This makes me sick...

[disgusted rangers fan]

I'm suprised at the scottish conservatives. Having seen the news reports, the minority of rangers fans that attacked the police have brought shame on their club - manchester police have done nothing wrong, yet the scottish conservatives claim it's manchesters fault. Engineers were sent to fix the screen but they were pelted with missiles and 11,000 people were moved to another place with a back-up screen. At least a spokesman for the club is apologetic for the behaviour of the fans, even if the moronic conservatives up here are not.

I was also bemused at the rangers fan who, according to bbc sport, claimed some people spent £4000-5000 to get to manchester. How in god's name do you spend that much getting to manchester?!? Did they go via Thailand and New York?

Quoting Manic23 from 14:22, 15th May 2008

Quoting Si from 23:16, 14th May 2008
I can't believe that the big screen in Piccadilly Gardens broke down though. Shame on you, Manchester Council. One would think that they would have checked that everything was in working order well before kick off.

Yes, because a broken big screen warrants a riot, doesn't it? Disgusting behaviour, but I'm not at all surprised.

[ex st a's]

as an ex st andrews medical student now based in manchester who was at piccadilly gardens throughout the day i feel that the rangers fans have been slagged off enough on this forum. I arrived at piccadilly around midday with three friends from glasgow, (im not a rangers fan and although being scottish, i have no interest in football other than the premiership), it was a party atmosphere, the sun was shining and people were happy to be there. Of course, a lot of these people were drunk and/or drinking but this was to be expected since it was the biggest game of many of their lives and a once in a lifetime opportunity - a celebration! For 7 and a half hours, i along with about 20000 other fans waited on the match to start. the atmosphere was pumping yet everyone was jovial. i saw people drinking champagne and pimms, not your typical "hooligans"! there was a large police presence but no trouble until the big screen broke. we were given NO indication the screen was not working until 5minutes after kick-off when people were told to go to the velodrome. The writing on the screen told people it was a 5 minutes MAX walk, in reality it is 20minutes slow jog. For people who were already missing part of the game it's not really good enough. Remember this was the biggest game of their lives. i am not condoning the bottle throwing but people were venting their anger. t make matters worse a local news-stations helicopter had begun filming the fans when it became apparent the screen was not working. this just seemed to insight fans as was seen when 20000 people did the finger at once towards the cameras.

With everyone rushing to find a tv showing the game we were left with about 5000 fans watching the game from the middle of the road through the window of a pub as nobody was allowing anybody in. This, i felt at the time was pathetic and just further fuelled the anymosity felt.

At half time and no longer wanting to watch the game through a window i took one of my friends (we had lost the other two and with no network coverage from 6o'clock onwards could not get in contact with them) to another designated fanzone. on the way here my friend was assaulted by a riot police who was trying to usher fans away using his baton. from what i could see, i didnt really understand why he was being heavy handed as we were both students, not drunk and were just trying to watch the game. we did not use foul language and were not being aggressive in anyway. this riot policeman was severely out of order. We managed to get down to cathedral gardens and police were not letting anybody in here although the piccadilly screens had said earlier to come here. there was a bit of a charge and a railing came down. but at least everyone was in.

Here, the atmosphere was still partying, this was until zenit's second goal went in and a couple (i stress couple) of fans threw bottles at the screen. This however was stopped after rangers fans began singing "scotland's shame" towards the bottlethrowers.

Back in the centre around piccadilly and trying to get home the atmosphere had changed. there was an air of trouble. we were caught up in the riot, which to be honest was a pocket of fans throwing bottles. the real trouble started when the police decided to charge. about 50 riot police with helmets and shields ran at a large group of fans, containing men women and children who could not get away from this area as it was the exit from the big screens. more bottles were thrown and the police unleashed some dogs who were then also peppered with bottles. The police continued to rush at people who had nowhere to go. innocent people like ourselves. It was the police that made the situation worse, their decision to leave quickly diffused the situation and resulted in the trouble breaking up.

For the past day and a half i all i have seen on tv and read in the newspaper is the rangers fans faults. yes they were wrong to throw bottles, but the police did nothing but make the situation worse. they insighted violence against themselves by charging at people who were not involved, riling them up and sending them over the edge after the piccadilly debacle.

I honestly believe there would have been no violence if the screens had of worked. these screens and there feed(which i am led to believe was the problem) should have been checked and re-checked days before the failure. The police were heavy-handed and it is wrong to think that the rangers fans are the only people to blame. The manchester police must take a large percentage of the blame.