The UEFA Cup final thread

[Hofzinser]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Does anyone have any idea how many Zenit fans are expected at the game tonight? They got an allocation of 13,000 but surely there won't be that many coming over from Russia?

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

And I am the Life wrote:

I'll be putting on the pinkest item of clothing I can steal off a neighbours clothes line and wearing it in honour of Johnny Mad dog adair...

Jim Gray, shirley?

[Guest]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Sorry to interlope here. Why can't everyone get behind Rangers for one night only? Is it the simmering resentment of the ne'erdaewells or do I detect the hidden handy of Timmy and his meedjya friends?

There is nothing so dangerous to them as the threat of a good example. Not only is a Scottish team on the verge of making a 'serious' challenge for a domestic trophy in nearly 20 years, we have the distinct possibility that a team with two pensioners and three guys called Chris and one called Kirk can actually win something.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Fred Keenor wrote:

And I am the Life wrote:

I'll be putting on the pinkest item of clothing I can steal off a neighbours clothes line and wearing it in honour of Johnny Mad dog adair...

Jim Gray, shirley?

I look a lot more like johnny "The Spartans lay with each other before going into battle so how about it michael stone" Adair than Jim gray I'm afraid.

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Ah, I think the "pink" reference must have gone over my head as I am not aware of that "Mad Dog" quote/rumour .

Did the Michael Stone "performance art" story surface on World?

[Ball Comrade]

The UEFA Cup final thread

I don't get all this. Can someone post a link about paramilitaries bumming each other?

[Mumpo]

The UEFA Cup final thread

A pertinent question to consider while I decide who to lend my support to tonight is "who do I want to see playing Chelsea or Man United in the Super Cup?"

The prospect of another 'Battle of Britain' doesn't make my juices run, so it's got to be ZSP (as I'm sure no-one calls them) tonight.

[Duncan Gardner]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Jim Gray was both flamboyantly camp and bisexual, though I've no idea whether his boyfriends were also paramilitary. Or if Adair and Stone indulged.

Adair's secondary contribution to local cultural life was fronting an oi band in the late 70s. He survived an assassination attempt in Belfast's botanical gardens, while attending a UB40 gig. The bullet skimmed off his bald pate.

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

I knew about Gray (though my pink comment referred to his clothing, not sexuality) but didn't know about the (alleged or actual) bisexuality of Adair;

The Times
October 04, 2003

'Mad Dog' is handier with a mop than a gun
By David Lister, Ireland Correspondent

JOHNNY ADAIR, Northern Ireland's most infamous loyalist terrorist, was an incompetent gunman who lied about his prowess to terrify and impress his men, a new book says.

Despite taking the credit for more than a dozen murders, Adair killed only one person - Noel Cardwell, a 26-year-old Protestant with a mental age of 12. He was shot by Adair as a suspected informer in December 1993. Adair, who was sentenced to 16 years for directing terrorism in 1995, has not been charged with the murder.

Adair, who revelled in his "Mad Dog" nickname, was so inept that he once nearly shot one of his best friends.

The Adair myth is debunked in Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company'. It paints him as an isolated figure whose memory of his youth has been damaged by glue-sniffing and fighting with Roman Catholic skinheads. Although less than a year ago he harboured plans to become supreme commander of the Ulster Defence Association, Northern Ireland's largest loyalist terrorist group, these days he spends most of his time mopping the floor on his prison landing.

"He doesn't get many visits," an official at Maghaberry Prison said. "All he does is clean the landing. But Johnny gets on with us. You couldn't ask for a better prisoner."

The former terror chief has become increasingly paranoid and has experienced depression since he was put back behind bars in January after provoking a feud with rival "brigadiers" inside the UDA.Most of his old allies fled in February and are now living in Bolton and Manchester.

Adair's life is considered to be in such danger that he is kept in isolation in "D" wing of Mourne House, the women's accommodation block.

