Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger does not believe English football has a “hooligan problem” and has called for a return to safe standing at stadiums.
“You cannot say 200 people is a general problem in the country,” said the Arsenal manager to reports today when asked about the troubles at the London Stadium.
“Hopefully West Ham will get rid of the problem very quickly. I am in favour of the resurgence of standing behind the goals and that is not a good advert to come back to standing.”
Scottish Premiership club Celtic installed 2,900 rail seats before the start of this season to introduce safe standing.
“I feel the closer you are to a position of a player the more passionate it is,” added Wenger “It would enable you to have lower prices as you would have more spectators and maybe a more passionate atmosphere.”
Interestingly 18 supporters were arrested at Hampden Park last week when Celtic played Glasgow Rangers but the news hardly made the news outside of the local Scottish papers.
Hooliganism was invented by news papers that loved a good story . Fans then began to react accordingly and get themselves into the headlines created by the , news papers .
The news papers added fuel to the fire that they themselves ignited to keep the flames alive in order to sell thier shoddy rags .
The news spread , and to this day the very word ” hooligan ” is used world wide to describe any English fan abroad .
What happened at the LS this week was just a typical confrontation between rival fans that you could see at any ground any day . The Media love it and the parasite journalists suck it up and spit it out like confetti .
It’s worth looking at the Manchester Evening News regarding the Manchester derby on the same night we played Chelsea.
Under headline
Fans praised after Manchester derby passes without any major incidents
It reports that “only a handful of arrests” were made that night.
How many? Six……..wasn’t that the same number made at our game? Obviously large numbers of arrests are part and parcel of the Manchester football scene and six arrests is a disappointingly low figure to galvanise the press into action.
The more headlines that are written about crowd trouble in the stadium or outside the stadium. About kids crying or kids catching coins, the worse it will get. It is sensationalism not journalism. My fear is that as much as it repels most there are a hardcore few that are attracted by the whole hooligan thing. Im pleased that before they even think about it the club are doing a fair bit to remind them that this is a different age. The age of cctv and these people won’t get away with dragging our clubs name through the mud on more than one occasion. Hopefully.
I’ve just been listening to that
Geogie B dwarf and Tony the Irish ice cream man on Talk
Sport and all they’re going on about is West Ham reintroducing crowd trouble into the English game. What a pair of ignorant jokers. As Slaven says above, they are creating stories and perpetuating the myth here, furling embers that should be left well alone. This bloody band wagon must be enormous judging by the number of clowns who have jumped upon it these last few days. sure it isn’t acceptable but aren’t there more important things to discuss?
These “reporters” should be banned by the FA & FIFA.
It’s because people don’t want us in such an iconic ground. Also a good few are worried that we’re getting a bit uppity. Situations that arise at home can be seen in and around most clubs every week but only West Ham incidents get blasted out of the front pages.Same amount of arrests were made at the Manchester derby this week. Anybody hear anything about that?Course not. Unfortunately we are stuck with the stadium and the haters are stuck with us. Folks should remember: If we’re not in the stadium it’s a white elephant costing all you knockers money. I ,really wish we were in a position to say “poke it”,