Sleepless in settle
03-01-2007, 11:17 PM
The row over Manchester United's controversial Champions League match with Lille continued to simmer on Thursday with FIFA president Sepp Blatter coming under fire for his criticism of the stadium.
Blatter said the Stade Felix-Bollaert in Lens, where United fans were crushed against metal fences last week, should not have been used for a Champions League game.
Lens president Gervais Martel said: "This position is scandalous. A number of European matches have been organised at the Bollaert since 1998. Our enclosure fits perfectly with the UEFA regulations and there has never been the slightest incident until English supporters provoked one with fake tickets."
He added: "I am going to immediately send a letter to UEFA president Michel Platini, as well as to Sepp Blatter, to ask him for his explanations and to invite him to Lens.
"It is irresponsible on his part to make such remarks."
Lille are blaming United for last week's crowd problems, claiming their early distribution of tickets allowed high-quality fakes to be produced.
Blatter said on Wednesday: "I cannot understand that those who organise the Champions League accept a stadium like Lens to play such a match.
"In Lens, there are fences still, and it should not be permitted to play Champions League matches in such a stadium."
Nice that Blatter has defended the english cause for once - does it not seem to anyone that the french excuse is laughable? I mean blaming the fact you failed to spot counterfeit tickets and subsequently let too many people in the ground on the opposition club, as if it were they who produced them, is pathetic. Surely the french should have counted how many people were in the stadium as they admitted people? or is this not standard practice?
Do the french have absolutely no dignity - accept your faults, accept you walked of the pitch and face up to the punishment! Makes me sick!
The security guards said something along the lines of "well when you see a load of english coming towards you what else can you infer, we had to spray them with tear gas"
Its fairly ridiculous really, will the false stigma of english hooliganism ever leave us? and why are foreign stewards and policing authorities alowed to act upon this stigma with overexcessive force, without repurcussion, as if the fact that we are english justifies the response.
It right narks me it does!
Blatter said the Stade Felix-Bollaert in Lens, where United fans were crushed against metal fences last week, should not have been used for a Champions League game.
Lens president Gervais Martel said: "This position is scandalous. A number of European matches have been organised at the Bollaert since 1998. Our enclosure fits perfectly with the UEFA regulations and there has never been the slightest incident until English supporters provoked one with fake tickets."
He added: "I am going to immediately send a letter to UEFA president Michel Platini, as well as to Sepp Blatter, to ask him for his explanations and to invite him to Lens.
"It is irresponsible on his part to make such remarks."
Lille are blaming United for last week's crowd problems, claiming their early distribution of tickets allowed high-quality fakes to be produced.
Blatter said on Wednesday: "I cannot understand that those who organise the Champions League accept a stadium like Lens to play such a match.
"In Lens, there are fences still, and it should not be permitted to play Champions League matches in such a stadium."
Nice that Blatter has defended the english cause for once - does it not seem to anyone that the french excuse is laughable? I mean blaming the fact you failed to spot counterfeit tickets and subsequently let too many people in the ground on the opposition club, as if it were they who produced them, is pathetic. Surely the french should have counted how many people were in the stadium as they admitted people? or is this not standard practice?
Do the french have absolutely no dignity - accept your faults, accept you walked of the pitch and face up to the punishment! Makes me sick!
The security guards said something along the lines of "well when you see a load of english coming towards you what else can you infer, we had to spray them with tear gas"
Its fairly ridiculous really, will the false stigma of english hooliganism ever leave us? and why are foreign stewards and policing authorities alowed to act upon this stigma with overexcessive force, without repurcussion, as if the fact that we are english justifies the response.
It right narks me it does!