English rent-a-mob revelations in UEFA riot

By Graham McKendry and Kerry Harvey

WEDNESDAYS horrific night of UEFA Cup violence was fuelled by rent-a-
mobs from across England, it was claimed last night.

Crafty football casuals from clubs including Chelsea, Liverpool and
Manchester United secretly donned Gers colours to deliberately hijack
the event and wreak havoc.

And we can reveal police chiefs fear they got their preparations
totally wrong  and have admitted their plan to accommodate travelling
fans was woefully inadequate.

A senior police officer from Greater Manchester Police confessed: It
was a free-for-all. Hooligan elements from all over the country were
there  and our plan wasnt up to it.



Today we can reveal that hooligan firms from all over England flocked
to Manchester for the game  many of them known to cops and subject to
football banning orders.

However, these measures could do NOTHING to stop the yobs travelling
to the city for the clash. Troublemakers from Leicester City,
Birmingham City, Oxford United, Millwall, Stockport County, Sheffield
Wednesday and Chelsea were all involved in the rioting.

Hooligans attached to both Manchester sides  City and United  also
helped trash their own city while battling cops AND Gers fans.

A member of the notorious Border City Firm  linked to Carlisle United
 said fans internet message boards had been buzzing ahead of
Wednesdays final, and that the shameful ruck had been well planned.

He revealed: Thats why people were seeing Rangers fans fighting
Rangers fans. People from other clubs simply paid £25 for a Rangers
top so they could blend in. Its not rocket science.

Our police source also admitted that chiefs blundered badly in their
handling of the riot.

The highly-placed city desk officer  who has over 20 years
experience under his belt  said: It was a total balls-up. The plan
encompassed a smaller number of fans from two foreign teams getting
through.

Every time Rangers survived another round you could see people
looking at each other and thinking, Surely they wont make the
final? When they beat Fiorentina things started to go into freefall.

The first thought was to effectively shut up shop  to try to control
the situation by saying, Dont come if you dont have a ticket.

But it quickly became apparent, through talks with Rangers and what
we were hearing in the media, that lots of fans were coming
regardless.

The figure 100,000 we should have been able to cope with. But on the
day, there was double that number. Any large-scale gathering of people
like that brings with it unique problems.

Hooligans easily ride on the coat-tails of large gatherings like this
and it could be that a large degree of the trouble was caused by a
violent element with NO ties to Rangers whatsoever.

Club boss David Murray has vowed to ban for LIFE any Gers fan
convicted of rioting.
Ibrox officials are scanning the names of those appearing at court on
rioting charges for season ticket holders.

But notorious former hooligan Jason Marriner reckons cops were
woefully under-prepared. And the ex-Chelsea Headhunter member, who was
handed a six-year sentence in 2000 for planning a pre-match punch-up,
insists officers were too heavy-handed.

Marriner, 40, who was in Manchester to watch the game on TV with pals,
blasted: The police have to take a lot of the blame for what
happened. They had no idea of the numbers involved and got it all
wrong.

Trouble flared when the giant screen in the Piccadilly Gardens fanzone
failed just before kick-off, and riot police were sent in.

Marriner added: Is it any wonder that when the screen broke down
people were upset?

There were fans there who had spent hundreds of pounds to get to
Manchester only to be told they were not going to see the game. The
police should have seen the problem for what it was and dealt with it.

Getting the batons out and charging was not the thing to do.

Our Manchester police source, whos helped at countless local derbies
and powderkeg Manchester United v Liverpool clashes, agrees some
officers may have been heavy-handed in their policing of the event.

He said: As the day went on, people whod been drinking a lot became
more rowdy. Public order was a problem. But that wasnt helped by a
number of factors. At Piccadilly, for instance, there werent enough
loos. That created a problem with people having to urinate within the
confines of the fans area.

People  women in particular  were rightly annoyed by that.

Anecdotally Ive heard the sight of officers in their full body
armour seemed to exacerbate an already hostile atmosphere. That can be
the case. The sight of officers in their gear maybe does send out the
wrong message. To some people it says, Were here for a fight.



After the first glass bottle was thrown, the city centre quickly
descended into chaos. Our source says officers worked to a regimented
plan  to take control of the streets and disperse the large number of
fans.

Officers are well trained for it, he said. But training is very
different from reality.

With the adrenaline pumping its very easy for the officers to be
accused of over-zealous policing. And I think that was the case on
Wednesday.

The powers-that-be are aware of their shortcomings. But theyre not
all the fault of the police. Manchester City Council has to bear some
of the blame too.

Weve certainly gone on a public relations blitz to try and get our
side across. And thats fair  because hooliganism can never be
tolerated.

But theres a lot of lessons we need to learn from this episode too.
I think we sent out too many mixed messages and ultimately got it
wrong. Our plan wasnt up to it.



Footie boffin Bert Moorhouse, of Glasgow Universitys sociology
department, also believes the organisation was poor.

The expert on soccer science said: It seems to me that they did
virtually nothing before the game on Wednesday and left fans to their
own devices.

Add that to the fact that Piccadilly Gardens was a bad location to
keep the fans, and its easy to see how it turned out the way it did.

Why not use Old Trafford? It has a 75,000 capacity  surely they
could have had a screen in there and managed it better.

Anyone who knows anything about Scottish football knew that Rangers
were going to go down there with 100,000-plus fans.

And there are probably enough Rangers fans in England to fill up
Manchester. I just never got the impression the authorities were
properly prepared.

And if people are allowed to sit around, fill themselves up with
booze and then the screens dont work, there are going to be people
who are annoyed.



WE SAY: PEOPLE have tried to blame the shocking violence that marred
the aftermath of Rangers UEFA Cup Final clash on any number of
factors.

A broken big screen, heavy-handed police, poor organisation...all have
been cited as contributory reasons.

But lets not kid ourselves  the main reason for the appalling scenes
was booze.

The louts who clashed with police were tanked up after day-long
sessions. And their binge drinking was positively encouraged, with
supermarkets selling beer at 6am and pubs offering cut-price deals.

Drink is one of the biggest killers in Scotland. But it doesnt only
affect the individual. Entire communities suffer because of our
national love affair with the bottle.

Wednesday night was proof of that. And proof, too, that we MUST change
our ways. How can we tell our children that drunken violence is wrong
if we do nothing about the booze culture that breeds it?

date: Sun, 18 May 2008 00:26:28 -0700 (PDT) author: Mad Max