.........that's the name of the Panorama programme just started on BBC. Maybe a biased report from Aunty, but I'll report it as it appears on TV.

It all starts off with a bunch of Geordies out for a good time. Not your typical hooli but out to enjoy a summer holiday supporting their national team. Raucous "laddish" enoyment on the ferry fron Newcastle to Hamsterjam. First thing on arrival, they are detained by the Dutch authorities because they are travelling in a group of 10 but are eventually released without any further proceedings.

The first sign of English hoolis is confrontation between English "fans" drinking heavily and generally abusing other nationalities. The Beeb had already identified recognised English trouble makers. The chants are very jingoistic, anti-IRA and racist. Not a lot to do with supporting your national football team. "If you're proud to be a fascist......." "Die, die Turkey, f*cking die". Hardly likely to enamour one to ones European neighbours.

English police were apparently onsite but could only try to pass information to their Dutch colleagues. But at least there was little trouble in Holland. Next comes Germany in Belgium. Known hoolis (one banned from every ground in England) gets off Eurostar in Lilles missing te checks in Brussels. "No surrender" echoes around the Grand Place. Known English hoolis with previous convictions for violence (footy and non-footy related) were clearly evident.

As soon as the violence started (provoked by the racist English), the Belgian police waded in, batons flying. Violence escalated and a riot ensued. All this in Brussels. There was a Turkish ellement present. The cops tried to make mass-arrests, indiscriminently firing CS gas into a bar, despite little evidence of any major incident although some previous offenders were present. It seems there was a mixture of known (to the Belgians??) hoolis and totally innocents, then arresting all in the bar. It was admitted to be a strategy whereby the Belgian police herded all the English together. It seems that the Brits felt they shold be excused for winning the war. Innocent locals got caught up in the tear gas attacks.

Charleroi has a Turkish community (why was this not recognised when English games were scheduled to play ther???) Clearly, there was fault on both sides. Turks provoking Brits and vice versa. The authorities "managed" it as if it was a military exercise, with icons for different groups of nationalities. There certainly seemed to be a hard core of idiots on both sides whcih started the fighting, chair throwing etc, Passers-by got caught up in the action. Some English "fans" tries to break into the ground before the match. They were repelled by pepper spray. Eventually, violence broke out among the various factions of English supporters, despite the fact that England had just beaten Germany less than a mile away.

On Monday, Turkish fans went looking for Brits. Clearly there is fault on both sides but the English seemed to provoke things.

OK, so it might have been a ne-sided view, and reported very quickly after the events, but as the saing goes, there's no smoke...........

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2000

Answers

For obvious reasons, I have been trying to avoid entering most of these postings this last coule of days, but I have to say that my biggest problem as far as that programme tonight is concerned is that I was told it three weeks ago that Panorama were working on the programme and that it would be shown if the 'fans went bang'

I'm sure that there is a case for the no smoke without fire analagy, but I still also say.....and am stepping on a lot of friends toes in doing so.....but the TV are as much to blame for whipping this situation up to basically what we see at the moment.

I hate to slag off 'my own people' but this situation makes me feels sick to the gut.....I actually overheard two journ's in the tea bar last Tuesday (after the Portugal game) and one said to the other "don't you think the sparkle went out of Euro 2000 when they behaved themselves last night......." speaks f***ing volumes to me!

That's my last word on this issue.................possibly!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2000

A very interesting and very depressing programme. It is hard to imagine that some of these meat-heads are from the same planet let alone the same country as most of the rest of us.

IMHO we need to change the culture surrounding the whole business of supporting football teams. Personally, I'd like to see get-togethers with opposing fans and an absence of fan baiting in the songs and chants. However I know this may not be popular as many seem to like this baiting element.

I've never been into fan baiting but that may be because I've more often than not been on the receiving end as a Toon fan. (-;

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2000

It seemed to me that far from the ten or twenty real sh*theads inadvertently involving hundreds of 'innocent' bystanders, there appeared to be hundreds of real sh*theads. Or was it the biggest con known to TV ?

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Not a con so much, as ill thought out, and selective camera work. They weren`t telling us anything we didn`t know already. We knew there would be a hardcore of braindead hoolies out there, mix them up with your average badly behaved larger louts, throw in a camera, and you`ve got the pictures you want. No point in taking a camera into a nice quiet bar where people are happily mixing with the opposition and having a good time - doesn`t make for interesting telly does it?

I can think of a dozen different angles that the BBC could have approached this programme from, the part the media plays in exacerbating the problems for instance, but that would have required a bit of soul searching on their part. (:o|

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

I heard on the local news this morning, that 15 of the fans deported were from Yorkshire persumed to be Leeds fans

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

I thought it was excellent. As usual the hidden camera told far more than the open ones did. The usual thing you see with people going for camera crews, and a jolly good thing too. A ban on all cameras outside the ground might make a Hell of a difference to behaviour since they definitely up the ante and bring out the exhibitionists.

The best aspect of the documentary was talking to the other fans behaving themselves and also by divorcing the hard core knobheads from football. Watching these twats glassing one another while England were actually playing really shows the priorities of this shower.

As usual, they managed to identify a half dozen people who shouldn't have been allowed to get there. There is no point whinging about Belgian passport control letting people through, the checks should be in our country; these characters are products of our society and we should be the ones stopping them from travelling. Time to grab that hot potato or face up to being out of international competition (if we ever produce players capable of qualifying).

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000