Wednesday, May 21, 2008
RANGERS FANS IN MANCHESTER
This is a comment I put up on David Farrer's Freedom & Whisky
I have not seen this reported by the rest of the media but the manager of the bar was quite specific about this (reported on the BBC morning programme on Monday) and he was an independent observer not linked to Rangers. At the very least the job of reporters is to check out & report stuff like this not merely to turn up at Manchester Police press conferences & suck up what they are given. If it is true then the responsibility for the "riot" (40 arrests out of 100,000 fans) lies squarely with whatever officious idiot switched the screen off.
On the other hand I hope they catch the guy who stabbed a Russian fan before the game. That is less newsworthy, more important & regrettably not so uncommon.
When BBC Scotland interviewed the manager of the bar in the Piccadilly centre. Though they didn't follow it up he said specifically that the giant TV screen had not broken down but been switched off just before the match..
If I had been a Rangers fan who had come there to see the match & been promised by Manchester Council that, despite their original intention not to have screens, they would be provided I would have wished to break things too. I think that is a human reaction & let us hope we never get so domesticated as to always accept the petty bullying of petty officials
I have not seen this reported by the rest of the media but the manager of the bar was quite specific about this (reported on the BBC morning programme on Monday) and he was an independent observer not linked to Rangers. At the very least the job of reporters is to check out & report stuff like this not merely to turn up at Manchester Police press conferences & suck up what they are given. If it is true then the responsibility for the "riot" (40 arrests out of 100,000 fans) lies squarely with whatever officious idiot switched the screen off.
On the other hand I hope they catch the guy who stabbed a Russian fan before the game. That is less newsworthy, more important & regrettably not so uncommon.
