Chelsea Racists

[twosips]

No, but you know Mourinho. His career is built around tribalism. This is speaking out against some of that tribe, an odious part of that tribe, but still part of it so it plays a little against what he tries to build usually.

I thought he'd maybe mention it but briefly... he talked about in detail and quite passionately by the sounds of it which is entirely the right thing to do so credit where its due.

[Dameerto]

No, but you know Mourinho. His career is built around tribalism. This is speaking out against some of that tribe, an odious part of that tribe, but still part of it so it plays a little against what he tries to build usually.

I thought he'd maybe mention it but briefly... he talked about in detail and quite passionately by the sounds of it which is entirely the right thing to do so credit where its due.

I thought he'd hide behind the club statement with a potential for using it internally as part of his 'siege mentality' approach - so I was surprised (but glad) to see his comments.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

No, but you know Mourinho. His career is built around tribalism. This is speaking out against some of that tribe, an odious part of that tribe, but still part of it so it plays a little against what he tries to build usually.

I thought he'd maybe mention it but briefly... he talked about in detail and quite passionately by the sounds of it which is entirely the right thing to do so credit where its due.

Fair enough, perhaps I'm being a cynical cunt but it was too good an opportunity to curry favour with the press to pass up.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Definitely. In fact you're a pretty diehard fan if you're travelling around the continent to see them.

At face value, that seems to be a pretty incontrovertible argument.

I'd say the opposite. I know a fair few 'fans' of a number of clubs and nations who hardly ever bother to watch their team at home, but are all up for an away day abroad.

Also, remember that Paris is hardly 'abroad' for someone living in London. It takes less than 10 minutes more than London to Manchester by train.

I'd disagree with that.

I know a number of people who, because of their personal situations, work, finances etc. have never been abroad to watch the teams that they support.

Even my mad brother-in-law, who is as daft as they come about Leeds United, was never able to watch his team playing in Europe, when they were in their hey-day (70s, 80s and 90s).

Re-read what I wrote, and I think you'll find that those two statements deal with mutually exclusive issues.

Fair enough, but you formed your conclusions from your own experiences, whilst I did the same.

On that basis, either we're both right, or we're both wrong.

[BlueinBosnia]

Fair enough, but you formed your conclusions from your own experiences, whilst I did the same.

On that basis, either we're both right, or we're both wrong.

I think we're both right, but what you said was totally at a tangent to the discussion.

In general, around twice as many England fans travel to away games as there are tickets available (how many of the 20,000+ at Euro 2000 do you think are regular patrons of Wembley?), and it's normally even more for Liverpool (40,000 are believed to have travelled to Athens, although that number undoubtedly includes several thousand expats from nearby cities). A lot of my Wales-supporting friends make it to 1 or 2 home games a year, but travel abroad to watch the national team 4 or 5 times a year, in general.

You simply don't need to be a 'diehard fan' to pop on a train at lunchtime to go to Paris. I've spent more time travelling to games of clubs I don't give two hoots about.

[Wonderwall]

Fair enough, but you formed your conclusions from your own experiences, whilst I did the same.

On that basis, either we're both right, or we're both wrong.

I think we're both right, but what you said was totally at a tangent to the discussion.

In general, around twice as many England fans travel to away games as there are tickets available (how many of the 20,000+ at Euro 2000 do you think are regular patrons of Wembley?), and it's normally even more for Liverpool (40,000 are believed to have travelled to Athens, although that number undoubtedly includes several thousand expats from nearby cities).A lot of my Wales-supporting friends make it to 1 or 2 home games a year, but travel abroad to watch the national team 4 or 5 times a year, in general.

You simply don't need to be a 'diehard fan' to pop on a train at lunchtime to go to Paris. I've spent more time travelling to games of clubs I don't give two hoots about.

thats just weird IMO, I would NEVER go to an international games location unless I was going to a game?
I have never been to a City venue without a ticket? I understand if you want a ticket and try to chance your hand with a tout, but if you go to an international venue with no intention to even buy a ticket.... well your friends are weird!

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Fair enough, but you formed your conclusions from your own experiences, whilst I did the same.

On that basis, either we're both right, or we're both wrong.

I think we're both right, but what you said was totally at a tangent to the discussion.

In general, around twice as many England fans travel to away games as there are tickets available (how many of the 20,000+ at Euro 2000 do you think are regular patrons of Wembley?), and it's normally even more for Liverpool (40,000 are believed to have travelled to Athens, although that number undoubtedly includes several thousand expats from nearby cities). A lot of my Wales-supporting friends make it to 1 or 2 home games a year, but travel abroad to watch the national team 4 or 5 times a year, in general.

You simply don't need to be a 'diehard fan' to pop on a train at lunchtime to go to Paris. I've spent more time travelling to games of clubs I don't give two hoots about.