Adair once boasted about having a homosexual affair with one of his UDA colleagues. Until recently his best friend was Sam "Skelly" McCrory, an openly gay bingo addict who now lives in Scotland.

Adair had an unrivalled talent for motivating his men, planning operations and out-thinking the security forces.

Up to 40 suspected republicans and innocent Catholics were killed by C Company in the early 1990s, when Adair turned it into the UDA's most feared killing machine. Many observers believe that his reign of terror accelerated moves towards the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.

Despite going out on regular murder attempts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Adair was such a failure as a gunman that several colleagues refused to go on operations with him.

On June 7, 1990, Adair was part of a C Company hit team that attempted to kill Sean Keenan, a former Sinn Fein councillor, but succeeded only in hitting him in the buttock.

On May 21, 1992, Adair fired six shots from close range at Billy Stobie, the UDA's West Belfast quartermaster and a suspected Special Branch agent. Although Adair was trying to kill Stobie, he managed only to hit him in his back and legs five times. A sixth bullet narrowly missed Jackie Thompson, one of Adair's oldest friends and a prolific gunman. Stobie was shot dead by his former UDA colleagues in December 2001.

Adair was so self-obsessed that he used to record his television appearances and watch them repeatedly. He views himself as Northern Ireland's first "celebrity terrorist".

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

(Jim Gray) arrived for a UDA meeting with the then Northern Ireland secretary John Reid in 2002 in a floral shirt with a pink jumper draped around his shoulders, incurring the wrath of an incredulous Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, also at the time a UDA brigadier, who is said to have commented: “That’s some image for our organisation.”

My all-time favourite Loyalist para-military story. Though it only really works if you know what Adair looks like ;

[Belhaven]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Bombanero re your question earlier today, the game is shown on Viasat's second free-to-air channel (ViaSat4) live and on Viasat Sport 2 or 3 at 2300 hours in Norway. I am surprised it is not even on any of their sport channels in Finland.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Adair worshipped stone, but stone thought he was a bizarre fread (which is rich I know) anyway, around the time that adair fell off the planet, Stone wrote in his autobiography that when they were locked up in the same prison together, They were planning an escape attempt and the night before they were going to try and make a dash for freedom adair came to his cell and said that before the spartans went into battle they would lie with each other and asked stone how about it. Stone says he told him to fuck off.

We've dealth with the fourteenth tribe of israel unionist creation myth, but are the UDA honestly claiming that they are descended from Aliens?

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

I hadn't heard that story, Stone can be a dubious witness though (check out the name of his QC as well) ;

Loyalist killer Michael Stone planned to slit the throats of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in a televised assassination at the Stormont headquarters of the Northern Ireland assembly on its opening day, a court heard yesterday.

Stone, 53, plotted to kill them on the November day in 2006 when McGuinness was designated as deputy first minister, it is claimed. However, his plan to plunge the peace process into crisis ended in failure when he was detained by security staff at the entrance to Parliament Buildings.
Stone, a convicted killer and terrorist, intended to kill the two Sinn Féin leaders on the first day of devolution, Belfast crown court heard. The 53-year-old Ulster loyalist is charged with attempted murder, and possessing homemade explosives and an imitation gun with intent. He also faces charges of carrying a garrotte, three knives and an axe and assaulting Stormont staff members.

Stone denies the charges, claiming his apparent attack was "performance art".

But Charles Adair QC, prosecuting, said that after being arrested by police, Stone said: "My intention was to walk into the debating chamber and look for where Adams, McGuinness and Sinn Féin were sitting. I would have lobbed several nail bombs to cause confusion. I planned to stab Adams and McGuinness and cut their throats." The lawyer said Stone admitted to counting on the fact that any personal protection weapons the assembly members had would not have been carried into the debating chambers.
According to the crown lawyer, Stone told police, on the way to hospital after he had complained of chest pains following the alleged botched attack, that he could not "handle" the prospect of McGuinness becoming deputy first minister.

