Off field antics tonight

[NHH]

All of the reporting of Sunday's nonsense means "It's not Wembley Way, it's OLYMPIC WAY!" is going to be my new "Big Ben is only the name of the BLOODY BELL!".

I have been ploughing this furrow seemingly myself for 20 years now, and decided to give up only for the Guardian to label their graphic of the stadium in a story on Monday with Olympic Way, so the cause is just totally hopeless, not lost!

[ursus arctos]

A number of the insurrectionists tried the "I was hacked" defence, only to get smacked down more or less immediately

[Patrick Thistle]

I think the sum total of proven "hacks" resulting in offensive tweets can be filed along with unicorn sightings and reliable maps to Atlantis.

[Snake Plissken]

Weird how the hackers always ignore politicians in favour of some estate agent in Altrincham.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Weird how the hackers always ignore politicians in favour of some estate agent in Altrincham.

I think that we can pretty much assume that anyone who tosses off a bigoted tweet is (a) a coward who will fail to own up to the their actions when caught and (b) too thick to come up with a plausible lie.

[caja-dglh]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ds-his-actions

The justification is pretty lame, but the real story here IMO is you pay staff like shit, a bribe becomes tempting and you frankly stop giving a fuck, and the jibbers had identified the key pressure points to get in while police were asleep or didn’t care.

I think the more interesting side is how coordinated their efforts were, which put them leaps and bounds ahead of where law enforcement probably thought things were. Or if government infrastructure to oversee these things is as strong as they like to make out, someone simply did not care.

[Guy Profumo]

Downing Street reception "cancelled"


https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/downin...cism-backlash/

[jwdd27]

I think the more interesting side is how coordinated their efforts were, which put them leaps and bounds ahead of where law enforcement probably thought things were. Or if government infrastructure to oversee these things is as strong as they like to make out, someone simply did not care.

That was the interesting thing to me - of course it's always gone on, but it used to be odd small groups or single chancers. And it used to be police blocking your way, rather than a steward for whom £200 is a very attractive incentive to look the other way. Social media and mobile comms have made it so much easier to organise, and the Capitol in January and Old Trafford will have inspired people as to what is achievable with enough numbers.

The Athletic had an equally depressing rundown of people's experiences, including Dom Matteo, who didn't even make it to the game - apparently they just stopped letting people in as kick off approached, ticket or not.
They had the added detail that the VIP area was overrun, forcing Mancini's son to sit on the steps.

[Sporting]

Would there not be the possibility of a class action lawsuit by those with tickets not allowed in or forced to sit outside their paid-for seats?

[caja-dglh]

Would there not be the possibility of a class action lawsuit by those with tickets not allowed in or forced to sit outside their paid-for seats?

Not sure how you could prove who was harmed with seats. I am pretty sure tickets advise you need to turn up ridiculously early or risk the chance of non-admission in the small print (in among probably much broader legal CYA)

[Kevin S]

[Ray de Galles]

Applause!

[Paul S]

I found out yesterday that the Met Police control room was short staffed Sunday evening due to people being off with Covid19 or isolating after being pinged by the app. Maybe that explains the piss poor police effort on Sunday. Quite how the game went ahead is beyond belief.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I found out yesterday that the Met Police control room was short staffed Sunday evening due to people being off with Covid19 or isolating after being pinged by the app. Maybe that explains the piss poor police effort on Sunday. Quite how the game went ahead is beyond belief.

Yes, I'm imagining lots of cops were """pinged by the app""" and couldn't go in...

[Various Artist]

I'd never realised before just how sarcastic three consecutive quote marks could look.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The Popbitch mailout suggests that The *** paid flare-up-the-arse guy 11 grand for the front page story they ran on him the other day.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

This goes into some details on the stewarding failures. Sounds like the stewards have been treated appallingly - particularly those who were attacked or racially abused.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-b1885242.html

[lambers]

Anecdotal, but I heard today from someone at work, who had attended all the Wembley group games and the England second round and semi-final (and is a frequent flyer to England away games), decided not to use their ticket for the final as the semi-final got too rough. They feel their decision to avoid the final was vindicated.

[Ray de Galles]

This is what is annoying me about the narrative in some places that the final was a shock or change in atmosphere after the "good-natured" crowd of the Germany and Denmark games.

As I said at the time on here, the mood and behaviour at those matches was poisonous and as early as the Germany game I knew of England fans and neutrals who considered moving on their semi-final and final tickets if England were playing.

The stadium and police should have seen Sunday's events coming weeks prior and had a plan in place accordingly.

[Nefertiti2]

too many police are "bad for optics.


Racist thugs storming the gate not so much

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I approve their anti police stance. I don't approve their leaving minimum wage stewards in the shit stance

[Felicity, I guess so]

The fella on the next allotment is a taxi driver who also works as bouncer/security- he worked Centre Park (the open space within the Centre for Life that has bars and cafes) for the semi final and described a terrible atmosphere which ended with everything getting smashed up 'and that was when we won!' so he refused work for the final

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The enquiry report is out and it's pretty scathing of everyone involved. Most chillingly, it concludes that had England won the shootout, even more (thousands) of fans were waiting to storm the gates in order to get to see the team lift the trophy, as those gates opened to allow losing fans out. It suggests that it was extremely fortunate that there weren't fatalities as it was.

[Ray de Galles]

Ah, been trying to find this thread to post it up. Well done!

Euro 2020 final disorder: Ticketless thugs 'could have caused death' at England v Italy game

[Favourite Worst Nightmare]

The security was an absolute shambles. It consisted of young stewards with high-vis jackets, I’m not sure I recall seeing any police presence at all.

I was contacted to complete the survey (which I did).

Something that I made a point of in my response, which I’m not sure has been commented on in this thread is why people without tickets were even able to get such close proximity to the stadium.

From my own experience, and discussion with others, this would be unimaginable at other tournaments, where there would be cordons and ticket checks some distance from the stadium, with a heavy police presence