As a non-football fan living in Manchester city centre, this week was always going to a be a tough one for me.
Manchester United winning the league at the weekend was bad enough in terms of football fans going wild, but with the UEFA Cup final the evening before I had to sit an exam and a truckload of Glasgow Rangers fans on the way, I was apprehensive to say the least.
It started on the Tuesday: on a train back into the city I was reminded of the upcoming match by seven Rangers fans having a "tin", or twelve in their seats and shouting at any girl who dared to stand up to get off.
On arriving at the station, I could see that the place was already swarming with blue shirts, and groups of grinning Glaswegians were posing for photos in front of landmarks. They were definitely there for the party.
Of course, a few catcalls and the odd drunken idiot isn’t really that much hassle, and I wouldn’t begrudge the fans of any sport the chance to party in the city where their team might be winning the UEFA Cup final.
However, when a city that expects about 25,000 visitors gets nearly 200,000, there’s always going to be trouble.
Manchester’s hotel rooms were swamped on Tuesday night, and even more so on the Wednesday, with one room being priced at £2500 – going back down to its usual price of £100 the following evening.
Many chose not to waste their money at all, facing the fair weather with nothing but their beer jackets and sleeping on the grass or benches of the city centre.
It’s not just the accommodation that couldn’t stand up to the demand: the lack of public toilets in the crowded areas meant that by Thursday morning, the whole area stunk (I don’t need to tell you what of), and the sheer volume of people meant that simply getting from A to B was a logistical nightmare. Trams were stopped, streets were shut off, and for most Mancunians, it was just easier to stay in.
It was pretty obvious, then, that something was going to kick off after the match – the only question was whether it would be worse if the Rangers won or lost.
However, the media seems to have done its usual job of sensationalising the situation to the extent that most of the truth has been lost in hyperbole.
Sure, the city was rammed to bursting, and couldn’t cope on any level with the amount of people that turned up. That’s a given.
But a mere 42 arrests out of 200,000, and only one stabbing, does not a Bedlam make.
Don’t get me wrong: I abhor the mob mentality and inherent hooliganism of football more than anyone else. As a hockey fan, the reason why people must set out to fight and destroy things after a sports game is completely beyond me.
It’s indisputable that there were a number of violent idiots trying to cause trouble. The police footage showing attacks on officers and violent crimes belies the stats, suggesting that a lot of guilty people simply got away with their actions.
However, the media is blaming a minority of Rangers hooligans for what we might call this "mini-riot", and completely missing the possibility that at least part of the fault in fact lies closer to home.
Many are praising Manchester city council in their treatment of the situation. Four large screens were set up around the city centre, and police were patrolling the streets from Tuesday afternoon on in order to try to keep the peace. For their part, they did a brilliant job.
Yet many of us were left incredulous about the amount of drinking that was not only being allowed by the authorities, but apparently facilitated by them.
By every big screen, there was a Carlsberg tanker, and in every area makeshift bars were placed to splash out as much lager as the Scots could handle.
The entrances of the major supermarkets were crowded by discount crates of beer, and I imagine the staff of the local bars and pubs were about ready to kill themselves by the time the match actually started. Glaswegians are notorious for their super-human drinking abilities, and by Wednesday evening they’d almost drunk the city dry.
Of course, it's foolish to think that any attempt to deprive these fans of their beloved beer would have worked on any level – everyone likes a bevy when they’re watching the game, and if they needed to, they’d have brought it from home.
However, the fact that a bill limiting public drinking due to go to the Town Hall the day before the match was intentionally postponed suggests that the council were putting money ahead of safety on their priority lists.
Indeed, many Mancunians heading to work on the morning of the 14th were greeted by the sight of fans slugging from bottles of whiskey on the streets at 8 a.m., and those moving through the city at lunchtime saw more intoxicated people than you’d normally come across in the Printworks on a Friday night.
The Rangers fans were getting annihilated – and the city was helping them.
Is it any wonder, then, that after over 24 hours of drinking a furore kicked off when one of the big screens broke during the match? Are we really shocked that the workers attempting to repair it were then pelted with cans and glass bottles so they couldn’t finish the job? What were the authorities expecting nearly a quarter of a million depressed and tanked-up football fans to do after their team’s defeat? Go home quietly to bed?
Those of us who live in Manchester were taking bets on what the morning news would tell us as we went to bed on Wednesday, and we were relieved as well as surprised to hear that there were no fatalities at all, and less than fifty arrests.
We were expecting a disaster, and what we got was a mere debacle.
Yes, the minority of Rangers fans who came to the city looking for a fight and got one are almost certainly the villains in this case, but every big football event brings out the obligatory yobs, and we were all prepared for that.
Perhaps if Manchester council hadn't been so desperate to squeeze every possible penny out of the whole situation, and sold their souls to Carlsberg in the process, it never would have gotten so out of hand.
