Not liking the reports coming out from Athens

[Howard_lfc]

does that mean i have your permission to bunk in at headingley tomorrow

****ing hell. Haven't you got a home to go to Revo?

[Rocket]

Not that Cardiff is a well-run stadium

What you talking about Willis?

[Revo]

****ing hell. Haven't you got a home to go to Revo?

my nephew wants to go and watch the cricket but i know its a sell out, hopefully uefa are running it

[kurtangle01]

my nephew wants to go and watch the cricket but i know its a sell out, hopefully uefa are running it

[Red_Al_77]

Fires up laser printer

[TheStig]

my nephew wants to go and watch the cricket but i know its a sell out, hopefully uefa are running it

[RedProf]

Just to add a couple of things:

We met quite a few ppl who had blag tickets and KNEW they were blags. I know its rough n ready, but based on this I'd imagine a lot of ppl were getting in with knowingly buying fakes.

Scum element - its really quite worrying - I saw numerous incidents of supposed reds acting aggressively and ****ishly. On the tube on the way back after the game, one aggressive **** was picking on people trying to be funny. Thought he was some kind of comedian. Looking for a rise so he could batter someone. No-one bit thankfully. Another 1st hand example - some fella on the plane in his 40s bemoaning how it was frowned upon these days to wade into the opposition fans, how it made him feel better if we'd lost if he could get stuck into them. Just two examples of idiots who hep to create a climate of fear rather than trust and helpfulness from your fellow reds.

Ticketing - surely its really simple?? How can uefa the clowns mess it up so bad. Just folllow a simple priority system:

1. X amount allocated to both clubs, X amount to sponsors.
2. Both clubs sell to fan base (in accordance with their qualifying rules).
3. If any tickets are not sold from the other club, they are passed over to the club with greater demand, who then sell them to their fans as before in accordance with qualifying rules.
4. No tickets are made available to neutrals unless both clubs have satisfied demands and in which case they then go on general sale via website.

I know this post doesnt take forward the debate really, its just a couple of observations I felt compelled to make.

[disco]

Cheers Redprof, backs up the other first hand accounts and newspaper articles around. I saw the ****tish element first hand at Reading (away) so I know they're around and I seriously believe we shouldn't defend them by passing all the buck to Uefa. Yes they've ****ed up, but some of our fans did too

[disco]

Here's the Tony Evans article I mentioned early

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/liverpool/article1837968.ece

[Shaggy]

The root of the problem is UEFA. The whole ticketing farce and the lack of organisation is the blindingly obvious root of all the problems in Athens, but I think all proper, decent Reds accept that a minority of "Reds" out there shamed us all. You only have to read RAWK, YNWA, here etc to see that. There are reasons for the scenes outside the ground but there are no excuses for doing over your own or the embarrassing and frankly sickening scenes of loutish behaviour at the big screen event.

Speaking of which, those scenes are now up on YouTube ffs.

[ronan]

those scenes at the big screens look dodgy imo.
a lot of those people look like theyre greek,all wearing old shirts from years ago.
something for the cameras perhaps?
not like it hasnt been done before?

[redblood]

lets all bow are heads in appreciation of the big man Scousertommy.

We are all proud of you, your attitude and the fact your a liverpool supporter

and of course because you go to games it makes everything you do ok!!!

well done!!!

Let me tell you something you know nothing about Scouser Tommy, I was at this game and many others with him and I tell you this man is no scum bag.

He is the reason why a lot of people on these forums have gotten to games that they normally wouldn't get to.

He has helped countless number of people in legitimate ways to get to games.

I tell you this the organisation out there was **** if they were properly organised with proper training in how to spot a forgery and had a policy of not allowing people in past a certain area regardless of their excuse then these events would never have taken place.

We walked around the whole stadium passing by 3-4 security checks not one stopped one of our lot without a ticket or another lad who had a forged ticket.

We walked right through a VIP area with no one asking any questions.
A little bit of balls and a story and you could've got into the corporate boxes over there.

The only preparation was to have as many riot police as possible on standby only for the Liverpool supporters. There was at least 4 times as many for us as there were for the Milan fans.

Also let me say this that we had 2 incidents of the Milan fans intimidating us and not one police man to be seen.

So stick you're **** attitude up your arse and learn the facts. :whatever:

Souser Tommy is a true red and has given of himself to help others at all times and is very good friend of mine who has created a family environment for me to go games in Liverpool.

[Red_Al_77]

You're wasting your time Clyde. They just don't have a clue what Kev does behind the scenes.

[Bob]

Let me tell you something you know nothing about Scouser Tommy, I was at this game and many others with him and I tell you this man is no scum bag.

He is the reason why a lot of people on these forums have gotten to games that they normally wouldn't get to.

He has helped countless number of people in legitimate ways to get to games.

I tell you this the organisation out there was **** if they were properly organised with proper training in how to spot a forgery and had a policy of not allowing people in past a certain area regardless of their excuse then these events would never have taken place.

We walked around the whole stadium passing by 3-4 security checks not one stopped one of our lot without a ticket or another lad who had a forged ticket.

