many Blues on one boat!

 

[Sid C]

Anybody here in the Celtica bar in Brussels the night after? Or was it the night before?

That post sums it up for me as we stayed in Brussels before and after but everything’s just a fog. I don’t know the name of the bar but all the City fans were booing fans leaving and cheering fans coming in. I stupidly got hold of a full sized mock skeleton that was in the corner of the bar and started pretending it was coming in and out. All was going well until I trapped it’s head in the door and it bounced off onto the pavement. I was then asked to leave.
Lots of great memories of that trip, just a pity I don’t remember them.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Anybody here in the Celtica bar in Brussels the night after? Or was it the night before?

I was at that game but, by fuck, I couldn't remember any of it when I saw the wee video. The only thing I can recall are the players names. Jeez. it must be the rarified air in CBL3 has finally got to me! Eeh, Sibierski, Macmamamanananamamamanan, Sun Jihai and Bozzer! I thought we'd hit the promised land with those guys!

 

[Electric Blue]

Never seen so many pissed up blues in my life !

 

[lancs blue]

Big stink about this one... In which Bernard Halford came out with no credit.....

At first the club announced unless you booked with the official travel partner - Thomas Cook (who just happened to be the clubs official shirt sponsor) you couldnt get a ticket. Flights were something lii.ke £145 day return and the club said it was competitive.

I was secretary of the Centenary Supporters Association and spoke with the club and said this was a cartel and was a restriction against fair trade.
I had booked flights for £11 plus £4 tax each way from Stansted to Charleoi and €11 each way Charleoi to Antwerp on the train. Staying over night.

I threatened to produce a banner at a home game saying "Thomas Cook, we dont give a f**k" behind the south stand goal..... And the club told me i was being extreme.....
The rules were then changed with City stating you could make your own way to Lokeren but any English fans going to the game had to be bussed in from a nearby motorway service station and into the stadium. Any English fans in Lokeren during the day would face arrest.
I was asked to go on BBC GMR and stated as a European citizen that I had the right to be in Lokeren at any time of the day and go about my legal business.
The evening before the game, I received a phone call from a producer at GMR saying they had spoken with the Lokeren police and they had no issue with City fans being in Lokeren as long as they behave themselves.
They had also spoken with Bernard Halford who insisted the club was being led by gthe Lokeren police....
GMR wanted me to speak live in the morning, then Halford and then the Lokeren police (unbeknown to Halford).
So off i go first saying as a european citizen i can go anywhere i want legally.
Followed by Halford saying he is only going off on what

Yes, the initial rules about being bussed in pissed me off as I'd already booked Eurostar to Brussels and 2 nights in Ghent. I did some digging online and got an email address for the local chief of police's office so fired off an email complaining about the arrangements and got a similar reply to the one GMR gave to you, that they had no problems with us travelling independently to Lokeren. I never found out where the idea for bussing us in came from.

 

[bluevengence]

Great times following City....locals never knew what hit them...can still hear the sceams of the blue that was in the porta cabin at the back of the temporay stand as his mates pushed it over.