Celtic game - strict security measures announced (page 34)

I was sat in 212, right next to the away fans, yesterday. There were quite a few Celtic fans and were absolutely ok. There was a bit of fighting, but it appeared that it was more our fans who started it (or reacted to Celtic fans celebrating their goal). A bit over the top for my liking as hey ho, nothing too serious. I’d get it if it was United or even a club like Newcastle, Chelsea, Everton, but Celtic? We don’t really have a history with them, have we?

It looked like there were loads of scuffles all over the ground and the stewards / police clearly did not attempt to stop them or to chuck the Celtic fans out. I am however not sure what the club could have done more to prevent this from happening. Only people with a purchase history prior to the draw were eligible to buy tickets. Regardless of the post code or any other criteria. The club even cancelled the print-at-home tickets at short notice. I had bought an extra ticket for a colleague (not a Celtic fan of course) and had to collect the paper ticket in person with a photo ID.

So how did all those (few thousand) Celtic fans get their hands on tickets in the home end? My only conclusion is that City fans sold them on. Not sure what the club could do about that apart from ID checking everyone with a ticket, which is probably not feasible and which would cause all sorts of issue for home fans. Kicking all Celtic fans out of the home end would have also been a nightmare and stewards / police appeared stretched as it was.

I agree that we should have given Celtic a bigger allocation, but I imagine that GMP would have vetoed that. And I also think that this would not have prevented them from trying to get tickets in the home end. I imagine the demand was huge.

All in all I’m not too bothered about what happened last night and I am glad we played Celtic rather anyone else as it added a bit of excitement. Having said that, it could have been much uglier.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
City's policy is (or was when i read it and emailed the club with it) that only home supporters could sit in the home stands
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What I liked about the Burnley email was the common sense no nonsense approach.

They knew I was an away supporter but as long as I didn't identify myself as such and behaved myself they would turn a blind eye.

But they were clear I would be ejected if I didn't stick to the rules.

I wish City would be as unambiguous and eject away fans who can't behave.
 
GortonBlue62 said:
What I liked about the Burnley email was the common sense no nonsense approach.

They knew I was an away supporter but as long as I didn't identify myself as such and behaved myself they would turn a blind eye.

But they were clear I would be ejected if I didn't stick to the rules.

I wish City would be as unambiguous and eject away fans who can't behave.
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I dont disagre with that. Like I said, me and my brother celebrated our goal, it just came naturally. We werent over exuberant and certainly didnt rub it in or wind city fans up. We took our medicine when you scored and enjoyed the game and a few yarns with those around us
 
Bavaria Blue said:
I kind of agree, but if I look at the steward kids in 212 last night there is no way they could pulled that off.
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As the situation was entirely predictable the Police could have got involved.

About 20 Everton fans were ejected by the police in the semi final last season.
 
flb said:
Totally agree mate, we won't be as lucky next time,what's the answer though? You can't stop people passing on tickets who have a Manchester postcode, money makers don't give a shit about consequences unfortunately.

What happened up in 314/315 though is nothing short of a disgrace as that wasn't M postcodes selling to Celtic fans , they all gathered on mass towards there own fans to stand together , no doubt occupying City fans seats, that could have been carnage up there and thankfully the cameras didn't pan up there, the stewards in the end let them occupy the area next to there own with a cordon behind them.

The few behind me in 322 were okay on the whole ,one middle aged Celtic fan got pushed down the stairs and took a couple of punches and was ushered out.

Some of the rum buggers were told to leave about the 86 minute mark and took exception , pointing at city fans he said " why are they allowed to stay too the end and not us"!

They made it a good atmosphere but the real issue was up in 314/315.
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I was in 322 last night ,Id been moved from 318 weeks ago..........

It was strange how some stewards moved up to that bunch of 10 or so celtic fans bang on 86 minutes and grabbed the only one wearing a celtic top and escorted him out,why wait all that time in the first place ? why do it then near the end of the game ? strange !

that " middle aged celtic " took a right bang on his stomach area when he was pushed or he fell himself into that barrier stand,bet he's bruised as hell today.
 
Tim1980 said:
I dont disagre with that. Like I said, me and my brother celebrated our goal, it just came naturally. We werent over exuberant and certainly didnt rub it in or wind city fans up. We took our medicine when you scored and enjoyed the game and a few yarns with those around us
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I know it comes naturally, I was at the Burnley game with my brother.
We both decided that as it pissed us off so much when away fans celebrate at the Etihad, we wouldn't do it to the Burnley fans.

If it had been made clear to you that you would be thrown out for openly celebrating, would you have kept quite?
 
Tim1980 said:
The songs issue. Dont really want to get into that debate but as unpleasant for many as some of our songs are, they arent sectarian. Unless we were belting out romain in the gloamin, which I didnt hear last night and havent doe for many years.
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From memory we had, "Sean South of Garryowen, Boys of the Old brigade, Go on home, British Soldiers, Fields of Athenry, Brits out, The Irish National Anthem; whilst all toe tappers from the Rebels songbook not really football related
 
Tam_O_Shanter said:
From memory we had, "Sean South of Garryowen, Boys of the Old brigade, Go on home, British Soldiers, Fields of Athenry, Brits out, The Irish National Anthem; whilst all toe tappers from the Rebels songbook not really football related
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Brit out sang by a British clubs fans .

