Fair play to the MEN for actually going with the article and the dad and girl certainly shouldn't let it drop.
He's right to say it could be have been more serious, even fatal, it sounds dramatic but it could have happened. City have failed in a duty for care to their own supporters by allowing Liverpool fans up there. If it was done GMP's advice then they have failed us too, and there should be an investigation and revision of practices for future matches. Yes, not every club has fans as feral as Liverpool, but you have to plan for the worst.
Whilst their privacy is paramount,I do also kind of hope they go public, shame the Liverpool fans openly and help to sway public opinion of city as oil rich cheats.
In fact, the media themselves (and I know that is a sweeping statement and not all are complicit at all) should be held accountable for the hatred and jealously they allow to seep into their reporting. How many city fans have been attacked or abused, and how many of those incidents could we possibly point to articles and sound bites from personalities and journalists saying it's ok to hate city, city are the bad guys, city are the cheats, cas were bribed, city are making everything boring by winning everything, city have stopped my club and your club from doing better so it's justified to lash out at them, be it online, at a petrol station in Belgium or from the third tier of their ground.
Normalize hatred of city, then pair it with the irresponsible following of Liverpool FC, whose fans seem to think they have to dare each other into worse and worse actions to prove their cult scouseness, and you have an incident.
I'd wholly support an away fan ban now for he next 18 months in fixtures between us 2. I have zero interest in ever going to Anfield again anyway (last and only visit there over 20 years ago and even then it is one of the only times I've truly felt safety of visiting fans is a real problem at a 'modern' football game).
I get completely why we are releasing joint statements with Liverpool FC. The problem is that it does indeed suggest all crimes are the same by attempting to draw a line under it, and when you get first GMP finding the racist city fan who was spotted abusing the disabled Liverpool supporters, as right as it is that he's done for it and banned, you do get people looking around thinking 'if you can catch someone so quickly for saying something racist, when are you going to get to the idiots who threw missiles and could have killed people?'
Personally I'm sick and tired of Liverpool's excuses and lack of accountability, and I'd happily accept a ban from their ground in order to not have them anywhere near Manchester when we play. It's a badge of honour to a sizable section of Liverpool fans to cause as much aggro as possible. Set fire to the town hall, smash up a bus, chuck some piss and coins at fans, well hilarious you Scouse hillbillies. They claim it's passion and famous scouse support, but they're actually frequently breaking the law, causing criminal damage and endangering life.
You could easily say that section of their support have learned nothing from either Hillsborough or Heysel, and of any club in the world that should be aware of the consequences of dangerous behavior at football games, of the feeling of waving a loved one off to a game not knowing you'll never see them alive again, it should be their club. Yet time after time it's 'a small section' of Liverpool fans , that then go on to be defended by their fellow Liverpool supporters, even the club itself, that are causing this grief. Look at the Paris debacle las summer - no way we're Liverpool as a club or fan base having it that it was anything other than UEFA or the French's fault. Absolutely they got it wrong, gassing fans and paper tickets, but did they ever stop to think 'hang on, I was stuck outside and got gassed because some other knob head Liverpool fan has nicked my seat and caused huge delays and unrest?' Nope, because an attack on one is an attack on all of them, which sounds admirable until you realise they're hiding those who try to hurt children.
If we didn't have CCTV focused on that section from the start, shame on us. I hope and expect to see GMP and their useless comrades in Merseyside ripping up trees to uncover the git before the next round of premier league games.
We all have our share of idiot fans or fans who get carried away or egged on, but they time after time show they have more than most. Even worse,they close ranks and defend or deny the crime ever happened, be it online in comments and forums or those probed by the police. They see being a Liverpool fan as more important than the law, than the lives of other supporters,and look only after themselves. It's sad, and it's reelected in the attitude opposition fans have for them in return.
Hope both the girl and also the guy who was attached on Ashton New Road are ok and have a good Christmas despite the incidents with no lasting effects. Same for the abused disabled supporter(s) and at least they've got the knowledge that those responsible have been nicked and removed from attending games.
