Blame Manchester council!

They were happy to take the money and rip you off!

It's a poor, poor reflection of the calibre of some of these Rangers supporters.

It's a shame on Glasgow.

I don't think Manchester could've been ready for a 36 hour long 100k person drinking session. How does any city prepare for that on an average working week?

I agree with someone else's comments - I don't think the organisation was a shambles, I just think that it was an incredibly stupid plan.

How anyone thought that everything was going to run smoothly, I have no idea.

As a city centre resident, I am disgusted at Rangers behaviour in our city yesterday. I was awoken at 9am to chating and honking of car horns,only when i looked out of my balcony could i see the number of fans gathering at only mid day. The result of this, our city was left in a total mess, I have never seen such chaos in our city before. I witnessed men lining up again the wall accross from my balcony urinating up against the wall, one group of rangers fans hurled glass bottles at the front doors of my building, leaving our concierge powerless to stop them. I was horrified to find on the council website boasting the event would bring millions of pounds to the city, however, couldnt have predicted the levels devastation such a match would cause, and who thought of the idea of putting up large screens around our city - and the bar in st Albert Sq that openned at 10am? So much for the millions brought to the city - its now time to calculate the cost of cleaning up and policing.

The state of Piccadilly and Market Street this mornig were awful - like a bomb had gone off - Rangers fans should be ashamed of themselves. To say Manchester wasn't ready is a cop out - Rangers fans started to drink in the early hours of the morning yesterday. Most of them aswell still drunk when I got to work this morning at 9am. Not completely to blame the powers that be should be ashamed for letting the pound signs take over the rational thoughts that this was a disaster waiting to happen. It will cost double what anyone made yesterday to clean up the City and no-one will hold their hands up and say "yes it was our fault we messed up"

You can't blame the council for everything. You can't blame the council for people being drunk at half eight yesterday morning or the queues in the supermarkets stretching halfway down the street or the train carriage swimming with beer or the rubbish on the streets or the smashed bus shelters, banks and cars. Technical failures happen - it was unfortunate - but the football match was on terrestrial TV and people could quite easily have stayed at home to watch it. The council can be blamed for encouraging people to come down to Manchester and for putting the screen right in the middle of the main public transport interchange but not the carnage that followed. It wasn't a nice atmosphere in town for every happy drunk yesterday, there was someone being aggressive. In future keep the football matches at the football grounds and don't take over the whole of the city. And for those people that argue "it's only one day", the clean up is going to last a bit longer than one day.

Most Rangers fans were good-natured and polite. Many of the general public are too fearful of football fans, allowing previous media images of hooliganism to taint what is for the most part harmless banter. Making provisions for the thousands of fans was necessary but the location of the screens in Piccadilly: the main transport hub for workers in Manchester has to be questioned. My experience of Fan Fests in the World Cup and European championships is that they tend to be on large open spaces or waste ground. Why wasn’t Heaton Park or Platt Fields Park used or even Old Trafford? I know a lot of fans would still have wanted to be in the city centre but at least it would have eased over-crowding come kick-off when most fans’ priority switches from walking around the city centre to watching the match. The city centre has not been destroyed – not seen any windows smashed in, just a huge clear-up of litter needed which would have been the same even if things had gone without incident. Really hope though that the visiting Scots remember on the way home that attempts were made to accommodate them, laws were relaxed on their behalf and not that the technical problem that a screen failed to work. Manchester’s reputation as a welcoming city should remain intact.

Saying sorry is not good enough and too late;if they behaved better then they wouldn't need to apologise. And the police were right to move in and control when it was obviously clear the fans couldn't.

You would have needed hundreds of waste bins to stop the amount of rubbish which has ended up on the streets to be cleared, then what had we done that the bins would have been used as missiles, the alternative was to close all the premises which served alcohol, that really wasnt an alternative, it was hot, people were in holiday mood and whether scots or english thats what we are known for, hot weather and booze, the more the better, come on read the papers.

I said this and I say it again, why did GMP not use tear gas and water cannons on these animals? If that still fails, their G36s will stop them for good!

The fact of the matter is Manchester was unorganized and not ready for hosting a final with Rangers fans involved. I am from Glasgow and I live in Manchester - my whole family are Rangers fans. To think that you could put a few screens up in the City Centre last minute and allow the free for all of booze to flow is ridiculous - there was no hassle in Seville with the Celtic fans, because Seville prepared for it. And all these pathetic people moaning about the mess on the street - well you should petition not to hold any major football events, as it comes with the territory - as a major footballing city, as a host you are pathetic. My 70 year old grandfather was here praising how wonderful Manchester was and even though he has condemned the very small percentage of idiots fighting last night, he still feels that the day was a success and I completely agree - stop the snobbery - we shall await the results of the Moscow game!!!!!

