reggiepaul
Well-Known Member
Most hooligan fights are pre-arranged over the net now - or so I've heard. There is still some bitterness amongst some choice fans. Simple people who think that Scouser stereotypes are living problems and they are people that should be avoided. Stupid things like that. People who are totally ignorant to the fact Liverpool is a sprawling metropolis with two institutes of higher education and historically a cultural hotbed. They just don't know any better. For me though, this is all that it has boiled down to lately.
I have come across people in the US and Australia who hate Sp**s fans with a passion and think all manner of crap should befall them. Considering some Sp**s and Arsenal fans marry each other and some Arsenal fans have great friends in Sp**s fans (obviously from North London - the realistic hotbed of North London rivalry) doesn't come across as easy for them because - it's just they try to be as convincing as Arsenal fans as they can. So where as people in North London like to have a community and an interesting community born of footballing rivalry, friendly at that - the world sees it as a modern day Viking raiding ground - because for them, the more they hate Sp**s the more realistic a fan they'll appear. They can't see the difference between hostility and friendly rivalry and can't understand the possibility people in North London actually lead happy lives. Oh no - it's post apocalyptic and I am sure in some corner of the world some fan thinks we are building a new stadium because of the many semtex based blasts Sp**s and United fans have left at Highbury.
Apparently there is an arranged fight between the yids and gooners when Arsenal play Sp**s but again it's something I have heard and not come across. I don't think it actually happens because most of the stories come from people exaggerating stories to create conversation material. I know some police officers in Manchester and as much as they know, they never heard of any fighting or problems after the recent Arsenal games. Again - I heard from people that it was somewhat like the Americans invading Iraq but the police say that nothing was reported and they never came across anything either.
A lot of the hoo haa are stories and exaggerated by people who don't tend to go to many games. I was in the wanderer before the wolves game yesterday. Again, I was invited by some Wolves fans in there but that highlights how an interest in football is always bigger than whatever rivalry or exaggerated as it is that comes about. Some fans I know hate other fans with a passion. They won't talk to them and state it as part of their love for their team. I think that is the most ludicrous ideal and state of mentality I have come across. Scousers are the nicest people I have come across. I can look back at standing and sitting in the Kop End with an Arsenal shirt. You talk to a gossip and they'll go on about how they won't let you out alive like that. But I have.
At the end of the day these incidents are remote, rare and isolated and the media love to make a meal of it because news of "the majority of the travelling fan base went to and from the game with no problems at all" is not the news the media loves to talk about.
The funniest thing is, if you meet actual hooligans and talk to them as a football fan they will talk back to you just like that (what were you expecting - him (or her) asking you to step outside and fight?). Many books have been written by people who basically talked to hooligans about football - nothing more. A lot of the arranged fights are by Hooligan groups not the majority fans who are solely interested in the football and nothing more. The majority of fans basically go to games and come back - no pub, no nothing else - just the game. You can look at the idea of trying to put a whole stadium in to whatever pubs that exist and realise that it would be impossible to do so and so the sole intent of most fans is the game.
Hooliganism was a culture born for a "certain" type of fan and they were in an extremely small minority. Hooligans only exist for hooligans because somebody justified to some fans to join their "firm" and so they thought it a strong sign of allegiance to live up to a numerical superiority of people who say "we do it because we love arsenal", which is far far away from what football is - a game of two halves involving two teams of eleven men and a ball. Most of the fighting and scare mongering was media fuelled. Many people will say they heard it on the news or read it in the papers. Exaggerated incidents between select fans. A whole stadium meeting for a fight or even a 1000 on a 1000 would be mad. A hundred on a hundred would be too, think of it like a scene out of Gladiator. So how bad is it really? Most of these people have written books. You have to expect these incidents to get the eye of the media and they love to make a meal of things these days. You just need to look around at the arsenal fans you know to get an idea of what their interests are. In my experience I've only found it as an exaggerated conversation piece for a minority.
Apparently there was some fighting between Wolves and Arsenal fans after the game yesterday, but I only heard about this and I never came across as I have never come across trouble before. This is basically back to my own long standing research. I have only seen two incidents of trouble (one major, other testosterone drunk male) in many many years of support and memorable as going back to the eighties. Now amongst hundreds of games I can only isolate two incidents so it makes me wonder if anything really occurs. I can't deny fighting occurs but in a large part, as I've stated it seems exaggerated and with the fans that I have knows it is extremely remote. Just shake their hand, talk football and move on.
