If the game goes ahead, I believe and would hope, it gets abandoned a few minutes in. To paint that as similar to english lads rioting is farcical to put it mildly.Originally Posted by sbgawa
If the game goes ahead, I believe and would hope, it gets abandoned a few minutes in. To paint that as similar to english lads rioting is farcical to put it mildly.
The problem is not ROI football fans, rather it is (potentially) thousands of anti-Israel protestors whose protests may get out of hand, including in the streets around the stadium.
It would make the Gardai's job a hell of a lot easier if they didn't also have to police up to 50k fans making their way in and out of the stadium at the same time, esp if some of the more antagonistic protestors broke away to confront the fans for "appeasing Israel etc"
You guys are a bit out of touch. Thanks to strict FA ticket controls, plus police travel bans etc, the bad old days of England fans causing havoc in cities overseas, as we saw eg at Italia 90 or Lansdowne in 1995, have been largely eliminated. As a result, the travelling England fanbase is nowadays far more mixed/older/family than the young hooligans of yesteryear.
While when trouble does arise, it is far more likely to be because they've been attacked by local "ultras" out to make a name for themselves, or even just local yobs (i.e. not even football fans), who are up for trouble. Which to bring it back to the AVIVA, suggests to me that those fans who do attend might (emphasise) need police protection from the more antagonistic element amongst the protestors?
Not that much out of touch. It's ten years since Euro 2016(good lord) where this happened https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36496745
Ah right, so you googled "England football fans riot" and that's the best/most recent you could come up with?
If you read it properly, that report actually goes further towards proving my point eg "There had been no damage to local property", " England supporters had been in Marseille on Thursday 'without issue' before a group of approximately 70 local youths had approached the pub where they had congregated", "The police response was disproportionate," said Dr Pearson, who has studied the policing of football crowds. "The England fans had done nothing wrong.". While Russian football fans caused much more serious trouble in the city.
In any case this report from January this year gives a much more accurate, up-to-date picture of what happens these days, including events in (ahem) Marseille, the most violent, crime-ridden city in France generally, with the biggest football hooligan problem in the country specifically:
https://archive.ph/JIYbh
But in an effort to bring this vaguely back on topic, it is my opinion that should there be trouble at the Israel game in Dublin, it will not be ROI football fans who will be the source, but they may become victim to others who want to pick on them.
No, I was in France at the time and remembered it
Which part of France? For unless you were actually in Marseilles at the time, and witnessed it (as did I eg in Bologna for Belgium v England at Italia 90), then you are relying on news reports, just the same as the rest of us.
And those reports show that the disturbances were nowhere near the scale of the 80's and 90's etc, and was at least as much a case of England fans being sinned against as sinning. I mean one arrest...
Their reputation precedes them. They may not at all be like the 80s and 90s but the havent shaken off how their perceived. After that Marseilles stuff it was wall to wall news and the French wouldnt be the first in line to give the English the benefit of doubt! I spent a lot of that summer in France, nothing to do with football, and the attitude was 'typical'. Not that it must have been the Russians. If tet was in France at the time then his perception is understandable.Its just a recipe for disaster this whole thing, something that should have been enough to question Israel's participation. But then we do have a situation where one country will be hosting another when they are at war and their head of state been assassinated. But not a peep about it either. Could you chuck Iran for technically (in that they are providing weapons to designated terror groups) being the victim or do you remove the aggressor host............ I think Gardaà can cope with keeping crowds seperate and contained. No so much the individual, maybe more a stewarding thing inside the stadium, but pitch invasions are very likely. We'll probably just have to suck up the fines for flags and chants.
Why does it matter if I was an eye witness or not? I never said I was an eye witness, or even that it compared to anything that happened in the 80s or 90s - just so you know I didn't witness those either.
