Police Riot: Violence after Sevilla-Tottenham

[encierroNYC]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/football/crowd-violence-marrs-sevilla-win/2007/04/06/1175366444871.html

Their victory was marred by crowd disturbances involving English fans for the second night running that mirrored the trouble in Rome on Wednesday when police clashed with Manchester United fans in ugly scenes during a Champions League tie.

European soccer's governing body UEFA are sure to open a a second investigation after television pictures showed riot police confronting Tottenham fans at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.

Britain's ITV said eight people had been taken to hospital - seven Tottenham fans and a policeman - with injuries that included cuts, bruises and a broken wrist, following the skirmishes.

[Malkamus]

from the Independent:

Later a Spurs fan was struck by police as he attempted to take a photo of the team bus leaving. Goalkeeper Paul Robinson jumped off the coach and took him back into the stadium to make sure he was OK. It was that chaotic.

Props to Robbo, think he'll be fined?

Remember the english wil be blamed for all this, even by a large number of english -- one of the problems is the UK admitted they had a problem in the 80s and started to deal with it, the Spanish and Italian FA/Police/Society have never come out and said -- 'yeah, an unacceptable chunk of our supporters are violent, racist thugs and our stadium are disasters waiting to happen' -- that needs to happen but never will until they are banned from European competition for a couple years -- sadly this won't happen until another massive 20+ killed tragedy happens at some match and caught on tv.

One of the most gauling bits was the scots coming on the bbc saying 'we went to milan and had a circle jerk with the italians for 90 minutes and then they applauded us off the grounds cause we are perfect.

[L.G.S]

Oh look, another English team starts problems when they start to lose.

[Shelfsider]

Oh look, another English team starts problems when they start to lose.

Oh, look.

Another foreigner jumping on the anti English "they're all hooligans" bandwagon while conveniently forgetting that his own country has far, far, far worse hooligan issues to deal with (I assume, from your blurb, that you're Italian, despite living in England).

[arak0r]

Oh look, another English team starts problems when they start to lose.

http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/070406/1/47obe.html

[Danners9]

http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/070406/1/47obe.html


"The behaviour of the English supporters was in general fine except for a group of around 200 violent ones who, from the start of the game, started fighting between themselves and then afterwards with the police," commented Spanish sports daily As.


"The behaviour of the Tottenham fans outside the stadium was good. What happened inside the Sanchez Pizjuan was sad, the police had to defend themselves," said a Sevilla vice-president Jose Castro.


"A better atmosphere was almost impossible to imagine before the game. Thousands of Spurs fans mingling regularly with many Sevilla fans, with the swapping of scarves and other items," reflected one eye-witness account in the Spanish sports daily Marca.



And the club official statement: Tottenham Hotspur released a statement early on Thursday morning."The club will be working with the appropriate authorities to ascertain the events of this evening in Seville."

"Our initial reports suggest there was no fan-to-fan fighting at any stage of the proceedings. As such we are seeking explanations as to why the police reacted in the way they did with our fans.

"Tottenham Hotspur supporters have enjoyed an exemplary reputation across Europe this season which is why the events are unprecedented. We will be co-operating fully with UEFA, the British Embassy and the Spanish authorities to understand why this has happened.

"British Police, the club's security officials, and club stewards - supported by British Embassy officials - will also be providing the Spanish authorities and UEFA with full statements from their first-hand experience of what happened tonight," said the London side.

So that's two newspaper reports stating how well the fans behaved before the game but a relatively small group fighting amongst themselves and having issue with the police. Note it doesn't say what started the problems with the police, so no one can judge whether it was self defence or intended or anything.

[cdmphy]

Hmmm....let's see, trouble erupts in a place where the locals had been claiming vehemently that there would be trouble for 3 weeks. I wonder why? Yet the same cohort of people that made their way to Andulucia, made there way to Germany, Portugal, Turkey, etc without any incident. Remember the Spanish guy who had many questions about hooliganism posted here? Remember how I made the "time travel" thread? These people wanted trouble and made damn sure it happened. You treat people like animals and they will react like animals.

[mattie g]

cd - I agree with you. People who are looking for a fight generally find their way into a fight, often one of their own making.

What I find interesting is that "the police had to defend themselves". From what? I thought it has already been stated that Spurs fans didn't attack the police or the Sevilla fans. So what were the police protecting themselves from? A guy in a wheelchair? A female fan?

I wasn't there, but I can't help but think, as many others do, that this was an overreaction on the part of the police.

[Danners9]

Here is a letter someone from another site has sent to the club detailing what happened to him and what he saw:

To Whom it may Concern:

Please take this email as first hand evidence of someone at the game who saw much of what happened and also fell foul of the "police" prior to the match.