The Turkish thing (not justified) is born mainly of the worlds hatred for all things English, isn't it?
I have come across people in the US and Australia who hate Sp**s fans with a passion and think all manner of crap should befall them. Considering some Sp**s and Arsenal fans marry each other and some Arsenal fans have great friends in Sp**s fans (obviously from North London - the realistic hotbed of North London rivalry) doesn't come across as easy for them because - it's just they try to be as convincing as Arsenal fans as they can. So where as people in North London like to have a community and an interesting community born of footballing rivalry, friendly at that - the world sees it as a modern day Viking raiding ground - because for them, the more they hate Sp**s the more realistic a fan they'll appear. They can't see the difference between hostility and friendly rivalry and can't understand the possibility people in North London actually lead happy lives. Oh no - it's post apocalyptic and I am sure in some corner of the world some fan thinks we are building a new stadium because of the many semtex based blasts Sp**s and United fans have left at Highbury.
Apparently there is an arranged fight between the yids and gooners when Arsenal play Sp**s but again it's something I have heard and not come across. I don't think it actually happens because most of the stories come from people exaggerating stories to create conversation material. I know some police officers in Manchester and as much as they know, they never heard of any fighting or problems after the recent Arsenal games. Again - I heard from people that it was somewhat like the Americans invading Iraq but the police say that nothing was reported and they never came across anything either.
A lot of the hoo haa are stories and exaggerated by people who don't tend to go to many games. I was in the wanderer before the wolves game yesterday. Again, I was invited by some Wolves fans in there but that highlights how an interest in football is always bigger than whatever rivalry or exaggerated as it is that comes about. Some fans I know hate other fans with a passion. They won't talk to them and state it as part of their love for their team. I think that is the most ludicrous ideal and state of mentality I have come across. Scousers are the nicest people I have come across. I can look back at standing and sitting in the Kop End with an Arsenal shirt. You talk to a gossip and they'll go on about how they won't let you out alive like that. But I have.
At the end of the day these incidents are remote, rare and isolated and the media love to make a meal of it because news of "the majority of the travelling fan base went to and from the game with no problems at all" is not the news the media loves to talk about.
The funniest thing is, if you meet actual hooligans and talk to them as a football fan they will talk back to you just like that (what were you expecting - him (or her) asking you to step outside and fight?). Many books have been written by people who basically talked to hooligans about football - nothing more. A lot of the arranged fights are by Hooligan groups not the majority fans who are solely interested in the football and nothing more. The majority of fans basically go to games and come back - no pub, no nothing else - just the game. You can look at the idea of trying to put a whole stadium in to whatever pubs that exist and realise that it would be impossible to do so and so the sole intent of most fans is the game.
Hooliganism was a culture born for a "certain" type of fan and they were in an extremely small minority. Hooligans only exist for hooligans because somebody justified to some fans to join their "firm" and so they thought it a strong sign of allegiance to live up to a numerical superiority of people who say "we do it because we love arsenal", which is far far away from what football is - a game of two halves involving two teams of eleven men and a ball. Most of the fighting and scare mongering was media fuelled. Many people will say they heard it on the news or read it in the papers. Exaggerated incidents between select fans. A whole stadium meeting for a fight or even a 1000 on a 1000 would be mad. A hundred on a hundred would be too, think of it like a scene out of Gladiator. So how bad is it really? Most of these people have written books. You have to expect these incidents to get the eye of the media and they love to make a meal of things these days. You just need to look around at the arsenal fans you know to get an idea of what their interests are. In my experience I've only found it as an exaggerated conversation piece for a minority.
Apparently there was some fighting between Wolves and Arsenal fans after the game yesterday, but I only heard about this and I never came across as I have never come across trouble before. This is basically back to my own long standing research. I have only seen two incidents of trouble (one major, other testosterone drunk male) in many many years of support and memorable as going back to the eighties. Now amongst hundreds of games I can only isolate two incidents so it makes me wonder if anything really occurs. I can't deny fighting occurs but in a large part, as I've stated it seems exaggerated and with the fans that I have knows it is extremely remote. Just shake their hand, talk football and move on.
The Turkish thing (not justified) is born mainly of the worlds hatred for all things English, isn't it?
