It all went wrong in Manchester

This report, extracted from the Times newspaper, highlights the ugly side of football.

Thousands of bruised and hungover fans, in some cases still clutching cans of lager, began the journey home yesterday — as Manchester began the inquest into how the Uefa Cup Final carnival turned sour. More than 100,000 Glasgow Rangers fans — more than twice the expected number — had crammed into the city centre, turning the streets into a sea of blue before their team’s 2-0 defeat by Zenit St Petersburg in the City of Manchester Stadium.

The trouble began when the signal failed on the big screen in Piccadilly Gardens, one of eight, where more than 10,000 fans had gathered, 15 minutes before kick-off. Engineers trying to fix the fault had to retreat when they were pelted with beer bottles.

A “hard core” of several hundred people went on the rampage, raining bottles and cans on riot police moving in to quell the disturbance.

Sixty officers with riot shields made a dozen baton charges to force the group back towards Piccadilly Gardens. Sporadic violence and running battles between the two sides spilt over into nearby streets late into the night.

Many of the fans had begun drinking before breakfast and continued throughout the day. The strain on the emergency services was such that, by 9.30pm, ambulances could not enter the city centre without a police escort.

Sir Richard Leese, the council leader reacted sharply to what he described as an appalling night for the cities of Manchester and Glasgow, cancelling the broadcast on big screens in the city centre of the Champions League final. There had been plans to erect fan zones for the Manchester United v Chelsea match next Wednesday but in the circumstances, Sir Richard said, that would no longer be acceptable.

Sir Richard defended the council’s organisation of the event. When the big screen failed, they had been able to transport 11,000 fans from Piccadilly Gardens to the Velodrome, closer to the stadium, to watch the match.

“Despite that, a couple of hundred so-called fans — we can call them yobs — stayed in the city centre. They began to cause trouble, assaulting and kicking police officers,” the council leader said. “This is a very small minority who caused us serious trouble”.

Justine Curran, the Assistant Chief Constable, said that she had seen her officers pursued up streets by a baying mob of 200 people. Their response in the circumstances was appropriate.

“The people on that CCTV footage acted like a pack of wolves,” she said. “Whatever happened earlier there was no excuse for this level of violence. We had to act decisively.”