Saturday, April 07, 2007

Tottenham Fans Attacked: Eyewitness Report #1



The following extract is taken from a Spurs supporter contributing to the message board at http://www.spursodyssey.com

I'm sure they'll be duly outraged that I've lifted the text, but I think it's important that as many people read this as possible... The sensitivities of a few are outweighed by need of the many to know the truth about Thursday night...


"I was sitting in the third row of the upper tier with my son, several of his friends (not kids all in the mid twenties or so) and quite a few other people fans that we knew.

We had a perfect view on what was going on below.

Let me say here that I did not see one Spurs or Seville fan in any sort of combat with each other before, during or after the match.

I did here on the plane home though that some fans arriving latish before kick off had some trouble by the entrance. Some fans got pushed by a police horse and a few fell trying to get away and were then hit by police batons.

Inside the ground what I saw was just tape separating the fans on the lower tier with no stewards or police in between. I could see no trouble here other than the normal banter and winding up by the fans then after the penalty for no reason that I could see the Spanish riot police came into that area and got between the two sets of fans they then tried to move the Spurs fans further away from the Seville fans. This they did in a heavy handed way by pushing them with their batons.

Then all of a sudden they started striking out at anyone in their way, there were Spurs fans there with their arms up trying to stop these animals called police but they just got more heavy handed with their batons.

I saw one guy trying to move away and he fell, as soon as this happened four of these bastards were whacking him whilst he was lying there defenseless.

Yes this did aggravate Spurs fans and some did try to hit the police and tore up and threw seats at them but you could see how angry they were at the indiscriminate way the police had gone in.

Some came into the upper tier too and started just hitting a few people near the exit of our tier fortunately for us up there it did not escalate too much but I must say I was fearful of what may happen on the way out.

I don't know who made the decision to remove the police from our areas after half time, maybe Spurs security had some input in this but once there were no police in there there was no more trouble.

Again whoever made the decision not to keep us in after the final whistle made an excellent decision because we just walked out and walked straight to our coaches although the atmosphere was very intimidating.

We were all very relieved to be on our coaches and able to phone families at home and tell them we were ok. I was so concerned that if we had been kept in for some time it would just be aggravated Spurs fans coming out and some could well start chanting at the police who would probably have just gone for the lot of us.

If there were any truly independent officials there on behalf of the authorities it would have been absolutely clear to them that the only people to blame for the trouble were the Spanish authorities and not Spurs fans. If the police had not acted as they did I believe not one person on either side would have been hurt."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can only comment on what I saw on TV..which wasnt much.
Having travelled to watch The Boys in the '80s I know how the "whack now ask questions later" works I was there when a Spurs fan was shot before the semis in 1984.
It very easy to blame the fans but when you are with younger people/family members...protection is upmost in your mind.
Like a Man Utd fan has said..bet theres no trouble at the games next week....hopfully a impressive display from both English teams and inflick the biggest defeat possible on the two away teams .Keep up the great work Harry ..COME ON YOU SUPER SPURS

Anonymous said...

Fucking Disgrace. We are an easy target. No justice yet again.

39 hours rest before playing Chelsea. Another fair decision . Why do we have to play on Thursday then expected to play teams in the CL who played on Wednesday/Tuesday? Another clever cunt at UEFA...

Anonymous said...

Spurs were again very lucky today, because this time Chelski deserved 3 or 4 goals. Anyway, Jol did the right thing resting players for Thursday.
Pity Berbs' curse is still on: El Dandy is a hit every time, the few times today, he hits the ball.
Mourinho can have a ball tonight. Let's see if his dancing stops on the CL in Valencia (a new incident with the local police is almost certain to happen, I bet).

Anonymous said...

I was in the second row on the upper tier and can only confirm what has been written. A disgrace (Spanish Old bill) is an understatement, these were uneducated animal thugs dressed in uniform. Fucking brainless animals!!! Spain as a country needs to be accountable for the actions of these thugs. I am sorry for the parents and kids that had to witness these events. This was not hooligans fighting, it was police (COWARDS!)who are suppose to set some kind of example.
If these morons want to fight and act like animals then go to Afganistan and do some proper fighting. Oh no forgot they obviously wouldn't have the bottle for a proper fight.
Absolute disgrace, a fucking disgrace! Brainless morons in uniform with helmet, protective clothing and BATONS TO HIT INNOCENT PEOPLE!
Can't wait for Osasuna, think I will get a helmet!!!
Lastly much, much, much respect to the stewards from THFC. You are top geezers who did your best. WELL DONE!

Anonymous said...

uauu ! manu is going down.
chances are El Mour will take the FOUR cups. What a joke !

Anonymous said...

The man who should take responsibility for this whole mess is the lunatic that has called for "zero tolerance". This has given riot police across Europe carte blanche to beat the living daylights out of amongst others women, children and the disabled.

I was also at the game and have sent my eyewitness report to Spurs as I urge all those present to do.

The name of the beast I feel responsible for this week's mayhem?
Michel François Platini, the President of UEFA.

M. Platini, whether wittingly or not, has with his words unleashed the devil and if he has any honour should resign immediately.

Anonymous said...

Sevilla FC have backed the behaviour of Spurs fans in a recent club statement and criticized the actions of an over-zealous police force.

Best thing that can happen is not to let this incident affect how Sevilla fans are treated at WHL. Hope they get to see Spurs fans return the gracious welcome given by fans in Seville.

It's a nice town, good people, but the only thing that will get beaten in London is Sevilla on the pitch. Be generous, sincere even, in offering the Spaniards your condolences.

Spurs are on their way to Glasgow.

gwn

Simple Pieman said...

Agreed chaps. I have commented on my blog.

www.pieandmushypeas.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I was hoping that Harry was in the crowd, I saw some tubby little worms getting a bashing and assumed it was Harry (knock some sense into that tiny little brain of his) as that is how I imagine him, oh well next time perhaps!! Shite blog Harry, nothing changes.