The “Away Supporters” seating arrangements had to be changed at Ibrox a few years ago. They used to be designated a corner of the ground in the bottom tier. Unfortunately, this put them right under the Rangers supporters, who used to drop their flies and piss and shit over the balcony.
I can’t imagine what happened when they played Celtic.
Celtic have always had the whole of the Broomloan (since the redevelopment of Ibrox) for OF games. I shudder to think what would happen otherwise.
When Celtic visit Ibrox stadium (Rangers’ home ground) they are allocated an entire stand (almost a quarter of the ground) because it makes it much easier to segregate the fans (the stand has an upper and lower tier, and being showered in half-eaten pie, bovril and piss isn’t as much fun as it sounds). After the game, the police block some specific junctions off and route the opposing fans down different streets to keep them apart. There’s generally a heavy police presence around the stadium, including canine and mounted units.
Of course, once you’ve made your way back into the city centre you can mingle as much as you wish so it’s generally a good idea to hide your colours and stay away from certain areas (Bridgeton if you’re a Celtic fan, the Gallowgate if you’re a Rangers fan)
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SoStruan, are you a Jambo?
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On preview, I see Dominic Mulligan has described some of this already.
Actually, a more pertinent point, and perhaps one worthy of a rant in itself, is the fact that bringing forward Old Firm games to a 12:30 kick-off has vastly reduced the trouble in and around the grounds themselves (largely because the supporters have had less time to get drunk before the game), but it has made it even worse for every other community in Scotland who have to suffer the beetle-browed knuckle-draggers who watch it in the pub getting to spend more time spewing their bigotted pish around their home towns rant rant rant rant wibble. God, I hate those cunts.
No. I support my home town team. Think second division part-timers. Mind you, I only go to about half a dozen games a season due to the shitness of the football and the horrible conditions.
If you don’t want to hoist your colours that is, of course, fine. But c’mon… Shit, second division part-timers? Could you narrow it down a bit for me?
Also, I agree with your point regarding earlier kick-offs. There is unfortunately a goodly number of pricks who follow each team, and what to do about them is a whole other discussion.
Anyway, sorry Dead Cat, i’ll stop hijacking your thread.
What happens at Celtic-Rangers matches? I can’t see there’s as simple a solution at Celtic Park.
And yeah, shitty away fan allocations can be a nightmare, and not just for the visitors. Such as promotion play-offs against the repulsive scum which make up West Ham’s support. The extra visitors get put in the north end of the Cobbold, which while matching their normal position at the other end, also positions them within coin-throwing distance of a good section of the North Stand, with added elevation. Who can guess whether they took advantage of this?
Dunno what it’s called, but looking out from the main stand the right hand part of the stadium with plenty seperation. Celtic Park isn’t as easy to segregate as Ibrox.
We had an ex-player who went on to much greater things who got killed by lightning.
Aye, sorry Dead Cat. You weren’t called out by Sean Bean by any chance?
Chez Your partner supports the rags? :eek:
Surely there must be some Blackpool hotties…I mean fergodssake…Manure?!
If it’s anything like the corporate boxes at Bolton, there is a dress code that requires gentlemen to wear suits. When it’s my departments turn for the box I always wear a suit. Also we have had complaints in the past from neighbouring boxes, due to having vocal away supporters in the company box.
Sadly, yes. Something to do with George Best, I’m led to believe.
I didn’t find out until it was too late. We first started dating during the cricket season so the subject didn’t come up.
You have got to be kidding.
I once wore a Red Sox cap to Yankee Stadium and all I got was unkind words. (Okay, some douchebag bounced a D cell of the back of my head in the top of the seventh, but he was pretty drunk.)
Thanks for all the responses, guys - it’s nice to know I wasn’t alone in my opinion. Saying that, it must be a weak pitting if no-one disagrees :).
Yup, I plead guilty to “Southern”, possibly even “posh”.
