Trouble In Portugal - It Aint Fair

[Hove&Albion F.C]

What is unique with England is we are bad when it comes to international football. The Dutch have a lot of problems in club football but a very positive image when it comes to the national team. The Germans do have some problems when it comes to the national team, likewise the Italians, but certainly with Italy the Ultras seem more interested in club stuff. The Turks are the other really evil ones at all levels of football.

The only reason England doesn't have a problem at club level thesedays is because the policing is so clever in our country- which it has to be. Otherwise there'd be loads of trouble in club football still, as in holland and italy where the policing is no-where near as good.

How long have certain sections of England 'fans' been causing trouble at national level in these tournaments, out of interest? Is it only a recent thing or has it been going on for years?

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

There are currently 250,000 brits in portugal and the press wan to hype up what is essentially a saturday night high street brawl into a full blown international incident. Quite frankly some of our fellow countrymen are a total embarrassment to our nation, they are boorish, rude, unpleasant and can't take their drink. But they do not reflect the majority of people who vist these tournaments.

I do not normally follow England away but I have been to the World Cup in france and the euros in belgium and holland, and both were overrun with english footy fans just watching whatever games they could get to and they were perfectly well behaved, and in my experience were well treated by the locals.

I'm off on saturday and hopefully will see England in the quarter finals next thursday and I can't wait. The behaviour of the fans on sunday was superb and for the first time we seemed to have joined in the festival of football. If a few prats on the algarve want to play up , then let them, it won't spoil my torunament.

 

[beorhthelm]

the question i want answered, but is never asked when these reports are made, is how different is this to a normal evening? 20 arrests made, but how many would have been made if there was no football and there where just a bunch a drunk holidayers.

 

[grassmonkey]

Drunken violence on the streets happens week in week out on Friday and Saturday nights all over England, walking through West St. in Brighton can be a nightmare sometimes with the amount of drunken dickheads causing trouble - these people are going to cause trouble where ever they go and theres a lot of them. Put them anywhere - on holiday, a football tournament, in Brighton on a Saturday night and after a few beers they cause trouble

 

[adrian29uk]

You might not agree with me, but you have to abmit everytime our supporters go away there is always trouble in one shape or another. I am glad the police went in hard because some of these supporters who fly are flag are complete thugs and need to learn a little bit of respect in other people countries.
I feel embarrased to be british, and to be honest with you I dont care if we lose tommorow because I have had enough of these championships already with all the trouble I have seen. I also feel that we dont deserve to go any further.

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

the question i want answered, but is never asked when these reports are made, is how different is this to a normal evening? 20 arrests made, but how many would have been made if there was no football and there where just a bunch a drunk holidayers.

Thats the thing with the Brits though, we don't just carry this reputation around with us during football tournaments abroad. Look at some of the greek and canary isle's that get overrun by young british holiday makers every summer. I was out in Tenerife on holiday last summer and there were so many english dickheads about getting stupid drunk and being boorish and thugish. People say 'but how different is this to any normal evening' etc, the thing is it shouldn't need happen at all, whether at football tournaments or not.
Alcohol is tearing this country apart, IMO. You only have to go out in any town or city in Britain to see that. I was out in Paris at Easter for a long weekend, had a great holiday and saw no trouble whatsoever with drunken French teens etc. Go out in say Manchester on a weekend where im at uni and its disgusting the amount of drunk thugs that are about trying to cause trouble. A lot of Brits just can't take their alcohol, end of.

 

[Uncle Buck]

You might not agree with me, but you have to abmit everytime our supporters go away there is always trouble in one shape or another. I am glad the police went in hard because some of these supporters who fly are flag are complete thugs and need to learn a little bit of respect in other people countries.
I feel embarrased to be british, and to be honest with you I dont care if we lose tommorow because I have had enough of these championships already with all the trouble I have seen. I also feel that we dont deserve to go any further.

Listen there has been minimal amounts of trouble end of. It has happened in one of the main resorts which is renowed for boozy Brits being knobs, just happens now there is a tournament on the media are picking up on it.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Listen there has been minimal amounts of trouble end of. It has happened in one of the main resorts which is renowed for boozy Brits being knobs, just happens now there is a tournament on the media are picking up on it.

You sure about that? You mean to say that there are anywhere between 200-400 Brits rioting there every single Tuesday night during the summer? And the fairly sizable football tournament taking place just up the road has nothing whatsoever to do with it?

I must admit, I haven't been there. But that is possibly the most amazing coincidence I have ever heard. Bloody media.

