Most liked posts in thread: " fans " running onto the pitch

NO ..... @Futchers tache - Your apparent acceptance of this behaviour is "what's wrong with modern football"
Rules and regulations are in place for a reason, particularly for safety concerns. I shouldn't need to remind you of that.

 

What utter bullshit.

 

I've no idea who Pete Newby is, so that comment is lost on me.
But I grew up in a working class family in Essex before coming to Bradford to university in 1980. My mates were all working class and most were football fans. None of us got our kicks by causing trouble at games, so I just don't get this idea that being a troublemaking scrote is somehow a normal part of being teenage and working class.
We all suffered being treated like scum and herded like cattle by often over-zealous policing. I was baton-charged at a European West Ham game in The Hague by Dutch police who decided to get their retaliation in first against the notorious English hooligans, even though we were not causing trouble.
Football was a social pariah in the 70s and early 80s, with those of us who loved football all tarred with the same brush as 'hooligan scum'. This culminated in the tragedy of Heysal, leaving people dead and English football banned from European competition for several years.
So, sorry, I don't buy this bollocks that running on pitches, letting off pyrotechnics etc etc are just harmless fun, nor the idea that being working class gives anyone the right to 'let off steam' in an anti-social manner. That's the thin end of a dangerous wedge and needs stamping out before it deteriorates further. It's perfectly possible to have a few drinks and a good day out following your team, as the vast majority of working class fans do, without causing trouble.

 

Utter bollocks. Punching stewards is a bit of fun?

Even if you two would like us to return to the mayhem of the 60s & 70s hooliganism (with attendant massive police surveillance and over-control) the majority of those of us who experienced it do not.

This pitch invasion stuff, and the pyrotechnics, need firmly stamping out. Give these idiots an inch and they'll take a mile.

 

I've been attending live football matches since the 60s and on a regular basis since the 70s.
All that disruptive stuff you love to reminisce about was a pain in the arse to the vast majority of decent supporters back the. It caused reasonable fans to be herded around and treated as scum. I hated it then and I've no wish to see it return.
A grown man getting misty eyed about pitch invasions is, frankly, the height of pathetic.

 

Dear god, please save us from middle aged men reminiscing about their hooligan youth in the 70s and 80s.
It's beyond pathetic.

 

Find em, fine em, ban em.

 

Identify them, give the a 2 game ban for the first occasion. Then a season ban for the second. If they do it a third time ban them for life, if they can't learn after 2 bans we don't want them here.
I know we all get excited and emotions run high but this is going to bite us on the arse eventually, we will end up with the bottom tier closed or a points deduction at some point.

 

Of course. It's well documented and beyond any doubt that people from 'higher' social classes have historically gone to university in much higher numbers, and still do, even though the total numbers going to university has expanded tenfold since the 90s. There is a great book from 1977 called 'Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs' which details the way that social immobility works.

Most of my family were dockers, but my dad was bright and worked in the docks office. He and my mum were keen readers and instilled that in me. I passed the 11+ and went to a Technical High School - a second tier selective school that was full of bright working class kids, but only a small percentage went on to university, mostly due to low expectations. I left school at 18 and worked in an office in London for five years, which I mostly hated. So I applied to university as a mature student and got into Bradford Uni when I was 24. I was the first person on either side of my family to go to university.
So I accept that I was the exception rather than the rule. But I was surrounded by others who were from humble upbringings, many of whom were active football supporters who managed to enjoy their passion without getting into bother.

 

I’m not sure people are saying life bans just for someone running on the pitch, well if they are that’s extreme unless they’re repeating offenders. But for going for a steward then yes I would, in fact the person will be lucky if the police aren’t contacted.

I don’t even think people give a rats about some kids running on the pitch for a bit of attention, what is most likely pissing people off(me anyway) is it’s against footballing laws and as a result will probably result in fines that the club can ill afford.

Fans can’t be moaning about a lack of funding in the first team then be accepting of actions that will hinder the funding it’s just bonkers logic.

So yeah if they keep doing it and don’t learn and the club keeps getting punished and losing money, then I don’t see how thinking life bans is pathetic at all. Bearing in mind it’s already happened more than once this season and it’s only early into the season.

 

The name is Offcomedun, not Offcomedon. It's properly spelled Offcomed'un but I thought the apostrophe would be irritating for others to use so I left it out.
It's old Yorkshire slang for someone who isn't a local - ie Off Comed One, or one who comes from somewhere else. I'm surprised you've never heard of it.
The name reflects the fact that I was born and brought up in Essex and came to Bradford in 1980, when I was 24, to go to university.
So I wasn't around these parts to celebrate City promotions or cup victories in the 60s and 70s.
I was a bit young to be running on the pitch in the 60s, and the adults who took me to games would have stopped me doing so anyway.
From 1974 (aged 18) to 1980 I went to nearly all of West Ham's home games and a fair few away games, including European trips to The Hague and to the Heysal Stadium for the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup final.
At Upton Park I often stood at the front of the old Chicken Run stand and could easily have jumped onto the pitch from there but, like all those around me, I never did. There were many great victories to celebrate but I never felt the need to run on the pitch to do so. There was plenty of passion in evidence at the bear pit that was Upton Park. However, I don't recall pitch invasions being much of a thing at Upton Park in the 70s, but I could be wrong. @Interested Bystander might remember better than me.

You know those really sad signs that desperately dull conformist people put up to convince themselves that they are really such wild and wacky party animals - 'You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps'. Well grown men reminiscing about running onto pitches when they were teenagers are the football equivalent.

 

Green Street my ar5e - more like Ramsey Street.

 

Footage reviewed tomorrow.

 

And older fans know this. Too often in life, the majority get punished for the infringements of the minority. Young fans think we're being boring by criticising them but we're just thinking ahead. We know from experience that a few will push boundaries and the rest of us will get punished for it. That's why there's speed bumps and speed cameras everywhere these days, and you have to go through tedious health and safety inductions for everything. It's because a stupid or reckless minority spoiled it for the rest of us.

 

Bollocks to fences. Have we learnt nothing from Hillsborough?

Stupid suggestion.

 

It wouldnt surprise me if half of them werent already banned anyway. For the last three home games my season ticket hasnt even been taken out of my hand or barely looked at let alone processed or scanned. They are so lax at the minute anyone could rock up with a child ticket and no one would be any the wiser

 

They should just put netting on the bottom 5 rows making access to the pitch harder, but not impossible just in case of emergencies.

 

Violent attack? It's useful to have one or two devil's advocates around, but that heads off into the realms of WUMmery. It was an ill-judged tackle, for which he has been punished. Here one can truly say "End of."

RCB

 

Idiot's will always defend the indefensible until it affects them.

 

I agree with a lot of this too. It’s a bit of a non-incident really, not that I particularly condone what happened. But the perennially outraged love getting their knickers in a twist, trying to get as many adjectives in their posts to express their utter disgust more than last person. Sad really.