Blinded fans warns of Turkey trouble
From the archive, first published Friday 10th Oct 2003.
A diehard England fan who was blinded by a missile thrown by rival fans when England last played in Turkey has warned supporters not to travel to Istanbul.
Mark Raven will miss only his second England game in ten years when he stays at home for tomorrow's Euro 2004 qualifier.
His right eye was cut in half by a coin thrown by a Turkish fan during England's 2-0 win in Izmir in March 1993.
He said: "The Football Association and police don't want England fans to travel and I can see why.
"People need to look at the possibility something nasty could happen. They should stay at home."
Mr Raven, 33, said he had decided to stay away as soon as the groups for the qualifying stages were drawn.
He said: "Ever since the fixtures were announced I knew I wouldn't be going.
"I will be watching it in a pub.
"I got my right eye cut in half by a coin at the match in Izmir.
"I was taken to a training hospital where I underwent surgery but they couldn't save the sight.
"I was in hospital for a week before being flown back to Moorefields eye hospital in London.
"They had trained the surgeons who operated on me and confirmed I had been blinded on impact."
Turkey were given a six-month ban from home games by UEFA as punishment for the incident - but did not have a scheduled game there for seven months anyway.
Mr Raven, who supports Brighton and Hove Albion and works in the finance department at Brighton University, thinks there could be more trouble in England tomorrow night than in Turkey.
He said: "I don't think many people will travel to Turkey.
"What with the security cordon around the stadium, I really think people are going to find it difficult to even get close to the ground.
"I know a lot of people through England games and I do not know of anyone who is going.
"There will probably be more trouble in this country with people fighting with Turkish people living here.
"The atmosphere at the Turkey game in Sunderland in April was reasonably hostile but it was still the best atmosphere I have seen at a football ground.
"There were 5,000 Turks there who helped the atmosphere.
"We were staying in Newcastle and didn't see any trouble all day.
"I think the arrests that were made took place before any trouble.
"If this hadn't been the last match in the group and the deciding fixture, I don't think we would be in the same situation.
"UEFA should have seen the potential and rescheduled the fixture so it wasn't make or break.
"It will decide who wins the group and who has to go through to the play-offs."
Mr Raven admitted he had seen violence when travelling to England games.
But he said the last World Cup was the most well-behaved he had been to.
He said: "There was trouble in Italy in 1990 and we saw the trouble in Zurich before the Liechtenstein game.
"However, in Japan for the World Cup last year we spent a month there and saw no trouble whatsoever.
"The vast majority of England fans are true supporters but there is this minority which gives England the bad name, which I think we have.
"I have been to places such as Georgia, Macedonia and Moldova and not seen anything and the people were really friendly to us."
England need a draw in Istanbul to secure a place in next summer's European Championships in Portugal.
Mr Raven said: "It will be strange not to be there but hopefully we will get the result we need."
If England do qualify for Euro 2004, Mr Raven is set to marry fiancee Liz O'Brien between the end of the domestic football season and the European championships
Friday, 10 October 2003
Saturday, 6 September 2003
A v Macedonia 6.9.2003
Words by Mark Raven
Pictures by Liz O'Brien
Macedonia v England 6.9.2003 Euro 2004 Qualifier
So England fans had been banned from Macedonia, a dangerous precedent set by our FA in electing not to take up any tickets for this match. Ignoring the ban on
Thursday 4th I left work at lunch time, met up with Liz and we were at Gatwick in plenty of time for our 5.30 flight to Thessaloniki. We hoped to keep our heads down and a low profile at Gatwick because the police were swarming around our check in desk! We were of course holiday makers not football fans! As we checked in the lads around us were section 60'd by he Police, we were met with "hello Liz and Mark, I wonder where you are going?" by the Sussex Police that travel to all Brighton away games. He just noted our names down and left it at that with no more questions.
We checked in fine as did the other 30 or so England fans going the same route as us. They were on an organised trip staying in Halkidiki and getting a coach over to Skopje. Our flight going out was delayed by 2 hours and we eventually took off at about 8pm for our 3 ½ hour flight. With the time difference we landed at 1.30am, jumped in a taxi and were soon in our hotel in Parear just outside Thessaloniki and about 5 meters from the beach!
