Chelsea supporters in the home stands

[kick it off 1,952]

[quote user="Crabbycanary3"]I have been in the home crowd, at a Binners v City game. It was a tad difficult..........................[/quote]

My Dad won tickets to the Binners away in a competition... he wasn''t 100% sure about going because he''d have to sit in the home end - he decided to go (180+ miles each way).... and it was THAT momentous game.... Somehow managed to keep his mouth shut for the first 4 goals. He celebrated number 5 as most of the binners had gone home at that point. I''m glad I couldn''t go as I''d have got my head kicked in. I think I could manage to keep a lid on it most places (although I''ve never actually had to do it), but not Portman Road.

[kick it off 1,952]

[quote user="daly"]Lived in The States for 10 years and went to lots of football matches in Sacramento and San Jose where fans are not segregated and enjoy a beer and hot dog with no problems.

Never going to happen in UK with the yob minority element looking to provoke the opposition supporters.

PS Some of the worst of those supporters are far from kids[/quote]

Football is a weird one. It''s not just here there is a problem with it though, in Turkey they had a complete ban on away fans for the Fenerbahce vs Galatasaray derby for several years (although I think it may have been lifted now). Their solution was just 100% home fan allocation for each game. No idea if any away fans snuck in - I presume some must have but I''d imagine there were about 60,000 reasons to keep their mouths shut if they did!

They also had some interesting games when the fans played up against other teams so the league banned adult males from attending so only women and children were allowed in - they all got cheap/free tickets. Nice alternative to having to play behind closed doors.

Conversely, Rugby has no segregation here. I went to the NFL at Wembley and it was no segregation although that was a bit less partisan as you have so many fans of random teams going just because we only get a few games per year, but there''s no segregation in the states either.

Wonder what the issue is that makes football so tribal in some countries and not others. I guess US teams are more transient generally as the leagues operate on the franchise model and move cities etc but even so, rugby etc doesnt seem to have the same issue football does.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Don''t expect Chelsea away fans to sit there respectfully. Nasty bunch, even at home. Stewards need to man up if this happens.

[daly 505]

Tumbleweed

Are you allowed to say Man Up in this politically correct world we live in

[Branston Pickle 3,662]

I''ve been to dozens of away games in home areas and plenty of games as a neutral, and no one tends to mind you not being a devout ''homer'' - as we don''t - if you don''t start acting like a muppet. The problem is too many seem to think they can do whatever and it leads to problems - our stewards do seem to be particularly rubbish at sorting things out, though.