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4 months ago
I keep hearing people saying 'only 42 arrests' as if this makes some kind of point about the general behaviour. Far from it.
The police are not stupid. There were far more Rangers fans in Manchester than there were Police. If they had gone round arresting every person who broke the law, be it urinating in public, drinking on the street, causing a disturbance etc, They would still be doing the paperwork in 2010.
42 arrests just means that 42 people were a serious danger, either to others, or to themselves. This doesn't include the numberless figure of people who SHOULD have been arrested, by law, but who weren't because it just wasn't feasible and the police would not have wanted to exacerbate the problem.
I have read many letters and comments in the last couple of days from people in Manchester on Wednesday, and they all tell similar tales of fear, confusion, public urination on a mass scale (and please don't think those people do it because of lack of toilets, its is lazyness and lack of respect, pure and simple, show them a toilet and they would probably choose to piss in the sink), aggresive drunkeness etc etc. Minority? maybe, but a minority of those numbers is still ALOT of people, not exactly 'a few bad apples'.
Its the same problem with the English national team abroad, and pretending its a small minority, or blaming the hosts, doesn't do anyone any favours. Manchester may have been foolish in thinking it could cope with these numbers, with screens in the centre instead of in public parks, but they didn't deserve the treatment they got.
This is a British cultural problem, and as Rangers consider themselves resolutely British, it seems they are only too happy to carry on the trait set by their English predecessors. When Celtic lost the Uefa cup final in Seville in 2003, no such problems occured among their 90000 fans in the city. Maybe Seville just dealt with the numbers more sensibly, or maybe Celtic fans are just more respectful, and ironically, less 'British' in their cultural traits.
from 4 months ago
Hmm - in you efforst to adds your own slant you missed the point of the article -please read again 1/10
4 months ago
Would merely like to state that TRUE RANGERS FANS are of the sort who dragged the Police officer out of the crowd to safety and made sure he was in the back of a police van before letting him go. The SCUM who attacked him deserve everything they get. Sadly this is a problem every club has, Rangers have been trying to eradicate it quietly for years it is now time for ALL DECENT RANGERS FANS TO NAME AND SHAME THE SCUM RESPONSIBLE FOR TARNISHING OUR NAME.
I apologise to Manchester on behalf of all sensible Rangers Fans.
from 4 months ago
Me and my wife were in Torremolinos 3 months after Celtic were in Seville, don`t think Those fans were any different ,We got friendly with a Welsh barmaid who told us there were a few thousand Celtic supporters camped in the costa del sol, before and after the game, she told of drunkeness,Fans urinating ,being agressive to some of the barstaff , singing there sectarian songs and chants.sickness on every corner, she said it was really scary.She has been working there for several years and had to put up with St paddys day,But has seen nothing like it before.She told us , all night long she heard Police and Ambulance sirens throughout the night and early morning,There were a dozon arrests that night with some fans being sent back home and missing the game,after they paid ther fines of course.These minor happenings are never reported because they are in forighn soil away from the city that was hosting the game.The Rangers fans who took part in the downright hooliganism should hold there heads in shame.Name them All.From a disgusted Scotsman.
4 months ago
I think it was a cracking article. Yes Manchester was at fault but yes Rangers fans must take most of the blame.
When a club can take that many fans anywhere there is always going to be a problem and there was no way of stopping them coming to Manchester.
I also agree with Chris "Name and Shame"....
4 months ago
An excellent article Helen, congratulations ! As someone who has followed football for "donkeys'" years I feel saddened by fan behaviour in recent times. Yes, alcohol is a premier cause of unruly behaviour and clubs do not take effective against those who sully their names and reputations.
Unfortunately for the fine city of Glasgow, it has it's name pulled through the mire with the so called fans of Glasgow Rangers & Glasgow Celtic. In both cases it can be put down to religious bigotry with a small number who are incurable.
4 months ago
It's not just Glasgow who are suffering either - Manchester is now refusing to show this week's Champions League final on the big screens in the city centre, which seems to me to be a case of punshing the innocent. It wasn't United fans who were causing trouble last Wednesday, and I doubt they'd want to trash their own city anyway.
4 months ago
I was there at game, iam totally ashamed to be a gers fan, but then again those who cause trouble aint true fans, just the drink and nedish behaviour we got to expect from people today and yes it happens in international duties, watch Poland host the euros, that be a punch up alright, but its deep rooted in football, just not seen it as often as gers and celtic dont feature in finals very often, I say ban the fans of gers from getting to see there team, trouble is only ones to suffer there are the true fans that just want the event to be freindly football affair.
PS thought the Manchester Police were great at handling the situation, but yes it all about money and drink makes you money, time the goverment done something re the drink us brits do home and abroad its a total red face..
