True.Deserter wrote: the reality is that there is a problem with casual drink-related violence among Brits that simply isn't replicated in many other places around the world.
Making sure people sit in their own seats, for example, is a good start.coneye wrote: only sell tickets to seats
The bit that I've highlighted I've always believed to be an massive exaggeration, out of literally millions of people who go out on the ale over a weekend in Britain I bet less than 0.25% are involved in violence, is it a problem? Of course but the idea of high streets resembling a war zone is again a massive exaggeration, until about 2 years ago when me and the missus started making babies I was a regular drinker, going out quite a lot and in almost a decade of going out on the ale in various places in the UK I don't think I've ever seen somewhere that resembles a war zone, sure you get paper and trays like you get in the chippy strewn all over the place, the odd puddle of puke and very rarely a pool of blood(though I can count on one hand how many times I've seen the latter and still have fingers spare) but nothing that makes me think "oh shit, what a mess we are" I'm not saying it doesn't happen but this idea that it's the norm in Britain is grossly exaggerated.Deserter wrote:Sorry Banjo, but that's a gross generalisation that ignores cultural norms - the reality is that there is a problem with casual drink-related violence among Brits that simply isn't replicated in many other places around the world. There are countless places in Europe, for example, where people choose to drink and socialize in a far more civilised fashion and where the local high street doesn't, therefore, resemble a war zone on a Saturday night.banjo wrote:Violence is something which has been with us since the dawn of humanity and always will be, it's instinctive, we are animals after all, no matter how 'civilised' we become that wild side will always be lurking inside much in the same way that a domesticated dog is still a dog and could turn on you and rip your throat out without warning.forcefraser wrote:It`s a British disease really. Total wankers.
I have been to huge boxing nights in Germany, small hall events in Sweden and Denmark, huge thai boxing nights in Bangkok and never once seen a sniff of trouble.
I`m English, buit moved abroad when I was 20 years old and it saddens me to see that some things never changed. Growing up near Leeds, it was all about where you come from, who you are suppossed to hate etc. Just utter bollocks really.
Maybe it`s something to do with being an island race or the fact that some people have just been brought up the wrong way, but the behaviour of some of these twats is totally unacceptable.
Brits abroad are worse, terrrible. Low life chave scum. It`s embarrassing.
It's not a national thing but a natural thing and compared to most countries we're pussycats, take a look at the Italians, Spaniards, Russians and South Americans for violence and utter stupidity among sporting fans.
In Dubai, on the few occasions I've witnessed fighting, it's almost always Brits who've instigated it.
Yeh, them Monster Jam crowds are outrageous.carlbcfc wrote:I had gone to Monster Jam @ NIA with the kids in the daytime, and then on to the boxing straight after. The contrast in the two atmospheres was amazing. Luckily, where I sat was ok (block 4), but it could of been worse has we opted for the cheaper seating where the trouble was.
The security knew nothing about the arena. Not one I spoke to knew where anything was. I also saw some Welsh pissing in the sink the mad fuckers. :D
Dom Joly wrote:A couple of years ago I made a television series called Happy Hour in which I travelled the globe, supposedly to "investigate cultural attitudes to alcohol". The show was for Sky One so basically it was an excuse for a lot of drinking and drink-related exploits. Despite visiting countries like Russia where they seem genetically disposed to drink, I didn't find anywhere that remotely compared to the very British disposition of mixing drinking and fighting. The Russians love to drink so much that beer is considered a soft drink. There aren't many bars either – they do not have time for sitting down and socialising while drinking. They simply get the bottle, neck it and pass out in the nearest corridor. Almost everywhere I visited had happy rather than violent drunks. So I often wonder what it is about our island that makes us so eager to get in a ruck with strangers? Sometimes I think it might be part of our social insecurity. As a reserved nation, the only way we can "touch skin", whether that be sex or fighting, is with the help of a little alcohol.
Having spent the past year or so travelling to some of the globe's less salubrious places for my book, I am now touring the country showing my holiday snaps and talking about my experiences. After every event, I have a question and answer session. Every time, I am asked: "Where have you been most frightened?" My answer is always taken as a joke and never fails to raise a laugh. I tell them that, despite having been to Iran, North Korea, Lebanon, Chernobyl, Syria, the place where I feel most threatened is any provincial British town after 9pm.
Even the most innocuous will produce gangs of drunken men staggering around looking for a fight in between urinating on every available piece of street furniture. When asked this question – whether in Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Brighton or Bristol – I have gone further and suggested the walk back to my hotel after the talk will be more nerve-racking than wandering around Tehran or sight-seeing in Pyongyang.
