first arrests made at the world cup

[dunderheed]

From Sean O’Neill in Frankfurt
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifTHREE Englishmen who vandalised an airport taxi within minutes of arriving in Germany for the World Cup are believed to be the first hooligans of any nationality to be arrested.
The men, from the Midlands, were held in the huge German police operation aimed at minimising trouble during the month-long tournament. They were detained overnight in Cologne and appeared in court yesterday morning where they pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly.
The three verbally abused a taxi driver and attacked his vehicle when he refused to take them to the city centre because they were so drunk. The court fined the men and banned them from Cologne for the duration of the tournament, but they were allowed to go free and are believed to be still in Germany.
Despite years of planning and promises of close Anglo-German co-operation to deal with hooliganism, the British police team in Germany for the tournament was not informed of the arrests in time to attend the court. A Crown Prosecution Service lawyer was dispatched to Cologne to review the evidence against the men and determine whether it can be classified as football-related. If that is the case, the three will be subjected to football banning orders when they return to England.
News of the first arrests came as a Home Office minister, visiting Frankfurt before England’s first game tomorrow, urged English fans to respect their German hosts. Vernon Coaker said: “Visiting English fans must obey German laws if they want to be welcomed. Fans should act responsibly.
“But I’m an optimist. There’s a real electricity and a surge of excitement. You can’t fail to be moved by the atmosphere. England fans have behaved well in recent years and they have been assured by the German police that they will be treated on the basis of their behaviour, not their reputation.”
Police sources said, however, that they were expecting “a very challenging situation” in Frankfurt tonight. At least 30,000 English fans are expected and there have been rumours that they may be targeted by German hooligan groups.
Some German “ultras” are believed to be plotting an attack in “revenge” for fighting before the Germany-England match in Munich in 2001.
Achim Thiel, the Frankfurt police president, said that his officers — who have been patrolling city centre streets with uniformed British police — were ready for any eventuality. “We are prepared,” Dr Thiel said. “We will intervene early if there is any sign of trouble and we will talk to people and make it very clear there is no room for disorderly behaviour.
“My officers have no orders to interrupt people who are simply having fun, but we have enough officers to deal with any situation.”
In Britain an extensive police operation is under way to locate 180 banned individuals who failed to surrender their passports last week as they are required to do by law.
Their names and details have been circulated to airports and other ports of entry. Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Thomas, leading the operation in Germany, said that there was no information that any of the 180 were in Germany.


add to this the fact (which hasn't been reported to much) that the big screens in both liverpool and london had to be switched off during the england match due to disorder. they were switched back on after everyone stopped their fighting.

[willowbankbear]

Whats the big deal? ye get pickpockets & con men going from all over Europe for a special event like this, How many got arrested at T in the park last year for instance?
It seems that football violence is not what it used to be, so I think anything at all will be sensationalised, just to sell newspapers , nothing new there then

[orkneylass]

I think it's quite funny when the media make assumptions and then turn out to be wrong. They wind up trying to make a story about nothing. The same happened with the smoking ban - no major problems at all but they were desperate for it to fail, and tried everywhere to find some trouble to report on.

[Chillie]

By the time the world cup has finished and all the english football hooligans get a mention, this will be the longest running thread in caithness.org's history.[lol] [lol]

[JAWS]

The Germans sound like they are really concerned about the three drunks.

Why exactly does somebody from the Crown Prosecution Service need to go dashing off to Germany to see if it's Football Related? I know the Germans can us a telephone, I've seen them use them in films. (No I didn't mention the unmentionable!)

Looks to me like the Germans have the situation well in hand if their biggest problem was three abusive drunks. They probable get bigger problems on a Wet Wednesday in Wuppertal. :D

[_Ju_]

Whats the big deal? ye get pickpockets & con men going from all over Europe for a special event like this, How many got arrested at T in the park last year for instance?
It seems that football violence is not what it used to be, so I think anything at all will be sensationalised, just to sell newspapers , nothing new there then


I just thought I'd say that in my experience you are wrong. I lived in central Lisbon, between two well known stadium clubs: Benfica and Sporting Lisboa. One thing I did learn very quickly on the days there were international matches with England was to park out of the way and not go out. Not because it was in the newspaper, but because of personal experiences with English fans. They are loud, rude, destructive, intimidating and, maybe because they are out of their country and consider the laws do not apply to them, will take liberties with people (mainly women) minding their own business on the street.

I learnt to avoid English days because they were unpleasant and scary, not because of reading about holiganism. My guess is that the Germans have adopted a zero tolerance stance, to at least dissuade trouble from those that really don't want to miss the games.

I am very glad to say that when Scots were playing it was a pleasure. I especially remember a game I went to see (that Scotland happened to loose quite badly- not that I am bragging :Razz ). I was in the town centre with a group of friends and got into friendly banter with a group of Scots. It was a very warm day and we all ended up in a cafe ( Scots and Portuguese) having a couple of beers. Even though everyone was going on about who was going to win, no one ended up in the hopital ( except maybe one of the Scots that had almost third degree sunburn). I also remember after the game seeing a guy in a kilt sitting on a wall, head in hands, looking like he was crying, surrounded by both Portuguese and Scottish fans trying to comfort him. I did love it when the Scottish or Irish were playing.:)

[JAWS]

Ju, I understand your feelings for the poor Scots Fans, they've definitely been deserving of a lot of sympathy of late. ;)

I hope the Germans do crack down on those fans who do not know how to behave in a decent civilised manner. I have no sympathy for the drunks concerned and am glad they have been dealt with. It would appear that the Germans have the situation well in hand.

