West Ham v Millwall

I mentioned him as one of the "shite stained dollar" crew Joe.................he's nigh on a millionaire now thanks to the muppets who bought his books and the film ~ charming isn't it.

Apologies to Sally and Kev, but you and all who know you know you aren't "yer average West Ham fan"Yer average Wet 'Amster and Miw waw (they can't even pronounce their club's name) fans are descended from fueding dockers who fell out with one another back in the nineteen twenties. Fascist dockers and Ford Car workers who marched in the sixties in protest against the Racial Equality legislation being put before Parliament.................they demanded to keep their occupations for whites only and yet that muppett Pennant (a black man) chose to run with the scum who had crucified the young Clyde Best and John Charles for having the temerity to play for their club as black men. Never, ever forget that!

As documented earlier, Millwall have been dealt more ground closures than any other British football club, to go to a game at their half empty stadium is to visit a venue that no decent self respecting football fan wishes to go to. To go to a game at The Boleyn, is to immerse oneself in a nasty, bigoted and homophobic environment.

I once lived in E13 and could see the back of the Boleyn Main Stand from my front door and I well remember a fixture between the clubs some fifteen odd years ago when the whole area that the Millwall idiots had rampaged through prior to kick off looked like a nuclear bomb had fallen ~ wreckage and devastation wherever one looked.

I stand by my assertion that BOTH clubs should be suspened from ALL football sine die, that's what players who assault referees suffer, so why not clubs who assault the game in general?

If, after a few years of suspension; those clubs have shown the resolve to stay in business (remember they won't have any players wages to pay) they can re-start at the bottom of the football pyramid and prove they have a true love of the game to work their way back on the understanding that just one misdemeanor and they're out for ever....................football can't be fairer than that can it?

How do they stay in business? I hear you ask....................simple: those honest to goodness and true supporters can sell lottery tickets to keep the finances ticking over, they can voluntarily go along to their grounds and keep them maintained on a Saturday afternoon and they can be made to go along to the local Afro Caribbean Support Centre for the elderly and feed and wash the arses of those poor old buggers who can't do it for themselves in pennance for all that racist abuse from BOTH sets of fans last night.

Do West Ham and Millwall claim they have overcome the inherent racism and bigotry so rife amongst their following? Have they buggery, it is ingrained in the very nature of so many of their fans.

Kev and Sallie.....................I don't know how you can lower yourselves to associate with these scum!

With all due respect Joe, being a lad of the age you are, I don't think you really know what you're talking about - because you weren't even alive when the hooligans firms were at their worst, back in the 80's.
To say it's worse now than back then is (in my opinion) a laughable comment.

Back then, EVERY club had a hooligan element or "firm" - and EVERYWHERE you went as an away fan, you had to be "on your guard" and almost tip toe into grounds, watch the game, and then get out and ultimately home safely as quietly as you could - for fear of stirring the local "hornets' nest" of yobs into action.....unless, that is you went looking for trouble.

Mobile phones and the internet weren't a feature - so home fans, (having a better local street knowledge than travelling fans) usually ambushed away firms in back streets and bottle necks in "surprise" attacks. If you were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, YOU GOT IT AS WELL!!

Stabbings weren't as common an occurence back then - but slashing (with 2 Stanley knife blades, either side of a matchstick) was the norm - and the weapon of choice.
Wounds inflicted in this manner were supposedly harder to stitch - as the 2 cuts would be very close together.

Also, ammonia or acid was often sprayed in skirmishes using things like Jif lemons or even syringes (minus the needle) - and I should know because I was once sprayed with ammonia in Portsmouth - when going to watch my workmates' team (clue: think "Aviva" advert ) one Easter.

I've even seen the Gargoyles own TCE waiting behind the hedges on the walk up to Home Park to "welcome" the away firms - armed with golf clubs, hired from the adjoining pitch and putt course!

Then, there were the even more extreme incidents.

I'm sure you won't remember things like Leeds United rioting on the beach at Bournemouth, burger bars being set alight INSIDE the ground (if memory serves me correctly, at Birmingham City), and probably one of the most sickening (IMO), a police dog's ear being BITTEN OFF in skirmishes between Arsenal and West Ham.

