Benfica supporters in home end.

[robin09]

The two stewards at my gate said "until they become threatening or violent there is nothing we can do". To which I said that is not the message the club give out when you purchase the tickets. Like someone else said, they're only doing as they're told, it's the stadium management / club officials that call the shots.

Well, that's bloody ridiculous then.

 

[robin09]

I agree. How dare we have a manager who talks like he is from London and not with a foreign accent!

Andre would have told them that it's important to transition from the East to the South stand, but to avoid missing any of the match they must do it with swiftity and great dimension.

See, I can hate on everyone, equally.

 

[DFF]

There were quite a few around me in the West Upper. But I guess the seats have some kind of mystic energy as the Benfica fans were quiet through out. Atleast the ones near me..

It's the West Upper mate, it's always quiet.

...and rightfully so. We leave the singing to the peasants down in the orchestra pit.

 

[mezza84]

I did exactly the same thing in CL vs Inter at San Siro as did thousands of others. Don't feel i can complain therefore. Those guys were just passionate fans wanting to see their team.

Saying that i do remember afews years back vs a polish team in EL and it was pretty nasty at White Hart Lane that night.

Double edged sword.

 

[Star_of_Davids]

How is any of this StubHub's fault? Tickets for last night's match were NOT available on StubHub. Blaming them for this undermines our genuine concerns about the arrangement with them.

Tickets for last night went on sale to season ticket holders and then to members. It was only because our 24,000 season ticket holders and 100,000? Members didn't want 36,000 tickets that they went on general sale. I'm a member and usually when I log on at 9.30 on the first day of members sale, most aras are coloured orange. For last night's game it was a sea of green.

You could say that when tickets go on general sale they could go only to those who are on the database but how would we then attract 1st timers to the Lane?

Also as I said on the StubHub thread, I don't remember many of us complaining when we (myself included) bought tickets with the home supporters area at the San Siro

 

[jambreck]

As with the Polish guys a few years back, there are loads of Portuguese who live in London. So there were always going to be a lot of them at the game last night - especially since many Spurs fans can't be bothered with the Europa League.

It's not as if they were taking the place of Spurs fans who had been unable to get tickets. And as Jon Wedge said above, we do it too whenever there's an away game in an easily accessible, attractive city and in a large enough stadium that the home supporters don't sell it out. I reckon that there was an even greater proportion of Spurs fans in the designated San Siro home areas v Inter in 2010 than the proportion of Benfica fans in the home areas last night. And that's despite the fact that we were given 5,000 official tickets for the San Siro (compared to Benfica's 2,000 last night). Loads of Spurs fans, too, in the home areas of the Bernabeu. So we can't really complain.

Where I do agree with the OP, though, is if the away fans in home areas start taking the piss - singing, waving flags, over celebrating etc. Stewards should have put a stop to it. It's asking for trouble. I'm generally a very mild mannered person but also quite big and, if you didn't know me, I could seem intimidating, I guess. And when two Benfica fans started leaping around in celebration just two rows in front of me after the first goal, I stepped over the empty seat in front of me and told them in no uncertain terms to shut up and sit down. Nothing much but I must have had some look in my eye because they obeyed me instantly like a couple of terrified, overtrained dogs.

Obviously, I congratulated myself on being a proper hard bastard afterwards but the point is that if some soppy **** like me is sufficiently enraged by away fans taking the piss in our midst, what about the reaction of genuine hard bastards? The potential for trouble was huge and it's crazy that the club and the stewards didn't do anything about it. Ultimately, if there had been any serious trouble, it is Spurs that would have been punished for what happened in home areas of the stadium - not Benfica.

 

[SFCS]

I thought I'd accidently bought tickets right next to the away fans in the South Upper when I took my seat last night. Obviously there weren't supposed to be any away fans up there but it looked like they had a full block in the West Upper and the South West corner was a joke.

I'm not sure what the club could do given the numbers but it really did annoy me. At least their fans were okay though, it could have been worse.

 

[padgateyids]

I have a feeling that Stub Hub would have contributed to this

You couldn't get tickets on Stubhub as far as I am aware.

 

[markiespurs]

There were quite a few of them in block 10 of the west stand lower as well.

It's not the first time this has happened either

 

[riggi]

So we can have away fans in the home end but can't let 1882 have a section? Cool.

 

[Spurger King]

Yet another story of the club treating its own fans with contempt. If/when we qualify for Europe again I was planning on going to an evening game, as I've never been. If there's a chance of being stuck in the middle of a group of away fans, forget it.

Well done Tottenham on becoming such a joke.

