Bimingham City face Football Association inquiry into security after violence mars Aston Villa game Birmingham City will be asked by the Football Association to prove that they did everything possible to prevent the violence which cast a shadow over their Carling Cup quarter-final victory against Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
Sandy Macaskill
2 Dec 2010
telegraph.co.uk
The FA will write to the club to request their observations on the chaos after the final whistle, when more than a thousand Birmingham City supporters invaded the pitch and launched a flare into away Aston Villa fans in the Gil Merrick stand. The FA’s own crowd control advisers, who were at the game, will also submit their report before the FA decides whether to take further action.
The matter is unlikely to be resolved before the sides meet again at St Andrew’s in the Premier League, on Jan 16, but it is thought the punishment will be similar to that handed to West Ham, who were fined £115,000 following numerous incursions onto the Upton Park pitch during their second-round Carling Cup tie with Millwall last season.
The FA will now seek to discover whether adequate precautions were taken by the club to prevent the disorder, which was described as “like a war-zone” by one witness. It left 14 people, including four police officers, requiring hospital treatment. Two police dogs were also hurt after being struck by missiles, while outside the ground damage was caused to a pub and a number of parked cars.
As Telegraph Sport revealed on Wednesday, West Midlands Police made an informal suggestion to Carling Cup organisers that a new date be found for the tie, with fears expressed that any outbreak of violence would not reflect well on England on the eve of Fifa’s vote on hosting the 2018 World Cup. The warnings were echoed by both clubs, who pleaded with their supporters to behave.
Aggression between the two clubs’ supporters has escalated in recent years. Following clashes during the 2002-03 season, police insisted all future Premier League derbies be played on a Sunday lunchtime. Only last month, 11 men, all Birmingham fans, were issued with banning orders following a fight during the match in Dec 2009, while arrests were still being made this week after the derby at Villa Park last month.
Because of the threat of violence, stewarding numbers were increased, and in the region of 500 police officers were on duty for the match — four times the usual amount — in the hope that the display of force would deter trouble-makers.
Club officials pointed to the fact that stewards from Villa with knowledge of their club’s supporters had been involved as part of the search team when spectators entered the stadium, but searching was confined largely to away fans, and made particularly difficult because of the number of layers spectators were wearing to combat the cold.
Meanwhile, the police said privately that they were satisfied with the manner in which the clean-up operation was conducted. Riot police quickly formed two lines on the pitch to keep the two sets of supporters apart, and corralled Blues fans from the ground within 10 minutes. The crowds outside were soon dispersed from the area surrounding the stadium.
The police are now confident of arresting those responsible by studying CCTV footage. They have already made eight arrests, while senior Birmingham personnel met at St Andrew’s yesterday as part of the investigation, with a further meeting planned for next week involving Aston Villa, the local authority, safety advisory committee and the emergency services.
Stanley fan give three-year ban from matches
Paul Harvey
December 03, 2010
Manchester Evening News
An Accrington Stanley fan has vowed to appeal after becoming the first fan of the club to receive a football banning order. Jason Graham, a leading member of the Accrington Stanley Ultras supporters group, has been told by magistrates he will not be able to attend the club’s home or away games for three years.
It came after he pleaded guilty at Blackburn magistrates court to obstructing a police officer and police assault following an incident during the club’s Carling Cup tie against Newcastle in August. He was also ordered to carry out 40 hours unpaid community work.
Mr Graham, said he was ‘gutted’ by the decision. Stanley manager John Coleman said: "It’s sickening for Jason as he has the club’s best interests at heart and has followed us through thick and thin. Three years is a long ban." Chief executive Rob Heys said the club would look at ways it could support Mr Graham, who is to launch an appeal against the sentence.
After the hearing, Mr Graham said that the incident happened when an 18-year-old member of the Ultras was arrested for throwing a till roll. The 37-year-old of Avenue Parade, Accrington said: "The lad didn’t deserve to be arrested and I didn’t want to be the one to have to go and tell his mum he was in the police cells.
