Forget if we can our loss in the final and the fallout from the penalties. Some of that has overshadowed the disorder in and around the stadium. The numbers storming the turnstiles have now been reported at 5000. Those numbers, if anywhere near true, are shocking and pose difficult questions for football authorities, fans and government.
The displays of mass drunkenness and disorder in London and other cities, the disgraceful behaviour towards opposing fans and the level of general criminality shame us. I know other countries have had serious problems with their fans but surely that is not the standard we measure ourselves against.
Football generates the highest of passions and usually their release without violence and disorder. Those experiences should be available for all; they do not belong only to young, adult males fuelled up and primed for aggression.
To be honest, I think the paralytic drunkeness on display and all that went with it, whether it was the bloke with the flare up his arris, the bloke with the small cock dancing on Olympic Way, or another lad openly scoobing and snorting nose-bang to cheers from other fans etc is sadly more associated with the obligatory 'day out at Wembley'. I've seen this increasingly on display over the last 10 years whenever there is a major cup final match or rugby league game at Wembley. I should know; I only live down the road. But 'jibbing', or bunking your way into the ground aggressively without a ticket is something new and proper w@nky, bin-dipper behaviour, especially given the obvious security implications. I suspect that if the Designer Outlet and various bars, terraced areas and food stalls bt the stadium weren't in situ of the former car parks then the police would have easily observed and monitored the fans gathering and planning each of their respective assaults on the outer perimeters and turnstiles and nipped it in the bud early doors.
The 'Wembley Day Out' shithousery that I've seen enough of in the surrounding Harrow and Wembley areas really takes the shine off of Wembley being a showpiece final for me. Whilst the old Wembley was a river of spilt beer's, p1ss, hamburgers, and 'orsesh1t, it at least had a heritage and an incredible atmosphere to the place and already-after only 14 years- you can see the wear and tear in the new stadium, particularly in the wear of the concrete and ceiling fixtures. And back in the day, people could would get drunk, not decimated by 12pm, as you ran the risk of being refused entry.
But truly, it's the state of some of the more recent visitors to the 'new' Wembley, whether it's a group of Huddersfield fans in Weekend Offender or Henri Lloyd garb giving it the biggun but barely able to speak or stand up, or a Manchester City fan with the blue/purple sick stain of 'Dark Fruits' cider covering his replica shirt, or a Tranmere 'lad' sucker punching and K/O'ing a Newport fan outside a takeaway shop; it makes for an increasingly a depressing experience on matchday, visitor or local, especially if I'm sober and passing on the way home from work. But seeing more than 1,500+ fans storm the gates and occupy the areas reserved for disabled fans or the families of the Italian squad was truly a low point.
Going by the Everton, Liverpool, Manchester (City and United), Sunderland and Wigan fans I work with, it seems to generally be a minority of fans from up North or further afield who seem to bring more chaos and it's usually because they have been on the sauce since boarding the early train to Euston or Kings Cross from 6 or 7 am onwards. Funnily enough, I heard that most of the jibbers on Sunday were Burnley, Blackburn and City/United fans.
Don't get me wrong, I do remember a small of Millwall fans (about 10 of them) jumping over the Town End wall to access Priestfield when we played them at home, but this was more than 23 years ago and and Millwall only had been given 1,300 away tickets (compared with the 3,200 or so the previous year). Also, I don't discount the Swine or any other West Country team being bellends on a Wembley outings, yet the art of 'jibbing' your way through an away day - whether it's not paying for train travel, match tickets, food or even strippers- seems anecdotally to be be a Northern thing.