You said that incidents with traveling fans have largely been eliminated, and I'm not disagreeing with that, but there are still incidents involving England fans at major tournaments. There's been documentaries about what happened before the final at Wembley in 2021 - not traveling fans, but still England fans.
ill probably sound like old man shouting at clouds here but the problem with all protests these days be it envioronmental protests , pro imigrant protests, anti imigrant protests is that there is virtualy no consequences for disrupting other peoples lives.I wouldnt be a lover of Kier Starmer but when the right wing were protesting in England a few months ago he brought in late night courts and locked some of them up for proper lengthy sentences and guess what the riots pietered out when the seriel protestes realised they could end up doing serious time.
Farmers in the port tunnel blocking an ambulance transfer to St Vincents broke my patience, been ranting at protests ever since!
Then why did you bring up the fact of your being in France at the time (post#66)? For you were in Paris/wherever relying on media reports, just the same as I was from London.
The point is this. A couple of posters cited "England fans" as being violent hooligans, on the basis of their previous history/reputation, without accepting that things are a whole lot different now. Such that England NT (and club) fans are amongst the better behaved these days, more likely to be victimised because of a previous generation's reputation etc, and certainly far less serious than fans from other countries, esp Eastern Europe, which I've witnessed myself personally (Poland, Bosnia, Bulgaria etc).
Or to put it simply, if on a "Hoolie Scale" of 1-10, England NT fans back then easily scored an 8 or a 9, these days it's more like a 2.
Anyhow, while there is no reason to suppose that ROI fans at the Israel game will actually cause trouble, there might be some disruption, if only from "infiltrators" in the crowd, determined to make an impact in front of the media etc. Which I daresay the Gardai are well capable of handling. But if the general temperature in the country remains as high as it is at present (potentially even higher by September, considering Trump/Netanyahu's still actions to come?), then containing 50k in the stadium and maybe the same again in the streets outside could be a serious stretch (imo).
Last edited by EalingGreen; 04/03/2026 at 5:04 PM.
Because you said I just searched for recent England fans riots, which was not the case. I was in the country at the time, so I knew when and where it happened. The only thing I searched for was a report of the incident itself
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 05/03/2026 at 10:53 AM.
Is there anything in those FIFA rules about media commitments which prevents the Israeli travelling squad from staying in say Belfast, and only making their way down for the media responsibilites the day before and then again for the game itself?
Whatever the media stuff, the team itself HAS to be in ROI no later than 19.45 on 03 October, to allow for an overnight stay. That much is pretty certain.
Remember, in 1993 Jack Charlton wanted to stay just over the border i.e. an hour away(?) from Belfast, the night before the NI game and this was not permitted.
Didn't they destroy their own stadium in the euro 2020 final!
Even if they could stay in Belfast it probably wouldn't make life any easier. Those logistics would probably be even more difficult.
The usual haunt for football teams visiting Belfast is the Culloden (about halfway between Belfast & Bangor).
EalingGreen will no doubt concur that getting down the Westlink is tough enough for anyone after about 2pm. Taking a bus carrying the Israeli football team through an underpass at the bottom of Divis Street just isn't possible.
If they were going to do this the ideal spot would be a 4 star hotel somewhere close by the A1 in either Lisburn, Hillsborough Dromore or Banbridge. But there just isn't one.
Belfast would be at least as difficult as Dublin (if not worse). Newry would be worse again.
They could maybe fly in to Aldergrove, stay in one of the airport hotels or possibly the Dunsilly, then go from there (bypassing Belfast and joining the M1 at Moira). But it's a lot of faffing about.
The easier option might be to stay in Anglesey and charter half a dozen helicopters to cross the Irish Sea.
Last edited by backstothewall; 05/03/2026 at 12:10 AM.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
The Water Charges protests achieved exactly what they wanted.
‘Protests don’t work’ is a poor argument. I wonder if there were absolutely no protests or campaigns against anything what kind of world we would be living in?
The irony of posting on here.
In the second half of the 19th century a protest movement which gained momentum in England was the demand for factories to close at lunchtime on Saturdays'. The supporters of this movement contended that this would create a recreational time in the week for the working classes.
This aim was largely achieved in the late 1800s.
The Football League was established in 1888. It was a direct result of the success of the weekend movement. So I guess the first difference most of us would notice is there would be no football.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
Why are you telling fibs?
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