really, are you sure about that?Originally Posted by Peadar
da brother who lives in London was drinking with a few Millwall fans over the weekend, he says they didnt have a problem with the Irish at all, i wonder with Muslims the new terrorists that they have just a new target for their hate, as he said they were extremely racist, and hardcore
still havent heard from him since though!
hmmm....suppose I better not bring my Rangers tricolour to the wales match then.
"I just came in to buy a stamp"-Padraig Pearse, April 24th 1916
Hardcore Chelsea are scum. Apparently majorly involved in lansdowne '95 too. At the Chelsea-Celtic pre-season game the 'blues brothers' element certainly made their presence felt with Linfield, Rangers flags etc, as well as a well organised ambush on visiting supporters at Fulham broadway tube before and after the game.Intimidating place to be Irish on that particular night.
As for the flag defacing, an initial reaction on seeing a Chelsea tricolour would be 'what?!?!?' but thinking about it and reading the accounts above of the chelsea guy who owns it I see it a little differently. I lived in England too and met many 2nd and 3rd gen Ireland fans. If I saw some of them at a game with say, 'Coventry Irish' or 'Northampton' across a tricolour I would look upon it as the lads going 'This is our club, this is our country, on one flag. We may not be born in Ireland but we are as much Ireland supporters as you are' They are a reflection of the Irish diaspora. I think EL supporters are a little too quick to think 'hey these are the idiots neglecting our league'. Not all of us were born into an EL club heartland or were brought up in one of its clubs traditions. As I once heard (albeit in the context of a club vs country debate) - your club could be like your wife, you choose it and it's passionate, your country is like your mother, its a different love, unconditional. Football supporters are all different, different aspects of the game make them tick. Chill out a little and let someone scrawl the name of place outside of Ireland on a tricolour if they feel they are getting something from it.
The dude abides....
thank you bottle of tonic - someone is finally making sense.
England probably do have the best fans in the world in terms of visible support at games. I know a few guys who go to every England game. These guys are genuine football fans. It is clear that the majority of England fans are well behaved nowadays. The are under constant media scrutiny and according to the lads i know they get incredible levels of provocation at away games. The police are generally very aggressive towards them.
Look at the incidents that happened at the San Marino game last week with a small section of our fans throwing bottles and cans at our own fans, if that happened at an England game it would be all over the media.
I think many here are looking at england fans and football fans in england through rose-tinted spectacles. I can tell you that fans of british clubs teams are pussies compared to their european counterparts. A spurs fan I know very very well from london was at Cardiff in January and they needed the protection of 800 riot police due to the level of attack for Cardiff city (welsh) fans.
I have travelled to alot of the away grounds in england and have to concur that Chelsea hardcore fans, west hardcore ham fans, man united hardcore fans are by far the most troublesome. I have been p1ssed on from the upper tier in old trafford. We (Liverpool) were bad bad b st rds in the 70's and 80's but have calmed down alot in the last 10 years. You rarely see bother at liverpool games (far less than i have seen at the few EL games I have attended).
As for flags at games. I can tell you know that you can bring or buy a tri-colour at any PL ground in england and have no worries.
I am astonished at those suggesting that a flag saying Chelsea is out of place in Croke Park, Wolfie. I hope everyone who owns a club based flag brings it to Croke Park for the game and we have the names of the clubs for Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and europe lining the stands around the ground. This shows just how far and wide the love for the team is spread.
Whether you like it or not the vast majority of british cities have sizeable irish communities and these people have as much right to hang a flag at any Ireland game home or away as a Rovers, Bohs, Shels or Cork City etc fan.
Last edited by reder; 13/02/2007 at 11:38 PM.
Yes, quite sure! Having spent almost 5 years in England, I've mixed with some of the best football supporters, I've seen anywhere in the world, on my travels.
Your name suggests that you're alligned to a certain Glasgow bigot franchise so I'll spare my words, because I'm worn out from trying to talk sense to your lot.
Have Boot Disk, will travel
Reder were you in san marino? nobody threw bottles at each other !!
You have got to be fcuking kidding me !!
This needs to be knocked on the head right now
Some drunk muppet threw a half full can out onto the running track.
That and the altercation between two lads was the height of it.
Was he crazy!! Yeah , in a very special way , an Irishman.
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
I was told by this 2 guys I have sat beside at ireland home games for the past 10 years. I didnt attend the game as I am sick to the eye teeth of being shafted by the FAI for away tickets when it comes to "big" away games. For years I have been to 90% and constantly missing out when it comes to the Germany, Switzerland away situations.
well i dont know what those two guys agenda is but neither did i or anyone i spoke to see bottles thrown and its well out of order to be saying things like that, also the cops checked everyone and there were no bottles in the ground , lots of cans though..
