"This is real football"

[Royal Rother]

Ah, so you all know this guy well do you?

You know that he is a regular at football matches and knows how things work do you?

And Handbags Harris, what he actually said was "I pity people on this thread who have sympathy for him.", not that he had "pity for the people who have pity for the fella for being so daft....."

Why change his words? He's quite capable of digging his own cesspit.

[Boston Royal]

If a young woman walks around some parts of Reading alone in the early hours of the morning, she may get assaulted. She may be seen as foolish for not taking a cab, but that doesn't in any way excuse the perpetrators.

My sympathy for the victim is limited by the fact that he should take a sizable chunk of responsibility. But this doesn't excuse the attackers. I agree with the spirit of the original post by OBINE and hope they get arrested.

[londinium]

If a young woman walks around some parts of Reading alone in the early hours of the morning, she may get assaulted. She may be seen as foolish for not taking a cab, but that doesn't in any way excuse the perpetrators.

My sympathy for the victim is limited by the fact that he must take a big chunk of responsibility. But this doesn't excuse the attackers. I agree with the spirit of the original post by OBINE and hope they get arrested.

Spot on Boston..some people are very stupid it doesnt mean they should get a good kicking by 15 blokes..... shame PK doesnt have your intelligence..and before you ask P.K.

1) i have supported Reading for 31 years
2) i know my football history
3) i have seen and been in many a fight at Elm park (none of my making may i add or did I wish to be in)

[zac naloen]

Perhaps you would like to go on the net, and search for the football intelligence service. You will discover the history of arrests at football matches and the fact that in the last year there were over 3,000 arrests in England and Wales. Is that a reason to adopt your compacent, irresponsible attitude. I think not.

Go back further and you will find that since the war there has been a steady rise in football violence. Im not really interested in the first half of the 1900s, because its not really relevant.

So in your assertion that football has always been violent, when faced with evidence otherwise you claim it as "not relevant". Well done. Selective evidence is what destroys peoples careers you know.

Spouting statistics about past activity doesn't make current activity okay in any way, at all. Thats like saying that some people still deal in slaves, it MUST be okay for me to do it.

If I have sympathy for anyone its for the knuckleheads who lost one too many braincells as kids and feel that violence is the answer to everything.

[handbags_harris]

Ah, so you all know this guy well do you?

You know that he is a regular at football matches and knows how things work do you?

And Handbags Harris, what he actually said was "I pity people on this thread who have sympathy for him.", not that he had "pity for the people who have pity for the fella for being so daft....."

Why change his words? He's quite capable of digging his own cesspit.

If the guy had an iota of sense and knowledge he'd have known. Football violence is pretty well highlighted and documented these days and has been for a number of years. He must have led one hell of a sheltered life to not know. And judging by the faces and verbal gestures he appeared to be giving as he walked in front of the East Stand, this guy knew full well what he was doing. He didn't deserve to be set upon purely for wearing his shirt, or at all for that matter. The fact of the matter is, he was, and would have been regardless because that kind of violence is an every football weekend occurance, not necessarily at RFC, but somewhere across the country. It's a fact of life, it happens. We don't like it, but it happens. And the fella has to accept some share of responsibility!!

As for PKTOTT digging his own cesspit, it's merely backup. I merely tried to explain the way I interpreted his words, because judging by his reaction I appeared to have a better understanding where he was coming from than you did.

[Peter Kay - Top of the To]

Perhaps you would like to go on the net, and search for the football intelligence service. You will discover the history of arrests at football matches and the fact that in the last year there were over 3,000 arrests in England and Wales. Is that a reason to adopt your compacent, irresponsible attitude. I think not.

Go back further and you will find that since the war there has been a steady rise in football violence. Im not really interested in the first half of the 1900s, because its not really relevant.

So in your assertion that football has always been violent, when faced with evidence otherwise you claim it as "not relevant". Well done. Selective evidence is what destroys peoples careers you know.

Spouting statistics about past activity doesn't make current activity okay in any way, at all. Thats like saying that some people still deal in slaves, it MUST be okay for me to do it.

If I have sympathy for anyone its for the knuckleheads who lost one too many braincells as kids and feel that violence is the answer to everything.

I never once asserted that football has always been violent. Merely that, since the second world war, there has often been the potential for violence at football. Your lack of experience and lack of understanding of the history of football means that you are unaware of this.

Please read your history books in more detail.. Go on.. do a little google search and tell me who played in the 1927 FA Cup semi finals.. I might even have some respect for you if you do that!!!

[zac naloen]

I never once asserted that football has always been violent. Merely that, since the second world war, there has often been the potential for violence at football. Your lack of experience and lack of understanding of the history of football means that you are unaware of this.