 

[SM BHAFC]

Hove & Albion FC English supporters have been causing trouble abroad since 1974 there were a few incidents before that involving British Sqauddies but they were minor compared to the rioting that accompanied Spurs fans at the UEFA cup final in Rotterdam they basically wrecked the city and attacked the police and home supporters after that it was a regular thing whenever English club teams and England played abroad the early eighties were particulary bad.

In fact only the World Cup in Japan has not seen any major trouble when England have been playing, I attended Euro 2000 and had a few bad experiences with the local and some travelling Turks and they can be bad but really the English are the worst/best dependent on your point of view at this sort of thing.

I am amazed at the level of suprise at this did people really think that England fans had suddenly turned over a new leaf after Japan! 2500 banned has made a difference and many of the real firms are mostly at home although I am sure some are in attendence, but it is the bottle and chair throwers who are out in force. UB sorry mate it aint like that in Albuferia usually it can be a little drunken and there are fights but not always 400 people having it with the OB.

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

Thanks for the info SM. It just really gets on my t'ts all this trouble that seems to 'follow' england fans whereever they go.
Im off to America for the Summer on Sunday anyway and i can't say im arsed about missing Euro 04 one bit. Will be back in time for 2004/05 season though and can't wait for that.

 

[Spiros]

Whether they are football supporters or not, the pictures on TV over the last few days have proved that we still have a problem handling drink in this country, whether we are at home or in someone else's country. It's no good saying 'it aint fair' because if it didn't happen then there would be nothing to film, and I'm pretty sure ITN didn't stage the scenes that I saw on the news last night.

Stop blaming the police, UEFA, and whoever else and put the blame where it really lies - on the knuckle-draggers who obviously go everywhere for a few drinks and a fight. These are the same geniuses who are turning our towns into no-go areas every friday and saturday night.

 

[Dave the OAP]

SM

I am not at all surprised to be brutally honest. I think it was cast iron inevitable that there would be trouble in one form or another. Alberfuera is an odd place. i was there with the family a few years ago in August, and there was a large contingent of "engleesh" there...mostly young lads and girls and we were only there for about 4 hours as we were staying further along the coast, we decided the atmosphere about the place was such that we didn't fancy going into town in the evening.

What you see over there is groups of youngs English ( mostly but not exclusively) with lots of dosh in their pockets, cheap booze, bars open all day and a " I'm f*cking hard come and have a go" attitude which is prevalent any Thursday/Friday?saturday in most English towns. Being overseas makes it better because they can all get together and behave badly in the name of England as the locals are visibly wary of these people. I do speak from experience here ( before people start to give it the "you have ever been there "stuff)

In the main, the common or garden England fan is a decent passionate person who believes in his/her team and supports them to the hilt. Unfortunately, we have a section of the crowd ( and when there are about 1000 of them, it is a vocal minority) who still see this supremacy shite - left over from Empire days - No surrender to the IRA...rather be a paki than a Turk - aint no black in the union jack- if it wasn't for the English you'd be a kraut - as something to be proud of. It shames us all.

On a lighter note, we do not have the monopoly of whistling and boo'ing opponents national anthems judging from the Holland Germany game last night.

Finally ( I will shut up now) but what was that bloke doing with his 10 year old boy at 2:30 in the morning outside a bar where English - and other- fans were being roudy?

 

[alan partridge]

Hove & Albion FC English supporters have been causing trouble abroad since 1974 there were a few incidents before that involving British Sqauddies but they were minor compared to the rioting that accompanied Spurs fans at the UEFA cup final in Rotterdam they basically wrecked the city and attacked the police and home supporters after that it was a regular thing whenever English club teams and England played abroad the early eighties were particulary bad.

In fact only the World Cup in Japan has not seen any major trouble when England have been playing, I attended Euro 2000 and had a few bad experiences with the local and some travelling Turks and they can be bad but really the English are the worst/best dependent on your point of view at this sort of thing.

I am amazed at the level of suprise at this did people really think that England fans had suddenly turned over a new leaf after Japan! 2500 banned has made a difference and many of the real firms are mostly at home although I am sure some are in attendence, but it is the bottle and chair throwers who are out in force. UB sorry mate it aint like that in Albuferia usually it can be a little drunken and there are fights but not always 400 people having it with the OB.

well said.

i am well aware the media hype things up to ridiculous levels but some people on here seem to want to refuse to believe our fans don't deserve the reputation we have.

when i read these articles, i can see the incidents aren't major but hearing that england fans chuck bottles at locals, get dispersed by police and then come back to taunt police i can only think f*** them. f***ing morons.

we had all kinds of moaning about uefa going on and on, constantly warning us. if we do get chucked out cos of events like this, no doubt the same people will be moaning that 'we weren't that bad, the media blah blah blah'.

they are *****. simple as. so are most of the rags that print stories about them. but i know who i hate more (just).

apparently a 10 year old boy got injured from one article. the father wants the english kicked out and described them as animals. who can blame him?