On the Friday we went in nice and early to Thessaloniki station to book our train tickets to Skopje. In front of us was a mate I hadn't seen since being in a curry
house in Brussels in Euro2000. We booked up together and for 24 Euros had the trains booked. We headed back into Thessaloniki and went sight seeing. As with many parts of Greece it is full of history and we visited places such as the White tower, many old ruins and of course a couple of bars for some refreshments as it was about 30C.
Saturday and it was up early as the train to Skopje left at 8.04am. We met up with Gary and there were about another dozen or so England fans on the train. We shared our carriage with a Germany and an Israeli student on the way back to Germany, it was going to take then about 40 hours! The train was slow as once outside Thessaloniki it had to change engines twice as it need to change direction! We then had to pass through the Greek passport control
and then on to Macedonian passport control and yet another engine change. We had no hassle whatsoever and they even said are you going to football, and just stamped our passport and gave them back.
The journey was just over 4 ½ hours but with the 1 hour time difference arrived just after 11.30am. The train was met by a hoarding mob, not of trouble makers but friendly Macedonians trying to sell us tickets by the hand full and taxi rides. We had arranged to meet our contact to get our tickets (Cheers xxxxxxx as he wishes to remain anonymous, but he was a star and sorted the 3 of us out!). We got a taxi to one of the local hotels and met up with some other mates already out there, Bexhill Steve and his misses plus a few more familiar faces. We changed up some money to the local currency of Denars and settled down for some food and drink.
There was a distinct lack of people about but our bar had a good mixture of England fans and friendly Macedonians. We moved on to have a look round and walked up the river, past the big square where they were putting up a big screen for the match. We were offered so many tickets it made us laugh, so much for no tickets being available! We walked up to the ground to suss it out, then headed back into another quite bar.
About 4.30 we decided to head to the ground and joined the long queue to get into the South stand. We asked the Police which
entrance and they told us we were in the right line, and waved us through after checking tickets. In the bar alongside the queue was Everton Tim and some of our West Ham/Chelsea mates. We were soon in the nearly full large South stand. There was a small group at the back of the stand with a Grimsby Town flag and just before kick off some Bolton fans turned up in a group of about 15. Other than that it was a few small groups mixed in with the locals. The Macedonians behind us showed us to our seats and sorted out some confusion over others trying to sit in our seats.
We took some pictures of us in the ground and then one Macedonian gave us his flag for Liz and I to hold and he took our picture, it's a cracking photo with the big main
stand of fans all hold red and yellow flags as the back drop. Just before kick off about 200 England fans we let in to a segregated section behind the West goal. Another group of about 50 lads arrived in the East terrace and stood at the back with no hassle.
The only incident we saw was when a Macedonian put up an Irish flag with Brits out of Ireland on it. One English lad was upset about this and remonstrated with the locals and before it turned nasty the Police ripped down the flag and disposed of it! The pre-match entertainment was 2 local singers and then we had the sight of the national anthem being started on a grand piano! We have the photos of it being wheeled away at kick off.
The Macedonians sang their anthem with pride but a lot around us booed our Anthem. The lady behind us shouted to some booing it to stop and looked at us obviously worried that we might become the centre of attention but we just stood around smiling and laughing and had no hassle at all.
I wont go into the game as it was a while ago now, but my only sad and bitter memory of the trip was the disgraceful racial abuse handed out to Sol Campbell and Emile Heskey. We thought we heard the odd Monkey chant when they warmed up, but when Campbell put in a hard challenge the Monkey chants started again. The w***er next to us was bouncing up and down getting his kids to join in. What a sad ignorant man. We had to bite our tongues, we tried to get some on video as have a digital camera but its not very clear.
Soon after about the 3rd or 4th lot of bad abuse (last lot aimed at Heskey warming up) they made and announcement and we guess it was to ask them to stop monkey chanting as some people around us applauded it. Now what will FIFA/UEFA do about this totally unacceptable behaviour? Nothing of course, but hey lets see if we can throw England out the tournament, and racial abuse, what racial abuse, didn't hear it! The atmosphere was fairly intimidating and as England took over the game second half they mainly sand "F**k you England" or "F**k you Beckham", but he of course had the last laugh netting the winner. The players celebrated each goal and the final whistle with the group behind the west goal. We left at the final whistle with no problems.