We arrived in Seville on Wednesday and passed a lovely evening in a bar in town where we drank and sang with a group of Sevilla fans and even arranged to meet them the next night after the game for a drink. The atmosphere continued in this vein throughout the day on Thursday and the Seville officials did a fantastic job of welcoming the Spùrs fans with a terrific fan zone and some nice bars where we could drink and sing. Again, Sevilla fans were joining in and there was not one sign of what was to ensue.

Approximately two and a half hours before kick off without any warning what so ever, mounted police entered the fan zone and compressed the fans into a much smaller area segregating us from the toilets, and other facilities that had been provided. Their entrance into the square was menacing and a show of power. Non of them spoke a word of English. My brother was trying to ask a mounted officer in riot gear, (why there was need for riot gear is simply unexplainable) what was going on but the officer made it clear he had no intention of speaking. I could see he was getting angry so put my arm around my brother and started to take him away. As I guided him away he bumped into a friend who spilt his beer onto the foot of another police officer. No sooner had a drop of beer hit the officer's foot than he forcibally grabbed me and using excessive and unnecessary force, dragged me off to the police van.

At the van the officer proceeded to slap me round the face without even saying anything to me. I have witnesses to prove that again, I was doing nothing. I was not threatening, resisting, shouting or arguing. I simply stood and accepted the unfair treatment. Janet McNeil, who I believe was head of security at the fanzone saw the vast majority of this incident.

Ultimately they let me go and only took my match ticket from me. That in itself was unfair punishment for somebody who had done absolutely nothing wrong. This reaction to such a minor incident and a genuine accident was a sign of things to come. Such was the menace and hatred in the eyes of the officer that I believe the only reason I was not a victim of more sever physical treatment is only due to the number of people recording the incident on their mobiles and the presence of the Spurs officials. Even this though was theratened by the police as one person who was filming the incident was told in no uncertain terms to stop filming and they even attempted to take her phone from her had she not fled and put it in her pocket. She later had her arm broken in the ground trying to prevent somebody else being beaten.

My brother was also threatned in this incident. In the commotion of the police officer forcibly dragging me away my brother dropped his phone. He tells me that as he went to pick it up another officer waved his baton at him threatening to hit him and would not let my brother get his phone. Eventually it was handed back by a more senior officer.

On the way to the ground, (I managed to acquire another ticket!) again, there was a terrific ambiance and we spent ten minutes talking to a group of Spanish boys and laughing and joking with them. There really was a good vibe all around.

What happened inside the ground is the worst case of brutality I have ever seen.....and I come from a military background. Our tickets were actually for the lower tier but we ended up in the Upper. How? Because there were no Spanish stewards and no markings in the stadium. The whole thing was a mess and nobody had a clue where to go. People ended up sitting wherever they liked. After our goal the commotion started in the lower tier. We saw fans being bludgeoned as they retreated and tried to get away. We saw a fan on the floor in the foetal position trying to protect himself being beaten by three riot police. Surely he was not posing a threat unarmed on the floor?! We even witnessed a Sevilla fan help a Spurs fan who was being severly beaten by dragging him to the Sevilla side of the thin cordon. From there he watched the rest of the game.

Then, unprovoked and without warning the riot police upstairs started charging through and hitting anyone stood in the aisles. Men, women, children, anybody in their way they indiscriminantly hit. A man we know was stood in the aisle and was dragged down under the stands by five officers. From where we were we could see him being severly beaten. He was not arrested and re-entered the stands after he had recovered. He now has severly bruised ribs and was covered in blood. If he was not arrested, what had he done to provoke such an aggresive attack?

A friend of ours attempted to plead with an officer as to why this was happening. He was met with a baton to his knees and wrist which is now very badly bruised. Clearly their intention was not to stop trouble but to beat people for no reason. We saw many people being beaten and non actually arrested. How can that make any sense?

I could go on about lack of segregation, lack of police - fan communication due to language barriers, lack of facilities in the stadium, lack of stewarding from Sevilla officials, but hopefully what I have written is enough to have set the scene of what we experienced and how what had been a wonderful day turned so badly sour.

Two more points need to made at this juncture. One - the Spurs officials and stewards throughout were absolutely magnificent and had it not have been for them and their actions I fear the fans would have suffered even more. They all deserve the highest commendation and should all be immensly proud of how they conducted themselves. Two - in the second half the police withdrew from the stands and we enjoyed forty five minutes of football with no incident what so ever with just Spurs stewards in the stands watching over us. Had this have been the case from the beginning I do not think there would have been any problems at all. Indeed, I have been all over Europe watching Spurs this season and there has not been one incident. Our behaviour has been exeplory and I have no doubt, based upon the events during the day, that this good behaviour would have continued. Only when the police started to react violently to nothing did the fans take it upon themselves to defend themeselves and one another.

