All Quiet on the Hooligan Front by Colin Ward

Author:Colin Ward [Ward, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2012-06-21T22:00:00+00:00

7

1–0 TO THE ARSENAL

Arsenal entered the 1993 European Champions Cup with great hopes. After a creditable 1–1 draw away in Lisbon against Benfica, hopes were high in the return. As it was Arsenal fielded a slightly weakened side and then played all the wrong tactics, finally losing out in extra time after having had enough chances to win two games in 90 minutes. The press wrote glowing orgasmic tributes about the way Benfica destroyed Arsenal, how English football had taken the tactical test to be found wanting. Gorgeous George saw things differently. He had made a fundamental error with the tactics he had used. The shrug which he gave told it all: next time things will be different because I have seen enough to know that Arsenal are good enough.

UEFA ran a league table with points awarded to countries every time their clubs won a match. The countries with the most points got the most places in the UEFA Cup. After the Heysel ban was lifted UEFA decided that English clubs had won fewer matches than Albania so English clubs, who had dominated Europe before the ban, would only have one representative in the UEFA Cup. This didn’t stop entry to the Cup Winners’ Cup when Manchester United won the FA Cup. Years previously the infamous red army had created havoc wherever they went, but for this campaign fans travelled with or without official backing from the club and conducted themselves in an exemplary manner, as Manchester swept all before them, resulting in a final in Rotterdam against Barcelona. Manchester won 2–0 and the boys partied all night long. A group of them in a hotel partied to excess, their celebration exploits stunning the hotel owner. As they were about to leave the hotel he sombrely told them his opinion. ‘I have enjoyed your company but I am sorry to say that you have a drink problem.’

The Manchester lads thought about what he had said for a few moments before one of them replied laconically, ‘Drink problem? Not in this city, mate. There’s plenty of bars I can still get a drink in.’

Rotterdam also has plenty of places where the lads could get marijuana. On the ferry back to Harwich the Manchester lads were rolling joints as big as cigars and smoked themselves into nirvana. The undercover police who were watching them got high as kites on the smoke. Back at Harwich, half the Suffolk police were employed to search them despite the fact that it had been the quietest return journey the stewards could remember. Nobody got found with any dope.

Two seasons later in the European Cup, Manchester United drew Galatasary, the Turkish champions. After an incident at a hotel a number of Manchester United fans – including innocent holiday-makers, some of whom were elderly – were brutally treated. Upon their return they made complaints at the highest level. The Foreign Office did not want to know and all the complaints fell on deaf ears, despite the Chelsea-supporting MP, David Mellor, asking questions in Parliament.

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