Football Ground Safety

August 2001 - 6 of us aged between 17 and 20 head out to a Champions League football match to be played out in the heart of a country many of you know nothing about, or even where it lies in the world. Just to fill you in, I live (some of the time) in Azerbaijan, which is an ex-Soviet Republic near to Iran and Turkey, due to my Dad's work (oil). It's an interesting place, very corrupt as you will find out as I get deeper into this op, but I like Azerbaijan, and I generally like the Azeri people, a seemingly kind Muslim race who don't make you feel unwelcome. While in Azerbaijan in the summer, it turned out that Semkir, one of the Azeri ...  Read the complete review

After the scenes at Cardiff City and Villa Park on Sunday the issue of ground safety has arisen again in the media. When, I was watching the Cardiff and Leeds match I thought it was over exuberant and sheer delight that their team had beaten the Premiership leaders and that coming on the pitch was no big think. You see it when teams win divisions and this was arguably the greatest moment in Cardiff City’s history. But, when I watched a report on the violence the full picture was revealed and it did shock me that such hooliganism exists still in the football ground. On the replays it was clearly evident that the Cardiff City fans were taunting Leeds fans, ...  Read the complete review

Oh dear. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, but reports from yesterday's Cardiff City v Leeds United match have brought to the public attention that football hooliganism in the UK is far from dead. It's a shame, because no-one who loves football wishes for it to be dragged through the mud (sorry, that metaphor works just a little too well) but, perversely, I'm pleased. Of course, I'm not happy that Leeds fans and players and the officials were subjected to a barrage of projectiles and abuse - perhaps that should NOT go without saying! However, I am pleased that football violence has hit the headlines once more in this ...  Read the complete review

I recently attended the fairly new 'Madejski Stadium,' home of Reading football club. I was there in hope of watching the football match between Swindon and Reading, a local derby match that has a history of crowd trouble and violence surrounding the game. My story begins from the Train Station in Swindon where I had to wait for the 10.03 to London Paddngton. The delayed train finally arrived at 10.27 and after a platform change, and already slightly drunk bunch of men entered the empty carriages. It was perhaps lucky that the train was nearly deserted as the trouble was already about to begin. There are no laws on off licences and their ...  Read the complete review

As a loyal fan of Second Division Northampton Town I am strongly in favour of bringing back terraces. The Premier League is a wonderful league, despite its many flawa, but if you support a Premier League team and you have ever been to watch them you probably think that there is no problem with the atmospehere. I have been supporting Northampton for 12 years, Im 19 years old now, and we are among many clubs who have moved to a nice new all seater ground in the last 10 years, in fact we were one of the first. Any of you who may have visited our old County Ground may have though it was a complete dump, but the atmosphere there was exceptional. Now were at ...  Read the complete review