Tannochsidebear 2,322 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 The following is my story of what happened in Bucharest, as emailed to the club this morning. I was in Bucharest and thought I would send you my story on how things unfolded. On arrival to the stadium a full hour before kick off, the first signs of lack of proper stewarding was already clear, as there were no signs up telling visiting supporters where our turnstiles were located, and then when we did find out where they were, the only way to get to it was along a very muddy pathway with no lighting, and then walk along a narrow road with no pavement which was also being used by Unirea fans arriving by car nearly killing us as we tried to head towards our end. About 50 yards from the turnstiles, with about 25/30 minutes to go to kick off now, we are presented in the middle of a muddy, flooded field with a barrier control point with no lighting or any police or Rangers stewards, where around 6 Romanian stewards were attempting to do a search on each supporter. At this time there was about 30 bears in front of us. Nothing too unusual there, you might think, but they were taking around a minute to do each fan, and there was only one steward doing the searches, so it became quickly clear that we were going to struggle to get into the game on time at this rate, coupled with the fact that the 30 or so waiting had quickly grown to around 3 times that number. In the dark, and without any communications from the stewards, we were understandably wanting them to hurry up, and inevitably, some pushing from the back of the crowd meant that the stewards were starting to struggle to control the crowd. Instead of making any kind of announcement to the crowd, after a couple of move back gestures went mainly unseen, their decision was to pop out the spray cans (I am assuming CS gas but don�t know what it was) and then went on to spray this in the faces of the fans in front of them, causing much distress to them and to myself as I was around 6 rows from the front and got a small amount of this in my eyes and throat. At this point the control point was breached due to the stewards moving back, and many fans got through, coughing and spluttering towards the turnstiles. There was only two turnstiles and a gate, and again it was very badly lit and organised, and I was a little surprised not to see the usual Rangers stewards who have been helpful on other trips to assist us with the local stewards and police. Again, it was very slow, with no real reason for the delays. It seemed that they wanted to let in perhaps 6 fans at a time, wait until they got to the top of the stairs, and then let another few in. The turnstiles to the side of the gate was letting in one at a time and was slightly better organised, but the way we were directed towards the gate meant that you could not get easy access to the turnstile itself, you had to step through a barrier, but I think this went mostly unseen by most fans. Again, the pressure of a build up of fans outside, now conscious of it being kick off time and not wanting to miss the game, seen some inevitable pushing from the back of the crowd, and again the stewards response was to get out the spray cans and blast it at the fans in front of them. Eventually I got into the ground around a couple of minutes after kick off, and found a space to stand around 8 rows back from the gate which was to cause the problems later on, and around 10 seats to the centre from there. I say seats as there were seats arranged in rows, but many of them were not fixed to the bases, were broken, covered in dirt and droppings and generally unusable. There were no catering facilities, and no toilet facilities in our section of the stadium, clearly contrary to UEFA ground regulations, and totally unacceptable. Around 15 minutes from half time, I noticed 2 men approach a few stewards at the gate in question and get into a heated debate with them, I couldn�t tell what it was about, but the stewards were aggressively gesturing to them to move away. One steward in particular was the main antagonist, and he was to set in place a series of events that rightly has no place at a football match. At around half time, the steward decided to open the gate and move inside to try to forcibly move the 2 men back away from the gate. On seeing this, around a dozen more men moved towards this situation, and some pushing and shoving started. The steward was joined by several other stewards, and the pushing and shoving continued for a couple of minutes. At this time nothing had been thrown towards the gate by anyone. It was when the stewards decided to bring out their metal truncheons and spray canisters and start to lash out at the small group that things escalated. The stewards grabbed one of the group and dragged him away, dropped him to the ground, and several of them started kicking, punching, lashing and spraying the guy. It was this incident alone that resulted in some loose seats being thrown towards the stewards, and some seats were broken and thrown also. When the seats started to be thrown at the stewards, they decided to back off behind the gate, close the gate behind them and maintain a monitoring situation again. After they done this, it appeared that this was enough for the Rangers fans to refrain from any further disturbance. At this point the match was about to start again, and there was no further disturbances I seen throughout the rest of the match. It can be clearly identified that the trouble was caused by that one steward deciding to open the gate and come to confront the 2 men who were arguing with him. That one incident alone was the root cause of all the trouble, and it can be backed up with the fact that there was no further trouble after the stewards returned back behind the gate, or any trouble at full time on leaving the ground. The seats were only thrown once a group of stewards were beating up one man who they had isolated. Of course, much has been written and tv pictures show a nasty scene of unrest which does us no favours at all, and I am not for one moment condoning the actions of those who went to confront the stewards, those who joined in when it all started, and those who threw seats towards the incident, but the true picture, seen by my own eyes from a perfect vantage point, tells a very different story. I am in no doubt whatsoever that if that one steward had remained behind the gate and either ignored the 2 men or got someone from Rangers to come to hear what their problem was, the whole situation could have been avoided, and that is the really sad part of the whole story. I am an experienced European traveller with Rangers, with 34 trips now completed, I was on the official travel club day trip package, had a lovely day in Bucharest in a local restaurant chatting to the local people, and it was again spoiled by aggressive, over-zealous thugs who were supposedly there to assist us. When the local stewards do their job properly, they have nothing to fear from the Rangers travelling support, and our record of taking vast numbers all over Europe with only pleasant memories left behind with our hosts is a proud one, but when the local police and stewards get it wrong, they are all very quick to point the finger at us, and away from their own inadequacies. I hope the club now defends us in the most vigorous way against these UEFA charges, and I am more than happy to have my story used in our defence, and I am happy to swear as to its authenticity. Regards 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,186 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 May I suggest you email it to your local MP, the Home Office and the First Minister to act on your behalf mate....? Also, can I post your excellent email on the main site? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmck 117 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 not only an excellent and measured account, but a pretty evocative read! thanks. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tannochsidebear 2,322 Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 May I suggest you email it to your local MP, the Home Office and the First Minister to act on your behalf mate....? Also, can I post your excellent email on the main site? I have emailed it to Rangers, UEFA and Real Radio, never thought about the politicians. Will try to do that when I come back in this afternoon. As for putting it up on the site, no problem. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,186 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Cheers mate! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Seems to me that when UEFA fine us they should use the money to pay for an employee to travel with the Rangers fans and experience things first hand. It's all very well punishing us for tv pictures but unless you know the context, what can you conclude? Perhaps clubs like us should be put on a "probabation lst" where we pay one of their employees say 500 quid per away game to give a fans eye report. Maybe they could employ an ex-copper or something. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,186 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Now on the main site - Newsnow shortly... http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=143:the-unirea-uproar-uefa-must-act&catid=1:articles&Itemid=67 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
26th of foot 5,859 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Tannochsidebear, An accurate account which mirrors the vast majority of Bears' experiences. It's Groundhog Day(again and again); both Stuttgart(5 years )and Artmedia were similar experiences. A point I implore all Bears to labour, is the difference between Police and Stewards. Why were Stewards wielding batons? Why were Stewards indiscriminately discharging CS gas sprays? Who authorises such behaviour? Why does BBC Scotland insist the confrontation was between Rangers supporters and police, when the footage they continue to show, only depicts high visibility jacketed Stewards? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluedell 5,356 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Good report, TB. Thanks for that. Hopefully it will add to the weight of evidence that is building up. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraser54 0 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Good read bud. Can't believe how much bad press we are getting for this 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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