The only direct abuse we got was at half time when we went to the toilet. The women’s was full of blokes weeing against the wall and it was pitch black so I went in with Liz. As we came out a little group saw us and shouted out quite originally "F**k you English". We just walked away. After the game we headed back along the river and ran into hundreds returning from the big screen. There was no hint of trouble and we passed a bar with several big screens so settled down to watch Italy v Wales. We met up with Steve again and went for a meal. Gary, Liz and I (along with about 6 other England fans) settled down in the bar for the evening. The local beer w
as very nice and at about 80p a pint what more could you ask.
Our train was at 3.25am and we managed to last until 1.30am in the bar before jumping in a cab back to the station. The station buffet was still open so we each had a drink of what they called coffee. It was truly awful and about half way down was a thick black sludge! We left that and gave upwatching bay watch on the TV and settled down in the waiting room for the train. It finally turned up at 4.30am and we joined the local fishermen, a few other England fans and some local youngsters who had been out for the night on the slow trek back to Thessaloniki.
We arrived around midday, said our goodbyes to Gary, caught a bus to the airport, flew to Athens and then on to Kos and returned home yesterday in time to see Brighton beat Chesterfield 1-0 last night.
I will not be going to Turkey, but good luck to those that do.
Mark "been to every away qualifier but still only got 1 cap" R
This was the offical line by the British Government
England fans urged to stay away from Euro tie
The Foreign Office is strongly urging England supporters not to travel to Macedonia for the match between Macedonia and England on 6 September.
The FA has not taken up its allocation of tickets for this match. Any fan who gains, or attempts to gain, access to the stadium risks being banned for life from obtaining tickets from the FA.
Those who travel to the match without a ticket will only be able to attempt access to the stadium via unauthorised means, such as the black market or forged tickets. The Macedonian authorities have stated that they will deal very firmly with any fans that misbehave.
Anyway some more trip pictures
Around Thessaloniki
Views from the train from Thessaloniki to Skopje
A few more from inside the ground
Pictures by Liz O'Brien
Macedonia v England 6.9.2003 Euro 2004 Qualifier
So England fans had been banned from Macedonia, a dangerous precedent set by our FA in electing not to take up any tickets for this match. Ignoring the ban on
Thursday 4th I left work at lunch time, met up with Liz and we were at Gatwick in plenty of time for our 5.30 flight to Thessaloniki. We hoped to keep our heads down and a low profile at Gatwick because the police were swarming around our check in desk! We were of course holiday makers not football fans! As we checked in the lads around us were section 60'd by he Police, we were met with "hello Liz and Mark, I wonder where you are going?" by the Sussex Police that travel to all Brighton away games. He just noted our names down and left it at that with no more questions.
We checked in fine as did the other 30 or so England fans going the same route as us. They were on an organised trip staying in Halkidiki and getting a coach over to Skopje. Our flight going out was delayed by 2 hours and we eventually took off at about 8pm for our 3 ½ hour flight. With the time difference we landed at 1.30am, jumped in a taxi and were soon in our hotel in Parear just outside Thessaloniki and about 5 meters from the beach!
On the Friday we went in nice and early to Thessaloniki station to book our train tickets to Skopje. In front of us was a mate I hadn't seen since being in a curry
house in Brussels in Euro2000. We booked up together and for 24 Euros had the trains booked. We headed back into Thessaloniki and went sight seeing. As with many parts of Greece it is full of history and we visited places such as the White tower, many old ruins and of course a couple of bars for some refreshments as it was about 30C.
Saturday and it was up early as the train to Skopje left at 8.04am. We met up with Gary and there were about another dozen or so England fans on the train. We shared our carriage with a Germany and an Israeli student on the way back to Germany, it was going to take then about 40 hours! The train was slow as once outside Thessaloniki it had to change engines twice as it need to change direction! We then had to pass through the Greek passport control
and then on to Macedonian passport control and yet another engine change. We had no hassle whatsoever and they even said are you going to football, and just stamped our passport and gave them back.
