Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool

My son says ' come on the toon' .
See u in Wembley...mathepac
 
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“ Us “ - I didn’t know that you were so invested in a football club !
I always keep an eye out for Spurs results as a friend’s father played for them in the fifties and Leicester and Reading results as my Grandfather played for both .
But “ we “ or “ us “ - never.
That’s for Waterford F C and Ireland.
 
I love Seville , it’s people, it’s scenery and it’s food but it will be a cold day in hell before I support either of it’s teams despite Real Betis’s Irish connections.
I attend the games but the reality is that I have no visceral connection to the teams .
Now if I had been born there ——-
Bit of a damascene conversion over recent days when you suggested alternative pleasures one could perform against a wall rather than playing or watching soccer !!
 
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But there are exceptions, and the exceptions make the rules. I see no contradiction in my love for Liverpool and Liverpool FC and my preference for rugby and hurling as manly pursuits or familiarising myself with wall spaces as an alternative to watching other soccer teams!! :cool:
 
Yeah right !
You also stated that players needed no training or skill to participate in games.
You bemoaned the need for a strong police fans to keep rival fans apart , Liverpool are of course the biggest offenders in a European context with their fans causing the death of 39 Juventus fans in Heysel stadium .
A colleague of mine was comped to the game by clients and never attended a game again .
 
A dark day indeed for soccer. The club paid the price for the actions of their supporters on the day, 29 May 1985, as did the 39 who died and their families. 14 convicted thugs were jailed on manslaughter charges.

9 years later on 15 April 1989, 94 Liverpool supporters died at Hillsborough. 3 died in the years that followed bringing the death toll to 97. In the 40 years since the Heysel and the 35 years since the Hillsborough, a lot has changed in soccer for the better from worming out the thugs and violent elements amongst the supporters to changing stadia, access routes, and crowd control for the better.

A shame so many people had to die first.

I still love Liverpool, its people, and Liverpool FC, warts and all.
 
The price that Liverpool paid should not ever be compared to the deaths of Juventus fans .The 5 year ban from European football applied to all English Clubs including Everton ensuring that entirely innocent clubs suffered for the appalling actions of Liverpool fans , little wonder they’re the most hated club in England .
Indeed everyone knows about the avoidable tragedy at Hillsborough but that doesn’t in any way bear comparison to the dreadful behaviour of the Liverpool fans causing the Heysel deaths - an event that sadly was not investigated to the same extent as Hillsborough .
Hillsborough was caused by appalling mismanagement leading to overcrowding, Heysel was caused by criminal behaviour of fans .
In 2007 , 22 years after Heysel , EUFA published a report compiled from undercover police officers which stated that Liverpool fans were the worst behaved in Europe citing 25 separate incidents at away games since 2003 particularly mentioned was the European Cup Final in Athens where fans without tickets stole tickets from fellow fans including children whilst others tried to get in with forged tickets .
Then , of course, there’s the more recent attacks on both Manchester team’s buses as they drove into Anfield .
A team that that will always be remembered for their success on the field , the tragedy at Hillsborough and the shame of Heysel .
 
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The price that Liverpool paid should not ever be compared to the deaths of Juventus fans .
I never made any such comparison.
little wonder they’re the most hated club in England .
Based on what exactly?
everyone knows about the avoidable tragedy at Hillsborough but that doesn’t in any way bear comparison to the dreadful behaviour of the Liverpool fans causing the Heysel deaths
I never made any such comparison.

You might as well mention other factors that contributed to the Heysel Stadium disaster while you're at it.

The decrepit stadium with rival fans smashing up terracing to use as missiles before the match even started, the wall that collapsed killing many fans, while ironically providing an escape route for others, the chicken-wire fencing that was used as a barrier between opposing sets of fans and neutrals (it collapsed of course), the two club presidents who appealed unsuccessfully to UEFA to choose an alternative venue (at least two were available for that date), the massive ex-patriot Italian population in Belgium that pretty much guaranteed a lucrative full house to the Belgian FA, the flare-guns and at least one starter-pistol used by Juventus fans to intimidate police and others, Arsenal who had played there earlier in the decade and reported that the stadium was a dangerous dump, and so on.

