Not liking the reports coming out from Athens

[lfcruleus]

I've just got back, I'm knackered & well pissed off, the Greeks couldn't run a ****ing bath

The 4 ticket checking stations were totally ineffective & inefficient. One well run security cordon & a futher check at the turnstyles would have been suffice except they didn't have turnstyles.

The muppets who were using the blue laser lights to check for forgeries were just plain stupid, lad in front of us presented his ticket, guy checks it "It's a fake It's a fake" he's shouting at the top of his voice whist holding the ticket high above his head. The lad just grabbed it back off him & went through

Greek police were fully kitted out in riot grear, battons & pepper spray & I think were fully intending to use it at the drop of a hat. At the third check point they had a line of vans leaving a gap say 10ft wide for the thousands of fans to get to through. This 10 foot gap was blocked by lines of police asking to see your ticket, this of course led to huge queues building up, and the inevitable pushing forward. They were screaming through a loud hailer to stand still for our own safety!!!!, very difficult at the front with a huge throng behind you so you got a whack with a bat, nice.

When you finally got to the gate which was a pair of 6 foot wide gates, they were closed, they would then open them & you just had to dive in through the crush before they closed the gates again.Got very scary at this point, saw young kids & parents ****ting themselves trying to get in safely.

I didn't see the gate rushing as I was in the stadium at that time but spoke to a LFC Steward on our coach. He said they were on gate duty at gate 2 when the fans rushed the gate, the police told the stewards to get back in as they were going to pepper spray them.
He said it was quite ironic that those ******s with no tickets who surged the gate were plastered in Hillsborough stickers & innocent fans with legit tickets got the same treatmeant because of their actions.
Obviously the Hillsborough sticker & badges a mere fashion accessories to these ****s

One fan on our coach had a legit ticket, saw the storming of the gate so stepped away till it died down. Returned & went straight to a policeman to explain he had a genuine ticket & how best should he get in, all nice & polite like. His answer = a face full of pepper spray.

My mates wallet was pickpocketed whilst in one of the crushes at the checkpoints, more than likely taken by a fellow red, shocking.

At the Airport holding pen, it was pure mayhem, we got there abou 1.00am for our 2.00am flight. Took us an hour and a half to get through passport control as they only had 4 desks open & thousands of reds in the queue with buses & coaches arriving by the minute. Er Hello you've known about this for months you stupid pricks

Once through passport control & security you are hearded into another waiting room were no food or drink was on sale. Our plane was delayed till 6.45am, all they gave us was a bottle of water & a ham & cheese sandwich that was frozen solid, I kid you not.

A load of Barnes travel customers & stewards are still out there because a number of so called reds stormed their plane & once the plane was full, the pilot wanting to keep his flight spot so just took off.

Since Istanbul there are more and more bellends going who don't give a **** about anyone. Not sure why that is to be honest but just an observation that these selfish,thoughtless,arrogant & agressive bad apples are increasing in number

All this sounds terrible & it is & on top of that the result,but what I found the vast majority of our support were great during the day at the game did us proud, singing their hearts out & despite the defeat carried on singing appreciating the teams efforts. Most also stayed behind to sportingly appluad Milan

If you got this far down thanks for reading my rant

Spot on matey, exactly the same sentiments as me, not all UEFA's fault we have too many dickheads travelling these days.

[Neil Young]

It's for the best

Well, yes. I hope others might follow my lead and post less in future. Mentioning no names but who started off this sorry farrago of a thread?

[Neil Young]

I just heard Gaillard's interview on Sky Sports News and he males some valid points. Inevitably of course he is seeking to defect blame away from UEFA but that doesn't negate everything he says.

[brikkis]

I just heard Gaillard's interview on Sky Sports News and he males some valid points. Inevitably of course he is seeking to defect blame away from UEFA but that doesn't negate everything he says.

[Pacman]

I just heard Gaillard's interview on Sky Sports News and he males some valid points. Inevitably of course he is seeking to defect blame away from UEFA but that doesn't negate everything he says.

You have men on the brain Mr Young

[bonzai]

Right, i just got back literally about half an hour ago...

Some facts:

* Waiting to enter the first checkpoint, there were a couple of incidents which i saw with my own eyes, where the odd scally was literally SNATCHING a ticket out of the hand of a fellow fan waiting to have their ticket checked. Absolute scum. Saw one scally sprinting away from the entrance, being chased by another lad screaming "He's knicked my ticket!"
Somehow he caught him and got his ticket back. Greek police did nothing.

