Imagine the furore if the roles were reversed ? We would never hear the end of it from inside England and out .
From the BBC report: "During last week's first leg at London Stadium, family members of AZ players had been involved in a confrontation with West Ham fans." Perhaps it was planned. Edit: Just seen some videos of the incident, the West Ham supporting friends and families more than held their own, in fact a single bloke stopped 100+ teenagers in hoods from getting up the stairs. Nothing like the commentators described.
Unfortunately the Netherlands has a very nasty habit of violence. Seems to be games abandoned and stopped a lot.
It's becoming more and more prevalent in Netherlands and also some of the Scandinavian countries as well
Despite the hoards behind him, it's effectively like Andre the Giant clubbing one of the Time Bandits for a few seconds.
When I lived in Nuremberg in the 90s I went to quite a few games, it was clear where you shouldn't go on matchday, whether in the ground or in the city centre, usually the thugs liked to hang around Hauptbahnhof waiting for the away fans to arrive. I always maintained that hooliganism was not solely an English thing despite the perception, but across Europe it was only us that accepted and recognised that there was a problem and that it had to be dealt with. I think the reputation was skewed as it seems it's an issue largely swept under the carpet in other countries.
That's very valid, I think a lot of countries ultras and hooligans also try to emulate what used to be our football culture in the 70s/80s. Scandinavia definitely looks towards England as the "holy grail" of football, most have an English club alongside the club they support in their country and in Denmark they don't even play their top flight games on Saturdays so everyone can watch the PL instead. Other countries always seem to kick things up a notch violence wise when playing English teams to try and make statement
There'll be trouble in Prague no doubt. First each side only has 5,000 tickets. It only holds 19,000 and UEFA suits have the remainder. The Curva Fiesole Ultras are not to be crossed. They will wallop you with a life size model of the Duomo or the Campanile di Giotto as soon as look at you. They'll do it with infinite style though!
I remember being terrified going to the San Siro to watch AC vs Inter Milan as an 11 yr old, after my Italian relatives had filled me with various horror stories of what rival fans inflicted on one another. As it happened, despite the match being a boring 0-0 draw, it was one of the best matches I’ve ever been to for atmosphere and no bag of urine was dropped on my head from above as I left the stadium (the thing I remember being most worried about!).
I've been at the SAF for La Viola v Milan and the Milanese throwing flares at the CF. Didn't get anywhere close, infact they were penned in so exploded in their section! Inutile!
