Home sections full of Poles tonight

therecklessone

Very very dodgy atmosphere by all accounts, Lauren who posts on FTL and was until recently a board member of the Trust had this to say:

Polish fans absolutely everywhere.

Have had messages from people in the North stand who are totally surrounded. Told me the atmospher is awful.

Have had a picture sent of West Stand, and it is full of red shirts.

My daughter is in South stand and is feeling totally intimidated and she can see police in the east stand.

I know her daughter as she is engaged to a mate, Paulete is a lovely girl and wouldn't exaggerate so when she says she felt intimidated I know how bad things must have been. She was sitting quite close to my usual seat, so if I'd been back home instead of on my hols I'd have been exposed to the same.

There are also reports of altercations in the Shelfside, and Spurs fans being ejected from the ground, with the Krakow fans being allowed to remain in the ground (despite the official line being that away fans found in the home section will be removed asap)

Now I don't have a problem with their fans wanting to see the game, but considering their reputation for hooliganism (and our own, this game was seen as a major flashpoint game by Haringey police), I'd expect stringent efforts to be made to ensure fans seated in the home section are not there to support the away team. yet our ticket office has been selling tickets all week to Polish fans and warning them not to celebrate if Krakow score...:mad:

I saw a man and his young child turned away by our ticket office a few years ago because they were Charlton fans and wanted to buy tickets for the home end at WHL, his kid was in tears...seems that policy only applies when it suits.

I am fcuking raging over this, we've been fed the "security" bull**** so many times when it came to our own away excursions, and they have had the cheek to ask message boards to remove references to tickets for sale on safety grounds, yet official channels are happy to disregard safety when it suits?

Absolute cnuts.

Dublin Spur

Sorry state of affairs Ro (not that I am surprized) and another example of the kind of double standards that the owners of our Football club apply on a regular basis.

Self serving, horrible cnuts

tippspur

On another site a bloke said that he saw a couple of fights in the ground during the game. pure greed on behalf of the club to sell tickets to away fans in the home areas, for fcuks sake we cant even do the security right this season.:mad:

Dublin Spur

Hearing there was a big row in the east upper of all places.
Riot police the works. Wonder if they managed to get a horse up there !!

SuprSi

Sure wasn't Krakow one of the teams/locations Ross Kemp spoke of in his series on gangs on Sky One? They're mad for their football related violence over there.

Hatch99

Disgraceful carry on, will be a tasty atmosphere at there place.

yiddo

Dublin Spur wrote: »

Sorry state of affairs Ro (not that I am surprized) and another example of the kind of double standards that the owners of our Football club apply on a regular basis.

Self serving, horrible cnuts

Typical Levy managed cock up!

Nothing surprises me at this stage with that mob!

Should change the motto from "To dare is to do" to "Gimme your money and shut up" :mad:

Simple Pieman

Agree with everything you say chaps. Complete double standards by the club yet again. Over an hour before the match it was not possible to walk up Park Lane to the High Road, you had to go all the way around the ground. An enormous job for the police and from what I could see they did very well in the circumstances.

But why did they and the club allow large groups of Poles to enter the home areas of the ground. It had been made clear that they would be ejected on the club website and other channels. A lot of these Poles were very drunk, presumably not much work got done on building sites yesterday and perhaps today too.

As for the 2nd leg, this will be an interesting match and two legged European ties, as opposed to that group stage rubbish, are what the competion is about. A close one to call I think but as we all know, Spurs have been lacking in all matches this season and we are exposed up front.

Still at least we have signed some cup tied players!

therecklessone

I sent an e-mail to Paul Barber a while ago:

Dear Paul,

As I am currently on holiday in the US I was unable to attend last night's match vs Wisla Krakow, but having received reports from friends who were at the game, and having read accounts of the night on a number of message boards, I have to say I am disturbed at what went on.

Firstly I have to say I don't have a problem with fans of another team wanting to see their side play, and it is understandable that with such a large ex-pat Polish community n London that there would be huge interest in a tie featuring a Polish side at White Hart Lane. I am also aware that on a number of occasions in the past, Tottenham fans have bought tickets for the home sections of grounds we have visited in Europe. Indeed I recall the exact same thing happening when we first travelled to the JJB stadium to play Wigan having sold out of our official allocation in the away end.