I hope this first hand witness account helps you in your investigations.

If you have any questions at all I will be back in England late tonight and would be happy to talk to anyone about what happened

[cdmphy]

Was that from Spurs Community. If so, did you see that even BoringOldFan was attacked? That alone proves it was the police.

Posted in another thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQP6yehL284

[sheridan]

I almost think the people of sevilla were so scared of riots that their police instigated it (from what I have read). remember that dude who came on here asking us questions about spurs and he had concerns over hooligans. from what I read on the bbc the riot police stormed our supports as they were yelling about the penalty against us in the box. all we were doing was yelling at the ref and they come in with their batons swinging.

[Danners9]

It's from FTL, but I did read that BoF was attacked too. Someone posted up pictures too,

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/davidk_2006/PS_fan8.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/davidk_2006/PS_fan6.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/davidk_2006/PS_fans3.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/davidk_2006/PS_police_fans.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/davidk_2006/PS_fight.jpg



That video is pretty damning of the police btw, near the end. Fans with their arms up pleading, showing the surrender sign and being beaten to the floor. Disgusting.

[OrlandoSPUR]

Oh look, another English team starts problems when they start to lose.

....oh I forgot the virtues of the chelsea fans :rolleyes:

[Colm]

Oh look, another English team starts problems when they start to lose.http://nominated.homestead.com/MAIN.html

you should look through that site.

:rolleyes:

[sendorange]

I suspect what happened is that a number of the police were resentful of having to be at the game during a holiday, so they took it out on our fans. Not only that, but quite likely an number of the officers on duty were on the lower end of the scale, the peons who get the crap shifts as they're not important or competent enough for anything else.

[L.G.S]

Oh, look.

Another foreigner jumping on the anti English "they're all hooligans" bandwagon while conveniently forgetting that his own country has far, far, far worse hooligan issues to deal with (I assume, from your blurb, that you're Italian, despite living in England).

Funnily enough, I'm half English and half Italian and I've been to football matches in both countries concerning teams for each one also. I have the right to criticise when I've seen it first hand.

[Shelfsider]

Funnily enough, I'm half English and half Italian and I've been to football matches in both countries concerning teams for each one also. I have the right to criticise when I've seen it first hand.

And you were in Seville? You saw how it all started, "first hand"?

I think not.

Just full of mouth.

[Spur_Forever]

I suspect what happened is that a number of the police were resentful of having to be at the game during a holiday, so they took it out on our fans. Not only that, but quite likely an number of the officers on duty were on the lower end of the scale, the peons who get the crap shifts as they're not important or competent enough for anything else.
I think you're definitely on to something here. I'd be willing to wager that most of these riot police were youngsters in their early 20s and who were peeved to have to be there instead of partying with the rest of the city.

Also, it takes a certain personality type to want to be part of the riot police force in the first place. I know of a few guys who are in the riot squad (or whatever you call it) back home, and they are not the type of person you'd want to get into an argument with. I'd bet that most of them joined that particular branch of the police force just so they could have the opportunity to beat people up legally.

[L.G.S]

And you were in Seville? You saw how it all started, "first hand"?

I think not.

Just full of mouth.

Me full of mouth? Bloody pikey. Did you ask me if I went to the game? No you didn't. Did I go to the game? Yes I did. So piss off.

[Danners9]

Another story from FTL...

About forty five minutes after the game we walked out of the ground from the players entrance (as you do). The team bus was there with most of the players on it. We spoke to the Spurs security guy who we know. Next to the bus was a row of police and a few Spurs and Sevilla fans taking photographs and waiting for autographs.

We were facing the other way but all of a sudden we turned around and saw a Spurs fan bleeding heavily from the nose. I don't know his name but recognise him as a home and away fan. He had obviously been smacked by the police.

Paul Robinson ran down the coach and said, "I saw that! That was bang out of order! He [the fan] did nothing!" Chimbonda, Defoe and Keane also ran down and said the same. Robinson then got the Spurs physio and took the fan down to the changing room to be patched up. Jol then came out and, along with Paul Kemsley (one of the Spurs executive directors) they went and grabbed a UEFA official, along with one of the policemen in charge, and spent five minutes or so complaining about the incident.

They ushered over two of the fan's mates to tell what they saw. Jol then gave one of them his jacket to keep. They all then waited to make sure that the bloodied fan was all right. Unfortunately, when they eventually left, it looked like the police took the fan away in the van.

We have some top quality players and staff.. somethings go beyond football and it's good to see they stepped in. Although any decent person would have done the same, i hope.