* After the first 2 checkpoints, we were in the olympic complex, but still walking to the ground. Police vans were parked in a row, leaving a small gap for about what must've been 10,000+ fans to try and get it. I feared the worst and you know what i mean by that. There were kids in there and they looked scared. The greek police were on the tannoy saying stuff like "please dont push, please stop, for your own safety", completely neglecting the fact that the people who'd reached this point HAD been checked for tickets and the line of police vans was what caused the problems.

*Riot police EVERYWHERE, with batons and shields. Intimidating to see. With one or two fans, they were ok, but with groups, they didnt want to know, didnt want to help and were just a problem in themselves.

*I wasnt in the main square when the trouble kicked off, but one lad on our flight told me that it started when Milan scored the 1st goal and apparently their fans lit a flare and threw it into the area containing LFC fans (the two sets of fans were apparently kept apart). Reds reacted by throwing back cans and bottles. Then the 2nd goal went in and same happened, another flare lit and thrown into our bit. At that point, the police didnt react and that's what caused the scuffles between fans and police - because the fans couldnt believe the police didnt react to the flares and wanted answers.

*The organisation was completely and utterly disgraceful. Cordons all over the place, separating off people with tickets and people without in areas they didnt need separating, eg not within the complex.

*The stadium itself was beautiful, very modern, brilliant view even from top tier behind the goal.

I have to admit, i was sickened by the ticket snatching, i couldnt believe it. We were stood there trying not to have our tickets visible, but also preparing to get them out when asked and it was dodgy because the police werent interested in protecting genuine fans with genuine tickets.

The first checkpoint operation was done VERY VERY VERY slowly, so you'd be stood there (no queues, just a mound of peple) and there were a few 'checkpoint entrances' at the front of this where they'd check your tickets and send you through at various intervals.



That's all i can think of at the moment, if anyone has specific questions, feel free to ask.

I can completly back all of this up. There was in indeed the odd scally acting like a total dick but the main source of all the problems lay with the Greek police, they actedtotally disgracefully. the so called "ticket checking " was completly inadequate. They kept stopping thousands of fans at bottlenecks, asking people to waive their tickets in the air(!!!!!!!!) to get through, not a wonder there was a bit of trouble. I got right the way through to the stadium with my ticket completly intact!!!!

The authorities in general were horrible. At the airport, no information, people missing flights, flights going away half full, the airport people didn't give a ****.

[bonzai]

Spot on matey, exactly the same sentiments as me, not all UEFA's fault we have too many dickheads travelling these days.

Absolutely spot on. I don't like saying it, but there was a right few bell ends behaving like complete assholes.

[Neil Young]

You have men on the brain Mr Young

Thanks, you twits.

[brikkis]

Thanks, you twits.

No probs. I am bored

[Pacman]

Thanks, you twits.

My pleasure

[lfcruleus]

I can completly back all of this up. There was in indeed the odd scally acting like a total dick but the main source of all the problems lay with the Greek police, they actedtotally disgracefully. the so called "ticket checking " was completly inadequate. They kept stopping thousands of fans at bottlenecks, asking people to waive their tickets in the air(!!!!!!!!) to get through, not a wonder there was a bit of trouble. I got right the way through to the stadium with my ticket completly intact!!!!

The authorities in general were horrible. At the airport, no information, people missing flights, flights going away half full, the airport people didn't give a ****.

To be fair mate, the police should have been dealing with half the number of people, people who went to the ground without a ticket simply shouldnt have been there. The airport was a joke but again dickheads were getting on any flight they could to get home earlier, and yes i know they should have been checking boarding passes, but i wouldnt have got on someone elses plane as it aint right i get home earlier at the expense of someone else.
As i have said there is a selfish element to some of our fans who want what they can get no matter whoit ****s up.
My ticket was checked properly and i sat in my seat, simply because we went in an hour before kick off and did it properly.
I for one will not go next time as something bad is coming in English football, it may not be us but unless people start behaving responsibly or UEFA take on some of the English police/clubs methods of dealing with these problems something bad will happen.

