Sorry filbert, but I'm with the Keeper on this one too and if I am labeled an apologist then so be it, but IMHO it is a small minority and always has been, even in the seventies when violence at football was at a peak. I went everywhere with Sunderland and in most towns there was always a bunch of idiots who were hell bent on causing bother, but they numbered dozens in crowds of 50,000. If any trouble broke out I and thousands others simply got out of the way, not joined in with the rest of the "herd".
These days I keep in touch through websites and message boards and I get the impression that while the troublemakers are still around they are not intent on causing the true supporter any harm, merely posturing and bragging to other so called "firms" of "fans" and when they do actually meet up it's handbags at ten paces and afterwards the bragging starts again.
Unfortunately whenever England do play away these days their supporters are seen as fair game by hooligans from whichever country they are playing in and try to provoke trouble in mnay instances. This is due a lot of the time to scaremongering which makes everyone with an English accent an ultra in the eyes of the host country. Of course I don't think the English will ever live down their reputation gained by the behaviour of the few, but the travelling supporters are now almost all members of the official travel club and I feel sorry for them when this reputation goes before them and they are tarred with the same brush.
I regret so much not going to Portugal this summer for a couple of weeks to see Euro 2004. I was put off by the thought of violence because England were there and missed out on a fabulous experience by all accounts, with the only aggravation coming early on in Albufeira on the Algarve one night by a few clowns who were not even connected with the football.
Nowadays my live footie is watching Malaga play every other week with the odd away trip thrown in, such as Barcelona away next month
. We have been to Madrid and visited the grounds of Sevilla and Betis on quite a few occasions. Sad to say it is an intimidating experience if you are a Malaga supporter at Sevilla because of the local rivalry and vice versa so it happens here too, plus in Holland, Belgium, Germany etc and if I've also seen violence on TV during or after sports such as basketball and so on in North America too.
Sorry for the long-winded rant, but until we start appreciating that all English fans are not thugs and animals who move act and perform as a herd as you put it then we will always have this reputation and every game will have an underlying atmosphere of nervous anticipation of the threat that trouble could break out at any time. Until we do I and many others will continue to be put off going to internationals and miss out as I said before.
I hope I'm not wrong, but I bet there is no serious trouble either before, during or after the match tonight. Of course, there will be the usual falling down drunken behaviour of the English, because as has been pointed out by Quintos233 90% of us are alcoholic psycopaths
Here's hoping for a good match, good behaviour and a good result, like 4-0 to the English again
You mean
this game? Copyright: Jo-Anne