UEFA allegations - discussion

[sonsofthedesert]

According to one f the papers today one of the incidents mentioned is the 100 banners being taken of which both liverpool and milan fans took.
If this is the standard of incident they need a severe kick for this report.

[spud_gun]

The rather interesting thing about all of this is that the 'report' that labels us 'worst fans in europe' is nowhere to be found.

So far there has only been carefully released snippets of the report no doubt taken out of context. It'd be interesting to see the entire thing in context.

If anyone could find a copy of the report then it'd be an interesting read.

[Shaggy]

WHERE THE **** ARE LFC???

It's now a good 24 hours since this bull**** was revealed, yet still NOTHING from LFC. The story has now gone from tabloid trash to top story on the BBC. Our name has been/is being dragged through the mud and, IMO, this has set our reputation back 20 years in one fell swoop.

Take it from someone unlucky enough to be in Trafford today...the Mancs are LAPPING IT UP and they're making sure every ****er knows about it. While ever this story exists without a firm rebuttal/comeback from LFC, our reputation is steadily being more and more damaged.

[Shanks65]

Some quotes from the club (and others) in here (Daily Post)......

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=uefa-brands-liverpool-fans-worst-in-europe%26method=full%26objectid=19241524%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

[StevieG08]

What i find even more disturbing is there are so called Liverpool fans who didn't even go to Athens who are posting on this and other forums taking side with what UEFA are saying and arguing against fans opinions of those who were there, have a word with yourself will you!!

[disco]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6687433.stm

[Jayesh87]

REDS RESPOND TO UEFA ATTACK ON FANS
Paul Rogers 04 June 2007

Rick Parry today responded to Uefa spokesman William Gaillard's scathing attack on the club's fans by insisting that his comments shouldn't be allowed to cloud over the real issue ahead a meeting between the British government and Uefa this week.
"The shortcomings in the management of the situation in Athens were apparent to anyone who was there," insists Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry, "and these latest comments from Uefa should not deflect attention from that reality. What is most surprising about the latest comments from Mr Gaillard is that one the eve of the final, he quite rightly commented that Liverpool supporters 'have a tradition of good behaviour'.

"Let's not forget that these same supporters who Mr Gaillard is claiming are now the worst in Europe were praised by Uefa President Michel Platini after our semi-final victory against Chelsea only last month, commended for their behaviour in Istanbul in 2005 and actually honoured by Uefa at a gala dinner in Monte Carlo in 2001 as joint Supporters of the Years with Alves after the UEFA Cup final."

Richard Caborn, the British Sports Minister, is meeting Uefa President Michel Platini on Tuesday and top of the agenda is the problems that marred the Champions League final in Athens.

"I have a lot of sympathy with the Liverpool fans who paid their hard-earned money for genuine tickets but couldn't get into the ground," revealed Caborn, who is traveling to Brussels to meet Platini. "The reasons for this need an urgent explanation. We have already raised the matter with the Greek authorities through our embassy in Athens and government officials are also talking with UEFA. I will be putting this issue high on the agenda at a meeting I am to have with Michel Platini."

Of particular interest to Caborn will be why Liverpool's concerns prior to the final about fans safety and security measures to guard against overcrowding due to forged tickets were seemingly ignored by Uefa.

"To have a stadium with no counting system and no turnstiles is unforgivable for any standard of game, let alone a major final," explained Parry.

"We produced a report for Uefa a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong. We told Uefa our intelligence suggested there were 5,000 forged tickets in existence. They knew and we knew that thousands of fans would travel without tickets and we stressed the need for a proper check at the outer cordon."

Already one Liverpool supporter is threatening to sue Uefa for compensation after being denied entry to the Olympic Stadium in Athens despite having a valid ticket. Paul Gregory, an architect and former Liverpool Football Club shareholder, paid £2,370 for flights, accommodation and tickets for the final and insists, in a letter sent to Platini, "I would like this to be reimbursed by Uefa.