The journey was just over 4 ½ hours but with the 1 hour time difference arrived just after 11.30am. The train was met by a hoarding mob, not of trouble makers but friendly Macedonians trying to sell us tickets by the hand full and taxi rides. We had arranged to meet our contact to get our tickets (Cheers xxxxxxx as he wishes to remain anonymous, but he was a star and sorted the 3 of us out!). We got a taxi to one of the local hotels and met up with some other mates already out there, Bexhill Steve and his misses plus a few more familiar faces. We changed up some money to the local currency of Denars and settled down for some food and drink.
There was a distinct lack of people about but our bar had a good mixture of England fans and friendly Macedonians. We moved on to have a look round and walked up the river, past the big square where they were putting up a big screen for the match. We were offered so many tickets it made us laugh, so much for no tickets being available! We walked up to the ground to suss it out, then headed back into another quite bar.
About 4.30 we decided to head to the ground and joined the long queue to get into the South stand. We asked the Police which
entrance and they told us we were in the right line, and waved us through after checking tickets. In the bar alongside the queue was Everton Tim and some of our West Ham/Chelsea mates. We were soon in the nearly full large South stand. There was a small group at the back of the stand with a Grimsby Town flag and just before kick off some Bolton fans turned up in a group of about 15. Other than that it was a few small groups mixed in with the locals. The Macedonians behind us showed us to our seats and sorted out some confusion over others trying to sit in our seats.
We took some pictures of us in the ground and then one Macedonian gave us his flag for Liz and I to hold and he took our picture, it's a cracking photo with the big main
stand of fans all hold red and yellow flags as the back drop. Just before kick off about 200 England fans we let in to a segregated section behind the West goal. Another group of about 50 lads arrived in the East terrace and stood at the back with no hassle.
The only incident we saw was when a Macedonian put up an Irish flag with Brits out of Ireland on it. One English lad was upset about this and remonstrated with the locals and before it turned nasty the Police ripped down the flag and disposed of it! The pre-match entertainment was 2 local singers and then we had the sight of the national anthem being started on a grand piano! We have the photos of it being wheeled away at kick off.
The Macedonians sang their anthem with pride but a lot around us booed our Anthem. The lady behind us shouted to some booing it to stop and looked at us obviously worried that we might become the centre of attention but we just stood around smiling and laughing and had no hassle at all.
I wont go into the game as it was a while ago now, but my only sad and bitter memory of the trip was the disgraceful racial abuse handed out to Sol Campbell and Emile Heskey. We thought we heard the odd Monkey chant when they warmed up, but when Campbell put in a hard challenge the Monkey chants started again. The w***er next to us was bouncing up and down getting his kids to join in. What a sad ignorant man. We had to bite our tongues, we tried to get some on video as have a digital camera but its not very clear.
Soon after about the 3rd or 4th lot of bad abuse (last lot aimed at Heskey warming up) they made and announcement and we guess it was to ask them to stop monkey chanting as some people around us applauded it. Now what will FIFA/UEFA do about this totally unacceptable behaviour? Nothing of course, but hey lets see if we can throw England out the tournament, and racial abuse, what racial abuse, didn't hear it! The atmosphere was fairly intimidating and as England took over the game second half they mainly sand "F**k you England" or "F**k you Beckham", but he of course had the last laugh netting the winner. The players celebrated each goal and the final whistle with the group behind the west goal. We left at the final whistle with no problems.
The only direct abuse we got was at half time when we went to the toilet. The women’s was full of blokes weeing against the wall and it was pitch black so I went in with Liz. As we came out a little group saw us and shouted out quite originally "F**k you English". We just walked away. After the game we headed back along the river and ran into hundreds returning from the big screen. There was no hint of trouble and we passed a bar with several big screens so settled down to watch Italy v Wales. We met up with Steve again and went for a meal. Gary, Liz and I (along with about 6 other England fans) settled down in the bar for the evening. The local beer w
as very nice and at about 80p a pint what more could you ask.
