Madrid Police - At It Again

[NorthernLights24]

Bolton Wanderers have made an official complaint about "overzealous and disproportionate" treatment of their supporters by Spanish police.

 

The club contacted European football's governing body Uefa after the 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid in the Uefa Cup.

 

Bolton say there were "a number of assaults and unprovoked baton charges before, during, and after the game".

 

British police who travelled to the game also criticised their Spanish counterparts' heavy-handed tactics.

 

At least two fans were taken to hospital with head wounds, and other supporters reported other injuries.

 

James Kirk, a Bolton fan from Fife, said: "We came out of the stadium and just as we came down loads of police with shields and batons rushed back just where we'd come from.

 

"They were battering people to the ground - it was absolutely brutal and appalling. I've been to Spain many, many times but I tell you I don't want to go again."

 

Club chairman Phil Gartside said he would take the issue to the "highest level" to get an explanation.

 

Mr Gartside said: "I have great sympathy for any of our supporters who have been injured by what is clearly an overreaction by the Spanish police.

 

"Bolton Wanderers Football Club will be pursuing the matter at the highest level and seeking an explanation from the Spanish authorities."

 

The football club is liaising with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the British Embassy to try to establish what happened.

 

Ch Supt Dave Lea, of GMP, said the problems started when police baton charged hundreds of Madrid fans out of the stadium.

 

"That incident has probably set the tone for the policing of the whole match and unfortunately the Madrid police have a reputation for not taking dissent very well," he said.

 

The police chief said a number of sporadic incidents followed which resulted in police being "very heavy-handed" with the Bolton fans, and he blamed senior officers for the problems.

 

"They didn't have enough control over their junior officers who were far too quick to use their batons rather than talking to the fans who would comply with their instructions.

 

"Lessons need to be learned and I will make sure that my observations will be captured in a full report for the Uefa security investigation that I know is going to be forthcoming," he added.

 

The result of the match at the Vicente Calderon stadium meant Bolton won the tie 1-0 on aggregate to reach the last-16 stage of the competition.

 

Before their Uefa Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in December, Bolton fans were detained at a hotel in the Serbian capital.

 

Local police acted amid security fears after trouble involving Red Star supporters the previous weekend.

 

Last April, a number of Tottenham fans were injured at their Uefa Cup tie in Seville in violent clashes with Spanish riot police.

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7258162.stm

[Sweetchuck]

Power-tripping fuckwits with no prospects other than swinging a baton for the rest of their days.

 

How many times do visiting fans have to get battered in Spain before the authorities realise that mayber they have a problem with their methods of policing?

 

Interesting that Aberdeen and Bolton have both visited Munich and Madrid now. Neither has much trouble in Munich where the police take a sensible approach to crowd control, despite both sets of fans drinking heavily and enjoying themselves; both sets of fans are subjected to random attacks and beatings in Madrid.

 

A pattern is starting to emerge... Basically, the Spanish haven't got a frickin' clue when it comes to these kind of police operations, and I'd actually say the same about most of the south of Europe. The most efficient policing definitely takes place in the north, and the overall football experience is much better for it.

 

The problem is that the Spanish and Italian police really don't give much of a toss about changing their ways: the opportunity to beat a few foreign children senseless once in a while appears to be one of the perks of the job, if the knuckle-dragging uniformed chimps in Madrid were anything to go by.

[fatshaft]

I loved my trip to Madrid, and was oblivious to all the trouble that Aberdeen fans ran into before the game, but finding out when we came home, plus all the pickpocketing, and now this again for the Bolton lads, has pretty much sickened me and the memories of the place.

 

It's not somewhere I'd be looking to go back to.

 

I just hope that the authorities realise that they have to do something here.

[Guest glasgowdon]

UEFA have to take action as well.

[OneZanderDiamond]

A couple of my mates are Bolton fans and they went across to the game, just been speaking to one of them now and he's backing up all what's been said here. Didn't get "attacked" themselves but witnessed it first hand

[paulkaneatemyhamster]

To be fair

 

the trouble we had was mainly outside the ground between the 2 sets of fans, but by sounds of things last night trouble was between Bolton fans and police in the ground.