"I have to accept that in trying to help him I resisted the officer and a technical assault was committed. I can’t accept that what I did merits the imposition of a banning order and I will be appealing that decision."
Magistrates had imposed the order despite his previous good record. Mr Graham said: "The Ultras are Stanley through and through and we have the full support of the manager and directors of the club. We actively encourage youngsters to get involved in supporting the team in a positive way and we have no involvement in thuggery.
"I always thought banning orders were for yobs, not for people who actually work hard to promote the proper support of the club." He added: "I’ve done 10 years supporting Stanley, home and away. We’ve always tried to keep the terraces as hooligan-free as we can. If we had an old school hooliganism problem at Stanley I’d understand it, but we don’t. The Ultras are so far removed from hooligans. I’ve won fan of the year, I’ve supported the charity work we’ve done, I’ve been a constant supporter of the club through the bad times. I just need the support of the club."
Fellow Ultra Rob Russell said: "At the Newcastle game he’d spent three days before the game making a huge flag that said Bobby Robson RIP on it and the Newcastle fans gave him a standing ovation. He’s even made flags for other teams. He organises supporters matches every week. Someone who goes to those lengths isn’t a football hooligan. They’ve got it completely wrong."
Accrington Stanley chief executive Rob Heys said the club was disappointed with the banning order and would be looking to support Mr Graham. He said: "We’re disappointed to have got a banning order, it’s the first one in our history. In terms of the offences, the club can’t condone anything like that. It’s really important to make the point that the club condemns his behaviour at the game. Whether he should have received a banning order is open to debate.
"We’ll certainly be looking to do our bit to support Jason. If there’s anything we can do to help resolve the situation we will do it. We pride ourselves on being a family club and a safe place to watch football. "
----------------
Sounds like he's a bit of a daftie, but certainly not a threat. A three year ban for someone like that is like taking someone's children away!
Jason Marriner - Known as 'The General' from the Chelsea Headhunters is convicted for 2 years at Isleworth Crown Court for Football Hooligan Offences - he gives a message to his supporters
Poland's hooligan hardcore up to 5,000-strong
May 13, 2011
WARSAW (AFP) - There are up to 5,000 hardcore hooligans in Poland, the country's Euro 2012 security chief said on Friday, pledging to keep them out of the nation's stadiums before, during and after the footballing showcase.
"Our goal is to ensure the security of the European Championships, and that includes ensuring security across Poland's sports grounds," said Adam Rapacki, the former commander of the Polish police's anti-gang squad who is now at the interior ministry. We want to work together with the clubs and the league, so that these hooligans are isolated," Rapacki told reporters. "The group which causes trouble at Poland's stadiums numbers around 3,000 to 5,000 individuals. If we get rid of that group, we'll give the stadiums back to the fans, those who really love football," he underlined.
Hooliganism, long a concern in this nation of 38 million, is solidly in the spotlight amid fears that it could mar Euro 2012, due next year in Poland and Ukraine. It has become a front-page issue here again since a pitch-invasion and brawl with security forces on May 3 at the Polish cup final, involving fans of top-flight clubs Lech Poznan and winners Legia Warsaw.
Police, who were criticised for failing to detain the perpetrators at the match in the northern city of Bydgoszcz, have since arrested and charged dozens of individuals. In another get-tough move, Poland's PZPN national football association on Thursday banned away fans from all remaining first, second and third division matches of the season, at the request of the police.
Centre-right Prime Minister Donald Tusk, an ardent fan and Sunday league player, has pledged to do all he can to stem the problem, warning that it poses a threat to Euro 2012. The tournament is a crucial showcase for the region, because it will be the first edition of the 16-nation competition to take place behind the former Iron Curtain.
Austrian police arrest 213 German fans ahead of game
4 Jun 11
Police arrested more than 200 Germany fans who ran wild through the streets of Vienna on Friday evening, news reports said, just hours before the team's victorious Euro 2012 qualifying match against Austria. One officer was injured when police tried to bring the situation under control, German daily Bild reported. Police reported no other outbursts after the game.