Our train was at 3.25am and we managed to last until 1.30am in the bar before jumping in a cab back to the station. The station buffet was still open so we each had a drink of what they called coffee. It was truly awful and about half way down was a thick black sludge! We left that and gave upwatching bay watch on the TV and settled down in the waiting room for the train. It finally turned up at 4.30am and we joined the local fishermen, a few other England fans and some local youngsters who had been out for the night on the slow trek back to Thessaloniki.
We arrived around midday, said our goodbyes to Gary, caught a bus to the airport, flew to Athens and then on to Kos and returned home yesterday in time to see Brighton beat Chesterfield 1-0 last night.
I will not be going to Turkey, but good luck to those that do.
Mark "been to every away qualifier but still only got 1 cap" R
This was the offical line by the British Government
England fans urged to stay away from Euro tie
The Foreign Office is strongly urging England supporters not to travel to Macedonia for the match between Macedonia and England on 6 September.
The FA has not taken up its allocation of tickets for this match. Any fan who gains, or attempts to gain, access to the stadium risks being banned for life from obtaining tickets from the FA.
Those who travel to the match without a ticket will only be able to attempt access to the stadium via unauthorised means, such as the black market or forged tickets. The Macedonian authorities have stated that they will deal very firmly with any fans that misbehave.
Anyway some more trip pictures
Around Thessaloniki
Views from the train from Thessaloniki to Skopje
A few more from inside the ground
Wednesday, 2 April 2003
H v Turkey (Sunderland) 2.4.2003
England v Turkey, Sunderland, 2 April 2003, Euro 2004 Qualifier
have just got back into work after flying down from Newcastle this morning, hungover but still on a high after a superb 2-0 win over Turkey.
We flew up early Wednesday morning, had loads of time on our hands so wandered down
to the Quay side area (that was the location of our Hotel), crossed over the Tyne on the Millennium bridge, popped into a local cafe for a coffee (and Piers to have his second breakfast!) then as the bell struck 11am we were in the 'Red ???????' pub very close to the famous bridge over the Tyne.
We soon met up with Phil, then Andy S and a few of his mates turned up. We checked into our Hotel just after 2pm and then headed back to the pubs up towards the station. The place was buzzing, despite the game being in Sunderland. We decided to stay around the station as rumours of trouble filtered through.
We caught the metro at about 6pm after we had met the Gainsborough and Northampton lads and by 6.30(ish) arrived into Sunderland. The Police were out in force, including horses, dogs and helicopters. We walked towards the ground, got in a local working mans club (20p entry fee - top place) and then on to the ground about 7.30. As we arrived so did a coach with Turkish fans and the Police had to circle it to keep people away. The atmosphere was tense, but not as bad as I expected.
Our seats were right at the back of the North Stand upper tier, great view and a superb electric atmosphere. The ground was definitely not full and empty seats could be seen all over the place, very strange. As for the game, I imagine most people saw it, but the end of the first half and the majority of the second half saw the best display by an England team for a long time, with 17 year old Rooney standing head and shoulders above most other players on the pitch.
When Vassell knocked in the rebound after 75 minutes the place erupted, and I mean erupted, the noise was deafening and the celebrations long and mental! After that the singing increased in volume and when James tipped over the only decent Turkish effort after 82 minutes I was starting to believe we would win. Dyer then came on, got tripped (mmmm seeing it again he possibly didn't!) and Beckham tucked away the penalty nicely! Between the goals the 4,000 Turks were stunned into silence.
After the game we headed back to the metro. The Turks were kept locked in the ground and they had horses and row after row of riot Police keeping the away end clear. There were a few England milling about, but no more trouble as far as we know. We caught the metro back, headed for a few beers in Newcastle, at 12.30 went for a curry and staggered into the Hotel about 2am and started watching the second half of the re run of the game on the BBC. I fell asleep after about 30 seconds and woke up as Beckham scored the penalty!
I was up at 7am and get a copy of the local rag called the Journal. There were 95 arrests in total, mainly Newcastle and Sunderland two main firms who clashed early on Wednesday (The Newcastle gremlins v Seaburn casuals apparently!). The Police also detained 30 Leeds fans before they even got to Sunderland.