"It's the least you can do for putting our lives at risk. If this is not forthcoming we intend to take action against Uefa through the British judicial system, and through the European Courts if necessary. It was only through good luck that Uefa avoided deaths."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drill...70604-1103.htm

[tomasjj]

About time.

Decent response, focusing on facts.

[Shaggy]

At last.

[Morph]

About time.

Decent response, focusing on facts.

At last.

Oh come on it's a little over 24hrs, not exactly the length of time it took for them to announce the ticket breakdown is it

[Shaggy]

RESIGN


Voice of the ECHO


LIVERPOOL'S fans today stand accused of being the worst behaved in all of Europe.

It is an accusation without basis in fact and is given life by the weasel words of a maverick Uefa executive with an agenda against English football.

William Gaillard is supposed to be a Uefa spokesman. His job is to articulate the policies and thoughts of his bosses at European football's governing body.

Is he doing this now or is he spouting personal opinion and slinging mud?


But ever since the organisation of the Champions League final proved to be the shambles which so many inside football feared and indeed predicted, this is exactly what Gaillard has done.

Today, Liverpool fans find themselves in the firing line simply because so many of them either witnessed or fell victim to the chaotic organisation of the Athens final.

Gaillard knows the truth and as such he is frantically creating smokescreens to mask Uefa's pathetic shortcomings and attempting to shift the blame.

There are, of course, those Liverpool supporters who brought nothing but shame on themselves, their club and their city in Athens.

All those who bunked into the stadium, knowingly used forged tickets or stole tickets from fellow fans are culpable for what went wrong that night.

Their actions are indefensible and the ECHO and Liverpool FC condemn those responsible.

But they were in the minority.

There was no mass outbreak of disorder and in total there were just seven arrests out of the estimated 40,000 Liverpool fans in Athens.

And those who did make it into the stadium deserve praise for the way they accepted defeat and the sporting manner in which they greeted AC Milan's victory.

Despite this, they are today having to fend off accusations that they are Europe's worst.

When you consider some of the outrageous and downright evil incidents committed by hooligans throughout Europe in recent years, you realise quite how ridiculous Gaillard's position really is.

On February 2 a police officer was killed in Sicily when fans rioted during a derby match between Catania and Palermo.

On November 24, 2006, a French police officer shot dead a Paris-Saint Germain football fan after being turned on by a mob during racist violence that followed the team's defeat by Israeli side Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

On Saturday night a referee was attacked on the pitch during an international match between Sweden and Denmark. The game had to be abandoned.

On September 15, 2004, Anders Frisk was forced to abandon the Champions League match between AS Roma and Dinamo Kiev after he was felled by a lighter thrown from the stands.

On April 4 this year 12 Manchester United fans ended up in hospital after Italian Ultra hooligans ran riot around the Roma v United Champions League quarter final.

Do incidents like these not pose a far greater threat to the very fabric of the game than those fans who Gaillard claims stole banners from the Olympic Stadium in Athens?

Is Galliard suggesting that the snatching of tickets, although morally reprehensible and clearly criminal, is in anyway near the same league as riots resulting in death?

Tomorrow, Gaillard says Uefa will present a dossier to sports minister Richard Caborn which details 25 incidents of disorder over the last four years involving Liverpool fans.

Today Mr Caborn has told the ECHO he expects to give the report short shrift.

It is interesting that somebody chose to leak the story – bereft of any detail whatsoever – to the international news agency Reuters three days before it was due to be published.

Twenty-five incidents? What incidents? Give us the details and let us assess it against the excesses of Europe’s real thugs – the ones Uefa continually fail to address.

Cynics could argue, with some justification, that Uefa was behind the leak at a time when it is under threat of legal action from furious fans, many with tasty bank balances and even tastier contacts, who failed to get into the Athens final, despite having tickets.