I believe it’s still a possibility that the stadium will ban him - my options were either to let them deal with it or press charges for the damage to my jacket. Since the amount of damages I could have won would have been minimal, especially in comparison to the hassle involved for me, it just wasn’t worth it. I’m not even sure I want him to be banned if he’s a genuine fan who just did something stupid in the heat of the moment, but then if he were a genuine fan surely he would have cheered a great goal by his team rather than assaulting me. The fact that he did a runner rather than apologise afterwards (which I would have accepted) says what a prick he was, too.
Well, I admit I was audibly expressing approval for Charlton’s defending (not cheering), and also saying things like “keep it in the centre circle, that’s nice”. On the extremely rare occasions that Charlton broke into the Sheffield half, I mainly kept quiet, since I didn’t care whether they scored or not. I just didn’t want Sheffield to score!
I can see what you mean, in that I guess the bloke thought: “here’s some posh Southerner who doesn’t give a stuff about football and is just here to make money at the expense of my team,” which could be more annoying than being stuck next to a die-hard Charlton fan. To some extent that’s true, I suppose (although I do care about football, and had my team (Bristol City) been playing I would have supported them), but the difference is I wasn’t shouting and screaming, just talking in a slightly loud voice. If that annoyed him he could easily have moved out of earshot.
Yes, I was certainly more bemused than anything else, but since I had just lost £25, I wasn’t really in a laughing mood :).
Well, as One and Only Wanderers has pointed out, the dress-code for the box was “smart dress - collar and tie preferred.” Since I didn’t have a smart enough coat with me, I thought I may as well wear a suit. I certainly wouldn’t wear one in the stands. But I do like prawn sandwiches - if not at a footy match :).
Interestingly, at Bramall Lane the Charlton supporters sat in the lower tier of one end, directly under some Sheffield fans. Nothing as unsavoury as that went on, though, AFAIK.
I’m not sure I get the reference. Is he a Blades fan?
No problem. In fact, I’m quite happy to discuss football in general, but I guess that would be more appropriate for CS. I will just say that, judging by their performance on Saturday, Charlton look dead certs for relegation. Either Alan Curbishley left at just the right time, or he was the only thing keeping them going (or both, I guess). They were a bit lucky to go 1-0 up, and then showed absolutely no ambition towards scoring again despite the poor Sheffield defence. Not only that, they didn’t even seem to want the ball, even when United equalised. They were obviously quite happy with the 1-1 draw away from home, but they didn’t seem to appreciate that they had to fight for it, and so, inevitably, they lost. In direct contrast to Sheffield’s Neil Warnock, Charlton’s manager seems pretty uninspiring, and inspiration is what they’ll need to beat the drop, IMHO. I may put some money on them being in the Championship next season :). I would back Sheffield to be relegated out of spite, but it looks like they’ve a much better chance than Charlton.
To an American, this is the most mind-bending aspect of your rant. The company boxes at American sports events are the place where you’re least likely to find people who care about the game being played, know anything about the sport, or even know which teams are playing. They’re just venues for over-priced “client entertainment” and corporate schmooze-fests.
If you cheered too loudly in an American box, you’d be more likely to get negative reaction because you’re interrupting a conversation about who’s sleeping with whom in Accounts Receivable than because you’re cheering for the wrong team.
Yeah, he’s a director of the club.
In general, yes. There are some obnoxious people, but generally speaking, there’s a degree of mutual respect, especially when the teams are both from the same state. Even when they’re not, there’s not usually contact or much crap being thrown, just some mockery and teasing.
I can’t say I’ve been to a pro football game, so I don’t know for sure, but I can say with some certainty that college football isn’t generally violent or particularly obnoxious, at least when compared to UK football.
I saw just as atrocious behavior at a mid-summer friendly between Oxford United & Tottenham a few years back, as I’ve ever seen at a college football game, and I’m including the mid-90’s Kyle Field riot when UT beat A&M for the first time in something like 8 years.
I suggest you break it to her gently, tell he’s popped his clogs and there is no reason why her allegiance should not be shifted to another club.
Manchester City is a very good choice.
Oh really?
Well, I disagree most strongly with your decision to invest £5 on Charlton to score two goals away from home, even with a goal start.