The number of Germany fans arrested was originally listed at 100, but police later corrected the figure. One Austrian was also taken into custody. Those arrested were accused of disturbing the peace and civil disorder. German magazine Der Spiegel reported that police had to use tear gas and batons to face off against the rioters, who threw chairs, glasses and firecrackers at police.
The majority of the approximately 400-strong crowd had come to Vienna from Berlin, Erfurt and other eastern German cities. The police operation lasted for more than four hours, and entire streets were closed off. "Vienna police made it clear that there is no place for riots in the city," police president Gerhard Pürstl said.
On Thursday night, clashes were also reported in the area around Schwedenplatz square, when 150 Germany fans brawled with their Austrian counterparts and caused damage to local pubs. Citing Austrian media reports, Der Spiegel said drunken fans shouted right-wing slogans and made the Hitler salute in front of a bar. Three Germans were taken into custody.
River Plate Hooligan Leader Arrested For Murder While Testifying
June 4, 2011
eldiario24.com
Alan Schlenker, a notorious football hooligan who formerly led the River Plate ultras gang “Los Borrachos del Tablón”, one of Argentinian football’s most feared hooligan organizations, has been sensationally arrested on a second murder charge while testifying in his current murder trial over the death of another River Plate fan back in 2007.
Patricio Ferrari, a district attorney in San Isidro, ordered the arrest of Schlenker for the 2001 murder of Mario Sansi, 21, an alleged drug trafficker in Olivos. Ferrari delivered the arrest warrant personally to Judge Ricardo Costa, who is heading a murder trial in which Schlenker and five other suspects deny murdering Gonzalo Acro, who was shot dead in a Wal-Mart car park in Buenos Aires. Schlenker and his co-defendants have denied the charge of murder in that case.
While testifying, he said that he had nothing to do with the murder. He added that it was his dream to become a River Plate official and ever since coming back from Germany for the 2006 World Cup, he had stayed away from the hooligan gangs in order to fullfill that dream.
Schlenker and five other former hooligans are accused of first degree murder and attempted murder since Acro’s friend, Osvaldo Matera, was also nearly killed on the same night. The police suspected that these incidents are connected to the long running feud between two factions of the Los Borrachos del Tablón, which split in 2007 after a feud between Schlenker and his co-founder Adrian Rosseau. Acro was said to have been a top lieutenant in the faction controlled by Rosseau.
Schlenker is now being held in jail on suspicion of murdering Sansi, having previously been allowed to remain free on bail while his current murder trial is in progress.
Vancouver riots erupt after Stanley Cup loss Violence and mayhem ensue in Canadian city after the Canucks lose Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins.
16 Jun 2011
Al Jazeera
Thousands of people have run wild in Vancouver after the Canucks' 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, looting shops and smashing windows. Riot police fired tear gas to control the mayhem on Wednesday in the Canadian city's downtown, where many fans hoped to celebrate the Canucks' first NHL Stanley Cup playoff victory.
Looters were seen grabbing everything off the shelves of the Bay department store, from cosmetics and T-shirts to mannequin parts. Many vehicles including police cars were burning on the streets, most of them having already been overturned with windows smashed.
Several people had been treated for stab wounds and many more for exposure to tear gas or pepper spray, hospital officials said. The police did not release any information on how many people had been arrested.
Wednesday's violence brought back memories of a riot that erupted when Vancouver also lost the Stanley Cup in 1994 as groups of mostly young men threw bottles, attacked parked cars and smashed store windows. "There was a group of people fully intending to make this into a 1994 event," Gregor Robertson, the Vancouver mayor said, adding that a group of "angry young men" had decided to disrupt an otherwise peaceful event.
Robertson called the chaos "absolutely disgraceful and shameful." "We have had an extraordinary run in the playoff, great celebration. What's happened tonight is despicable," he said. Henrik Sedin, captain of the Canucks, expressed disappointment at the rioting. "It's terrible. This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It's too bad," Sedin said.