It could also be seen as a smokescreen while Uefa are under fire over the final arrangements.

Gaillard would have been wise to keep his opinions to himself until these allegations are made public. He leaves himself accused of self-serving spin and a flat-out agenda against English football.

No wonder many Liverpool fans – and a good deal of Everton supporters who flooded phone-ins yesterday in support of the Reds fans – are today suggesting Gaillard is merely trying to get Uefa off the hook.

We ask why Uefa isn’t getting tough on the massive hooligan problem in Italy, or the sickening and overt displays of racism.

Uefa is an organisation which has failed to get its own house in order and yet its glorified press officer takes the moral high ground, instead of ordering a full inquiry into Athens.

In the absence of an inquiry we have the one-eyed findings of the Lord High Executioner himself, William Gaillard.

The man is out of control and out of excuses. This is the man who, pre-Athens, told the ECHO the stadium was “unsuitable” and after the shambles told the BBC it was “perfectly suitable”.

Just two years ago, the Liverpool supporters won international acclaim for their exemplary behaviour in Istanbul when not a single Reds fan was arrested.

Four years before that, they won a special Uefa award for their outstanding behaviour during the Uefa Cup final in Dortmund.

Are we to believe that in the intervening years, they have gone from award winners to the being the worst behaved in all of Europe?

Disturbingly, there are those within the English game who believe Gaillard has an agenda against English clubs and that he will actually go out of his way to cause trouble for them.

Whatever his motives, it is clear that Galliard is unfit for the office he currently occupies.

His slurs on Liverpool FC and its fans are a disgrace to both himself and Uefa and he should apologise and resign immediately.

It is the unwritten law of public relations that when a spokesman becomes the story it is time for him to go.

He should quit.


And if his once-lauded boss Michel Platini won’t sack him, it means he supports him. So he should quit too.

[StevieG08]

RESIGN


Voice of the ECHO


LIVERPOOL'S fans today stand accused of being the worst behaved in all of Europe.

It is an accusation without basis in fact and is given life by the weasel words of a maverick Uefa executive with an agenda against English football.

William Gaillard is supposed to be a Uefa spokesman. His job is to articulate the policies and thoughts of his bosses at European football's governing body.

Is he doing this now or is he spouting personal opinion and slinging mud?


But ever since the organisation of the Champions League final proved to be the shambles which so many inside football feared and indeed predicted, this is exactly what Gaillard has done.

Today, Liverpool fans find themselves in the firing line simply because so many of them either witnessed or fell victim to the chaotic organisation of the Athens final.

Gaillard knows the truth and as such he is frantically creating smokescreens to mask Uefa's pathetic shortcomings and attempting to shift the blame.

There are, of course, those Liverpool supporters who brought nothing but shame on themselves, their club and their city in Athens.

All those who bunked into the stadium, knowingly used forged tickets or stole tickets from fellow fans are culpable for what went wrong that night.

Their actions are indefensible and the ECHO and Liverpool FC condemn those responsible.

But they were in the minority.

There was no mass outbreak of disorder and in total there were just seven arrests out of the estimated 40,000 Liverpool fans in Athens.

And those who did make it into the stadium deserve praise for the way they accepted defeat and the sporting manner in which they greeted AC Milan's victory.

Despite this, they are today having to fend off accusations that they are Europe's worst.

When you consider some of the outrageous and downright evil incidents committed by hooligans throughout Europe in recent years, you realise quite how ridiculous Gaillard's position really is.

On February 2 a police officer was killed in Sicily when fans rioted during a derby match between Catania and Palermo.

On November 24, 2006, a French police officer shot dead a Paris-Saint Germain football fan after being turned on by a mob during racist violence that followed the team's defeat by Israeli side Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

On Saturday night a referee was attacked on the pitch during an international match between Sweden and Denmark. The game had to be abandoned.

On September 15, 2004, Anders Frisk was forced to abandon the Champions League match between AS Roma and Dinamo Kiev after he was felled by a lighter thrown from the stands.