Huh?

When you do you will discover that football was never an environment where people could truly sit together in harmony.

Please read your history books in more detail.. Go on.. do a little google search and tell me who played in the 1927 FA Cup semi finals.. I might even have some respect for you if you do that!!! Smile

I already know who played in the 1927 semi finals. I also already told you that i couldn't give a shit though, as proving knowledge about my home team has oxf*rd all to do with this thread.

[Bath Hoops]

So because someone is stupid enough to wear an away shirt it gave these men the right to teach him a lesson and because he was 17 he was old enough to know better. How do you know he was 17 ? Maybe he was younger but dont worry its ok because he was stupid.

The reality is what they did was against the law and hopefully the club will identify them and turn them into the law. There is no excuse for this kind of violence and for those of you that think its ok, then I hope you never encounter a situation where you are attacked for wearing your teams colours regardless of the situation.

[MattRobinsonslongball]

The morons who accept that violence will happen and therefore have no sympathy for the CHILD involved, yes CHILD, are as bad as the people throwing their fists, just a little more cowardly as they dont have to to balls to either stand against it, or get stuck in.

The only way to stamp out violence anywhere, and also in football is to never accept it as a way of life. Its a bloody game, and at the moment a really good game!! Yesterday was a massive day for Reading football club. We drew, in a league game!!!, with one of Europes biggest football clubs. And yet sadly we are talking about a 17 year boy being beaten by a group of men.

Are any of the people involved coming forward on this site or any other to stand up for themselves, or tell us how proud and hard they are!? Probably not. I really hope they do get caught and banned from the ground for life.

[Peter Kay - Top of the To]

I never once asserted that football has always been violent. Merely that, since the second world war, there has often been the potential for violence at football. Your lack of experience and lack of understanding of the history of football means that you are unaware of this.

Huh?

When you do you will discover that football was never an environment where people could truly sit together in harmony.

Please read your history books in more detail.. Go on.. do a little google search and tell me who played in the 1927 FA Cup semi finals.. I might even have some respect for you if you do that!!! Smile

I already know who played in the 1927 semi finals. I also already told you that i couldn't give a shit though, as proving knowledge about my home team has oxf*rd all to do with this thread.

Congratulations you have just learnt how to use an internet search engine.

Im afriad it is relevant, because your arguments are based around naivety (which when we start out, we all have). All Im saying is that we musnt be compalcent about football violence. We will never (in my view) be at a stage where we can sit fans together in an English league match, no matter how sad that is.

Dont get me wrong Id love to see it, I was at the 2004 England v Portugal qtr final and that was a special atmosphere...very special.

But in the reality of domestic football, Im afraid its not going to happen.

[Basingstoke Royal]

if someone is stupid enough to wear an away shirt in the home end they deserve the kicking that they got. Im sure they wont make the same mistake.

as if i would consider wearing my reading shirt in the home end at upton park next week.

end of the day the club should eject anyone wearing any other shirt than a reading shirt.

[Larry_Parnell]

dont really think punching anyone for whatever reason, anywhere is ever really acceptable

Let me help you then. Your wife wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you there is someone, who shouldn't be there, in your house.
Please don't make stupid generalisations.

Where has this nonsense come from that the lad in question might be disabled?
Read plasticroyals post on page 3 as he seems to be the only person who saw the incident. Of course a lot of people are going to be angry, like it or not, this was seen as big game in Readings history, it was also a sell out. Why wouldn't people be angry about a Man. U. fan taking a ticket off one of their mates?

Bottom line is that he shouldn't have been allowed in by the stewards.

All this nonsense about 'wouldn't it be nice if we all sat togrther and applauded each others teams.' Would it hell, that's why we're addicted to football. It's partisan, it allows us to behave in ways we don't in our everyday life. We don't stand up in our offices, or wherever, and shout at someone who makes a decision we don't agree with, we don't hug total strangers because something has gone right for us. Get off your moral high horses - can anyone here, who was at Leicester, honestly say they reacted in the same way as they would if they got a promotion at work?

Anyway it would seem that if you read the posts that actually saw the incident: a bloke in a Man U shirt got told he wasn't welcome, his mates got lairy, he left. What's the problem?

[Royal Rother]

So because someone is stupid enough to wear an away shirt it gave these men the right to teach him a lesson and because he was 17 he was old enough to know better. How do you know he was 17 ? Maybe he was younger but dont worry its ok because he was stupid.

The reality is what they did was against the law and hopefully the club will identify them and turn them into the law. There is no excuse for this kind of violence and for those of you that think its ok, then I hope you never encounter a situation where you are attacked for wearing your teams colours regardless of the situation.

I still share your view, but it's getting more difficult isn't it?