But all this - and much more....and worse, for that matter, happened.

Gradually this cancer spread to the International stage - and England fans were the scum of the earth for many years (and are still considered so today), which is, in many cases, wholly unjustified.
Countries all around soon adopted the hooligan way - almost as a tribute to the "English way", because they wanted to be like the fans from the team that they followed over here in Britain. (They even wore English club scarves in honour) .

However, with the introduction of all seater stadia, improved police surveillance and CCTV, in this country, the "scourge" of football has been all but eradicated. Not entirely, but in the main.

Foreign football, hasn't as yet had the same success - and poorer, lesser developed nations (in an infrastructure sense) such as Poland, Russia and Greece are still stuck in a 1980's time warp.
Whenever England travel to away games in Europe, you can be sure that the locals will still want to come out to pitch themselves against the "mighty" England thugs - and the average, peaceful fan will de indiscriminately baton charged or tear gassed for no apparent reason.

Again, I speak from personal experience.

I don't profess to be an ex hooligan from the 80's Joe, but really mate, you don't know the half of it.

And ingrained in places like Tottenham and Arsenal too.

IF you're going to go back 15 years Merse, lets not forget all that shit that went on JUST BECAUSE SOL CAMPBELL LEFT SPURS FOR THE GUNNERS - a team that you regularly hold in high esteem, based on Antony playing kid's football for them.

And secondly, Sal and I don't associate ourselves with the fans -IT'S THE BLOODY TEAM WE FOLLOW!
(A team that tries to play football the right way)!

Lucky I'm not a Chelsea fan huh - my poor lovely, quiet, leafy home town a hotbed of racist hooliganism?

Kevin's right Joe, you want to sit up and take notice.

I'd have wiilingly bitten the ear off the Dutch Police Dog that was deliberately set on me in Rotterdam for no other reason than to satisfy the boredom of some stupid local Riot Squaddies. they had their rabid monsters on the end of twenty foot chains and were tormenting them by snapping those chains to work them up for our benefit before letting them have the full run to go and get us. The last time I EVER followed my country abroad on trips that were more and more being iniltrated by West Ham and Millwall NF thugs; so is it any wonder we got that treatment?

When they couldn't find any locals to bully or racially abuse, they turned on each other and it's much the same now ~ you can see the Cocaine fuelled glazed look in their eyes and so many of these "geezers" are old enough to be parents now if not grand parents.

Why should the rest of the country's football fans risk seeing a possible World Cup being taken away from us? Why should the people on whom these neanderthals inflict fear and trepidation have to bear the brunt just so that "the average fan" can continue to support these rubbish clubs?

If the hooligans are in the minority, the majority should take the issue in hand and deal with it..............................it doesn't happen at so many clubs in this day and age, so why should the majority of West Ham or Millwall fans tolerate the minority who are ruining it?

If YOU are a Millwall or West Ham fan reading this, bloody well deal with it and stop desecrating OUR game because if you either can't or won't then you don't deserve to stay in OUR game!

Merse, I'm not for one second suggesting that West Ham or Millwall aren't involved in trouble when England are playing, BUT on my trips abroad, the majority of morons seemed to be "followers" of clubs like WOLVERHAMPTON, STOKE CITY and Northern ratholes like ROCHDALE, DONCASTER, HULL and the like.

One of the Midland mongs even had the cheek to call some of his fellow England fans "tourists" - obviously he was living in ZURICH at the time....... (Retard)!!

The most worrying thing about last night is that this will rumble on and on for some time.

Don't be surprised to read about other incidents in and around London (or Nationwide for that matter)in the coming months.

Sadly, reprisals WILL happen - you can count on that, because the morons will want the last word.

The only hope is that some innocent getting off the train at Euston, for example, after a trip "up north" to watch their team, doesn't become mixed up in it and get targetted.

This may be only the tip of the iceberg over the coming season /seasons - and they'll try any means to get their kicks (even masquerading as Non League team followers if the authorities can quell the threat in the main leagues of this country), I fear.