The crowd thinned by early Thursday morning but some continued to try to destroy property as police in riot gear attempted to contain them in a small area of downtown.
The scenes were in sharp contrast to those after the 2010 Winter Olympics, when a massive street party erupted in the same area after Canada beat the United States to win the men's ice hockey gold medal. Mayor Robertson did not think the violence would destroy the favourable international image the Pacific coast city had built in hosting the Games. "I think people will understand that this is a small group of troublemakers who have trashed our party," he said.
Julian’s make-up shake-up A former Leeds United football hooligan is now heading one of the fastest growing make-up brands in the world. Catherine Scott met Julian Kynaston
yorkshirepost.co.uk
28 November 2011
At 6ft 6ins tall, dressed from head to foot in black with trowelfuls of black eye liner to match, Julian Kynaston makes heads turn, especially when he walks into his local, the George in Upper Denby. “People do stop and stare, but funnily enough no one ever says anything,” he says. “I think they are getting used to me now. I’ve earned their respect by not taking off my make-up at the end of a day at work. They like me for what I am.”
And that is really the point of Illamasqua – the make-up industry’s new kid on the block founded by Kynaston three years ago. The brand has taken the industry by storm, using social media to garner supporters and create its cult status in a market that is notoriously difficult to break into. In three years, Kynaston has succeeded in doing what it has taken the established beauty houses decades to achieve.
Selfridges on Oxford Street was the first store to stock Illamasqua, giving it a prime location in 2008 . Harvey Nichols followed as well as more mainstream department stores such as Debenhams. Illamasqua is now in 100 stores worldwide. It boasts its own flagship stores in London and Liverpool with a third opening in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds in a couple of weeks. It is taking off in America, Australia and the Middle East with further international expansion imminent and even its own make-up school in London.
Celebrity followers including Lady Gaga, Kelly Rowland, Emmerdale actress Sammy Winward and Princess Eugenie are queuing up to use its products. Kynaston declines to pay celebrities to wear his products, believing that Illamasqua speaks for itself.
“We have never placed an advert and never have and never will pay anyone for wearing our make-up,” says the plain speaking Yorkshireman who sits oddly and yet perfectly with his brand’s identity. “Illamasqua is for the bolder person in all of us; no matter what their age or sex. It is about self expression and people exploring their alter ego.”
Kynaston is the joint managing director and founder of a Leeds-based ad agency called Propaganda and is used to breaking the rules and coming out on top. At Shelley High School in West Yorkshire, he was bright but lacked the concentration to do well. “I was creative but not in the traditional sense. My brain was just so full with ideas that I couldn’t focus on the stuff I was meant to focus on. But it didn’t seem to matter to me, I knew from quite a young age that my future lay in advertising.”
A school friend’s brother was a punk and the young Kynaston was mesmerised by the power of branding and knew that was where his future lay. Leaving school with few qualifications, he started out on a Youth Training Scheme which involved sweeping the floors in a print company. “I earned £17 a week. £15.50 of which I used to pay back the money I had borrowed each week and so I suppose I learnt to take risks. When you have nothing to lose, it is easy.”
At 18, he started to get involved in the football hooligan scene at Leeds United. “I was fascinated by the whole thing. How someone who was quite meek and mild could put on an Armani shirt and suddenly they could take on the world and start beating someone up. It was the power of the brand. But I was also into the subculture side of it. The clothes and the community of it. I got into a lot of trouble. Then when I was 24, I suddenly realised that everything was getting out of control. What had really started out as a cultural thing became very right wing and people perceived it as racist. I knew I had to get out but you couldn’t just walk away so I decided the only way to get out was to start Propaganda. They understood that I couldn’t very well go to a meeting with a client with a black eye and so I managed to leave.”