 

Probably trigger happy copes in the ground, BUT ... police IN the ground were good to us in the main ... perhaps the English rep proceeded bolton

[Guest SS RED]

They are not a police force there just another gang. It is shocking but what can UEFA do?

[NorthernLights24]

Jim Traynor was having a go at the Spanish police today in the Record PM (I apologise for reading anything associated with that paper but I was bored on the bus and Lovell was the main story on the back).

 

Anyway he basically called the Spanish police an excuse for "legalised thuggery".

[fatshaft]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ers/7258162.stm

 

UEFA open probe in Madrid v Bolton match.

[Guest SS RED]

Where was our probe?

[zig-a-zig-ah]

Where was our probe?

 

[Bobby Connor]

Where was our probe?

 

Could've phrased that A LOT better

 

I think the big difference here is that there was no trouble inside the ground during our game. UEFA have no powers / jurisdiction over what goes on outside of the stadium.

[RUL]

Having seen the video footage Bolton fans were far from innocent and it would appear Madrid have internal fan issues as there fans were battering each other at one point.

 

[fatshaft]

Having seen the video footage Bolton fans were far from innocent and it would appear Madrid have internal fan issues as there fans were battering each other at one point.

 

Not really RUL, I wasn't there this time, so going on heresay I admit, but apart from the fact that the trouble was inside rather than outside, it was similar to what we had over there. And just like the idiots in red who were chucking beer, and getting in the face of coppers at the end of game lock in, some Bolton fans were of a similarly retarded nature. But I would say the vast majority were again the victims of the Spanish gestapo.

 

The first post of this thread makes for good reading: http://www.the-wanderer.co.uk/boards/viewtopic.php?t=14516

[paulkaneatemyhamster]

Hmmm intresting reading there FS

 

seems the police inside the ground were a lot more tolerant to us as we were perhaps even more pissed & boistiours

 

AND how come 6,000 jaked up Aberdeen fans can wait inside the ground for 45mins having a good laugh, but fans of a simillar "wee team" ( with all due respect) can't and start kicking off, goading police and rival fans

 

If bolton were wise they'd perhaps let this thing drop, lest they find a fair whack of blame leveled their way.

[K-9]

Hmmm intresting reading there FS

 

seems the police inside the ground were a lot more tolerant to us as we were perhaps even more pissed & boistiours

 

AND how come 6,000 jaked up Aberdeen fans can wait inside the ground for 45mins having a good laugh, but fans of a simillar "wee team" ( with all due respect) can't and start kicking off, goading police and rival fans

 

If bolton were wise they'd perhaps let this thing drop, lest they find a fair whack of blame leveled their way.

Sounds similar to us when we tried to get into our section and were forcefully turned away from top of steps with no explanation. Got into next section and it was crammed and overfull with folk on the steps all the way up. No segregation and no organisation. Difference is our lot were not so stupid as to take on the police or even goad them as we knew what would happen. Sadly Bolton didn't and their own minority of idiot fans got their fellow fans a needless beating!!

[fatshaft]

Sounds similar to us when we tried to get into our section and were forcefully turned away from top of steps with no explanation. Got into next section and it was crammed and overfull with folk on the steps all the way up. No segregation and no organisation. Difference is our lot were not so stupid as to take on the police or even goad them as we knew what would happen. Sadly Bolton didn't and their own minority of idiot fans got their fellow fans a needless beating!!

Aye, about right from what both of you have said. The surprising thing is that there isn't really an obvious idiot element at Bolton, there simply isnt enough of them, took barely just over half what Aberdeen took to Madrid as well.

 

I would point the blame at English arrogance as far as them reacting differently than we did at the end, and just getting into it. Even more surprising is that we took a beating, and were at the time looking to go out, whereas Bolton had just kncoked Madrid out.

 

The English, what can you say?

 

As a small P.S. A journo from News of The World (or one of the red tops anyway) posted on a nother thread looking for stories as they were going to run a piece on the ott Spanish Police. I sent her an email pointing out that she mysteriously seemed to have missed that this happened to Aberdeen fans as well a couple of months ago, maybe she'd like to post here and get further opinions. Anyone seen anything from her? Surprised?