Like most tragedies, that at the Heysel was multifactorial. Unfortunately, people with agendas choose only to remember and publicise the bad bahaviour of the Liverpool fans and ignore all of the other contributing factors.

the Heysel deaths - an event that sadly was not investigated to the same extent as Hillsborough .

Ah yes, The investigation. "The investigation focused on the actions of Liverpool fans. On 30 May, official UEFA observer Gunter Schneider said, "Only the English fans were responsible. Of that there is no doubt." Within 24 hours of the tragedy, the definitive conclusion was reached. It was never overturned, why should it be; after all everybody "knew".

whilst others tried to get in with forged tickets
and of course, forged tickets were never sold to unsuspecting fans in those days. Or are you implying that the Liverpool supporters were also the forgers?

So why would UEFA ban English clubs from the competition, given that only one club's supporters were found to have behaved so badly and have supporters jailed? This might help explain UEFA's actions: "Prior to the introduction of the ban, England were ranked first in the UEFA coefficient ranking due to the performance of English clubs in European competition in the previous five seasons."

This meant that by banning the other English clubs, for no good reason, UEFA made room for a bunch of European clubs to be seeded favourably in European club competitions and to make lots of cash to keep at home. This of course was all the Liverpool supporters' fault, UEFA having no irons in the fire and nothing to gain by banning the English clubs.
 
Liverpool may have paid A price for the dreadful behaviour of their fans but Juventus fans paid the ultimate price - there is no equivalence of the prices paid.
The fact that so many clubs lost out on Europe allied to the fact that Liverpool fans boo the National Anthem at every available opportunity and the fact that there has been well publicised attacks on away team’s buses ensure that Liverpool are widely hated across the UK .
Sure there were mitigating factors at Heysel but the unavoidable truth is that so many Juventus fans died because Liverpool fans charged them thus bearing the brunt of the blame.
English fans had a dreadful reputation across Europe at the time whether in supporting the National team or club sides and I agree that UEFA took the opportunity given to them by the shameful behaviour at Heysel to tar everyone with the same brush , what is equally clear is that it was Liverpool fans that gave them that opportunity.
 
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That was my motivation for starting it

OK...You've tried the rugger ( Gouger's game played by gentlemen ) and the soccer ( Gentlemans game played by gougers ).
Why not go for the hatrick.........GAA ( Gouger's game played by Gougers ) ;)
 
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On a more positive note, and speaking as an Orient fan still buzzing but partially gutted over Saturday, it never ceases to amaze me the jerseys you see at Dublin Airport on a Saturday morning. On recent trips I've come across a bunch of Hartlepool fans from Carlow and Kildare, a fair few Ipswich fans from Cork, a Coventry City season ticket holder, a few QPR fans, quite a few Forest fans of a certain age. In my case, 10 years living near the O's in London turned my head.

And before the League of Ireland brigade start giving out, nearest club to me is almost 2 hrs away from me but in recent years I've been from Finn Harps to Wexford and a fair few in between
 
Haven't been to Liverpool since the 1980s when everyone looked like a character from Brookside. But it looks like I'll be in Anfield in a June - for a couple of Springsteen shows. (The fecker isn't doing any Irish appearances this year!)

I'll be mostly on my own and I'll be doing a lot of walking - so the Liverpool FC anthem will amount to misinformation if it rears its head on this occasion!
 
Brookside, qu'est ce que c'est?

I heard on the wireless that a lot of big acts/promoters are giving us the swerve due to insurance costs. A shame as a number of them appeared to genuinely like performing for audiences in Ireland.
 
A shame as a number of them appeared to genuinely like performing for audiences in Ireland.
I've seen Springsteen around a dozen times but paying €200 to stand in a field and be lectured about injustice and inequality from a guy who banked a half a billion a few years back is, well, a bit rich. Sell your t-shirts for under €30 and then we'll talk.
 
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