Can we be holier than thou about this though Blackburn 2000 anyone ? We had thousands of ticket lessons fans many of whom jibbed in. My brother went without a ticket and somehow finished up in the directors box. When the gates opened with ten minutes to go thousands more blues piled in, congas along the touchline all very good humoured but I feared what could have happened had we lost. Boys will be boys, footy fans will be footy fans and appealing for them not to see go to a crucial game without a ticket is like telling it not to go dark at night. Checks for genuine tickets should have been way before the turnstiles a hand held devise will sort this out and there where sufficient police numbers to disperse or nick the ticket less. Has been said many times on here though these problems do seem unique to Liverpool .
We shouldn't be holier than thou about this or anything else, but we can be realistic. Blackburn was 20 years ago. We have had some massive games (yes, massive) in the last decade. Our first wembley appearance against the rags at the new wembley. Our first major final in 30 years. 13 May 2012. The West Ham game two years later. Our first champions league final. The Villa game. I don't remember any major issues at any of these games. Nobody jibbed in last Sunday. Even the hysteria about the assault on Villa's keeper involved two or three lads out of thousands who went on the pitch.
We just haven't had the same issues that Liverpool have pretty much every time they get to a big game. Other English teams have had similarly huge games. Trouble doesn't follow them round like it does Liverpool.
The issue I have is that LFC as a club have known for a long time that they have a very significant element in their fan base that will cause trouble, that will force their way in with forged or no tickets at all, that will brick their opponents coach. What do they do about it? Absolutely nothing. They lie and they deflect and they blame anyone and everyone else, and they will not take responsibility. They will not even criticise. Even Chelsea worked extremely hard to get rid of the racist element of its fan base. What have LFC ever done to get rid of their scum element? Absolutely nothing.
I don't know what happened in Paris on Saturday night, I wasn't there. What I have seen are many many social media images of red shirted young men forcing their way through gates and running from stewards, or climbing over fences. I have seem the images of the Liverpool end during the game where you could barely see the walkways compared with the Madrid end where you could see them clearly. I have heard the stories of thousands being turned away - many with genuine tickets - even though the Liverpool end was full to burst. I have heard no similar stories about the Madrid end. I have heard stories of LFC fans being tear gassed and pepper sprayed indiscriminately and I have seen one social media clip of a bunch of 20 somethings who didn't look like LFC fans forcing their way through a gate.
So I'm all for the full inquiry that is being talked about. But something inside tells me that if the official conclusions are that the root cause of the problems is large numbers of LFC fans turning up without valid tickets, LFC won't learn, and won't even try to learn any lessons from that. They will just cry 'its another whitewash just like Hillsborough' and sweep the whole thing under the carpet.
