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JUST 'COS YOU GOT THE POWER 30-11-04
I was angry about it all right up until today but now I am absolutely bloody fuming since reading the inane and ridiculous comments made by Superintendent Steve Ashman, of Middlesbrough police, who was actually present in Spain last Thursday night.
Ashman said "Overall it was a busy night with an awful lot of Boro fans in a small town having travelled a significant distance. It appeared to go well with the majority of fans behaving themselves. There were one or two incidents of minor disorder outside the ground which the Spanish authorities dealt with."
Just what kind of a policeman are you Ashman? A fair number of our supporters were beaten with four foot truncheons as the Spanish police tried to herd them into the ground and a lot more received the same treatment for trying to leave the ground after the final whistle.
For Christ's sake, Geoff Stuttart was nearly killed by a police horse when they attacked our people for committing the heinous crime of queuing to get into a football stadium.
We have been publicising these events since we returned to work early this week and I will not be repeating here what has already been said in those articles. Here are the links to the reports that contain the facts of what happened at The Madrigal Stadium.
Villareal Match Report
Eye Witness Reports of Police Brutality
So back to Ashman and his outrageous version of events.
"It appeared to go well with the majority of the fans behaving themselves."
What kind of a majority were well behaved out of the four thousand present? You need to elaborate on this Ashman because from the off, your statement gives the impression that only a good percentage were 'well behaved' and that is factually incorrect. The truth is that the percentage of Boro fans who were good ambassadors for our town was in the high nineties and I challenge you to prove me wrong on that.
Let me put you right on this. From where I was standing, I did not see one Boro fan behaving in a manner that constituted bad behaviour. Yes there were a lot of Boro fans who were over the alcohol limit but all were 'well behaved' and not once did I see or hear of anybody doing anything that even remotely resembled breaking the law.
Incidentally, I arrived in Villareal around seven hours before kick off and spoke with literally scores of fans and observed several hundred others. Never once did I hear of any wrongdoing by or from anybody.
"There were one or two incidents of minor disorder outside the ground which the Spanish authorities dealt with."
For one or two incidents of minor disorder, read several attempts by the authorities to injure or maim as many Boro fans as possible. This 'disorder' was caused by the authorities that you mention and it seems to me that your attempts to play down these incidents may be in the interests of your next free Continental jolly not being jeopardised. If I am wrong about that then at best it is about time you either opened your eyes or started doing your job correctly.
You're right that these incidents were dealt with. By tactics so draconian that I am surprised that nobody was actually hospitalised, seriously injured or even killed. Once again, the methods used by the filth employed as law enforcers in Spain have been graphically detailed earlier this week, so no need to repeat ourselves here but this now has to be said.
By not mentioning these despicable events to the media when questioned about last Thursday's match, you have done the area that you are supposed to be serving a huge disservice and for that, you should be pilloried.
You will no doubt deny that you saw any of the events that we have reported and if that happens to be true, then what was the point of you being there in the first place? Surely you were there to protect the people that you serve? Well you failed miserably and there is no denying that whatsoever.
As Ashman is probably not a regular reader of this column, we will be forwarding this article to him at Cleveland Police HQ. Any reply that we receive will be published. I somehow doubt that we will be hearing from him though.
Adrian Clarke of SouthCoast England Fans was present at last week's England v Spain match in Madrid and has collected many first hand accounts of events of a similar nature to what we experienced in Villareal last week.
Adrian is piecing together an official complaint into these unprovoked attacks and told me about the sterling work that he has so far done.
"I have met with Kevin Miles from the FSF who was out in Madrid himself, and he has worked tirelessly on the fan's behalf to use the statements I have gathered and to make a formal complaint on our behalf. On the back of this, the F.A. have also made a formal complaint to the Spanish Authorities and the Home Office are working towards getting some action taken at Government level. Even the British Police who were in attendance on the night experienced first hand what the Spanish coppers were like."
"Like yourself, I was appalled with the lack of Press coverage of our plight. If any fans had reacted to the unprovoked assaults from the Spanish Police then you can bet your bottom dollar that this would have been all over the Press. Fortunately, on the back of the FSF's Press release / Dossier, we managed to get a fair bit of coverage on Radio 5 Live last Friday, and also in Friday's Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and the Sunday Telegraph."
"One fan's MP is following things up with the Foreign Office, and another fan has even received a reply from a complaint he made to his MEP. The MEP is going to take up the issue directly with the UEFA delegate in Brussels next week."
"It just goes to show that if enough supporters feel as unjustly treated as ourselves then you can eventually get the media onside and slowly convince the outside world that much of the trouble abroad is often caused by 'over the top' policing methods. Who knows - we might even change the way we are treated when watching football abroad for good."
The FSF website highlights Adrian's campaign and you can read the actual dossier on the site.
We will of course be supporting Adrian's afforts as much as we can and will be forwarding our eye witness accounts directly to him.
Should any other readers wish to contribute to this campaign, then please get in touch with your story. The louder we shout, the less chance these contemptible bastards have of getting away with it.
Until next week...
BACK TO STEVE G INDEX
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