[Peter Kay - Top of the To]

dont really think punching anyone for whatever reason, anywhere is ever really acceptable

Let me help you then. Your wife wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you there is someone, who shouldn't be there, in your house.
Please don't make stupid generalisations.

Where has this nonsense come from that the lad in question might be disabled?
Read plasticroyals post on page 3 as he seems to be the only person who saw the incident. Of course a lot of people are going to be angry, like it or not, this was seen as big game in Readings history, it was also a sell out. Why wouldn't people be angry about a Man. U. fan taking a ticket off one of their mates?

Bottom line is that he shouldn't have been allowed in by the stewards.

All this nonsense about 'wouldn't it be nice if we all sat togrther and applauded each others teams.' Would it hell, that's why we're addicted to football. It's partisan, it allows us to behave in ways we don't in our everyday life. We don't stand up in our offices, or wherever, and shout at someone who makes a decision we don't agree with, we don't hug total strangers because something has gone right for us. Get off your moral high horses - can anyone here, who was at Leicester, honestly say they reacted in the same way as they would if they got a promotion at work?

Anyway it would seem that if you read the posts that actually saw the incident: a bloke in a Man U shirt got told he wasn't welcome, his mates got lairy, he left. What's the problem?

Best post of the day, because someone who understands football wrote it.

[Bath Hoops]

dont really think punching anyone for whatever reason, anywhere is ever really acceptable

Let me help you then. Your wife wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you there is someone, who shouldn't be there, in your house.
Please don't make stupid generalisations.

Where has this nonsense come from that the lad in question might be disabled?
Read plasticroyals post on page 3 as he seems to be the only person who saw the incident. Of course a lot of people are going to be angry, like it or not, this was seen as big game in Readings history, it was also a sell out. Why wouldn't people be angry about a Man. U. fan taking a ticket off one of their mates?

Bottom line is that he shouldn't have been allowed in by the stewards.

All this nonsense about 'wouldn't it be nice if we all sat togrther and applauded each others teams.' Would it hell, that's why we're addicted to football. It's partisan, it allows us to behave in ways we don't in our everyday life. We don't stand up in our offices, or wherever, and shout at someone who makes a decision we don't agree with, we don't hug total strangers because something has gone right for us. Get off your moral high horses - can anyone here, who was at Leicester, honestly say they reacted in the same way as they would if they got a promotion at work?

Anyway it would seem that if you read the posts that actually saw the incident: a bloke in a Man U shirt got told he wasn't welcome, his mates got lairy, he left. What's the problem?

Best post of the day, because someone who understands football wrote it.

Best post of the day is understanding the law and you don't justify breaking it just because it suits you. An attack on someone is not justified regardless of the situation, and you can throw any argument you want but the law was broken and there is no excuse for that.

[cmonurz]

A football shirt is not sufficient provocation for a beating, end of.

[Royal Rother]

It makes me sad that there are still people around who think thuggery has a part in modern football. The very same people who get on their hight horse and condemn a footballer for (possibly, briefly) feigning injury as being the scum of the Earth.

What utter fools we have in our midst.

[Legend]

A football shirt is not sufficient provocation for a beating, end of.

In the wrong end, yes it is.

[cmonurz]

A football shirt is not sufficient provocation for a beating, end of.

In the wrong end, yes it is.

An interesting insight into your character.

[handbags_harris]

So because someone is stupid enough to wear an away shirt it gave these men the right to teach him a lesson and because he was 17 he was old enough to know better. How do you know he was 17 ? Maybe he was younger but dont worry its ok because he was stupid.

The reality is what they did was against the law and hopefully the club will identify them and turn them into the law. There is no excuse for this kind of violence and for those of you that think its ok, then I hope you never encounter a situation where you are attacked for wearing your teams colours regardless of the situation.

I think you'll find that most people who are posting on this thread are not condoning the alleged actions of the guys who beat this fella up. Maybe he was younger than 17, but then again he may have been a very young looking 24 yo. Either way, he should have known better than to flaunt an away shirt in a home end because there are people who will take physical exception to this regardless of whether we like it or not. It's an unaccepted part of the game!!!

Agree with all your 2nd paragraph, and can certainly identify with the it because I was the victim of unprovoked football violence at Crystal Palace last year, and have learnt my lesson despite me having absolutely no history of it in the past. And yes, I was wearing my colours because I didn't think Palace had a particularly bad support. there was no excuse for it, the only justification being that I and many others around me were wearing Reading shirts. It happens, and it happens every week. Football is not a pink and fluffy spectator sport, it's a sport for spectators who will have to put up with this sort of thing, not turn a blind eye, and do their bit to stamp it out. Unfortunately, too many people are prepared to turn a blind eye.