[Marky]

Stupid, thick, arrogant morons...that sums ups the ****s that had no tickets yet still tryed to barge there way into the stadium.
Sure, the allocation was a joke, true the ballot may have been a bit of a farce but....
if you don't have a ticket, tough ****ing ****, you're not the only one.
They're a disgrace to our wonderful club
Idiots that need taught a good lesson.
Heart goes out to those with genuine tickets that weren't allowed in, a massive injustice to say the least.
Rant over.

[alunevans]

Just my twopenneth,

Had a really good day all in all, up until going to the ground, we all had genuine tickets and did all get into the ground but it was by now means pleasant.
There was 3 checkpoints, the first being a quarter of a mile away just after the station, this one was OK for us, because they werent really checking the tickets so no crush.
The second one was a problem as they started checking properly and trying to refuse entry to people, bizarrly i was stood next to Michael Howard at this point and some lad from Huyton who vocally thought the reason there was so many people there was that we have so many knobheads that support Liverpool who arent white Liverpudlian males if you know what i mean, If i could have got to him, I wouldnt have made it to the ground. The police narrowed the gaps between them only allowing one person through each gap. This was OK except, as someone has already said, people get Impatient, especially when they have blag tickets. Big push and crush just like Istanbul, I had to get my mates 9 year old on my shoulders, just like i have had to do in Cardiff before now. We actually got through here okish as we had the boy and 2 girls with us and kicked off about people pushing kids.
The 3rd checkpoint was a joke, they were completely panicing by now (the police) and checking some tickets properly but not most, a lad i know just walked straight through and his ticket was never even asked for, mine was checked and actually scanned. Again we got through OK.
The one thing i would say about the organisation is that the security in theory was way better than Istanbul, they just didnt know how to cope with the fact so many people were determined to get into the ground illegally, until they cracked out the tear gas that is.
To be honest some of the things i saw outside the ground and in it have made me ashamed to be called a Liverpool fan and i will not go to a European Final again unless they have the sense to play at a ground with Turnstiles and queuing barriers. Our support will spend the next month defending themselves and bemoaning our innocence but there was wrong on both sides. UEFA because they chose the wrong ground for an English club with large support to play at, and our fans as some people in life think they just have the right to do things and take stuff just because its there. I dont blame the police, the only way they could have solved it would be to let everyone in, and what could have happenned then?
Its all resulted in one guy I know with a genuine ticket who didnt get in, protested and got battered for his protests, another mate getting robbed off his ticket by a scally, and oh we did actually lose a European Cup Final.
Dont even start me on the the planes home.

Thanks for the post mate.

What was going on that made you ashamed to be a Liverpool fan?

[loco_law]

Gutted......

Champions League Final 2007

Before yesterday, we had been having a great time. Met a lot of supporters from around the world, had just enough pints over the course of the week to enjoy ourselves, and were looking forward to an amazing match.

We met up with the EST crew at Brittania restaurant, made some new friedns face to face, and had a great meal. (regardless of how long it took or how much they overcharged us ) We left the restaurant, went to Syntagma for some prematch festivities, and had a few pints. There was quite a crowd there, and it was impossible to find the person with the "Red kit on" when you lost your mates, so shortly after we changed where we were standing, and we'd lost track with one another.

We had heard that the stadium was going to be a bit of a zoo, and there were already people (read: drunken idiots) at Syntagma trying to ask if you had tickets, and then asking if you would take them out to compare them to the ones they bought to see if they were fake or not. I pity anyone that fell for that as 3 seconds later they were now ticketless from some dickhead running off with the real ones. The corrrect answer was "No, I don't have any either."

As most of you know, we've been here since the 18th. The square has grown exponentially larger each day. The night before the final the square was a hopping madhouse of fun and boisterous singing. Regardless of the lack of toilets, (none) it was still a great place to party and get on with the rest of the global reds. Just don't walk on the grass. Game day was much different.

We arrived at Syntagma around 3:30 or so, grabbed some cold ones, and headed to the makeshift KOP. It was a much different vibe than it had had all week. Today it had feel that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and a slight fear for your personal well being. There were too many people that didn't have tickets, and because of a lack of police presence, felt that there was nothing that they could do that would be considered as wrong. That feeling was shared by a lot of people that had been there for a few days previous, and we all decided it was time to make our way to the match to avoid any issues. Besides, it was around 5:30 at this time and the gates opened in an hour anyways.

Even though the sub was packed it was a good vibe on our car at least, and the cramped, hot atmosphere couldn't stifle the singing and overall jovial time we had on the way.

