| Hateland -
Articles |
03/05/02
- Fan violence at Millwall
Channel 4 News
Reporter: Simon Israel
The Metropolitan police are considering legal action
against Millwall football club over the pitched battle
that followed the club's defeat in the Division One
play-offs. The police have called for an urgent meeting
with both the club and the football league after forty-seven
officers were injured in what police condemned as 'totally
unacceptable' violence.
For more than an hour a crowd of several hundred threw
fireworks, bricks and lumps of concrete at the police
lines. Our home affairs reporter Simon Israel has this:
This is the cost of football, one police officer remarked
today. The casualty list from one hour and ten minutes
mayhem in the shadows of Millwall Football club is long.
One fifth of the 250 officers on duty were injured.
The mob was 500 to 600 strong.
Police say most were Millwall fans who'd just left the
ground. They were primed for action in revenge for a
last minute defeat. But the Birmingham fans were still
locked in the ground - so the police lines became the
acceptable target.
It wasn't just the human costs. Today the other consequences
of the rampage were all too visible. Much of it was
cleared away this morning, but not from minds of those
who witnessed the events from their bedroom windows.
In fact police are convinced it was orchestrated. Everyone
entering the ground for the match was searched. So the
flares and the home-made firecrackers, they believe,
were stockpiled in vehicles outside the ground. Millwall
FC disputes how far it should be held responsible.
No-one doubts this club has made an enormous effort
to rid itself of an unenviable reputation. This season
alone some 50 fans have been prosecuted and subsequently
banned for violent behaviour. But the problem is, there
appears to be a bottomless pit of hooligans attracted
to Millwall FC. |
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