Stone, who suffers severe arthritis and walks with a stick, spent two hours working his way through the Stormont grounds to the entrance of Parliament Buildings, Adair said. He was first spotted by a security guard spray-painting on the front of the buildings the words "Sinn Fein IRA war". When the guard challenged Stone he pulled a gun, which later turned out to be a replica, and pointed it into the security man's face, saying: "You had better fucking run or you're a dead man."

The security guard ran in a zig-zag fashion to the east end of the building, where he raised the alarm. Stone tried to enter the main revolving door but was trapped by security guard Sue Porter, said Adair.

Adair said Stone was kneed in the groin and the imitation firearm wrestled from him by Porter and another security guard. He had a bag with him which he dropped and used a lighter to light what appeared to be a fuse, which started to sparkle, the court heard.

He flung the bag into the entrance hall, shouting that a bomb would go off: "Fucking evacuate. It will go off." Porter responded: "You will go up with it." Stone replied: "What the fuck."

He told her that his homemade bomb would go off in five minutes, but in fact the device never went off and is believed to have malfunctioned, having got damp during torrential rain that day.

Adair praised the security staff at Stormont, saying: "This attack failed because of the bravery of the security staff."

He added that Stone insisted he had been acting alone, telling police: "I am a dissident loyalist freelance." He claimed to have left the Ulster Defence Association on the day he was released from the Maze prison under the Good Friday Agreement early release scheme.

Stone gained notoriety in 1988 when he launched a gun and grenade attack on the republican funeral of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. Three people died and several more were injured before Stone was arrested by police as he fled Milltown cemetery in west Belfast by running on to the M1 motorway.

Following his arrest at Stormont he was returned to prison to serve out the balance of his life sentence for the murders.

The court heard that evidence including a DVD of events at Stormont had just come to light which both prosecution and defence would be using in the case.

Arthur Harvey QC, defending, said it would be used by him to back Stone's assertion that his actions at Stormont were "performance art".

The hearing continues.

[beak]

The UEFA Cup final thread

brief football interlude: the view from the roof of the building i work in.

i saw at least 5 people slumped on the pavement on my way home, who may or may not have been dead.

even my local offy has been drunk dry, and i'm a 15-20 minute walk from the city centre.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Jesus.

Primark and Burger King will probably have to call in reinforcements.

[beak]

The UEFA Cup final thread

the number of unconscious scotsmen has increased by at least one - the poor fucker who is sparked out outside my window, all wrapped up in his union jack.

[Ray de Galles]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Alan Green appears to be crowbarring in as many references to Celtic's previous achievements in Europe as possible in to his lead-in.

[Ball Comrade]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Belhaven: It's on Viasat Sport 1 at 4:30am. Not really possible to watch for anyone with a job or without a subscription.

[David Agnew]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Lovely shot of that Rangers fan bouncing up and down while giving a nazi salute. I never knew these fuckers could multitask.

[bruno glanvilla]

The UEFA Cup final thread

not a nazi salute, but a red-hand salute. any rangers fan can explain the subtle difference.

they really are a charmless bunch though.

[David Agnew]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Of course it is. Fuck off with your nazi apologism.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Couldn't they choose a way to do the 'red hand action' without it looking like they are are saluting the fuhrer though?

Especially against fucking Stuttgart...

[ursus arctos]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Phoebe, he's brand new, and I'm not at all sure you're reading him right.

In any case, that was less of a hand ball than the one that Zenit didn't get at the end of the first half. I really can't help supporting FC Gazprom; I'll have to take a shower after the match.

[caja-dglh]

The UEFA Cup final thread

Most interesting thing about this game:

The pitch is in good nick, isn't it?

[bruno glanvilla]

The UEFA Cup final thread

ursus arctos wrote:

Phoebe, he's brand new, and I'm not at all sure you're reading him right.

In any case, that was less of a hand ball than the one that Zenit didn't get at the end of the first half. I really can't help supporting FC Gazprom; I'll have to take a shower after the match.

sarcasm doesnt translate well here then?