Checkpoint Number 1

Once we got to the final stop, things changed drastically. As soon as you walked down to ground level, you were greeted by a line of riot police in full garb consisting of baton, riot shield, pepper spray and gun. 90% of these kids weren't even over 24-25, and you could tell their trianing had consisted of "When in doubt, look mean and use force".

Supposedly, their orders were "no one got thru without producing a ticket". This subsided very quickly into "ask people if they have a ticket". This was also only the first of 4 riot police checkpoints. Each one as intimidating, yet as utterly useless as the rest.

It was obvious that they were doing it, but I actually found it quite strange that UEFA chose to use the tactic of "Peace thru superior fire power". Generally when you show force, people respond in kind. A well run event should not, and will not require 4 lines of Riot Police that are untrained in getting properly ticketed fans inside a football match, let alone moving people safely from point A to point B without the use of force. Has anyone ever heard of a turnstyle over here?

Ok, so to prove a point, anytime I was asked to produce a ticket, I instead held up a pamphlet I had picked up from Syntagma Square instead. I have heard others holding up cig packets and others just saying they had it on them but didn't want to pull it out in case they got stolen. Regardless, it worked all the way thru 3 checkpoints. And remember, I actually did have tickets.

Checkpoint Number 2

While we were in the party area for the Reds outside the stadium, we decided to get inside the gates before all hell broke loose. Even though the area was larger and ample sized for the arriving fans, there was still a vibe that reminded me why we left Syntagma when we did. I told Kym to stay close and not let go of my arm.

We make our way to the 2nd checkpoint and BAM, a number of people tried making a run for it. A few pushed past the riot police that were holding a line and were given orders to not break that line and made it thru, while one young idiot tried going over the fence and was nabbed immediately by 8-10 of them. The police then shut the gates down for 20 minutes while they "regrouped". One mid 40's man heard me telling Kym to keep her wits about her, and said "Son, I was in the stands at the semi final in '89. This has that day written all over it. You need to take your missus and move away from this area." At least when they put the gates up there wasn't a mad rush of ticketless people following the first onslaught, or I shudder to think of what would have happened.

I honestly just took a break from writing this as the feeling inside me at that time just haunted me again. A feeling of pure and udder mob-like fear. A sporting event should never do this to you.

About 30 minutes later we made our way back to the gates as they had opened them up again, but this time much narrower than they had been before. People were queued up like cattle, and there was still a pushing from behind, but it was at least manageable to keep yourself from getting squished. It seems the "regroup" had worked.

Once I had flashed my random flyer from before and we made it thru this level of "security", everything opened up. You were now in a beautiful area surrounding the stadium that they had revamped for the Olympics. Gorgeous little ponds and waterfalls, grand archways, and a wide open space. It was so serene that it relaxed you, made you appreciate the archetecture, and just made you want to get to your seats to take in the whole reason you were there in the first place. A football match.

Checkpoint Number 3

To help those of you that weren't at the match understand what this checkpoint was like, picture all of these people in a wide open space walking towards a really large funnel about 200m wide at the beginning that comes to a choke point large enough for 2 people to get thru at the end. Now picture police busses forming one side that funnel and the riot police forming the other. Just for good measure, add a random stand 20m from the choke point that is selling beer to people that are queueing up for it. With the hordes of riot police and a loudspeaker booming out broken English to the effect of "DO NOT MOVE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY", it felt as though we were being hearded towards a concentration camp.

Insert the same feeling from Checkpoint #2 into Checkpoint #3.

After we and many many others are stopped for a few minutes for no apparant reason, we were allowed to continue. No one asked to see our tickets.

Checkpoint Number 4

This was the ONLY semblance of actual security, and it was a joke. We watched how they were checking people, and the only concern they had was for weapons or contraband. It was almost a "Let 2 in, check the 3rd" policy regarding tickets. Funny enough, the 2 guys ahead of us got waved in, got patted down, had their bag searched, and looked at each other past the gates and were so ecstatic that their tickets weren't checked they walked away with their arms around each other. Shocker, I got asked to produce my tickets. I did, they scanned it with some blacklight thingy, and we were on our way... to the pat down. I was patted down very well considering how lax everything else was, but kym was sent to a female to search her. The female couldn't care less about what she as doing. She grabbed Kym's backpack and pretended to look thru it, but didn't even lift up the 3 levels of clothing/scarves/flags we had in there. She patted her shoulders and waist and then just looked away. We stood there for a second thinking there must be more, but when she sternly said "GO!" we pretty much got the hint she was done.

