Trouble in the North Stand second tier vs United

[Scaley]

These scarves shown clearly here by the muen….

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ll-news/our-people-pep-guardiola-man-28746659

I think the ones holding the phones up in that picture tells you all you need to know about tourists and regulars. Regulars of a certain age don’t tend to whip their phones out like tourists and younger fans, nothing wrong with it just different generations.

 

[Mike S]

I’m not saying there isn’t some level of responsibility to not blunder into a problem, just that most people wouldn’t expect to get beaten up for it.

And, while we are on the subject, WHY is a good slap even necessary? Yes, we have segregation to avoid a small incident turning into mob violence, but why would one fan get battered and not simply be told to sit down and shut up or the stewards will remove them?

I was raised during the era of hooliganism run riot, but are we still there? Does that mindset still hold? Or, have we all moved on and one foreign fan making a misstep can be easily overlooked…esp considering they have no idea of the litany of “real fan” grievances they represent?

There is still a minority of fans that have that hooliganism mentality. It’s embedded in some. Fuelled by drink & drugs on match day too. Generally families and tourists numbers are definitely increasing but you still only need to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to have a skirmish. We stumbled across a pack of Morons in Black an hour before kick off near the ground on Sunday but thankfully for me and my mate GMP were all over the wankers…

 

[ChicagoBlue]

There is still a minority of fans that have that hooliganism mentality. It’s embedded in some. Fuelled by drink & drugs on match day too. Generally families and tourists numbers are definitely increasing but you still only need to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to have a skirmish. We stumbled across a pack of Morons in Black an hour before kick off near the ground on Sunday but thankfully for me and my mate GMP were all over the wankers…

There are always going to be idiots(esp idiots in groups!) out and about, but inside the ground everyone needs to chill a bit. Everyone is under CCTV surveillance and there’s zero reason to lose the privilege of watching City over some dumbass not acting properly. That’s what stewards are for! Call them over, point out the “mistake” and get on with watching the game.

 

[bluestevei]

Not sure if anyone saw this but it happened under the Colin Bell/North Stand scoreboard just after United's goal.

United fan wearing a half-and-half scarf (of course) jumped up to celebrate. Obviously he was spotted by everyone around him. Two young stewards began to escort him out when a pumped up City lad ran 10-20 yards along a row and leathered him across the head.

A fight then ensued and one of the poor stewards - who's looked after our block for a couple of seasons now - nearly got trampled in the melee. Fully lost sight of her at points as she got squished between these two huge lads scrapping with each other. She can't be over 20 and she's a tiny little thing with glasses. As a fellow bespectacled member of society my heart went out to her.

They managed to get some burly security guys to clear them off and get both guys out in the end, and I chatted to her (and her manager) after the game and she seemed alright and laughed it off. But it got me wondering why the stewards aren't getting more help for big games when there's likely to be a few away fans trying to jib into the match or buy a ticket in the home end?

I understand we're in the family bit, and there's outrage if someone dares stand up to sing most weeks, but we always get tourists and away fans sitting in our end - and it's always worse against Liverpool, United, Arsenal, etc. Makes me wonder why some of the stewarding staff, especially the younger ones, aren't given more help.

And at half-time I'm always dumbstruck that the kitchens and bars seem to be run exclusively by people under the age of 25 - and there's never enough of them either. We're the richest club in the world but we only seem interested in employing a minimal amount of students who'll accept minimum wage.

It could have turned really nasty in our bit yesterday and I'm honestly not sure what the two stewards we had would have done if they hadn't gone and fetched some nearby security detail sharpish. Kids needs jobs, that's fair enough, but they need better assistance to do that job properly, surely?

That is down to the club,at the moment under 21 will get less then minimum wage, saves money but in April all ages after 18 will get minimum wage which will be 11-50 then the club will get older staff in, a example is witherspoon where most staff is under 20 so not on minimum wage but you will see price of drinks will go up because under 20 will get the going rate, oh that utd fan was lucky if he was in another stand he wouldn't had 1 lad lump him but more would have hit him

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I don't approve of it. I don't really begrudge them getting the ticket. I just don't know how you're a fan who is willing to pay that sort of money but don't have a passing knowledge of the customs and culture of the sport you've spent $$$ to watch. I'm not being facetious about it. I love pro wrestling, I want to visit to Japan to watch it there, I know that crowds have their own norms that a pissed up British lad starting chants would be told off for. I'm just fascinated by the discrepancy of loving the sport enough to travel but not loving it enough to know there are segregated crowds and a long history of hooliganism.