We walked right through a VIP area with no one asking any questions.
A little bit of balls and a story and you could've got into the corporate boxes over there.

The only preparation was to have as many riot police as possible on standby only for the Liverpool supporters. There was at least 4 times as many for us as there were for the Milan fans.

Also let me say this that we had 2 incidents of the Milan fans intimidating us and not one police man to be seen.

So stick you're **** attitude up your arse and learn the facts. :whatever:

Souser Tommy is a true red and has given of himself to help others at all times and is very good friend of mine who has created a family environment for me to go games in Liverpool.

[redblood]

Uefa needs to buck its ideas up, not pass the buck


One Liverpool fan gives an eyewitness account of the chaos outside the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Wednesday night

Gregg Roughley
Friday May 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Syntagma Square in Athens was awash with red in the hours preceding this year's Champions League final, mirroring the colour and pride that was similarly in evidence in Taksim Square prior to the 2005 final in Istanbul. But the mood wasn't a patch on the carnival atmosphere in Turkey. You only had to look at the eyes of fans to sense their tension. A tension that wasn't born of Kaka's menacing runs or Gennaro Gattuso's fist-pumping aggression, but a worry of spending £1,000 to come all the way to Greece and not make it into the match for the fear of being sold a forged ticket or being relieved of your genuine final ticket by some desperate chancer in a snatch-and-run.

Article continues
As it transpired, it didn't seem to matter whether you had a forged ticket or a genuine one. The behaviour of some Liverpool fans was certainly not beyond reproach, but they were given the opportunity by the inept Greek authorities and woefully ill-equipped stadium facilities deemed suitable by Uefa.

Upon arriving at the Metro station outside the ground, fans faced a cordon of riot police dressed as though they were expecting a war. As we shuffled up to them we were asked to show our tickets before we could progress. The fact that this cordon was just yards from the Metro exit caused huge congestion and mass panic among the hordes of fans making their way off the trains. What made this even more ridiculous was the fact that the eyes of the Greek police didn't even cross the tickets. They seemed more interested in eyeballing fans to judge how aggressively they were acting before letting them pass. This was the first opportunity for the many ticketless fans who made it into the stadium to flash forgeries in the faces of police and stewards before progressing with ease.

The holding area we then entered was the so-called 'fanzone' where there was no sign of fan- themed events taking place: no music, no drink (alcoholic or soft) and nothing remotely fun. This area was more intimidating than any other, as frantic supporters who had made it through without a ticket considered how best to get through the next cordon. Some Liverpool fans, inevitably, snatched tickets off those who were using the area to tout for obscene prices, while others decided to get up to the ground early as the crush of ticketless fans behind them in the Metro station was growing ever larger and increasing the tension. We were greeted with a similar cordon as we moved from the fanzone towards the ground. And as it became apparent that one gate wasn't going to be anywhere near big enough to enter stage three of the staggered entrance procedure to the ground, a riot police officer smashed the lock on a fence to relieve the crush and allow entry to anybody who was in the fanzone without so much as a glance at any tickets.

As we finally approached the ground I was asked by supporters around me whether that was the last pre-entry check. "Do you reckon we're through?" said one. "I've got a blag ticket and they haven't even checked." Many others could be overheard having similar conversations.

Before the final check, we were told to put our tickets above our heads before being herded like cattle towards the stewards' final checking zone. "This is just as bad as going to watch a match in Vietnam," said a friend of mine who had been to a few matches out there last year. Once more, many fans held up forged tickets that weren't checked.

At the final checkpoint a steward quickly flashed an ultra-violet stick over the ticket. There was no turnstile and I doubt very much whether the ticket was checked properly. Even if it was shown to be fake, a five-yard dash into the ground with no barriers or turnstile to negotiate was an almost irresistible temptation for fans who had made it this far.

In the ground, about 300 seats behind the goal where Liverpool supporters were housed remained empty for the entire match. Of those fans who did show up to take their seats in the second half, many were suffering sickness after being sprayed with tear gas, while others sat disconsolately with their heads in their hands after being beaten by Greek police officers.

Unfortunately, after travelling away with Liverpool in Europe in the past, I can't say I was surprised. In Greece, Uefa proved yet again that it cares little about the interests of supporter safety by knowingly creating such a panicked climate prior to the match. The 6,000 seats that were made redundant by increased-size advertising hoardings at the ground alone would have eradicated many of the problems caused by fans who had entered with forged tickets. And if a few thousand had been shaved from the ridiculous number of tickets (23,000) given to the Uefa family, the pre-match atmosphere and process of getting into the ground would have felt much safer.

Uefa created the situation through its greed and inability to stage a football match to the high standards to which we have become accustomed in Britain. Many ticketless Liverpool fans travelled to Cardiff for last year's FA Cup final after tickets had been stolen prior to the match, but the high standard of planning and organization by police and stewards ensured that the day passed over without any major problems.

Uefa needs to buck its ideas up, not pass the buck.

That is an excellent sumation of what went on.
It can be dealt with week in week out in the UK why can't it be done by Europe's Footballing Body the main 'organisation' behind these events.
Because they are eurocrats with no idea of what happens on the ground.