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FOUR POLICE OFFICERS have been injured and 39 people arrested amid “disgusting and highly dangerous scenes” before Aston Villa’s game with Legia Warsaw.
West Midlands Police said fans of the Polish side were not allowed into the stadium after missiles were thrown at officers before the start of the Europa Conference League game yesterday evening.
West Midlands mayor Andy Street has called for European football chiefs to take “strong action” as he thanked the “brave officers” and criticised the “deeply unpleasant scenes” outside Villa Park in Birmingham.
Objects were thrown at police during the disorder and visiting fans were held in a coach park before Villa went on to win the match 2-1.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Street said: “Deeply unpleasant scenes outside Villa Park tonight, which were dealt with absolutely appropriately by West Midlands Police.
“A huge thank you to the brave officers who put themselves in harms way to keep others safe.
“I trust UEFA will now move swiftly to take strong action.”
Police said in a statement that one of the injured police officers was taken to hospital, while two police horses and two police dogs were also hurt in the “disgusting and highly dangerous scenes”.
Chief Inspector Tim Robinson said: “This should have been a great evening of football which was enjoyed by fans from both clubs.
“Unfortunately, there were appalling scenes which saw away fans dangerously throw flares and other missiles at our officers.”
He said the “extreme violence” left police with no other choice but to prevent away fans entering the stadium, adding: “The safety of everyone is our priority, and clearly we had no other option.”
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According to Irish politicians they must be far right protestors……… actually I take it back. I don’t want to get arrested for hate speech.
@Rees:
Rid yourself of all hate so….relent, repent and digitally detoxify…. burn all remaining copies of the Irish Lite and refrain from Gript, Guttr and Terrorgram etc etc! ;@}
@Rees: Sorry to have to tell you this, but football ultras in Poland are infamously far-right.
@Rees: According to factuality, it will be a large cohort of the far-right. As for hate speech, I hate the far-right and
@Rees: they are….
@Rees: that was shite Rees.
@Stephen McGovern: I’m far right but don’t act like that
@Shane O Mac: fair play to you for being honest and not pretending to be insulted by the characterisation.
Whatever about police and fans being injured, it’s their choice. I hate to read that police horses and dogs were injured.
@Davidoff Wossaname: the police chose to get injured. How u work that out Davidoff. Weird.
@John Flanagan: No, what he means is “as a human” you have some amount of free will. The animals don’t, they are forced into doing the job and have NO choice!
Surely it’s now time to stop saying “X, formerly Twitter”
@Ian McDonald: What will happen if becomes Y?
In all fairness the British supporters really know how to support their teams. Wreck your cities , injury animal and police officers. Beat the daylight out of the opponents supporters. The beautiful game.
Tremendous family sport. Laying down a template for future generations to enjoy and continue in this way. Model citizens of past , present and future. They should be so proud of themselves and their achievements.
Well done guys.
@Max Cooper:
Except they normally get their prolapsed arses handed to them amidst the outdoor furniture and their blow-up spitfires etc, in 2016 at Marseille etc they were hand-balled around by Putin’s ‘firm’ …..and then hid in Poland etc in 2018 and only day-tripped in and out of Russia in terror of being splattered yet again!! ;@)
@Max Cooper: Seriously did you even read the article, or you just immediately attributed the trouble to English supporters. This trouble was purely caused by Legia Warsaw fans, maybe it’s time you realised that it’s not the 1980s anymore, and most football hooliganism these days is caused by European supporters. Funnily enough there was very little mention on this site of the abuse Celtic supporters received from Lazio fans on Tuesday night, calling them dirty fenians, to get over the famine etc., had it been English fans the whole country would have risen up in fake moral outrage.
@The Firestarter: had me aunty got balls and all that
Animals should not be brought into these kind of atmosphere’s.
@David: Nor peaceful humans.
Cmon the villa
There’s no excuse for this sort of carry on but the root cause of the riot need to be determined and properly punished. What provoked them? Most of the away fans probably had nothing to do with it and had their whole trip ruined.
@F2yxfluD: Why assume something or anything provoked them?
@F2yxfluD: Legia fans pulled the same stunt against the Dutch police.
@F2yxfluD: I would spend even 5 minutes just researching polish hooligans, completely different breed
@Martin Mongan: not my field clearly
Can we call the Legia fans S___bags & thugs ???
Or would that be perceived as classist ???
Fans.
Quite evening in Aston so
Football fans, a good bunch of brainless oxygen waster. Just like Gaza.
It’s a well known fact that football hooligans are all Antifa
@michael powell: even the Italian ones?
have your say