I don't think I was going off at a tangent but, incidentally, 'The Tangent' are a pretty indifferent Prog Rock band so I wouldn't advocate travelling abroad to to go and watch them.

[BlueinBosnia]

Fair enough, but you formed your conclusions from your own experiences, whilst I did the same.

On that basis, either we're both right, or we're both wrong.

I think we're both right, but what you said was totally at a tangent to the discussion.

In general, around twice as many England fans travel to away games as there are tickets available (how many of the 20,000+ at Euro 2000 do you think are regular patrons of Wembley?), and it's normally even more for Liverpool (40,000 are believed to have travelled to Athens, although that number undoubtedly includes several thousand expats from nearby cities).A lot of my Wales-supporting friends make it to 1 or 2 home games a year, but travel abroad to watch the national team 4 or 5 times a year, in general.

You simply don't need to be a 'diehard fan' to pop on a train at lunchtime to go to Paris. I've spent more time travelling to games of clubs I don't give two hoots about.

thats just weird IMO, I would NEVER go to an international games location unless I was going to a game?
I have never been to a City venue without a ticket? I understand if you want a ticket and try to chance your hand with a tout, but if you go to an international venue with no intention to even buy a ticket.... well your friends are weird!

No, they attend the away games, just not the home ones. Wales seem to have a hardcore following of 600-700 for away games, so there's normally enough tickets to go around. Most use it as an excuse to see countries that they wouldn't otherwise bother visiting.

England's travelling 'support' far outnumbers the tickets available. I guess some are going for the potential of a ticket, but a fair few go for the 'atmosphere', or just the opportunity for a pissup in a country where they believe laws don't apply to them.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

No one from Chelsea has so much as contacted the bloke. PSG has.

[Beefymcfc]

No one from Chelsea has so much as contacted the bloke. PSG has.

I heard before that he's bee offered a free ticket to one of the Chav's games. Would you really want to?

[JamieMCFC]

Chelsea have issued an apology to the man who was racially abused by club supporters on the Paris Metro on Tuesday night, and will invite him to a match as a guest.

The club also announced they have suspended a further two people from Stamford Bridge, meaning a total of five people could face life bans as part of the ongoing investigation into the incident.

A statement on the club website said: "If it is deemed there is sufficient evidence of their involvement in the incident, the club will issue banning orders for life."

A commuter, identified in media reports as French-Mauritian Souleymane S, was blocked from entering a train by what appeared to be a group of fans travelling to the Parc des Princes for the Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain.

"I'd like to make clear, on behalf of everyone at the club, our disgust at the incident. We were appalled by what we saw," a club spokesman said before manager Jose Mourinho began his weekly news conference.

"The club would also like to apologise unreservedly to Souleymane for the behaviour of a small number of individuals and their unforgivable action towards him. We're writing to him to apologise and to invite him to come to a game as our guest."

While Mourinho feels "ashamed" by the incident, he remains proud to be Chelsea manager after distancing the club from the supporters who racially abused the man.

"We feel ashamed but maybe we shouldn't because I refuse to be connected with these people," Mourinho said. "I'm connected with Chelsea and the many good things this club defends. I left Chelsea in 2007 and I couldn't wait to be back.

"I felt ashamed when I knew what happened, but I repeat I'm a proud Chelsea manager because I know what this club is."

Mourinho also backed the initiative to bring Mr. Souleymane to Stamford Bridge.

The Portuguese said: "I think he would watch the game, he would feel what Chelsea is, because in this moment he maybe has wrong idea of what Chelsea football club is.

"I don't even know if the gentleman loves football but, for sure, you would love to feel that the miserable people who had this action with him is not Chelsea football club.

"This is not Chelsea. They are not Chelsea. Chelsea is the owner. Is the board, is the manager, is the players, is the people who works here, is the true Chelsea supporter so, yes, I would support the idea, even not knowing if the gentleman loves football or not.

"I repeat, I feel ashamed at being connected with this sad episode that happened and I have no words, unless you want me to stay here two hours repeating the same thing, because my feeling is the feeling of everyone at this club. We feel very, very sorry about it. We want to fight it, we feel ashamed, and we apologise to the gentleman."

http://www.espnfc.us/chelsea/story/2308 ... y-incident

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

No one from Chelsea has so much as contacted the bloke. PSG has.

I heard before that he's bee offered a free ticket to one of the Chav's games. Would you really want to?

No doubt with a stadium tour in the company of John Terry thrown in.

[freshie]

No one from Chelsea has so much as contacted the bloke. PSG has.

I heard before that he's bee offered a free ticket to one of the Chav's games. Would you really want to?

I'd view that as a punishment - who would want to witness the dour football that Mourinho's teams produce?