Perhaps the Government, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Media would be better busying themselves with the problems which occurred in both London and Liverpool involving Football Hooligans.

Instead of us sending people scurrying to stick their noses into what the Germans are up to with a couple of drunks we should be begging them to come to England to show us how it's done.

What's the odds that if there is any serious trouble with the England Fans it will because those nasty brutish Foreign Police picked on poor, sweet, innocent England Fans who were simply trying to stop the nasty locals head-butting their boots?

[landmarker]

So called footballs fans who besmirch their countries reputation should be flogged and then deported. If the locals are too squeamish for the flogging they should deploy stocks.
A proportion of English football fans are brutish, and loking for trouble. Fuelled by drink they sometimes find it, or manufactur eit for themselves. They are morons, pathetic, tragic and dangerous morons. Is abortion still legal at 28 years?

[dunderheed]

another thing i find a bit worrying is the fact that of the 3,500 english "fans" who have banning orders and had to hand in their passports , almost 200 have not done so , warrants have been issued and their details passed onto every airport and ferry terminal.

[JAWS]

What dunderhead has said about passports has me a little confused. (Not an unusual state for me to be in)
It would appear that there is the ability to remove the Passports of British Citizens who are Football Hooligans. Well, there's nothing wrong with that and I can see the reason.

What puzzles me is that we do not appear to be able to do the same with others who have committed serious crimes or are considered to be very dangerous.
I am not defending Football Hooligans or downplaying the extent o the problems they cause but I can think of far more serious crimes that people commit and those guilty of them come and go as they please.
I might be wrong, but I would suspect that if the same were done to Career Criminals or people who have been involved in non-football violence that there would be screams of denying them their civil rights.

If we can stop football hooligans going abroad then why not drug dealers, people guilty of having committed serious assaults and countless other offences that I'm sure you can think of?

It may be me, but it does seem strange that there should be such a difference.

So far it would appear that the German Authorities are perfectly happy with the behaviour of the English Fans. I only hope that situation continues, but I won't be holding my breath.

[Rheghead]

If we can stop football hooligans going abroad then why not drug dealers, people guilty of having committed serious assaults and countless other offences that I'm sure you can think of?

Good point, my take on this is because football hooligans are easy targets for the police to deal with. They are easily spotted and easily put back on a plane. Putting football hooligans behind bars diverts attentions from more serious crimials so we can sleep more soundly at night.

[bigjjuk]

Any reason for you scots to pick a hole in the english and your on it like a rocket. Three english drunk men is that all you can come up with???

They prob had three german drunk men also, but it just wasnt put in the papers as they are classed as local.

[Chillie]

Any reason for you scots to pick a hole in the english and your on it like a rocket. Three english drunk men is that all you can come up with???

They prob had three german drunk men also, but it just wasnt put in the papers as they are classed as local.

I think we Scots call them English,loud thugish, riotius, drunkin ,loutish, brutal,trouble where ever they go supporters.:mad:

[scotsboy]

Bigotry, its Scotland’s shame don’t you know, how ironic is that coming from our first minister – and we are surprised that the proletariat see nothing wrong with bad mouthing and defiling anything English.

[Billy Boy]

Any reason for you scots to pick a hole in the english and your on it like a rocket. Three english drunk men is that all you can come up with???

They prob had three german drunk men also, but it just wasnt put in the papers as they are classed as local.

i think the german hooligan's are worse than any english one's but put the two together and there's only one outcome,misery for every one who's there to looking watch good football[evil]

[celtic 302]

i think the worst thing to happen at the world cup so far is that english men were arrested for making nazi salutes.

[Rheghead]

According to the German media, the English fans are the best behaved out of the whole lot.

[scotsboy]

I understand some English visitors to Scotland were attacked for no other reaon than they were England supporters.......any comments?

[Alexander Rowe]

As Scotsboy said, front page of the NOTW today, English fans attacked in Scotland and out in Munich by Scottish. One left in hospital.

Can any of the anti-english(bitter lot) on here give me a list of all the trouble England fans caused in Portugal 2004 and World Cup 2002 ?!?!

[melted_wellie]

I understand some English visitors to Scotland were attacked for no other reaon than they were England supporters.......any comments?we should make that our national sport eh. Englander bashing!!

[Chillie]

It was'nt for supporting england SCOTSBOY:roll: they were shouting and cheering Trinidad and Tobago had lost to england and egging the scottish boys on.

[Chillie]

just wait till engalnd are booted out the world cup, the english lager louts will be in full mode then. [lol]

[scotsboy]

I see you find my antipathy to your Anglo bigotry confusing with my choice of moniker – nothing to be confused about really I am defined by my country of birth, and the society I was brought up in – not by an aversion to all things English.

I suggest a trip to the optician to see if he/she can do anything about your myopia.

[Bulldog]

we should make that our national sport eh. Englander bashing!!
An expected bigoted response! If you made it your national sport you would no doubt be useless at that too![lol] [lol]

[Niall Fernie]

Well, as to be expected the usual suspects have dragged this thread down to the level of bigotry again.

You can't seem to discuss football without it.

Thread closed, along with all other football threads.