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Guest
No argument on Athens. I was there witnessed it first hand and the behaviour of some fans was nothing short of disgraceful.
Again there were lots of other factors including the 'check points'. You could just wave anything and it worked. Also the way the club distributed the tickets was out of order and due to the ridiculous allocation thousands missed out. Forgeries were rife and many people chanced it.
Isn't it strange how Heysul was the fault of a crumbling stadium, Hillsboro was the fault of the police but because there was no disaster at Athens then it's safe to say that the fans behaviour was disgraceful. Of course had there been problems you had a handy scapegoat ready with the 'check points'.
Everyone is getting hung up about the word hooligan when the key word is behaviour. The reason why we have had fences, all seater stadiums, away fans banned, alcohol bans on trains etc etc is the authorities responding to a deterioration of behaviour at and going to football matches. Whether some people like it or not the behaviour they describe on here has led to all the above restrictions being put in place.
I have no doubt that the police made mistakes at Hillsboro, but who or what caused them to make those mistakes. It seems to me that some people want to behave in a way that creates problems for others and therefore the police but then complain when the police fail to deal adequately with it.