I despise the Glasgow filth I really do.
 
GortonBlue62 said:
I know it comes naturally, I was at the Burnley game with my brother.
We both decided that as it pissed us off so much when away fans celebrate at the Etihad, we wouldn't do it to the Burnley fans.

If it had been made clear to you that you would be thrown out for openly celebrating, would you have kept quite?
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Like I said it wasnt our intention to and when we did thankfully the ity fans around us were ok.
Certainly would have made us try harder to not celebrate. We paid to watch the full match afterall

Tam_O_Shanter said:
From memory we had, "Sean South of Garryowen, Boys of the Old brigade, Go on home, British Soldiers, Fields of Athenry, Brits out, The Irish National Anthem; whilst all toe tappers from the Rebels songbook not really football related
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The Irish National Anthem is hardly a rebel songis it?
 
GortonBlue62 said:
As the situation was entirely predictable the Police could have got involved.

About 20 Everton fans were ejected by the police in the semi final last season.
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I think it was on a completely different scale yesterday. My impression was that stewards and police capitulated when they realised how many Celtic fans there were in our end. I imagine they just hoped for the best and thought that it would have really kicked off had they tried chucking all of them out.
 
Steve Punter said:
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Kicked off in 105 and people were coming over from 106-107 to have a go. A few Celtic fans left, one got chucked out. Stewards didn't have a clue or didn't care, they were nowhere to be seen.

They were goading City fans when they scored and when our goal was disallowed. What did they expect to happen?
Spoke to the steward in 105. He said there was nothing he could do. The 40 or 50 Celtic fans in there were 'friends of UEFA' and presumably are therefore entitled to behave like arseholes.

I'm in 104, close to 105, and the 'friends of UEFA' for the Gladbach game happened to be German and for Barca, Spanish. It's an absolute farce and last night was very unpleasant. Just glad I didn't take the kids. Two or three Celtic fans were extremely aggressive in their posturing. Standing up, staring menacingly at anyone they fancied singling out, making cutting throat gestures etc. I'd like to see what (if any) checks there are on what these so called 'friends of UEFA' are doing with their allocation because they're clearly selling the tickets on for every game.
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I'm in 106 and it was all going on in the aisles between 105/6. We had fans clambering over to try and get involved but nothing too physical seemed to happen.

It really affects the viewing experience when away fans are allowed into the home section. There's absolutely no respect shown to our supporters and the club needs to act and eject them if they can't behave.

Otherwise, serious trouble will kick off one of these days and we'll all be painted in a bad light/fined by UEFA. All it takes is one game of magnitude and the frustrations/anger of the majority and it will kick off.

I'm going to cancel my champions league scheme next year as the games against Borussia and Celtic, in particular, have ruined it for me.
 
Tim1980 said:
Like I said it wasnt our intention to and when we did thankfully the ity fans around us were ok.
Certainly would have made us try harder to not celebrate. We paid to watch the full match afterall



The Irish National Anthem is hardly a rebel songis it?
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What about the others?
 
Tim1980 said:
Like I said it wasnt our intention to and when we did thankfully the ity fans around us were ok.
Certainly would have made us try harder to not celebrate. We paid to watch the full match afterall



The Irish National Anthem is hardly a rebel songis it?
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flower of Scotland is your national anthem not the Irish national anthem.
 
Otamendi's Beard said:
I'm in 106 and it was all going on in the aisles between 105/6. We had fans clambering over to try and get involved but nothing too physical seemed to happen.

It really affects the viewing experience when away fans are allowed into the home section. There's absolutely no respect shown to our supporters and the club needs to act and eject them if they can't behave.

Otherwise, serious trouble will kick off one of these days and we'll all be painted in a bad light/fined by UEFA. All it takes is one game of magnitude and the frustrations/anger of the majority and it will kick off.

I'm going to cancel my champions league scheme next year as the games against Borussia and Celtic, in particular, have ruined it for me.
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We were lucky it was a dead rubber, can you imagine if either club needed the points to qualify?.
 
It just had to be BLUE. said:
Brit out sang by a British clubs fans .

I despise the Glasgow filth I really do.
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Don't think many of the Scots in the Celtic end think of themselves as British, they mostly want to be Irish. It got more confusing as a mere Scot like me was supporting the English side against the Scottish based Irish side, Maybe Brits out was being sung to the boy in the North Stand upper, with his "Kircudbright Loyal" Rangers/City/Hamburg flag, I think he was definitely British. Thank God were all European or it would be really confusing.
 
Tam_O_Shanter said:
What about the others?
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Fields of Athenry divides opinion about wether its a rebel song or not. The writer says it isnt and Id agree with him. The others are rebel songs

philiph20 said:
flower of Scotland is your national anthem not the Irish national anthem.
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Amhran na bhFiann (The Soldier's Song) is my national anthem. The same for many of Celtic fans be they first generation Irish or later generation Irish.
 
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