I agree but, you know, they're people with money, and they want “The Premier League Theme Park Experience”. Just as they might pay top dollar to fly out to Sharm-El-Sheik to go on an accompanied scuba diving course in the Red Sea.
Some of them, of course, will consider themselves to be football fans. They may even follow a team at home. But it's quite hard for a foreigner (unless they're from certain European and Latin American countries) to understand just how rooted football is in British culture. How clubs that were founded in the late nineteenth century represent not just a city but sometimes, a specific district. So we're talking about “turf wars” here.
I've never attacked anyone in my life in a football stadium. Never even thought about it. Although there is a “hospitality” section right next to my block, and when we play the dippers there's always someone who stands up and celebrates like crazy if they score. Winds up the entire block no end. But I have been attacked. No big deal, no-one had a knife or a broken bottle. It was over very, very quickly. Some people have been bricked, and still carry the scars from thirty years ago.
But a little story. Bloke I know — was a friend although we've got out touch. Lifelong Chester City supporter. He got into a scuffle with a steward. This is years back. The way he explains it is that he was defending someone else who, according to his version, was completely innocent and was in the process of being ejected. Again, according to his version, he was cheered by every Chester supporter around him. He was banned from the ground for, I think, several seasons. Not just one. He's still quite bitter about it. He's a burly guy, who can certainly handle himself, but I have great difficulty thinking that he'd start a fight.
As for the tourists — I repeat — some of them simply don't know where they are, culturally speaking. They certainly have no idea that a banner hung at Old Trafford for years explicitly taking the piss out of us. They certainly never went into primary school on a Monday morning and took all kinds of shit from the kids. They don't know the backstory. They've certainly never been bricked at OT simply for wearing the wrong scarf in the wrong place. A sharp word in their ear should be enough to put them right. But if someone's completely tanked up, i.e. a City supporter with very bad blood with the rags (or the dippers), then there's always a chance he'll wade in there.

 

[shemnel]

i remember being a bit cunty in football stadiums when i was 17-20, although i have to say i never got in bother actually inside a stadium ever, not once. But then i stopped being a child and got incredibly embarrassed of myself - it amazes me that grown men in their 30s can still behave like this, it really pickles my mind.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I’m not saying there isn’t some level of responsibility to not blunder into a problem, just that most people wouldn’t expect to get beaten up for it.

And, while we are on the subject, WHY is a good slap even necessary? Yes, we have segregation to avoid a small incident turning into mob violence, but why would one fan get battered and not simply be told to sit down and shut up or the stewards will remove them?

I was raised during the era of hooliganism run riot, but are we still there? Does that mindset still hold? Or, have we all moved on and one foreign fan making a misstep can be easily overlooked…esp considering they have no idea of the litany of “real fan” grievances they represent?

You're talking across me to address a point I'm not arguing for. I've never punched anyone in my life, I don't approve of the action. I think the lads who did are knobheads.

I'm just genuinely bemused by the gap between someone wanting to watch a football game because they're a fan of one of the teams but having zero contextual knowledge that in any football stadium in Europe (outside of potentially Spain) or South America there are home/away ends and you risk a slap, or much worse in places outside of Manchester, for celebrating an away goal.

Most people? Probably not? Most football fans, I'm not so sure!

 

[mcfcphil]

Some people like punching people. Doesn’t matter if it’s in a pub, at home or in the street.

This as an opportunity to give someone a smack. Simple as that.

 

[BringBackSwales]

The reality is that football is a whole lot safer than it was in the 60’s to 90’s but I don’t see it will ever be a case that if someone jumps up after a goal in the away end in a derby that one of the several hundred people in the vicinity won’t react like that. I don’t condone it but it’s an absolute reality of British society - I can’t talk for other countries. It has always been that way, and is no different in a pub in any town or city on any Saturday night. It’s wrong but it’s life and the only way around it is for away fans not to be in home parts of the ground, or if they do get a ticket they need to keep their heads down. The only other point is that cctv will surely show which seat it was and the club can look at how they sold that ticket, it might give a clue as to what to not do next time. Anyone who’s not a young child knows the risks involved in celebrating in the wrong end, it isn’t rocket science

 

[ChicagoBlue]

You're talking across me to address a point I'm not arguing for. I've never punched anyone in my life, I don't approve of the action. I think the lads who did are knobheads.

I'm just genuinely bemused by the gap between someone wanting to watch a football game because they're a fan of one of the teams but having zero contextual knowledge that in any football stadium in Europe (outside of potentially Spain) or South America there are home/away ends and you risk a slap, or much worse in places outside of Manchester, for celebrating an away goal.

Most people? Probably not? Most football fans, I'm not so sure!

I think that they see the areas where opposing fans seem in direct confrontation with each other and know about that.

However, when they pay $400 for a decent seat in the “better” areas and “merely” cheer for a goal, that probably feels like a non-event.

Who the hell knows what people know or why they do what they do? I live in a country where about 70 million people want a vain, multi-bankrupt, billionaire who doesn’t pay taxes, is a convicted rapist and insurrectionist as their President…so who the fuck knows why people do what they do?!