What I find strange is that given the above, and the acknowledged problem of hooliganism in Polish football (and with Wisla in particular), that our ticket office did little to control the sale of tickets in an effort to reduce the potential for serious crowd disorder? I recall ticket sales in the past being restricted to supporters who had a booking history with the ticket office (Chelsea in the FA Cup replay if I recall correctly) Could the club not insist that all tickets purchased on general sale be collected from the ticket office in person, and that photo ID be produced for collection (to check that tickets purchased actually go to the person who intends to use them)? Our online ticket system clearly states that all tickets sold are for Spurs supporters only, and that away fans risk ejection from the ground if found in home sections, yet large groups of Wisla fans not only gained entry to the stadium last night, but did so clearly wearing Wisla colours, and were not ejected from the ground.

I accept that ticketing is a difficult operation to police Paul. Are we to restrict ticket sales to British passport holders only, which would exclude the likes of myself? Are we to refuse to sell tickets to foreign fans of our club who happen to have the wrong accent? Given the perceived ethnic origin of a portion of our fans, should we refuse to sell tickets to English fans of Polish Jewish descent? Clearly none of those are practical or fair, but when a group of clearly identifiable away fans turn up to gain admission to the stadium, is it too much to ask that the club would adhere to it's ticketing T&Cs?

I work in an industry that requires a high level of security Paul, and one of the terms of my contract states that any conviction for a criminal offence will result in instant dismissal from my post, and with a criminal record I would find it impossible to secure employment elsewhere in my field. I raise this as a concern because as I found in Sevilla (when I was the victim of an unprovoked beating by a riot officer) one only needs to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time to find oneself in danger of arrest and possible prosecution. The one constant I have always been able to rely on was that I was among Spurs fans in block 41 of the South Upper, yet the fact that our ticket office sold tickets to Polish fans, and that our stewards allowed clearly identifiable Wisla fans to remain in the ground created conditions conducive to serious crowd disorder. I would not appreciate being put in that position, and for once I am glad that I was not able to make a home game.

I accept that the vast majority of Wisla fans who did gain admittance were there merely to support their team, and it is possible that any tension that did exist was the result of the reaction of home fans as much as the behaviour of Wisla fans. That is not the point though, conditions were allowed to exist that could have contributed to serious crowd disorder, regardless of which group of fans were to blame. This is especially critical given the nature of Wisla's reputation (and dare I say it, or own?), which was reflected in the heavy police presence at the game.

Leaving aside the safety aspect for one moment, I dread to think what UEFA's response would have been had events escalated beyond minor altercations, and from a business point of view surely THFC should be concerned at any sequence of events that could potentially lead to playing in an empty stadium or even expulsion from European competition? Where is the long term view on that Paul?

It is always disappointing to hear that parents feel intimidated when attending a match with their children, and I think the club owes an apology to those who felt they had no option but to leave the ground early last night. I also believe the club should launch a thorough investigation into the sequence of events that led to last night's crowd issues, and communicate through official channels and through our Supporters Trust the measures that will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.

As always Paul, I appreciate you taking the time to read my e-mails, and while I don't expect an answer on this occasion I hope you will take on board my concerns.

Yours,

Ronan

I know he's been getting loads since last night, and as usual quite a few have been of the sarky variety, but hopefully he takes some of that on board.

Simple Pieman

Ronan - a very well constructed communication to Paul Barber and one that deserves a proper reply. The fact that you have addressed it to him gives you a chance of that as he (as you say) often responds.

Steve (aka Simple Pieman)

www.pieandmushypeas.blogspot.com

tippspur

Simple Pieman wrote: »

Ronan - a very well constructed communication to Paul Barber and one that deserves a proper reply. The fact that you have addressed it to him gives you a chance of that as he (as you say) often responds.

Steve (aka Simple Pieman)

www.pieandmushypeas.blogspot.com

Enjoyed looking at your site simple.