 

[alan partridge]

Finally ( I will shut up now) but what was that bloke doing with his 10 year old boy at 2:30 in the morning outside a bar where English - and other- fans were being roudy?

lol, i just posted about that

however, taking your kids out lat, especially in the summer is not seen in anyway strange in southern europe. not that they take em out till 2.30 every night ofcourse, but certainly not such an odd sight.

 

[Captain Sensible]

Have been on the phone with my cousin and her mates near albufiera. What they have heard is that the first night was a bunch of pissed up, mostly English people on a night out. There are more there because the tournament is on ofcourse. The behaviour was more loutish than normal as most go out in albufiera to pull the birds but as england has been playing they turn up in England shirts for the night out to watch the other teams play football. The troble with police happened when a car of locals drove through the crowd and someone was pushed over. An argument ensued and more came out of the pubs as a scuffle kicked off and then came the police. According to my cousin there are a few rough types around but as the first night of trouble happened, last night there were more out as they were hoping for trouble. The police showed up as a bar tried to close as the fans were "too Loud" and it all kicked off again. A very few nutters have managed to get to Portugal but they aren't organised hooligans just a load of drunks that want some trouble. Most of them came to albufiera on holiday and the trouble happens as so many english are there. These people are YOBS and not organised football Hooligans. This has nothing to do with England Fans and it pisses me off when the media go on about England fans rioting, when they are really English holidaymakers being pissed up in the nightlife area of the Algarve. There is a difference. The 50,000 going to the games are all genuine well behaved fans. Its just the drinking English disease that we seen every summer in that part of the world. Swelled and being reported by the media due to Euro 2004.

 

[CHAPPERS]

These people are YOBS and not organised football Hooligans. This has nothing to do with England Fans and it pisses me off when the media go on about England fans rioting, when they are really English holidaymakers being pissed up in the nightlife area of the Algarve. There is a difference. The 50,000 going to the games are all genuine well behaved fans. Its just the drinking English disease that we seen every summer in that part of the world. Swelled and being reported by the media due to Euro 2004.

Kinda sums it all up really.

 

[GUNTER]

the question i want answered, but is never asked when these reports are made, is how different is this to a normal evening? 20 arrests made, but how many would have been made if there was no football and there where just a bunch a drunk holidayers.

You are of course right.

The only difference being that there are 100 riot police on hand when it happens during a major football tournament and their indiscriminate baton charging magnifies the situation 100 times.

 

[SM BHAFC]

CS and CTS but this is always the case, most organised football firms will do a bit of wrecking particluarly the younger members but for them it is mostly about the contact the actual hand to hand stuff that is where the excitment is and gaining a result.

England games attracts all sorts and when you get the organised lot together with your wrecker lot then the sort of thing seen in albuferia happens. Good or bad English fans do tend to stick together and will reply in kind if trouble starts I have been thankfull for this on a number of occasions when things started to go a little wrong whilst following England.

Good phrase, rough types captain sensible i get feeling I may well be one!

 

[Captain Sensible]

CS and CTS but this is always the case, most organised football firms will do a bit of wrecking particluarly the younger members but for them it is mostly about the contact the actual hand to hand stuff that is where the excitment is and gaining a result.

England games attracts all sorts and when you get the organised lot together with your wrecker lot then the sort of thing seen in albuferia happens. Good or bad English fans do tend to stick together and will reply in kind if trouble starts I have been thankfull for this on a number of occasions when things started to go a little wrong whilst following England.

Good phrase, rough types captain sensible i get feeling I may well be one!

Rough types was my cousins expression. Probably means yobs.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I do still believe that some of the English yoof of today think that they have some devine right to be able to go abroad, drink until they are sick, abuse the locals and just generally behave in a yobbish manner. You just have to watch Club Reps etc to see this happening all over the summer in most of the med hot spots.

I agree that as England happen to be playing, this focuses their collective booze ridden brain cell into assumeing they are representing all of us.

If you look at the foriegn students who visit our shores from Easter through to Late summer, you dont see them getting pissed up, singing war songs outside the bars ( in fact I would venture to suggest they dont do that in their own country) Why do the English want to do so? It is beyond me