Having finished my last talk in Bristol, I started the 10-minute walk back to my hotel. Within a hundred yards I passed two men grappling on the pavement. As I tried to slip past, one of them paused and looked up at me: "What are you fornicating looking at?" I refrained from answering too honestly and moved on keeping my head down as catching someone's eye in the street is often deemed a personal attack on their lineage. I turned a corner – about seven "youths" were blocking the pavement, smoking and swigging from cans of industrial strength cider. I kept moving, head down but they refused to clear a path and I was forced to look up and ask whether I might be allowed through.
It doesn't help if you have a recognisable face. Within seconds all seven were screaming and shouting bastardised quotes from Trigger Happy. I pretended to be charmed as I edged round them and headed towards the protection of my hotel reminding myself to wear a hat and glasses next time I ventured out in Blighty after dark. Just as I thought I was clear, a can flew past my head. I turned, they were now in hot pursuit. I gave up all sense of decorum and legged it. I just beat them to the hotel and collapsed into the safety of a leather armchair and a stiff gin and tonic. Give me a quiet night out in Kabul any time.
A few of us, me especially, have been saying this for years. Yes, it will be - it's inevitable too. No, they aren't and they won't - at least not based on the evidence of the many shows I've been to.whicker wrote:If there is a serious injury (or worse) due to crowd violence, it may well be headline news. Lets hope organisers are sensible and pro active enough to do something before this happens.sg1985 wrote:
But while boxing is an underground sport as it is now, no-one cares enough to do anything about it in a serious way. If boxing was on the back pages in the same way football was this would get sorted.
I would have thought it was pretty obvious I wasn't using war zone in the literal context to be fair. As for the rest, you just appear to be changing the goalposts of your argument - you initially said it wasn't just Brits, it's the same everywhere else, and yet when several posters have said that simply isn't the case, you haven't been able to argue against that.banjo wrote:out of literally millions of people who go out on the ale over a weekend in Britain I bet less than 0.25% are involved in violence, is it a problem? Of course but the idea of high streets resembling a war zone is again a massive exaggeration
It's happened already - Remember that guy who died at a Silky Jones fight?Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:A few of us, me especially, have been saying this for years. Yes, it will be - it's inevitable too. No, they aren't and they won't - at least not based on the evidence of the many shows I've been to.whicker wrote:If there is a serious injury (or worse) due to crowd violence, it may well be headline news. Lets hope organisers are sensible and pro active enough to do something before this happens.sg1985 wrote:
But while boxing is an underground sport as it is now, no-one cares enough to do anything about it in a serious way. If boxing was on the back pages in the same way football was this would get sorted.
One day, someone is going to be killed or seriously injured - I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet.
No - I might have been out of the country then mate. Tell me more.orbtastic wrote:It's happened already - Remember that guy who died at a Silky Jones fight?Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:A few of us, me especially, have been saying this for years. Yes, it will be - it's inevitable too. No, they aren't and they won't - at least not based on the evidence of the many shows I've been to.whicker wrote: If there is a serious injury (or worse) due to crowd violence, it may well be headline news. Lets hope organisers are sensible and pro active enough to do something before this happens.
One day, someone is going to be killed or seriously injured - I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet.
yeah thats why there hasnt been a truly big card there for 20 years (the law reminded me off this)MacTavish wrote:This is all very depressing - wasn't there trouble at the last big show in Brum as well?
DThis coming from a Forest fanDavidPayne wrote:If you watched Birmingham every week you'd be on the lash and looking for confrontation by 9pm too.
You spent the million we gave you for Trevor Francis yet?TerribleTerry wrote:This coming from a Forest fan :shame: :DDavidPayne wrote:If you watched Birmingham every week you'd be on the lash and looking for confrontation by 9pm too.
Thanks for your thoughts. I like the idea of filming them and then banning them.steve richards wrote:I have been to shows all over the place, this isnt isolated to Birmingham it was kicking off at Khans last fight lads pointing fingers at people like they were going to shoot them (how the f*ck they were going to shoot anyone with there fingers i'll never know!!!), at Hattons fight in vegas there were lots of groups running around nicking stuff, a taxi driver said they were a few right naughty lads running around.
A proportion of Haye fans were coked out of there heads jumping over barriers in Germany, being a right pain in the arse.
Scott Harrisons fans were kicking the poop out of each other and then smashed up the garage outside the areana after he lost to Medina.
I was in Pompy when Oakey lost and the place went mental, me and my old man was running through the arena.
Its all over the place, mostly football related, there is always going to be a pissed up idiot shouting the odds about his team and someone will kick off.
Just film them, ban them, and let people go to these matches without fear.