Did 50 Cologners really try to 'storm' the turnstiles on thursday?

[Ash]

GLWTPIMO

A cat might be able to find a way through there but not a fully grown human. Hence I find this story hard to believe.

[Burney]

GLWTPIMO

A cat might be able to find a way through there but not a fully grown human. Hence I find this story hard to believe.

I do wonder what these German fellows thought they were up to, really. Have they missed what's happened to English football in the last 25 years? Were they expecting to turn up and for a mighty ruck to ensue?

[Ash]

I do wonder what these German fellows thought they were up to, really. Have they missed what's happened to English football in the last 25 years? Were they expecting to turn up and for a mighty ruck to ensue?

The vast majority of them just wanted to watch their first game in Europe for 25 years. It was a cup final for them. I gather that mixed crowd sections are not unusual in Germany, so getting hold of tickets and memberships to get seats anywhere, would not seem wrong to them. They have been guilty perhaps of cultural insensitivity, not understanding that we expect fans to be segregated.

[SWv2]

GLWTPIMO

A cat might be able to find a way through there but not a fully grown human. Hence I find this story hard to believe.

I saw reference to it, not in actual media but on websites, and was curious as to how exactly number could force their way through the turnstiles at the Emirates.

[Burney]

The vast majority of them just wanted to watch their first game in Europe for 25 years. It was a cup final for them. I gather that mixed crowd sections are not unusual in Germany, so getting hold of tickets and memberships to get seats anywhere, would not seem wrong to them. They have been guilty perhaps of cultural insensitivity, not understanding that we expect fans to be segregated.

Hmmm. This seems to me to suggest that these poor Cologne fans were too child-like and dim to understand the concepts of ticket allocations, crowd safety and crowd segregation. It's very kind of you to be so forgiving, but unless they've magically managed to miss every English football match for the last 25 years, this seems unlikely to me.

[Luis Anaconda]

Hmmm. This seems to me to suggest that these poor Cologne fans were too child-like and dim to understand the concepts of ticket allocations, crowd safety and crowd segregation. It's very kind of you to be so forgiving, but unless they've magically managed to miss every English football match for the last 25 years, this seems unlikely to me.

Yes the poor naive Cologne fans things is a bit tiresome. There are mixed sections in German grounds but a small bit of internet research would tell them they weren't going to get in (easily, anyway). They may be a bit backward up there but FFS an abacus could have helped with the whole 20,000 into 3,000 doesn't go. Quite remarkably, little trouble in the effort and the majority seemed fine. Quite how that totally excuses the behaviour of the minority who were ****ing idiots is beyond me

[Ash]

Yes the poor naive Cologne fans things is a bit tiresome. There are mixed sections in German grounds but a small bit of internet research would tell them they weren't going to get in (easily, anyway). They may be a bit backward up there but FFS an abacus could have helped with the whole 20,000 into 3,000 doesn't go. Quite remarkably, little trouble in the effort and the majority seemed fine. Quite how that totally excuses the behaviour of the minority who were ****ing idiots is beyond me

But surely they could have got in easily if they didn't all march over the south bridge together, and just quietly mingled, queued up, had their balls groped, and put their tickets into the slot.

How are your abacus skillz with long division btw? I wouldn't know where to start.

[Burney]

Yes the poor naive Cologne fans things is a bit tiresome. There are mixed sections in German grounds but a small bit of internet research would tell them they weren't going to get in (easily, anyway). They may be a bit backward up there but FFS an abacus could have helped with the whole 20,000 into 3,000 doesn't go. Quite remarkably, little trouble in the effort and the majority seemed fine. Quite how that totally excuses the behaviour of the minority who were ****ing idiots is beyond me

One thing I would say is that I think the club and the police dealt with a potentially very difficult situation admirably. That could have got very nasty. That it didn't was pretty impressive.

Not a very controversial thing to say, but there you go.

[redgunamo]

The vast majority of them just wanted to watch their first game in Europe for 25 years. It was a cup final for them. I gather that mixed crowd sections are not unusual in Germany, so getting hold of tickets and memberships to get seats anywhere, would not seem wrong to them. They have been guilty perhaps of cultural insensitivity, not understanding that we expect fans to be segregated.

Das stimmt, A. And I understand one or two of them may have had a glass or two of the good stuff. You know, to keep the cold away.

[SWv2]

Das stimmt, A. And I understand one or two of them may have had a glass or two of the good stuff. You know, to keep the cold away.

I believe they spent the day drinking strong Belgian beer.

It was a football trip after all.