No away fans

[pauliewalnuts]

Seems like their Ultras have  lot of power within the club , makes you wonder if the game would've even taken place had the team no arrived before the fans

Quite a few European countries have that problem (Italy, for one), the problem being that the ultras are so close to actually running the club.

I read something re Thursday's trouble that when it came to distribute the tickets (which I assume would have happened where their fans were being held), the response was 'we all go in or nobody does' in the belief that they'd force a way for all 2,000 of them to enter the ground. You have to also wonder if the refusal of their directors to go in is part of that dynamic, and whether that is what Legia were angling for all through this "we might not accept tickets" saga.

If they'd really decided not to distribute them, then that's the police's worst nightmare - they were worried about having 1,000 with and another thousand without tickets, but in this context, they've got 2,000 hostile away fans all ticketless.

[PeterWithe]

On the subject of their ratio of Loons/Normal fans travelling over, I heard a (third hand) story doing the rounds that they had got hold of the phone number of one of our more excitable fans of yesteryear, now pushing sixty, and offered a bout of organised fisticuffs. With them able to put 1000 in the field, so to speak. The story reports the answer as being a gulp, swift intake of breath and a polite but firm decline and a return to watching The Chase.

[exigo]

Seems like their Ultras have  lot of power within the club , makes you wonder if the game would've even taken place had the team no arrived before the fans

Quite a few European countries have that problem (Italy, for one), the problem being that the ultras are so close to actually running the club.

I read something re Thursday's trouble that when it came to distribute the tickets (which I assume would have happened where their fans were being held), the response was 'we all go in or nobody does' in the belief that they'd force a way for all 2,000 of them to enter the ground. You have to also wonder if the refusal of their directors to go in is part of that dynamic, and whether that is what Legia were angling for all through this "we might not accept tickets" saga.

If they'd really decided not to distribute them, then that's the police's worst nightmare - they were worried about having 1,000 with and another thousand without tickets, but in this context, they've got 2,000 hostile away fans all ticketless.

I'd have thought the way it played out was the lesser of two evils. 2,000 idiots in one car park trying to cause trouble is easier to manage than the potential situation of 1,000 idiots in the ground being stewarded by a bunch of minimum wage teenagers and 1,000 ticketless fans outside trying to cause trouble.

[AV84]

If they'd really decided not to distribute them, then that's the police's worst nightmare - they were worried about having 1,000 with and another thousand without tickets, but in this context, they've got 2,000 hostile away fans all ticketless.

That sounds quite probable. They may have thought the threat of double the number outside would have forced our hand and we'd have let everyone in. Later in the day when it became clear the decision wasn't changing they may have realised they would now have to face their own violent fans with only half the tickets and didn't fancy it themselves.

[dave.woodhall]

A very reliable friend of mine told me well before kick-off that he'd been talking to an ordinary Legia fan who'd been ordered by the ultras not to go into the ground if they all couldn't. The most likely explanation of events is that everything Legia officials did was with the aim of their supporters all getting in, by force if necessary. What they didn't count on was the best police in the world when it comes to crowd control.

[luke95]

Supposedly brought 2000 over but I've not seen a single picture/clip of them anywhere apart from what happened outside villa park ..
Its like they appeared & then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Bizarre!

[Somniloquism]

Not really bizarre.

40k fans appear and disappear within a 4 hour window when we have a match on at home so 5 % of that could appear and disappear in a shorter time frame. Most of the normal supporters would have just gone back to their hotel rooms, bars or even home once they were released from the area by Police. The troublemakers who stayed were then some of the ones trying to force their way in the gates at the North and Holte and throwing condiments.

[VillaTim]

yeah i'm starting to think 2000 of them is a hoax, no footage of them in town , at the airport etc
i'm guessing 500-1000 came over say 750

[pauliewalnuts]

In whose interest would it be to create a hoax?

[olaftab]

A very reliable friend of mine told me well before kick-off that he'd been talking to an ordinary Legia fan who'd been ordered by the ultras not to go into the ground if they all couldn't. The most likely explanation of events is that everything Legia officials did was with the aim of their supporters all gettingbin, by force if necessary.  What they didn't count on was the best police in the world when it comes to crowd control.

This is true. The Dutch police in Alkmaar relented and allowed them in to keep the peace, that was never going to happen here. Walking up to VP from the Church side you could sense that WMP were not going tp stand for any nonsense. I had to show credentials to be allowed past the riot shields in to DE stand. There were hundreds of people in the churchyard presumably Legia fans totally clueless as to what to do next.

[olaftab]

Supposedly brought 2000 over but I've not seen a single picture/clip of them anywhere apart from what happened outside villa park ..
Its like they appeared & then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Bizarre!

Not bizarre. Villa Park is still a small area where 2000 mulling around  looks big however Brum as a city is enormous, even the city centre will easily cope with influx of 20 odd thousand.

[Richard E]

In whose interest would it be to create a hoax?

The zionists, obviously. Dur!

[VillaTim]

In whose interest would it be to create a hoax?

the "ultras" egos . they seem to thrive off a weird notoriety of being hard men and travel in numbers . Setting women police officers on fire , sad feckers

[Somniloquism]

yeah i'm starting to think 2000 of them is a hoax, no footage of them in town , at the airport etc
i'm guessing 500-1000 came over say 750

The only reason there was footage of Alkmaar and Mostar fans en-masse in the city centre was because they met up in the city centre to get their tickets and were then escorted down. The Poles were told to meet at Villa park, hence the stories of pockets on different means of travel going to Villa Park.

[Somniloquism]

In whose interest would it be to create a hoax?

the "ultras" egos . they seem to thrive off a weird notoriety of being hard men and travel in numbers . Setting women police officers on fire , sad feckers

Weren't you stating they were no hard men, it was just pretend reputation, fireworks don't hurt anyone and people should have nothing to fear from them. Pick a lane.