Knowing the importance of appearances, Kynaston rented swanky offices in a converted mill. “I had no idea how I was going to meet the rent.” For some time they had no clients until eventually they signed their first £30,000 contract and never looked back. Over the last 20 years it became one of the UK’s most respected and successful marketing agencies outside London. In 2006, he sold a proportion of the business to the board in a £14m management buy-out although he still retains a major shareholding in the business. He’s also non executive director of Seabrook Crisps and marketing director of a hair beauty brand. He helped turn that into an international household name and the UK’s fastest growing private company in 2005.
Four years ago, he decided to branch out into make-up, despite knowing nothing about the industry. “People kept telling me that unless you had 25 years experience or £200m then you couldn’t do it. We didn’t have either.” But being told he can’t do something is the incentive the 44-year-old Yorkshireman needs to make him determined to succeed. “Some may call it naivety. I suppose I decide to do something and don’t necessarily look at the pitfalls which might stop other people giving it a try. But I didn’t really have anything to lose.”
The beauty industry is dominated by the big French names such as Estée Lauder and L’Oreal who, Kynaston says, have such a hold that makes it hard for new names to get a break. “I wanted to become a big player and a cult brand almost overnight in a sector they just said couldn’t be done. We did a lot of research and what we discovered was that people didn’t have an emotional attachment to a particular make-up brand. The big names brought out a ‘hero’ product and then build up their brand around that.
“We looked at the make-up bags of 1,100 women and found that the vast majority had no brand loyalty. They would use a lipstick from one brand and a foundation from another. I wanted people to become emotionally attached to Illamasqua; I wanted them to want to be part of the brand. We have no hero product, we want people to buy into the whole concept.” Having decided on make-up as his next challenge, Kynaston immersed himself in his new project. “I bought a flat in Lindley near Huddersfield and turned it into a shrine. If I commit to something I have to become part of it.”
It was a visit to the Gothic festival in Whitby that provided the inspiration. “I was in this pub in Whitby sitting next to a 6ft7 tranny (transvestite) called Alison. I looked around the room and saw men and women and the real connection wasn’t the music and the clothes, it was the make-up and how people were using it to access their alter egos and having a great time. I wanted to bring that to the High Street.”
As he was immersed himself in the task a news item made him stop and think. Two young people who styled themselves as Goths – Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend Rob Maltby from Todmorden – were attacked because of the way they looked. Sophie, aged 20, died from her injuries in 2007. “I suddenly thought that what we were planning to do could be irresponsible. We were encouraging people to show self-expression, to be themselves just at a time when a girl was killed and a boy seriously injured for doing just that.
“The judge at the trial of the attackers said that this was a hate crime for the way someone whose to look. I felt that we had to do something.” So he went to see Sophie’s mother Sylvia, who was setting up a charity called SOPHIE – Stamp Out Hatred and Intolerence Everywhere. “It was the hardest meeting I have ever had.”
He and his businesses now support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. He has funded two films highlighting the attack and £3 from an eye-liner dedicated in Sophie’s memory goes to the charity. He also believes that the dark days of his football hooliganism might also have led to him be so passionate about the charity. “When I turned my back on that side of my life, I suppose I killed off the person I was. It was a dark time and now I want to do something positive.”
Kynaston discovered that professional make-up had its roots in the theatre and club scene of 1920s Berlin and that one of the companies that met the demand for high quality sustainable theatrical make-up was called Kryolan. “I went to them and explained that I wanted to take their products and introduce them to the High Street. No one had ever asked them before. We didn’t just want to take their brand, we wanted to match their integrity with our own.” He joined forces with Alex Box, one of the brightest new make-up artists of the time. “Alex worked with Kryolan’s men in white coats in the labs to create a super strain of 60 to 70 years of professional make-up for now.”
Celebrities such as Russell Brand were already using Kyrolan’s make-up, which was sold through a little shop in Covent Garden. “People were already rejecting the established High Street make-up brands. They didn’t want to be told how to wear make-up any more and were seeking out alternatives as were the cool kids and the Goths.”