Frightened for my safety! That's how I felt early yesterday evening while walking through town to get to and from my apartment building! Why? Because there were thousands of louts on the streets (all here by kind invitation of our very own City Council!).

I was completely astonished to see newspapers and litter throughout the city centre. There were broken glass bottles EVERYWHERE, not to mention gangs of so-called football fans charging round the public areas of our city, already completely inebriated but still with dozens more cans of lager yet to drink.

Heading down one street I ended up having to turn back for fear of my personal safety, with gangs of drunken men jumping up and down on the tops of bus shelters, glass bottles being thrown across the road and men (and by that I mean more than one or two) openly urinating in the street, on pavements, against walls, trees and in one case virtually in the middle of the road!

One elderly lady, walking down the tramline (where trams had all been cancelled, also as a result of this invitation) was finding it difficult to find space to walk safely in between broken glass, empty lager crates and screwed-up newspapers! In fact, it was a miracle she made it through safely! There were even mums with children wondering which way to go so to avoid being embroiled in any possible trouble.

When I spoke to the Police, they admitted that drinking on the streets is not allowed but that they had no chance of enforcing the law as there weren't enough of them against 100,000, even if the entire police force were out! If any other crimes were reported, it is also quite obvious that they would not have been able to be tackled because of the sheer scale of the police's commitments with the football screens fiasco!

What on earth was Manchester City Council thinking when they decided to invite such numbers to our already busy city? Did they really think it through properly? They did say it would bring money into our local economy, but to have all this mayhem, violence and drunken loutishness is just not on. I am also left wondering what the costs to our city will be from damage caused, clearing up needed and extra policing put in place, not to mention damage done to residents' sense of security in navigating their way around their own city as a direct result of the actions of their own city council.

Manchester isn't a walled Roman city any more - we can't stop people coming and going freely and nor should we. I'm sure the majority of people living and working in Manchester experienced thousands of good-natured fans yesterday, and the numbers were quite stunning. We've hosted major events before but this was like nothing I've ever seen. As for the litter, has anyone seen the mess outside Old Trafford just after kick off? It just gets tidied up and that's that! After the Rangers clean-up is finished (I'd give it another couple of hours) and the city is back to normal, we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about and refelcting on a great day with some minor disturbances. (btw, I wish I could have a lie in till 9 a.m.!)

I live in the Northern Quarter and I'll agree with most that it was exceptionally noisy. However, I did not not see one bit of trouble from any of the Rangers fans. I don't think that they should get all the blame for this, Manchester was not prepared and surely they should have checked to make sure the screen was working earlier and not leave it until the match had started.
People are making out that the Rangers fans are nothing but animals. They are wrong, they are just football fans here to watch the match and have a good time.
How often do we hear on the news that us Brits cause trouble whenever we go to watch big matches. It's a combination of the heat and alcohol, it was to be expected.

As a resident of Northern Ireland, I feel I must apologise for the behaviour of Northern Irish rangers 'fans' in Manchester during the UEFA Cup final. Having witnessed the carnage these 'people' have left behind, I find it embarrassing and disgraceful. I have visited Manchester on several occasions, and have found the majority of Mancunians most accomodating and friendly. It is disappointing to see the state of the streets of this beautiful city this morning. Those responsible on cctv should be made to clean the mess they've left behind. These animals have tarnished the reputation of British football and our fans who work hard to eraticate hooliganism. Ban them from Europe for five years

It's not snobbery, Kirsty, it's simply a matter of public decency. A quality clearly lacking in many of the Rangers support.

Manchester hosts football fans week in, week out. Yet the scum-like scenes evident from last night are not the norm.

May they never, never return.

That's supposed to be saying sorry is it? "Sorry but it was everyone else's fault, really -- the police, the city council, the city itself -- not the fans though, oh no. They were provoked, the poor dears."

I would really like to know what those people who criticize the council for this think MCC could have done about it. The UEFA final was bid for last year. Should they have not bid on the off chance that Rangers might make the final? And as for the "inviting 200,000 Rangers fans" to the city ... eh??! The Rangers fans decided they were coming; what exactly are MCC supposed to do about that? Set up road blocks on every road into the city centre? Patrol the streets and escorting everyone with a Scottish accent out of the city?

