No away fans

[DrGonzo]

I went to PSG vs Liverpool in the 90s (3-1 if you want to check the year, 94?).  My strongest memory is of coming up the escalator from the Metro into a line of armed/canine police with shields, not a terribly inviting atmosphere.  The police tunnel led all the way to the stadium and back to the station after the match. 

[Steve67]

Club statement on the club website now too.  Legia's officials seemed to know that fans without tickets were going to travel and failed to instruct their fans not to do so.  Twice they have done this.  Kick them out of the competition.

[AV84]

Club statement on the club website now too.  Legia's officials seemed to know that fans without tickets were going to travel and failed to instruct their fans not to do so.  Twice they have done this.  Kick them out of the competition.

Travelling without tickets isn't a problem, I'm sure loads of Villa fans went to Warsaw and Alkmaar without tickets. Showing up at the ground expecting to get in is where the problem is.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Maybe because i'm old I still distrust football police, especially SYP and WMP. Either way I still think it could have been dealt with a lot better.

Access to European games normally involves several ticket checks before you can get close to the ground, nevermind enter the stadium. It's not fool proof (I've seen Sporting - Celtic and Benfica - Barca without a ticket/mad Celtic fan giving me his ticket but still getting in) but generally it's very well controlled. Tonight there were obviously far too many without a ticket and the police knew there was no way they could control the numbers without tickets.

I do wonder if a ticket check down Witton Lane could have helped letting in those with tickets in, those that had probably spent close to £500+ to go see a game. Instead they get treated like shit. Considering there was only 2,000 fans from Poland, would it have been an error to let them in and stick the non-ticketed fans in the Upper Witton Lane where they could have been controlled more closely? At least after the game you can control them all. I guess time will tell.

[Jon Crofts]

It’s not like they haven’t got previous, even one of their players is up in Alkmaar on an assault charge soon following an incident after their game at AZ.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Oh well. At least we don't have to play them again until next May in Athens.

[pauliewalnuts]

Considering there was only 2,000 fans from Poland, would it have been an error to let them in and stick the non-ticketed fans in the Upper Witton Lane where they could have been controlled more closely? At least after the game you can control them all. I guess time will tell.

What kind of message would that have sent, though?

Come over with no ticket, kick off, get in to see the game?

Worst of all worlds.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Club statement on the club website now too.  Legia's officials seemed to know that fans without tickets were going to travel and failed to instruct their fans not to do so.  Twice they have done this.  Kick them out of the competition.

Didn't somebody mention earlier this evening the the club are shit scared of their ultras?

[Goldenballs]

Traveling without a ticket and then marching towards the ground in a big chanting mob isn't a crime. Maybe the police saw how many were there and panicked a bit, maybe they all tried to pile into the ground, who knows.

But surely as many people as they want can 'travel' regardless of if they've got a ticket. If they've got history of being knobs then maybe fair enough, I also wouldn't instantly believe what the police have said either.

When was the last time in this country that travelling fans weren't allowed in, at all?

[Toronto Villa]

Considering there was only 2,000 fans from Poland, would it have been an error to let them in and stick the non-ticketed fans in the Upper Witton Lane where they could have been controlled more closely? At least after the game you can control them all. I guess time will tell.

What kind of message would that have sent, though?

Come over with no ticket, kick off, get in to see the game?

Worst of all worlds.

And then if it all goes to shit as invariably it would with blokes travelling to games without tickets (why else would they be there if they didn’t have tickets to start with?), then we as a club are fucked with UEFA and local police who we need partner with. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Traveling without a ticket and then marching towards the ground in a big chanting mob isn't a crime.

Singing fucking Pet Shop Boys songs is. Get a grip!

[VillaTim]

Traveling without a ticket and then marching towards the ground in a big chanting mob isn't a crime.

Singing fucking Pet Shop Boys songs is. Get a grip!

Whilst waving sparklers

[Goldenballs]

Traveling without a ticket and then marching towards the ground in a big chanting mob isn't a crime.

Singing fucking Pet Shop Boys songs is. Get a grip!

Whilst waving sparklers

Sounds like a lovely evening.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Considering there was only 2,000 fans from Poland, would it have been an error to let them in and stick the non-ticketed fans in the Upper Witton Lane where they could have been controlled more closely? At least after the game you can control them all. I guess time will tell.

What kind of message would that have sent, though?

Come over with no ticket, kick off, get in to see the game?

Worst of all worlds.

I fully appreciate it's far from ideal but so has been the response. I'll leave it out there until we see how tonight ends. I still maintain, with all the experience WMP have of controlling football crowds, tonight was a training exercise.

[VillaBoy_23]

So with WMP completely messing up tonight, I wonder what will happen next. We'll get a portion of the blame as it's our match. While Legia fans have a nasty element keeping them kettled on Witton Lane for hours and refusing them entry is piss poor. And tbh i'm not surprised they've reacted to that. I wonder if we'll get any punishment, both for this or future games as it seems WMP, us, and the city are incapable of coping.

What a load of garbage. They had running battles with police all evening and turned up in numbers far exceeded the amount of tickets that they KNEW beforehand they had been allocated. On top of that a number of them threw missles into the Holte and then tried to break into the lower Holte at HT. And then there were pockets of away fans in the home end. It was the right call to deny them entry. Fuck them.