 

[M.I.B.]

I remember a couple of years back, a home game Vs Chelsea went to general sale.

There i was, safely (I thought) ensconced in the Park Lane lower (forget which block), when just before ko, I happened to look back a few rows for a mate, and immediately saw a work acquaintance who is a known Chelsea hooli sitting there staring straight back at me. In fact there were at least 20 of them.

Being a little peeved, I made it clear to him I would make it uncomfortable for his group should he so much as raise his hands, but, having my young sons with me I acted the dilligent father and went to moan at the stewards instead.

Not a thing they could/would do.

Needless to say, Chelsea scored and up jumped said group, only to be set upon briefly by our lot, and finally after an uncomfortable period, removed.


What worries me here though, is last night Benfica fans were in North Upper?

This is specifically a members only "family" stand, and designated juniors area. So how the hell can the club justify away support being in there?

 

[Acid]

I'll get disliked for this no doubt but... if they were not causing people any issues and were/are friendly human beings does it really matter? It's not like a group of Jewish people are going for a holiday to Mecca, peace love and all that.

 

[Shea]

I'll get disliked for this no doubt but... if they were not causing people any issues and were/are friendly human beings does it really matter? It's not like a group of Jewish people are going for a holiday to Mecca, peace love and all that.

I don't have a problem with away fans being in the home end (I've watched Spurs in the home end during away matches before) as long as they are respectful and not causing trouble

The other major problem would of course be if tickets are scarce and the away teams fans are buying tickets that Spurs fans wanting tickets were then unable to buy and get to the game

Does anyone remember the Europa game against the Polish team a few years back? they were looking to cause trouble in pockets all around the ground that night

 

[Spurger King]

I'll get disliked for this no doubt but... if they were not causing people any issues and were/are friendly human beings does it really matter? It's not like a group of Jewish people are going for a holiday to Mecca, peace love and all that.

Depends. I remember going to the England v Scotland game at Euro 96, and there were a few Scottish fans (only about 5 or 6) dressed in their kilts etc, in our section. The mood was very light-hearted and friendly between them and the surrounding English fans, and added to the atmosphere. Then again...we won.

I don't even like being sat next to rival fans in a pub, because there's usually some twat that goes over the top with their celebrations, which makes my annoyance at us conceding a goal even worse. If I bought a ticket to watch Spurs, in the home section, and ended up being surrounded by rival fans booing our players, and openly celebrating their goals, I'd walk out and demand my money back.

This story has completely put me off ever going to a European match at the Lane, because I don't go to games to be surrounded by people willing Spurs to fail.

 

[The Doc]

"I don't want to go to games to be surrounded by people willing Spurs fail"....... there has always been a sizable proportion of the home support who give that impression.

Re: Last night. Was in South Upper block 40 and could see a bunch over to the right. Tbh, was just glad to see someone in the ground with a smile on their face. Can see it wouldn't work with a domestic rival, (or any domestic team for that matter) but was refreshing to see the ground partially unsegregated for once. Moreover, had to walk back along the High Road to Seven Sisters after the NP train was cancelled. Only seemed to be away fans around at this time, but no hint of any problems. Depends on your outlook I suppose.

 

[FishboneSoldier]

I was in block 40, also. You could see red shirts dotted throughout the ground and there were definitely Benfica fans around us (they kept quiet through-out). My sister and I were commenting how classy their team were (no diving, no procrastinating, no trying to getting rivals booked) and how passionate their fans were (one even shouted the Y-word in an act of solidarity on the concourse!) and that it was good to see...then I got home and saw how their manager behaved, lol.

Anyway, my point is, I really didn't have a problem, it was definitely refreshing. I guess the issue is that not every team will behave like Benfica...

 

[lillywhites61]

They were on general sale and they bought them, I have been to away games and sat in the home end, I was east upper j, right amongst them, and to be fair I thought they were really well behaved and actually I had a chat with a couple next to me and thought they were knowledgable and nice people. I can't obviously speak for everyone else but I don't see the issue. We didn't sell all our tickets because our fans didn't buy them. What are they supposed to do ban anyone with a foreign name buying them? They created atmosphere which was a damn site more than we did as the home club, although to be fair it was hard to get excited by that drivel last night. Anyway

 

[SlunkSoma]

There was one queuing for the bogs at HT in North Upper. People had words but didn't see what happened. Some geezer called him a "sardine" though.

 

[SlunkSoma]

I don't have a problem with it in principle, but surely it's a safety issue regardless of if the away fans do something. Moving them would be for their own safety more than anything anyway.