All in all, a very scarey, realistic view into how people over here must live on a day to day basis, but by no means a handbook on how a professional football tournament should EVER be run. In fact it's is a polar opposite.

The Greek police are not to be blamed at all for this fiasco, as they were only doing what they were told to. In this civilization you do not question orders from above. The problem stems from the top. You do not ask a pedophile to babysit your children, and you do not ask riot police to peace keep. They are trained to clean up situations that have arisen, not to be professional ticket checkers. I've never gone to any other sporting match where the person checking my ticket had a job description that required them to be trained in hand to hand combat or tell me the proper way to disassemble a Colt 45.

UEFA should be ashamed of themselves. This is the WORST run event I have have ever been to. Even the running of the bulls had more respect shown for the cattle than UEFA showed for the fans on May 23rd.


The referee needs his own article.

[alunevans]

I've just got back, I'm knackered & well pissed off, the Greeks couldn't run a ****ing bath

The 4 ticket checking stations were totally ineffective & inefficient. One well run security cordon & a futher check at the turnstyles would have been suffice except they didn't have turnstyles.

The muppets who were using the blue laser lights to check for forgeries were just plain stupid, lad in front of us presented his ticket, guy checks it "It's a fake It's a fake" he's shouting at the top of his voice whist holding the ticket high above his head. The lad just grabbed it back off him & went through

Greek police were fully kitted out in riot grear, battons & pepper spray & I think were fully intending to use it at the drop of a hat. At the third check point they had a line of vans leaving a gap say 10ft wide for the thousands of fans to get to through. This 10 foot gap was blocked by lines of police asking to see your ticket, this of course led to huge queues building up, and the inevitable pushing forward. They were screaming through a loud hailer to stand still for our own safety!!!!, very difficult at the front with a huge throng behind you so you got a whack with a bat, nice.

When you finally got to the gate which was a pair of 6 foot wide gates, they were closed, they would then open them & you just had to dive in through the crush before they closed the gates again.Got very scary at this point, saw young kids & parents ****ting themselves trying to get in safely.

I didn't see the gate rushing as I was in the stadium at that time but spoke to a LFC Steward on our coach. He said they were on gate duty at gate 2 when the fans rushed the gate, the police told the stewards to get back in as they were going to pepper spray them.
He said it was quite ironic that those ******s with no tickets who surged the gate were plastered in Hillsborough stickers & innocent fans with legit tickets got the same treatmeant because of their actions.
Obviously the Hillsborough sticker & badges a mere fashion accessories to these ****s

One fan on our coach had a legit ticket, saw the storming of the gate so stepped away till it died down. Returned & went straight to a policeman to explain he had a genuine ticket & how best should he get in, all nice & polite like. His answer = a face full of pepper spray.

My mates wallet was pickpocketed whilst in one of the crushes at the checkpoints, more than likely taken by a fellow red, shocking.

At the Airport holding pen, it was pure mayhem, we got there abou 1.00am for our 2.00am flight. Took us an hour and a half to get through passport control as they only had 4 desks open & thousands of reds in the queue with buses & coaches arriving by the minute. Er Hello you've known about this for months you stupid pricks

Once through passport control & security you are hearded into another waiting room were no food or drink was on sale. Our plane was delayed till 6.45am, all they gave us was a bottle of water & a ham & cheese sandwich that was frozen solid, I kid you not.

A load of Barnes travel customers & stewards are still out there because a number of so called reds stormed their plane & once the plane was full, the pilot wanting to keep his flight spot so just took off.

Since Istanbul there are more and more bellends going who don't give a **** about anyone. Not sure why that is to be honest but just an observation that these selfish,thoughtless,arrogant & agressive bad apples are increasing in number

All this sounds terrible & it is & on top of that the result,but what I found the vast majority of our support were great during the day at the game did us proud, singing their hearts out & despite the defeat carried on singing appreciating the teams efforts. Most also stayed behind to sportingly appluad Milan

If you got this far down thanks for reading my rant

I got that far down and thanks for posting

I'm sorry to hear that reds are preying on fellow reds. It never used to be this way did it.

To be a Red meant helping each other out - not ****ting on each other.

I'm sad to hear of these things happening ie ticket snatching, wallet nicking etc