Posted on 05/21/2008 8:35:27 AM PDT by Freelance Warrior
The Russian authorities have warned Manchester United and Chelsea fans arriving in Moscow for Wednesday night's Champions League Final that there will be a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour after witnessing the trouble involving Rangers supporters at the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester last week.
Russian FA president Vitali Mutko said: "We drove through the centre of the city crowded with Rangers fans last week. Almost all of them were drunk and some were urinating in the streets.
[...]
But perhaps the biggest danger to those who are travelling is Russia's no-nonsense approach to alcohol. Public displays of drunkenness are frowned upon and English fans have been warned that they face being stripped and thrown into spartan 'sobering houses' if they get out of control.
Moscow's 'drink police' are known to trawl the city looking for the drunk, abusive or incapable. When they have been arrested, they are handcuffed and thrown in mobile cells.
When these are full, sobering houses are used and an enforced drying-out stint follows before offenders are released. The houses are bleak, unpleasant places where some offenders can even be stripped and chained to their beds.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Bah. The Russians (despite their vast experience in such matters) are arguing with the wind.
Oh, yeah!
The Russians are WELL KNOWN for their intolerance of drunkenness.
/s
The longest liquor store line I EVER stood in (apart from one recently in Plainville, Massachusetts) was in the City of Perm, Perm Region, Russian Republic.
Yeah right. Brit soccer hooligans misbehave as a way of life, and they'll use that list of "no-go areas" as a "high priority areas" list.
I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the 1977 European Championship in Rome. Cardinal4 wasn’t allowed to go, due to his youth. Liverpool was playing Borussia Monchengladbach. The Roman cops had to line off neutral buffer zones between the Brits and the Germans. We were treated to an excellent game, which Liverpool won 3-1. Had Borussia won, it might have been a different story with a lot more bloodshed. When the Liverpudlians arrived in bus convoys, they were still drunk from their English FA Cup victory the previous Saturday. Days later, the Roman police were still rounding up staggering Liverudlians, dragging them out of the many Bernini fountains throughout the city and busing them to the British Consulate for repatriation.
I only used to misbehave at matches (in my younger days) if the local police were soft enough . If my team had ever played in an American city I probably would have (A)stayed sober , and (B) would not have said boo to a goose !
On Saturday Nights in Moscow, it’s difficult to find anyone who is sober!
All that tossing these people into a drunk tank does is allow them to catch up on their sleep.
Not sure they have prison space for 1/3 of the population....
If my team had ever played in an American city.....
You probably would've beaten the crap out of us. ...on the pitch, that is. No matter how hard American soccer officials try to get the game to catch on over here, their efforts are in vain. Many kids are placed in leagues when young by their "soccer moms", but by the time they reach high school their interests invariably change to the Big 3 -- (American) football, basketball, and baseball.
Only once . When we played Holland in Euro 88 at the Rhinstadion , Dusseldorf . The Dutch won 3-1 and we were ambushed by a hundred of them in the Old Town . We fought back with tables , plates, anything we could get our hands on really . The German police rounded us up and frogmarched us to this school gym , where we were kept until the next day and then put on the first train to the Bremen ferry .
There seemed to be 2 types of police - one local lot and then a sort of National outfit . They seemed to be working at odds with one another , thereby allowing us and the Dutch fans to run wild . So, in answer to your query , the German cops were quite soft .
As for American soccer , well , of course the public prefer those 3 - its what you grow up with . Perhaps soccer is not the best quality because half your national squad is based over here , including Illinois’ finest Frank Simek , at my team Sheffield Wednesday .
A Brit, an American and a Russian were sole suvivors of a plane going down while flying over the ocean, and they paddled to a nearby deserted island.
A few weeks later while digging for clams they find that genie bottle (that keeps turning up) . . . so they rub it. A genie appears & tells them: “I’m a two wish genie. Hurry, make up your minds.”
The Brit wishes for an estate in Devonshire with 2000 acres of gardens. And he then wishes to be there.
The American smiles and says, “I want a yacht that can haul me and a hold full of gold bars.” And he motors away.
The Russian frowns, states that he’s lonely and wishes for a quart of vodka. The he says, “And I want those two back here.”
This must have been in the eighties :) No long lines for liquor are in Russia anymore...
Probably, they'll be scared enough of Russian Putin, despoty, totalitarism and so on :)
I was in Moscow last year. I saw people stumbling around in broad daylight, guzzling out of open containers, pissing in the streets, puking in pedestrian underpasses, adult beverages prominently displayed at every corner kiosk and grocery.
I don’t know what foreign sports fans can do that would possibly be any worse than what Russians do every day, whether or not there is a sports event going on.
Actually it was in 2002.
That was great! Here's something in return:
An American, an Englishman and a Russian are teaching a cat to eat mustard.
The first forces the cat to eat the mustard, the second tricks the cat, but the Russian covers the cat`s bottom with mustard. The cat licks it and squeals.
The Russian: "He`s eating it willingly and he`s singing too!"
LOL, which 95% of the fans are they going to jail?
Well, people who didn't stand in a line for vodka in 1985 in the USSR, know nothing of what a really long line really is ... :)
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