In homage to 1920s Berlin, Kynaston brought an art deco theme to his make-up counters which he took to the “big three” department stores. The first opened on November 1, 2008 in in Selfridges in Oxford Street and they are now in 100 stores across the world.
Who is the typical Illamasqua customer? “My mum is a great example. She is 60 and she is blown away by the products’ quality. Of course there are the cool kids and the celebrities who buy our products, but then there are the middle-aged women who love the return to glamour and self-expression.”
Then there are the men. Kynaston is on something of a mission to get men wearing make-up again. “The question shouldn’t be, why should men wear make-up? It should be, why did they stop? Before the wars ,men wore make-up and not just gay men. In Scotland, make-up was worn when the men went to war. When I’m chatting to the blokes in the pub about men wearing make-up it makes me laugh that they are their sitting covered in permanent tattoos yet wouldn’t wear make-up. We have to change perceptions.”
The day before we meet at the launch of the Illamasqua counter in Debenhams at Meadowhall, he was at the Ritz in Paris. But he hates being away from Yorkshire. “I could never live anywhere else, I would miss Yorkshire too much. I think I get it from my grandfather. He loved Yorkshire and never saw any need to travel. He also was a believer in doing a job you love and I have tried to follow his ethos.”
He lives in Upper Denby with his wife-to-be Jo and her two children, Alexander and Francesca. “Alexander is 10 and he loves the fact that Adam Ant drops into the office all the time.” He is learning to ride and does enjoy stays at top spa hotels, but he loves nothing more than a pint at the George and a trip to his cottage in Robin Hood’s Bay.
“We know that we have been made by the rise in social media and we know that can break us just as quickly. We had a batch of eye shadow that was pressed too hard and word soon started on Twitter. I made the decision that we just had to tell people the truth. You will be found out soon enough and I really think people appreciate your honesty so we explained what went wrong and people seemed to understand.”
Last year, he joined forces with Joe Corre, the son of Malcolm McClaren and Vivien Westwood and the man behind the Agent Provocateur brand. “It is ironic that I have ended up in business with the son of the man behind punk when punk and subcultures like it have had such a big influence on my life.”
Illamasqua opens at the Victoria Quarter Leeds on December 8.
With just days to go before the kick-off of the Euro 2012 championships, Panorama reveals shocking new evidence of racist violence and anti-semitism at the heart of Polish and Ukrainian football and asks whether tournament organiser UEFA should have chosen both nations to host the prestigious event.
Reporter Chris Rogers witnesses a group of Asian fans being attacked on the terraces of a Ukrainian premier league match and hears anti-Semitic chanting at games in Poland. And with exclusive access to a far right group in Ukraine which recruits and trains football hooligans to attack foreigners, Panorama asks: how safe will travelling football teams and their supporters be at this summer's European festival of football?
Police detain hooligans after Stockholm clash
3 Aug 12
Several clashes between supporters of Stockholm football team AIK and Polish team Lech Poznan were reported on Thursday evening in the capital after the Swedish side beat the Poles 3-0 in a European league qualifier. The brawling had already begun before the game with clashes between supporters in the Stockholm district of Kungsholmen, and continued at the Råsunda stadium where the game took place, according to police.
Police told news agency TT that they didn’t have enough manpower to start with. “We had too small a number of officers at the beginning but it turned out alright after we called in an extra 50 or so,” said Per Wetterlind of the Stockholm police to TT.
After the game, the brawling continued to flare up in different parts of central Stockholm. After twelve hours of clashes in the capital, the police finally had enough, rounded up some 50 Polish supporters and dropped them in the Stockholm suburb of Huddinge in the hope to cool the situation down. “It is fairly obvious that all these people really were keen to fight,” said Anders Jönsson of the local police to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) stressing that both sides were equally as bad.
According to police, several people were injured in the brawling, a handful were arrested on suspicion of rioting and aggravated assault and some 30 were taken into custody.
----------------
Bloody hell - how could they not be prepared for the Poznan hooligans?
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
