******* ****, that's terrible. Imagine hosting one of the biggest events in sport and failing to do the basics right. Like Scouse said, its freaking Paris, not some village in Cambodia. And those turtled security is more than encouraged to be trigger-happy than to try to help people who are struggling.
Hope you all get a good, deserved rest without thinking of football for a while.
Thanks man. And everyone else's well wishes and concern. Greatly appreciated.
Home later on today. I’m just honestly thanking God that everyone is and we didn’t lose anyone. I really can’t convey how serious and dangerous that situation was Saturday night.
We barely spoke football yesterday. (Losing the match is a complete irrelevance. The football Saturday night I honestly couldn't care less for as I, like many others in our totally flat end, just watched it blankly whilst reassuring everyone back home texting that you were in and safe.). Save for everyones experiences which were all similarly horrific. And then yesterday evening, outside a really nice little restaurant/ bar up the top of Montmartre, a dad and his young kid set me off again. His son was 9. And he never wants to go to a football game again ….. A 9 year-old young lad who should be the envy of his mates watching his team at what should be the pinnacle of support, so traumatised by what he went through, not wanting to ever go to a game of football again.
I was 16 at Hillsborough and all the life changing horror that never leaves you and has been saw raw again this weekend. And 33-years later, in one if the Worlds best City's, outside one the World’s best and most modern stadiums, here we are again. When we NEVER should be again.
I won’t lie. Sacking off going the natch has been strongly playing around my mind since Saturday night like that poor kid last night. I mean I will be back next season but I’m a fool who knows no better. But there has to come a point where you go your own safety outweighs everything. If they can’t even consider peoples safety at arguably the biggest sporting occasion on the planet, whilst also treating you like you’re the low life problem and teargassing/ pepper spraying/ and in other accounts, indiscriminately battering people, all for doing nothing but trying to escape and save their lives to begin with, Paris 2022 might well be that tipping point for many in their football support.
And NO apology from UEFA, who I see are already backtracking and passing the buck over to the French Robo-Cops, will ever make up for that.