Originally posted by Palynka
European fans and police know very well that English football has cleaned up its act and are embarrassed by the mess in their own back yards so are trying to divert attention away by leading English fans into another incident of front page proportions. I'm not saying on the scale of Heysel, but some might say the incidents this season were evidence enough hose are the recent ones that come to mind. Your paranoia just doesn't stick with the facts.
It was Sunday afternoon when I wrote it though. Mitigation enough?
As for paranoia, I don't have any great sense of affinity with Engish football. I support Crewe, a League One side with a fantastic reputation for being the friendly family talent nurturing club, and an Italian semi-glamourous side in the most beautiful capital city I've ever been to. Period!
And as for these facts you raise, I know, they are irrefutable and I hadn't considered them before posting, but they don't, IMHO, undermine my argument. I said that English football had cleaned up its act and that continental, especially Italian football, was ashamed at not having done the same. There are some therefore trying to egg English hooligans back into 'action' to take some of the attention away from these other instances of disgraceful fan behaviour. Until this season people (at least the many I've met) couldn't draw attention to English hooligans any more although they wanted to. Inter fans after the debacle when Nelson Dida was stunned by a flare (when did scousers ever, EVER, do that?) were still trying to go on about Leeds et al. Your examples would, I'd say, back me up rather than anything.
We in England (or should I say 'they'?) may not be perfect but we've got the shop in better order than you.
If there is any hypocrisy in my post (I know you weren't accusing me of that) it's to be found in this point... that unless European football grows up and stops pointing the finger at the other countries, other clubs, other fans etc, we will NEVER sort this mess out!