On April 4 this year 12 Manchester United fans ended up in hospital after Italian Ultra hooligans ran riot around the Roma v United Champions League quarter final.

Do incidents like these not pose a far greater threat to the very fabric of the game than those fans who Gaillard claims stole banners from the Olympic Stadium in Athens?

Is Galliard suggesting that the snatching of tickets, although morally reprehensible and clearly criminal, is in anyway near the same league as riots resulting in death?

Tomorrow, Gaillard says Uefa will present a dossier to sports minister Richard Caborn which details 25 incidents of disorder over the last four years involving Liverpool fans.

Today Mr Caborn has told the ECHO he expects to give the report short shrift.

It is interesting that somebody chose to leak the story – bereft of any detail whatsoever – to the international news agency Reuters three days before it was due to be published.

Twenty-five incidents? What incidents? Give us the details and let us assess it against the excesses of Europe’s real thugs – the ones Uefa continually fail to address.

Cynics could argue, with some justification, that Uefa was behind the leak at a time when it is under threat of legal action from furious fans, many with tasty bank balances and even tastier contacts, who failed to get into the Athens final, despite having tickets.

It could also be seen as a smokescreen while Uefa are under fire over the final arrangements.

Gaillard would have been wise to keep his opinions to himself until these allegations are made public. He leaves himself accused of self-serving spin and a flat-out agenda against English football.

No wonder many Liverpool fans – and a good deal of Everton supporters who flooded phone-ins yesterday in support of the Reds fans – are today suggesting Gaillard is merely trying to get Uefa off the hook.

We ask why Uefa isn’t getting tough on the massive hooligan problem in Italy, or the sickening and overt displays of racism.

Uefa is an organisation which has failed to get its own house in order and yet its glorified press officer takes the moral high ground, instead of ordering a full inquiry into Athens.

In the absence of an inquiry we have the one-eyed findings of the Lord High Executioner himself, William Gaillard.

The man is out of control and out of excuses. This is the man who, pre-Athens, told the ECHO the stadium was “unsuitable” and after the shambles told the BBC it was “perfectly suitable”.

Just two years ago, the Liverpool supporters won international acclaim for their exemplary behaviour in Istanbul when not a single Reds fan was arrested.

Four years before that, they won a special Uefa award for their outstanding behaviour during the Uefa Cup final in Dortmund.

Are we to believe that in the intervening years, they have gone from award winners to the being the worst behaved in all of Europe?

Disturbingly, there are those within the English game who believe Gaillard has an agenda against English clubs and that he will actually go out of his way to cause trouble for them.

Whatever his motives, it is clear that Galliard is unfit for the office he currently occupies.

His slurs on Liverpool FC and its fans are a disgrace to both himself and Uefa and he should apologise and resign immediately.

It is the unwritten law of public relations that when a spokesman becomes the story it is time for him to go.

He should quit.


And if his once-lauded boss Michel Platini won’t sack him, it means he supports him. So he should quit too.

Thanks for posting that

Great article and shows Galliard for the wankstain he is.

[SouthAfricaRed]

Maybe the time has come for the G14 (Soon to consist of 32 teams) need to show Platini and his minions where the real power is situated.

A European League properly organized will do the trick

[Shaggy]

The thing is, UEFA have **** on the Mancs and Chelsea recently, too. The Mancs were (probably wrongly) blamed for the trouble against Lille and the trouble in Rome. Not so long ago, Gaillard's name was mud amongst United fans - they hate him and reckon he has a vendetta against English clubs - but now, suddenly, many of them are prepared to accept his word on this matter.

Decent, less-thick Mancs, know the score - Gaillard is a c*nt. Surely LFC, MUFC, Chelsea and others can combine our might and power to do something about these c*nts at UEFA?

[Snigger]

Platinin and Gaylard are useless, they make Blatter look like a genius.