ONE of the few benefits of reaching the autumn of your life is that little you see or hear has the capacity to shock.
But I'm sickened to the pit of my stomach by the events which occurred at Hull City's KC Stadium last Saturday afternoon.
Hull's visitors on the opening day of the Championship season were London club Queens Park Rangers.
At one stage in the second half, the several hundred Rangers supporters among the capacity crowd were subjected to chants from a group of Hull "fans" which were on a level of obscenity as to almost defy description.
Those chants aimed at the Rangers contingent were about the recent London bombings. One of the chants was: "They didn't kill enough of you."
To their everlasting credit, the Rangers supporters did not react violently to that shocking provocation - but I, for one, would not have blamed them if they had. They simply stood up, walked out of the ground while the match was in progress and began the long trip back home to the capital.
Creatures
Have you ever heard anything quite as disgusting as that? How can anyone with one shred of human decency taunt a group of visitors from London about the atrocities which have recently been inflicted on their city?
The appalling scenes we've all witnessed recently haven't just represented an attack on London. It is England the maniac bombers have been attacking. They wanted to strike fear into the hearts of people in Manchester, in Leeds and - yes - in Hull. And yet in Hull there a group of creatures sick enough to make up chants about the deaths of innocent people at the hands of terrorist bombers.
Hull chairman Adam Pearson has vowed to identify the culprits who chanted those obscenities on Saturday and ban them from the KC Stadium for life. I commend him for that, but much tougher action needs to be taken.
If Hull can identify that unspeakably evil group of supporters in their midst, then so can the police. And what happened at the KC Stadium last Saturday afternoon is a police matter.
Supporters convicted of making racist chants at a football match now face a prison sentence. Were the chants concerning the London bombings any less offensive than a racist chant? Not in my book they weren't.
The police in that neck of the woods will be failing in their duty if they don't attach great urgency to hunting down those despicable cockroaches who brought shame on all of Hull City's decent supporters last Saturday. Drag that twisted bunch into court and - if found guilty - throw them in jail.
What do you think of the comments from the Hull fans? Have your say.
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Whilst the events at the KC were clearly unpleasent, the exent of the coverage it has given rise to does seem to be out of all proportion. It is not helped when articles such as those by Hince persist in exagerating the matter, and quote chants that were not even sung. I was at the KC on Saturday, and whilst the actual chant of "You're town full of bombers" was sung by a very few idiots (you can add your own prefered term), it was not the full scale chanting that has been reported, indeed most wihtin the statium did not even here it. Clearly there is a problem with a small minority, which is being dealt with, but this is not a problem that is just confined to Hull City. In the past there have been chants directed at Bradford fans after the fire, to Liverpool fans after Hillsborough and of course the Man U fans over Munich, so this is not a new problem by any means. As a Londoner who has lived and worked near Hull for many years, it is wrong to suggets that the chants of a few represent the thougths of the vast majority of the Hull City. fans. I am not suggesting that that matter should not have been reported, or that that action should not be taken against those responsible, but some balanced reporting of the matter is needed.
I was there on Saturday, you weren't. Therefore I'm in a better position to tell you that it never happened like that. There was one brief chant of "town full of bombers" from some 20-30 idiots, but NO mention of "not enough fans dieing" nor did QPR fans leave in droves.
But don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant Mr Hince. And I bet you wont print this.
Thats OK then, Ian Bennett. Sorry for any offence you may have incurred.
Don't get me wrong Si, I'm not condoning it at all. Just a bit of balance would be nice. The club apologised to QPR on Monday and is doing all it can, QPR have accepted the apology and everyones moved on. Just some people want to give us all a bad name for the actions of 20. Shouldn't Mr Hince also be taking to task those Man Utd fans chanting about death to Glazer?
I agree entirely with Hince regarding the odious chants of the few and the culprits should be dealt with. However, here are some facts that Hince has not let get in the way of a good story.
The particular chant he quoted was not one that was heard at the game. This was a newspaper invention.
The QPR fans did not simply walk out of the stadium, a minority broke through the away fans security fence and proceeded to attack any Hull supporter, man woman or child in the adjacent car park.
How do I know, I was there.
Well said Paul. Its nice that someone in your position can say what the rest of us are thinking!
Sir,Your story is total fabrication.The only chant was a town full of bombers,by a few idiots for a few seconds.QPR supporters did not leave the stadium after this.The chant back from QPR was a racist are you muslims in disguise.After the game QPR supporters attempted to attack a fence to get at Hull Supporters,then assaulted women and children before looting their train on the way home.
