Police have been forced to undertake running battles with alcohol fueled thugs purporting to be football supporters after Chelsea "bottled it" in the Champions League penalty shoot out, and presented the UEFA Champions League title to worthy winners, (and that from a Liverpool supporter), Manchester United.

Just another drunken night on a British high street

After the curtain fell on what was one of the best games of football this scribe has seen in whats been a long and arduous season, hundreds of fans spilled out of pubs and bars, with only one thing on their minds. And that was to emulate the petulant, disgraceful antics which Chelsea have shown on the pitch all season!

Chelsea have won few friends.

That beer belly should be easy to recognise again..

But this wasn't Moscow in the wee small hours, as lets face it, the Moscovite Police were unlikely to take any such messing about from a group of football thugs who's reputation preceeds them wherever they go.

And in whats been a bad week for British football and its already tarnished reputation, we're bound to ask "Will this impact on the ability of British clubs to take part in European competitions next season"?

Thats not red wine soaked into the flag..

As a hard-core football supporter who came through the sad days of Brit-clubs being banished from European competitions after the Heysel Stadium disaster, I have to admit its something which needs looking at carefully.

Only last week Rangers faced Russian rich-boys Zenit St Petersburg, themselves a team with a bit of a reputation for a tear-up back home in Russia, at the City of Manchester Stadium. At stake? The second most prestigious European title up for grabs - The UEFA Cup.

Open All Hours
Shops and supermarkets opened up in the wee small hours to cater for the influx of over 100,000 hard drinking Rangers fans.

In the city centre, Manchester Council had pulled out all the stops in creating a comfortable "fan-zone". Somewhere for the 10's of thousands of Rangers fans who had travelled without tickets to the game, to congregate in front of a big screen which was in place to broadcast every second of the action as it happened.

But due to a technical hitch the screen broke down, leaving thousands of drunken yobs looking for an outlet on which to vent their frustrations. They found this outlet, on the streets of Manchester as they fought with Police (and each other) to counter the drunken boredom of not being able to watch the game.

After police finish fighting with the fans, they're then expected to undertake emergency first aid. Personally I would have let them bleed in the gutter..

CCTV footage showed the terrifying moment a Manchester Police Officer was caught by the baying mob. Forced to the ground, its no mellow-drama to say this police officer was lucky to come away with his life. Had he not been so lucky we would be talking about a murder enquiry and its only by the grace of God thats not the case.

Some put this down to a one-off. But the antics of the Chelsea supporters last night, smashing up pubs and shops "on their own manner", tells a different story.

Who are ya?
At around 10:45pm hundreds of Chelsea supporters spilled out of pubs and bars in Fulham Broadway. Initially it was the normal high spirited songs and chants but as is always the way when alcohol is concerned, things soon turned ugly and by 11pm, there were scores of Police vehicles pouring into the area.

A terrifying moment as police face the drink fueled angry mob

According to Conservative run anti-cannabis title The Daily Mail, "A squad of around 100 officers sealed off the street and contained the crowd outside the Fulham Broadway Tube station.

Blood stained the pavement outside the building which houses the station and a shopping centre.

As the stand-off developed, hooligans  -  including several young women  -  hurled bottles and dustbins at police before running back into the crowd.

Many thugs covered their faces with scarves as they taunted police. Officers in riot gear and wielding batons charged the crowd to disperse them as missiles rained down."

Security Alert
"Security guard Raheem Khan tried to protect terrified passengers using the Tube station.

He said: "I saw Chelsea fans fighting each other, throwing punches and kicks. There was blood everywhere. The police were trying to control the number of people coming into the station but it got out of hand.

Snatch-squads - a throw back to the sad days of 80's football hooliganism, were used to pull the ringleaders out of the crowd.

"They were throwing bottles and anything they could get their hands on at police and staff. We locked the doors to keep the hooligans out but they were trying to force their way in.

"Regular passengers going about their business, and fans not involved in the riot were screaming, children were crying, and I was getting as many as I could to safety out of a back exit. Outside it was like a full-scale riot.

"All over a game of football  -  it's unbelievable." 

Canna Zine comment
In The Telegraph today we hear tell of the amounts of people who are hospitalised as a result of the "binge-drinking" mentality the last ten years of government has foisted upon the Great British public.

A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: "The new figures showing a rise in alcohol-related hospital admissions confirm everything we've heard from the frontline staff who deal with the after effects of heavy drinking."

As a result of the last ten days or so, which surely must put at risk any chance of British football teams being involved in forthcoming tournaments, we would ask the Rt Honorable Alan Johnson MP, the Secretary of State for Health here in the UK, exactly what he intends to do about this?

We would also like Mr Johnsons comments on the fact Portugal as a footballing nation, recently entertained England fans with no trouble at all.

They (the Portuguese Football Authority) pre-empted the game with a wide-ranging press release which was carried in all of the popular British tabloids which read, "Portugal will not arrest England fans who are caught using, or in possession of cannabis".

The Portuguese also announced they would come down hard on drunken England fans causing trouble.

After a sad period for British football and sport in general we look forward to Mr Johnsons comments, and we will continue to ask for his comments until he deigns to give us some.

The laws surrounding cannabis are not yet changed, and so long as this sort of situation keeps occurring we see no reason to change them at all.

Clearly, alcohol is the primary social issue here in the UK, not cannabis. 

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