City counts cost of Uefa final

David Ottewell

May 16, 2008

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MANCHESTER was today still counting the cost of its Uefa cup hangover.

Nearly 100 extra street cleaners were deployed round-the-clock to clean up the piles of rubbish, smashed glass and thousands of abandoned bottles strewn around the city by departing Rangers fans.

More than 100 tons of rubbish had been collected by yesterday afternoon.

Police had 1,500 officers on duty at the scene and had to find 300 more when violence erupted. They too were getting back to normal shift patterns.

A council spokesman said it was still too early to say what the cost would be - or who would pick up the bill.

Police confirmed that 10 Rangers supporters - all men - had been charged with criminal offences.

Seven were charged with public order offences, one with assault, one with being drunk in a sports ground and one with throwing a missile. A further 11 Rangers fans were bailed pending further inquiries. A dozen more accepted cautions that will go on their criminal records. Seven other men - including one Zenit St Petersburg fan - were released without charge.

Sir Richard Leese, council leader, defended planning surrounding the event.

He said 11,000 of the fans in Piccadilly Gardens had been transferred by bus to a reserve screen at the Velodrome in East Manchester.

And he defended GMP's `softly, softly' approach to the drinking of alcohol on city streets during the build up to the game.

He said: "Do you really think we were going to stop 100,000-plus Glaswegians wanting to have a drink?"

As well as the council, both Uefa and Lightmedia Display - the company that provided the screen - are drawing up their own reports.

Eddie Smith, MD of Lightmedia, said his company was still investigating the `technical signalling problem' that caused the screen to fail.

What do you think? Have your say.

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Karney for head of GMPTA(formerly MC Spanner) (16/05/2008 at 10:41)

He said: "Do you really think we were going to stop 100,000-plus Glaswegians wanting to have a drink?"

No, but you could have stopped the sale of alcohol in the City Centre,had Fan Zones out of the Piccadilly area, tidied up some of the crap by providing more bins and had somebody other than Fred Karney and his Circus running the show. SOmebody who didn't spend the whole day courting the media.

Karney for head of GMPTA(formerly MC Spanner) (16/05/2008 at 11:14)

There may be the added costs of looking for Pat Karney. He seems to have gone missing from the media since up it all went wrong?

Maybe he was hijacked and taken to Glasgow

citycentre, manchester (16/05/2008 at 11:20)

So the council don't know how much it will cost to clean up Manchester, but I think we all know it will be us hapless council tax payers how end up paying, as usual.
Its unlikely Tesoc or Aldi will offer any of the profits they made selling beer to the Rangers fans?
Or maybe all the concerned Scots posting here to say it was just a minority and we shouldnt judge them all could chip in a tenner each?

Clare (16/05/2008 at 12:11)

I was told this morning by a local from Manchester that 300 fans stayed behind and helped clean up some of the mess. If only all fans would have this kindness.

If there was a drinking ban and the fan zone area's were tickted like a T in the Park or other events half of this mess wouldn't be here.

paul Wood (16/05/2008 at 13:13)

perhaps they could send some of these invisible street cleans to the pavements of Grt Ancoats, tarrif st, dale st, ducie st or in fact anywhere on the way to eastlands. It is nightmare trying to walk our dog and there is no sign of any clean up. MCC are a bunch of greedy fat cats for staging this, nothing else.

doris or rupert, manchester (16/05/2008 at 13:22)

street cleaning -make the Councellors pay personally. they made the crazy decision
and also who is going to sort out the rubbish our eco friendly Council insist we do.
ref the decision not to allow street party tv screens for mufc game next week in euro cup. good idea the pubs,clubs and itv viewing is sufficient

notadomesticgoddess, Lochwinnoch (16/05/2008 at 14:07)

I was one of the Rangers fans who came down for the match. I was lucky enough to have a ticket. I will not condone violence in any way shape or form.
That said, I believe Manchester City Council have created their own problems. When they realised a British team was in the final, a fan zone in a park away from the city centre should have been set up.
Skips should have been provided for the waste - my 7 year old couldn't find a bin and one point.
Alcohol should not have been on sale. How do you stop people drinking? Hard one, but being able to buy it from 6.30 am is not going to help create a party atmosphere.
Should Rangers fans be banned from Europe? No, because it was not true fans who caused the violence, the true fans were too involved with the game.

Joan, FW, FORT WILLIAM (16/05/2008 at 15:50)

I TRAVELLED TO MANCHESTER FOR WEDNESDAY'S GAME WITH MY HUSBAND AND WE HAD A GREAT TIME BUT THE CITY COUNCIL WERE NOT PREPARED AND UEFA NEED TO LOOK CLOSELY AT WHERE FINALS ARE STAGED. AS SOON AS IT REACHED 1/4 FINAL STAGE AND RANGERS WERE STILL IN THE CUP A CONTINGENCY PLAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUT IN PLACE TO CREATE A FANZONE IN A PARK AREA OUTSIDE THE CENTRE WITH ENTRANCE AND ALCOHOL SALES CONTROLLED. EVENTS SUCH AS GLASTONBURY SHOULD HAVE BEEN USED AS AN EXAMPLE. RANGERS HIRED THE BIGGEST PORTABLE SCREEN AVAILABLE FOR THE BEAMBACK TO IBROX WITH 13 DAYS NOTICE, AND ARRANGED TO ACCOMODATE 38,000 MANCHESTER SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLANNING JUST IN CASE A BRITISH TEAM MADE IT TO THE FINAL. HAVING SAID ALL THAT WE'D LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE WHO MADE US SO WELCOME AND ASSURE YOU THAT THOSE PEOPLE WHO CAUSED TROUBLE TRULY AREN'T REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR CLUB OR OUR COUNTRY.

PaulRangersFan, Barrhead (16/05/2008 at 17:22)

It is unfortunate that there are neds that follow every football club. I am disgusted that Rangers fans got involved in shameful street violence. I would say though that Manchester City Council and the police could have managed the situation far better. There was meant to be a ban on glass bottles in the fanzones and this wasn't enforced. Cans were allowed which seems crazy. You might as well leave piles of bricks lying around. At music festivals they only allow in plastic bottles and this works very well. There were around 12,000 fans in Picadilly fanzone and from early afternoon they were told if they left they wouldn't get back in. People were enduring 7-8 hours reserving their spot to watch the game in unacceptable conditions. There were about 10 portaloos for 12,000 people with the biggest carry-out of drink you'll ever see. Fans there to see the biggest game for their club in 36 years and had been crushed in a facility that wasn't sufficient. Because the attitude to drink was so relaxed fans were totally drunk. There was virtually no police presence until the screen failed then baton/sheild bearing police appeared with dogs menacing. It has also been said that the problems with the screen were known well before the game started. If this had been dealt with early the fans could have been dispersed to watch the game as it was the game was under way and in reality fans were going to miss all or most of the game by the time they were bussed to the Velodrome. There was virtually no trouble at the other fanzones or the match itself which does suggest that the failure of the screen was a trigger for the trouble that followed. Rangers fans were involved but there were also 'casuals' who weren't wearing Rangers clothing who were heavily involved. I am not saying Rangers fans are innocent but if this was virtually any other club in similar circumstances there would have been trouble. I hope that the enquiry will condemn the management of the event by the council and police. More importantly I hope that CCTV will allow more of the offenders to be brought to justice.

Audenshaw Bob (16/05/2008 at 17:59)

Joan, before Wednesday I said that anyone without a ticket should be taken to Heaton Park and be made to wait there until the game is over. No big screens, no alcohol, nothing.

Stay at home and watch it on tv and trash your lounge instead. ANIMALS.

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