Whats wrong with free speech? Fans can say what they like. They were just stating a fact! Its typical football fan behaviour, mocking the opposition anyway possible, to cause a reaction!Man utd fans have to deal with munich chants, liverpool with hillsborough chants, etc, football is full of sick chants, and no one bats an eyelid, dont understand why hince is so shocked!
Opposition fans have been taunting United fans about the Munich Air disaster for years. I'm sure that there are other sick supporters who taunt Liverpool about their fans who died. There should be no room in a football for people who considers chants such as these to be okay.
The chant from 20-30 so called fans was indeed repugnant.
The actions of the club and of the true fans since that point have been exeplary.
I was at the KC on Saturday. I did not hear any of the 'chanting'. However, from what I understand, the people singing it are probably just bored during their long summer holidays, as most were, I have been told aged 13-16. When the crowd realised what they had sang, I believe that they were greeted with silence followed by comments of disgust from the proper Hull City fans. The schoolchildren then realised what they had done was wrong. Although their actions were totally out of order, lets try to retain some proportionality. Adam Pearson is sorting it out. Let him get on with it. The Police, according to local press, are unable to take action in hindsight (they should have arrested them at the time and quite rightly chose not to. This could have created a worse situation). It is a Hull City problem which is being internally dealt with. Kids will be kids, eh.....
Paul, You should know from you playing and spectator days that there has always been a percentage of morons who are present in every walk of life and no amount of public outcry will alter their character. You should hear some of the things that are said about police when they have been involved in disasters. Most sensible people will condemn all such comments be they uttered at football matches or elsewhere
I went to this game & as an R's fan I can say that I did hear the first chant of 'your just a town full of bombers' but I did not hear the chant of 'not enough Londoners died'.
This is just media sensationalism! Its always good to knock football fans but in this case. I would like to present the facts not the fabricated ramblings of a Sunday tabloid!
This event was sparked by a minority of youths from Hull ( I would estimate it as less than 100) who decided to chant this less than sensible ditty. The vast majority of the Hull City fans 20 000+ took no part in this incident.
Yes it was disgusting that a FEW, where talking about 50 - 60
individuals, mainly youths thought it was funny to chant "a town full
of bombers",
the chant of "They didn't kill enough of you." is about the 5th
different take we have read about ,from the news of the world that
never really happened. This chant "not enough Londoners died" has
appeared (in different words) all over the world and not one word of
it true. Even QPR fans will agree that this never happened. So please
prove this before you attack our club any more.
There was so few people chanting "town full of bombers" that ITV
camera's, that had it as the main game on the championship couldn't
even pick it up.
The small group of fans chanted "You're just a town full of bombers" at QPR fans who had been loudly commenting on the disadvantages of living in the north. To be fair, our great capital does harbour some with intent to commit further outrages, so the chant did highlight one of the disadvantages of living in London.
The 'chant' you refer to simply didn't happen- get your facts right before slagging Hull in future.
It would be nice if you got your facts. right. A regrettable chant of "You're a town full of bombers" was heard. However no chant about not enough Londoners dies was uttered. We have been subjected, and our rugby clubs as well, to chants of "going down like your trawlers" for years, Hull having lost 6,000 at sea, without recourse to assaulting people.
A chant did go up which was ill-advised, the chairman is taking steps to ban those responsible.
Sir,
I found this story through a link on a Hull fans messageboard and as a QPR supporter who was actually at the game and heard the chant, I feel I'm qualified to comment.
The only chant sung was "You're just a town full of bombers" distasteful? crass? idiotic? offensive? ill-timed? Yes to all of those but the over reaction and sensationaIism by certain sections of the media disgust me more. I'd estimate around 100 fans joined in the chant, and as there was just over 20000 Hull fans present that represents approx 0.5% of the Hull fans. Think about that, it puts thing in perspective a little.
The chant of "not enough Londoners died" never occurred, FACT. Not one person, either Hull or QPR has admitted to hearing that. The chant of "you're just a town full of bombers" was wrong, I'm not denying that but I'm sick to death of the sensationalized, inaccurate rubbish spouted in the Media about this unfortunate incident.
Manchester City fans would never dream of singing the runway song to the Reds, would they?
i was at the game and have supported hull 30 years and am sickend by what a mindless minority did.i apologise to the qpr supporters on behalf of the genuine supporters we have.
One of the advantages of being in the 'autumn of your life' ought to be that you can take the time to think about things and give a considered response based on the facts of the case. Paul Hince has clearly decided to take an opposite path, going instead for a kneejerk reaction.
Precisely what offence does he suggest the police charge them with? He doesn't mention that, because there isn't an offence which covers it.
i dont exactly see what your trying to achieve bad mouthing hull in manchester manchester is hardly a innocent trouble free part of britain is it?and the chants of the man u fans towards liverpool about hilsborough are a million times worse.