All Gers Fans Tarnished By Same Brush

May 18 2008 Gordon Waddell

War Zone Yobs Have Set Club Back Years With Thuggery

THERE were times on Wednesday I almost wished I was a Rangers fan.

Not for life. Not a chance. Just for that feeling of waking up and knowing it was the biggest day of your football-supporting life.

For that feeling of throwing back the curtains, seeing the sun shine down on you like you were the most righteous people on earth. Walking the streets feeling 10 feet tall. Every breath like a shot of adrenalin, served neat.

It was utterly intoxicating, wandering round Manchester at lunchtime. The anticipation, the mood, the laughs. Everywhere you looked punters were filtering towards the city's heart.

Every policeman asked for directions, a courteous arm round a shoulder, pointing the way. It was picture-postcard perfect.

Until 12 hours later. When it became hell on earth. And I wished I could be anywhere else.

And every time you re-live it, every time you talk about it with someone who was there you end up wondering how the people involved can look themselves in the mirror in the morning.

Without seeing a poor excuse for a human being staring straight back at them.

I feel desperately sorry for every decent Rangers fan who enjoyed the game, backed their team, graciously applauded the better side lifting the trophy and went home.

I feel for the innocent bystanders caught up in a scene that would have shamed Beirut or Basra. They didn't deserve what they got on the night and they sure as hell don't deserve to live with the consequences.

But there's the problem. They're going to have to. For years. Because it's a long way back to salvation for Rangers.

As long as they keep peddling this myth that those involved, the scumbags, neds and knuckle-scrapers, were a "small" minority, they're burying their heads in the sand.

They weren't. They were a mob - a drunken, baying, angry mob. I heard someone trying to toe that particular Martin Bain party line the other day, saying "only" 42 arrests and only "minor" police injuries show you how insignificant a number were involved, and that even they were English and not wearing colours.

Look at the footage on the BBC's website, listen to the Scottish voices, look at the photos. There were hundreds of them. The 42 were the ones who were caught. And plenty of them were in red, white and blue.

Here's another myth - that only Rangers fans were involved. Zenit were no innocents.

We left the stadium at 11, myself and a colleague, walking back towards the city. For every one heading in that direction 10 were coming the other way - the ticketless heading back to their buses.

And all the way along there were little cameos of what was ahead. Little pockets of Zenit fans and Rangers fans going at it.

To be fair it was mainly the Russians looking for it, popping out of sidestreets and taking a kick here and there. We crossed the road about three times to steer clear.

But it was only when we got back into town we realised what had happened. Turning the corner into Piccadilly and it was like a war zone.

Blue lights strobing the sky, bullhorns at full volume. Riot police trying to funnel everybody in their way back down the street.

And all the way down, bottles arcing through the air and punters taking mad charges. Again, to be fair, for every one throwing a bottle another 200 were looking on - part disgust, part fear etched on faces.

It was 50 yards away, getting closer by the second. So we're heading up a sidestreet and ready to weave our way around them.

Only to get hauled back from that because lurking in the shadows there's a group of Zenit fans, scarves over faces, one with a video camera in hand, getting ready to join the ruck.

All my life I've dreamed of going to Europe as a punter. If this is part of the dream you can keep it.

Even in a group of 200 people the law of averages says you'll stumble across a couple of a**eholes. Multiply that by a thousand and you start to appreciate the scale of the problem.

And yes, the city was woefully under-prepared. Only having one feed into your biggest screen and then losing it was amateurish.

Yes, supermarkets refusing to sell booze by the can, only by the case, was crass profiteering at best, providing fuel for a riot at worst. Yes, closing the boozers at the final whistle and tipping frustrated thousands out on the streets mid-riot was idiotic.

Any city that wants to profit from hosting an event like this should hold both hands up and hand back the cash when they blow it like that.

There's a lot the Rangers support can't be held responsible for. But there's a lot they can.

The drink for starters. That's something I just didn't get. Not that they had some - that's fine. I'm no puritan.

Just that they filled up like sticking a nozzle in the petrol tank of your car and waiting for the click. Then squeezing a little more in until it dribbles on your shoes.

The only time I've ever had that tingle of anticipation for a game was Scotland v Brazil at France '98.

And I didn't take a drop that day because I wanted to remember every last second, like I was watching in HD.

I looked around me on Wednesday night and wondered: "What will these guys remember about one of the biggest days in their club's history?"

Then there's the singing. They've controlled themselves all season in grounds but it was a different story in the streets. And this latest favourite of theirs: "The famine's over, why don't you go home?" It has to go.

If it was"Go back to Africa" to a black player would we accept it?

We left the city at six on the Thursday morning and it was like a hurricane had hit. The people walking to work looked like bewildered victims among the detritus.

So while some Rangers fans put on their mock outrage and look for apologies from the police for their supposed heavy-handedness, maybe they should think about what they left behind them as well.

I tell you what restored a little bit of faith for me, though.

Back in the office, telly on, taking in the news of Tommy Burns' passing. Fans laying tributes. And up walk three Gers fans with scarves, straight out of the motor from Manchester, and drape them over the railings to applause from the Hoops fans.

Hold your heads high. And decent Rangers fans everywhere should be proud of them too. Because at least they've made a start on the road back.

email: g.waddell@sundaymail.co.uk