Policing for European Games

Blue Mist said:
It is many years ago now but Madrid away. A totally peacefull street suddenly erupted.
It turned out that a middle aged City fan, who was simply crossing the road, had been attacked by riot police.
The man was the Chairman of Leyton Orient, (if i remember his club correctly)
Nothing was done, 2 fucks weren't given as we are just practice for the riot cops.
Totally disgraceful but.....
Click to expand...
Think he was the Charlton chairman
 
Didn't one club (possibly Bayern) demand UEFA take action against the police in certain cities due to the treatment of their travelling support.
I think the issues were in Spain and Italy but the controversy seemed to die down very quickly. It's a pity as fans of many clubs have been caught up in incidents where police have over-reacted.
In my limited experience I recall the police in Barcelona being very heavy-handed at the ground, I've not seen us in Madrid but have been told the police there are even worse.
We played PSG a few months after the bomb at the Bataclan and the riot police were out in force. They were expecting the sort of arseholes sent by Chelsea and the rags but got 2,500 drunks and just looked very bored. We were all told to get a specific metro away from the ground, including those who were meeting people nearby, but other than that there wasn't a problem. The police made it clear they were in charge, but weren't provoking trouble.
Lokeren: Hardly saw any police.
Groclin: Police in Poznan pre-match were tooled up but no incidents to my knowledge.
Germany: Six visits with no trouble, though I remember UK military police putting in an appearance for a game against Schalke in about 2008. On another occasion were were at Moenchengladbach station after a game and two old bloke parked a van on the pavement and started to sell bottles of beer at €2 a go. This was greatly appreciated by fans of both sides and the only person annoyed was the German with the bottle opener as he had to wait while other fans opened their beers. - Two policemen simply stood and watched with no intention of inflaming a peaceful situation.
Ajax: Stewards were arses but police OK. Stayed in Utrecht and got train direct to ground.
Feyenoord: Spent afternoon drinking in Den Haag and got train to Rotterdam and bus to ground. Separate train for City fans back to Rotterdam and Amsterdam after game. No problems with police but I suspect there might have been had anybody wanted to leave the post-match bubble.
Istanbul: No problem with police other than they didn't give a shit about vehicles blocking the car park exits after the game. UEFA stewards were total and utter cunts.
Wales: No problems after TNS away. Cardiff and Swansea were no fun at their old grounds but policing is better at their new ones.
Scotland: No problems with police following City games at Celtic and Dundee. The police at Ibrox treated a friendly like it was a major international confrontation when were played a friendly there.
Northern Ireland: Hardly any police present for the friendly with Ballymena.
Portugal: My only visit was for the 2021 final in Porto and the police just let fans get on with it.
 
If you're a "sensible" fan taking his kids on a Euro away, its always hard to avoid the knobhead element of your support. Seems like the Maccabi fans had a considerable number of knobheads who turned the knobhead-meter up to 10. Hard though to see the scenes afterwards of ordinary people being targeted by folks on bikes on the basis that they may or may not be knobhead Maccabi fans.
 
borassic said:
Also beyond disgusting is singing ‘death to Arabs’, chanting through a minutes silence for the Spanish flood victims about Gazan kids burning and going around Amsterdam pulling flags down.
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They whistled, booed and waved their flags and scarves in the minute’s silence, which is bad enough in itself, but they didn’t chant what you said they did through it.
 
The last time we were at Lisbon I don’t remember the police being too friendly. In the walk to the metro after the game I strayed off the road onto the grass and got a little bit too close to one of the police. Pushed me back into the road with his shield. Helpful.
 
Blue Mist said:
It is many years ago now but Madrid away. A totally peacefull street suddenly erupted.
It turned out that a middle aged City fan, who was simply crossing the road, had been attacked by riot police.
The man was the Chairman of Leyton Orient, (if i remember his club correctly)
Nothing was done, 2 fucks weren't given as we are just practice for the riot cops.
Totally disgraceful but.....
Click to expand...
It was the Charlton chairman. The game was September 2012 and we'd just left that bar as it was a bit crowded. Found a quieter one somewhere else where we bumped into Kevin Parker and Gary Owen (who was rather pissed).

I was told a few years later, by the guy who heads up the European version of the FSA that the Spanish police do their best to make life difficult for away fans, even domestic ones, which is why relatively few travel to watch their team away in Spain.
 
I was in Lisbon for the round of 16 game against Sporting a few years ago. Locked in for probably over an hour after the game. An older blue had a medical issue, I think he might have collapsed. It was well over five minutes before the police eventually let medical staff into the stands to assist having initially blocked them. I believe the guy was ok in the end but had it been an actual cardiac episode it could have been a different story.

After the game frogmarched onto a met and sent express into the town centre. If any local ultras were intent on picking off any blues, there'd of been plenty easy targets trying to find hotels in the darker side streets.
 
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