JD.
4 months ago
I really do have to say Manchester wasn't at fault at all here. They hosted a final in the same way every city does without this kind of trouble.
They asked fans not to travel without tickets, as every host always does, but put stuff in place for the ones that came without them anyway. The TV fault was unfortunate but in no way justification to riot.
As for the '42' fans arrested, anyone who has seen the footage know much more than this could, and should, have been arrested but the police were a bit occupied with trying to quell a riot.
4 months ago
Manchester City Council didn't ask fans not to travel without tickets. They put up big screens and told fans they could watch th game in Manchester. They weren't going to turn down the estimated £25m that was put into the Manchester economy. Yes there were some problems with Rangers fans during the day but bearing in mind this was the largest movement of people for a single event ever in the uk , it has to be put in the context that approximately 150-200,000 fans were there and behaved perfectly well. Unfortunately several hundred did not behave themselves. Their actions were inexcusable but maybe the next time Manchester CC put on such an event they should at least make sure the equipment is working. There is no guarentee what happened wouldn't have happened but at least the chances would have been substantially reduced.
By the way, lucky for man U fans that the UEFA Cup final was staged in Manchester as if all circumstances had been the same and the screen had broke down next Wednesday, I just wonder whether it might be Man U fans being tarred with the brush that Rangers fans are now as a result of the actions of a small proportion of their fans.
4 months ago
MY FRIENDS AND I WENT TO MANCHESTER ,,WE WERE BOOKED UP IN ADVANCE AND HAD NO TICKETS BUT NO WAY WERE WE GOING TO MISS THIS,,,WE COULD AFFORD IT ,MANY COULDNT BUT STILL WENT FOR THE BIGGEST OCCASION IN 36 YEARS,,THERE WERE 250,000 RANGERS FANS,,,THE POLICE AND ALL SHOPKEEPERS ,BARSTAFF,BINMEN ,AND EVERYONE ELSE WERE BRILLIANT ALL THE WAY THROUGH,,THE PROBLEMS STARTED WEDNESDAY,WHEN THE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICE WERE DRAFTED IN,,MANCHESTER KNEW IN ADVANCE AS WE DID,THAT SPURS,LEEDS,ARSENAL,WEST HAM CHELSEA AND A FEW MORE CASUAL MOBS WERE COMING UP FOR A SCRAP,,,THATS WHY MANCHESTER PUBS AND CLUBS DRAFTED IN DOORMEN AND BOUNCERS FROM OTHER AREAS,,THE MANCHESTER STAFF REFUSED TO DO THE DOORS,,,YES RANGERS FANS RIOTED BUT ONLY WHEN 5 MINUTES BEFORE THE BIG GAME THEY WERE TOLD TO GO TO THE VELODROME ,,WHICH WAS 45 MINUTES AWAY BY FOOT,SO THE OUTCOME WAS BAN THE BIG SCREENS FOR MAN UTD FANS ,,BLAME RANGERS --PROBLEM SOLVED BECAUSE THESE SAME MOBS WERE COMING UP FOR THAT AS WELL,,,,THIS IS FACT AS I WAS A HOOLIGAN IN THE EARLY 80,S TILL EARLY 90,S --WHEN I GREW UP AND SEEN SINCE BUT STILL KEEP IN TOUCH WITH GUYS DOWN THERE-------WHY NOT PUT THE SCREENS IN A COUPLE OF MANCHESTERS MASSIVE PARKS,,THEY KNEW HOW MANY BODIES WERE COMING DOWN ---IT WAS PRE ARRANGED CHAOS
4 months ago
I would like to say thanks to the lovely people of Manchester that I met on Tue/Wed before and after attending the fantastic City Stadium for the Gers UEFA final . I hated reading about the neds who whipped up that mini riot. These idiots do that kind of stuff every week in every city centre. At least the vast majority of TRUE blue fans walked quickly the other way - if they could. Thanks and sorry Manchester (A.Footballfan).
2 months ago
by Gordon
I went to Manchester with my 73 year old father as it was Rangers biggest Rangers game in 36 years. I could not believe that the 3 fan zones only held 23,000 in total (all hotel rooms in Manchester and as far as Blackpool were full so it was clear that the number of fans coming to the city was much higher) . Fans were able to take crate loads of cheap beer stacked at the front erntrances of nearby supermarkets into the fan zones. The number of toilets available was totally inadequate so the outcome was inevitable. My mate went to euro 2008 and said that fans were thoroughly searched before entering fan zones and had to pay £5 a pint. Most fans I met were well behaved. I can only apologise for the mindless idiots who were hell bent on trouble but cheap alcohol, lack of toilets and to cap it all off a broken tv certainly made things worse. Thanks and sorry Manchester.
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