No, Rangers fans took it upon themselves to descend on the city en masse. The council tried to accommodate them as best as they could, even to the extent of setting up three (actually, four in the end) big screens -- something they didn't have to do -- and by way of thanks, the city gets trashed and insulted by hoardes of thugs trolleyed out of what little brains they have.

Rangers FC should issue a formal apology for (a minority of) their fans' behaviour.

Couple of points I'd like to make:

- walking through town at 9pm last night while the match was still on and loads of Rangers fans were just milling around not even watching the game. Why did they bother coming here?

- no Rangers fan, well-behaved or not, should have the gall to say "shame on Manchester" for running out of booze and the technical fault with the screen

- it's very sad to think that Manchester's reputation has been sullied by this, as Richard Leese said this morning on BBC Breakfast. I doubt any other city would have handled it any better than us

- what did Glasgow city centre do? Did they have big screens up and fanzones??

Looking at some of the comments, nobody seems to have mentioned the stink! colleagues tell me that Piccadilly station was truly offensive this morning with all types of bodily fluids liberally strewn around. I've just been to a cash point on Mosley Street and the stench took my breath away! Scottish Conservatives are going to see if GMP overreacted! Well they can have the next lot in Glasgow and sit back and do nothing if they want, we'll expect our police to protect our city, it's citizens and visitors.

You're 'sorry'? Oh, that makes it alright then.

Being a Scot myself (living in Manchester), I am no way surprised about the events of last night. All Scots are aware of the fact that Rangers fans are the most violent, racist and bigoted in the entire UK. They leave a trail of devastation WHEREVER they go. Sadly the SPL is too scared to do anything because they're the Bully Boys of Scotland. Some lovely incidents I witnessed over the last couple of days:

*2 Asian lads being chased into a Vodafone shop by around 12 Rangers fans shouting "there's no black in the Union Jack".

*My friend being called a "Catholic ****" for wearing a Rome tourist t-shirt.

*Countless songs about being 'up to our knees in Fenian blood', paedophiles in the Catholic church and 'Manchester, wash yerselves' (incredibly ironic).

*Countless 'protestant and proud' t-shirts.

*Countless 'kick the pope' t-shirts.

*Fans urinating anywhere and everywhere.

One of the things about Rangers in Europe is they see it as the perfect setting to voice their anti-Catholic songs, having been told they will face fines and points deductions if they do it in Scotland.

By the way, when will Rangers fans understand - nobody CARES about religion in football? It's utterly laughable they take it so serious.

For the entire Rangers fanbase, I am absolutlely delighted they lost last night.

"I don't know if the mess and the aggro was our fault." - oh was it not you lot who wrecked our city? Must have been those naughty Zenit fans eh?

I don't understand Glaswegian logic.
The screen doesn't work so they decide to hurl cans and bottles at each other; their fellow fans.

This was destined to happen from the word go.

False apologies aren't enough. I never want to see another Scot again in my life.

Don't tar all the Rangers fans with the same brush. I am not a Rangers fan but I was in Manchester yesterday and although there were wall to wall people and you couldn't get anywhere because of the crowds, the fans I encountered were good natured, happy and friendly. I did not see any bad behaviour (apart from all the litter that was left). Considering how many people had descended on the city and also considering that the police presence was minimal and in some areas, non-existent, the fans behaved well. It is a shame that a small minority who behaved so badly get all the publicity. I was surprised to see so few police and it isn't surprising that things got out of control because of the small numbers of officers present. I do not think the city was well prepared enough for this match. I went to Piccadilly station at 10pm to get my train home, the station was flooded with fans and the station took the driver off my train which meant hundreds off us were stranded with no way of getting home. This does not give a good impression of the city at all.

Scotland shame right enough. These animals cant go any where without their disgusting behaviour or views . People of Manchester I as a glaswegian I apologize for these idiots in your city. They are just the same bunch of idiots up here to . Both the blue and Green disgust me . This is one of the reasons why I support the first div team Partick Thistle.

Who was at fault this time? I'm sick of Rangers fans looking to blame others, their board asking the Scottish Media to play down reports on their behaviour, bigotry and sectarianism to help them work towards a better public image and their mealy mouthed comments of 'it was fans not normally attached' to Rangers. They go to Spain and blame the Spaniards, go to Germany and blame the Germans, stab and kill opposition fans for being, well, the enemy. Scum of the earth.