Following football used to be fun – apparently so, as I was not alive to experience it. You stood for the whole game, wherever you wanted to, with your mates shouting, screaming and singing in support of your team. It perhaps wouldn’t be inaccurate to suggest objects would have been thrown onto the pitch, possibly causing serious injury. I’m not condoning launching missles by the way but back then first and foremost, football was fun. Nowadays funny enough, supporters cannot do just what they are there for – to support. Stand up to get behind your team and you get annoyingly tapped on the shoulder to sit down by the person behind you or told to sit down by the steward (just doing there job I know). Do it persistently and you could get ejected, simple as that. After refusing to sit down (rightly so) on the 13th January against Villa, Tiptoe of Stretford End Flags and Red News was ejected from the Stretford End for the third time when thousands of others (including me) were stood. The adorable steward that block W3104 have to put up with every week, lied about being sworn at in an attempt to get Tiptoe arrested.
The main issue I want to get onto though is the throwing of Till Rolls. You may or may not be aware of two reds getting arrested a week earlier against Villa in the cup for throwing Till Rolls off the Stretford End. An act of Hooliganism? I think not! It was such a none offense that the police were embarrassed by the situation but had to continue because of the complaint made by this fantastic club we support. It’s hardly engaging in act of violence is it? Despite what MUFC will tell you, the acts of these two reds were for the benefit of - ironically MUFC. The club often state they are all for as much colour and noise inside Old Trafford as possible. Yet it seems they try and make it as hard as possible for the fans to make this happen. Sir Alex Ferguson often voices his annoyance at the lack of atmosphere but fails to realise the amount of obstacles in place in modern football.
The main issue I want to get onto though is the throwing of Till Rolls. You may or may not be aware of two reds getting arrested a week earlier against Villa in the cup for throwing Till Rolls off the Stretford End. An act of Hooliganism? I think not! It was such a none offense that the police were embarrassed by the situation but had to continue because of the complaint made by this fantastic club we support. It’s hardly engaging in act of violence is it? Despite what MUFC will tell you, the acts of these two reds were for the benefit of - ironically MUFC. The club often state they are all for as much colour and noise inside Old Trafford as possible. Yet it seems they try and make it as hard as possible for the fans to make this happen. Sir Alex Ferguson often voices his annoyance at the lack of atmosphere but fails to realise the amount of obstacles in place in modern football.
Throwing a Till Roll isn’t exactly going to hurt anyone especially if it unravels and thrown correctly. It was done in the attempt of a paper streaming effect. The plan is by adding more colour to the ground, it just might take the breath away of the fans who don’t normally sing, and may join in. However MUFC saw it a different way and were determined to get two of their own fans chucked out and arrested. Oh what hooligans they are. After watching on CCTV the moron who called in the police was completely set on making an example of these two reds, just like Rio Ferdinand was in the drugs ban by the FA. Had till rolls been thrown by Villa fans (who we were playing) than nothing would have been said, and I’m sure no action would have been taken.
Another thing I may point out is that apparently Chelsea fans in the Carling Cup Semi Final Second Leg in 2005 chucked bottles from the East Stand Tier two onto united fans in the East Stand Tier One. – don’t hold me to this however as I was not there to see it happen, but why would a united fan make it up. Anyway Is this not a bigger offence than throwing till rolls? A surely far more dangerous one! TV cameras also clearly picked up a bottle been thrown from a Liverpool fan at Old Trafford in their FA Cup semi-final last year. Surely it wouldn’t have been too hard to look back at CCTV if the club really wanted to. Did the scouse fan get arrested? Probably not! It seems that MUFC are hell bent on making it as hard as possible for United fans to support their team and punishing us for being loyal supporters. Double Standards? I think so!
I know it’s the law to have all-seater stadiums but they could show a bit more leniency than they do. A tannoy announcement could be clearly heard over Anfield during Liverpools FA Cup tie against Arsenal stating for people to sit down. However throughout the game you could clearly see the majority of dipper supporters stood up in the Kop, but I bet no one was chucked out. It’s about time our club stood up for their supporters. We have terrific fans all over the world (mixed in with some glory hunting daytrippers I know) but its about time MUFC realised this and started to treat us with the respect we deserve. The actions of the club on the 7th January have left a bitter taste with many united fans with the Stretford End Flag two facing a possible £1,000 fine each and a ban from football grounds. I for one, sincerely hope the case is dropped but if it isn’t it will be a sad day with a powerful club punishing its own fans in their ‘fight against fun – fight against hooliganism’ campaign and we all know who we can blame. Good luck to you both, we are all behind you. As for you MUFC if all doesn’t go well expect a backlash.