Was he crazy!! Yeah , in a very special way , an Irishman.
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Waht a crock. I was at that game and Spurs brought a huge mob of hundreds intent on having a pop at Cardiff. Fair play to them as no-one else has had the balls in years. But to say that the cops were there to protect the Spurs fans is utter nonsense.
BTW Totally agree that English fans are the best in the world. No other country in the world can sustain 4 1/2 professional leagues. By and large English people follow their local teams.
KOH
Last edited by gustavo; 14/02/2007 at 2:05 PM. Reason: fixing quotes....................................
No One Likes Us, We Don't Care
your right of course, but to be fair football is the only real spectator sport in england. i know you have both rugby's aswell but they are shorter seasons and fewer teams.
here we also have the GAA and at most championship games you get full houses - although even here there are the hangers on who only go to games with final in the name (1/4, semi ...etc). the majority of irish soccer 'supporters' are much happier watching from their living rooms or in the pub and moaning about how crap the eL is.
Not what I'm saying at all. Anybody who supports the national team and lives abroad I have a lot of time for. The only idiots who are neglecting our league are the idiots living in Ireland.
Still wrong to put an english club on a tricolour and then complain about being abused.
Something like coventry Irish is harmless because they are stating that they are Irish based in coventry.
KOH
totally agree with you here.
southampton / london / liverpool irish = ok.
southampton fc / arsenal fc / liverpool fc / man united = get a life
Because of economic problems I was forced to emigrate to England in the early 90's now I support my local team but if I put it on my national flag (I am still an Irish citizen and passport holder and have never taken nationality of another country) I need to "get a life".
My local team is no longer Athlone Town I haven't been to a town game in 15 years, I still follow thier results but they are no longer my team, exactly what is the problem with me putting my local English club that I go to week in week out on an Irish flag? My kids will grow up in England (unless I get a chance to move somewhere hotter) but will still be Irish citizens, will they be told to get a life with their foreign clubs and foreign accents thinking they can follow Ireland?
This is an old argument and divides people roughly into those who have never had to deal with emigration and those who have.
It was more a throwaway comment on how it will be an unusual sight to potentially see the names of English Premiership clubs appearing on Tricolours in Croke Park - the heartland of the GAA and sporting nationalism. Normally all that's written on them at GAA matches is "HOWYA!" or "We'll Flush the Jacks!!"
Don't want to meander the debate onto Croker as has been discussed at length on previous threads.
My point was that it will re-inforce the historical element of soccer and all attached to it at Croker.
If Anglo Irish lads want to display their customised Irish flag - knock yourself out, Man.
Why do you want to put the name of an English club on an Irish flag? Stop trying to turn this into some diaspora debate when it isn't one!
If you want to support Ireland, why do you feel that sticking something like Chelsea or Spurs or whatever, on your flag, will enhance your support?
Don't give me some rubbish about eircom League teams on Irish flags because it just doesn't wash with me. If we didn't have a National League, we couldn't have a National team. All that aside, if you go to any eircom League game, you'll see a wonderful display of creativity & colour, where flags were designed & are unique to the clubs. Very few, if any, Irish flags.
Having a foreign team name on an Irish flag, is not a sign of support for Irish football. You're only fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
Don't get me started on the supporters of that Irish team in Glasgow!
Have Boot Disk, will travel
Rubbish. Rovers have fans who are members all over europe and in the states. Yet they dont feel the need to put their local sides on a tricolour.
Why not put Athlone Town on your flag? You cant say they are no longer your team just because you live abroad. A club is for life no matter what the circumstances.
KOH
Peader
This has been debated on here several times and the split is always the same, which is what really bugs me.
I have no issue with people putting whatever they want on the flag as long they are supporting Ireland, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Personally I wouldn't put anything on the flag (actually I wouldn't bring a flag full stop) but I don't see the logic in saying it's ok to have Cork City or Derry City but not Tranmere Rovers (as was the cause celeb of the debate after Germany).
You appear to be unable to differntiate support for the Irish National Team and supporting Irish Football as a whole entity, I agree that they are intertwined but they it's possible to do one without the other, there are lots of EL supporters who don't care about the national team.
Exactly,so you can't start knocking Irish supporters who have followed an English team and Ireland all their life and are maybe in an Irish branch of the teams supporters club and want to put thier club name on a tricolour.It's been going on for years and it will go on for years because it's no big deal except for a small minority of people who like a good ol whinge,and theres plenty of them knocking around Ireland these days.
MOT
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