A great game, a great win, Slovakia next (June 11th) in the quest for Portugal 2004. This is the first time England have played Turkey since 1993 and happily it's a game I will remember for the right reasons this time!!!!!!
Mark R
have just got back into work after flying down from Newcastle this morning, hungover but still on a high after a superb 2-0 win over Turkey.
We flew up early Wednesday morning, had loads of time on our hands so wandered down
to the Quay side area (that was the location of our Hotel), crossed over the Tyne on the Millennium bridge, popped into a local cafe for a coffee (and Piers to have his second breakfast!) then as the bell struck 11am we were in the 'Red ???????' pub very close to the famous bridge over the Tyne.We soon met up with Phil, then Andy S and a few of his mates turned up. We checked into our Hotel just after 2pm and then headed back to the pubs up towards the station. The place was buzzing, despite the game being in Sunderland. We decided to stay around the station as rumours of trouble filtered through.
We caught the metro at about 6pm after we had met the Gainsborough and Northampton lads and by 6.30(ish) arrived into Sunderland. The Police were out in force, including horses, dogs and helicopters. We walked towards the ground, got in a local working mans club (20p entry fee - top place) and then on to the ground about 7.30. As we arrived so did a coach with Turkish fans and the Police had to circle it to keep people away. The atmosphere was tense, but not as bad as I expected.
Our seats were right at the back of the North Stand upper tier, great view and a superb electric atmosphere. The ground was definitely not full and empty seats could be seen all over the place, very strange. As for the game, I imagine most people saw it, but the end of the first half and the majority of the second half saw the best display by an England team for a long time, with 17 year old Rooney standing head and shoulders above most other players on the pitch.
When Vassell knocked in the rebound after 75 minutes the place erupted, and I mean erupted, the noise was deafening and the celebrations long and mental! After that the singing increased in volume and when James tipped over the only decent Turkish effort after 82 minutes I was starting to believe we would win. Dyer then came on, got tripped (mmmm seeing it again he possibly didn't!) and Beckham tucked away the penalty nicely! Between the goals the 4,000 Turks were stunned into silence.
After the game we headed back to the metro. The Turks were kept locked in the ground and they had horses and row after row of riot Police keeping the away end clear. There were a few England milling about, but no more trouble as far as we know. We caught the metro back, headed for a few beers in Newcastle, at 12.30 went for a curry and staggered into the Hotel about 2am and started watching the second half of the re run of the game on the BBC. I fell asleep after about 30 seconds and woke up as Beckham scored the penalty!
I was up at 7am and get a copy of the local rag called the Journal. There were 95 arrests in total, mainly Newcastle and Sunderland two main firms who clashed early on Wednesday (The Newcastle gremlins v Seaburn casuals apparently!). The Police also detained 30 Leeds fans before they even got to Sunderland.
A great game, a great win, Slovakia next (June 11th) in the quest for Portugal 2004. This is the first time England have played Turkey since 1993 and happily it's a game I will remember for the right reasons this time!!!!!!
Mark R
Saturday, 29 March 2003
A v Liechtenstein 29.3.2003
Liechtenstein v England, 29 March 2003, Euro 2004 Qualifier
We set out to Zurich on Thursday evening, flying from Heathrow to Zurich on Swiss International. Surprisingly there appeared to be no spotters or Police at the airport and we passed through the check in, passport control and boarding with no checks (very unusual for England away games!). Our plane was virtually empty, I counted 37 people in the departure lounge for a 737!!!We landed just after 10.30pm local time, just missed the 10.43 train into central Zurich but caught the 11.02 train. 15 minutes later we were at the central station, so set about finding our hotel! After a detour or two - well how was I to know that we were following a smaller river and heading in the wrong direction!) we finally arrived about 11.45 so checked into the 'Zic Zac Rock' Hotel. Each room was named after musicians / bands, Liz and I were in the Elvis Presley room, Piers was Frank Zappa! Piers went out and met Phil Blackman who was staying just down the road.Friday morning and we were up reasonably early. We strolled down to look at the lakes, and wondered around old Zurich.
One of the main sites is a clock face nearly 9 meters wide, then again there were clocks all over the place. 
It is an interesting city and we went up to the University for views over the city. It was soon around midday so food and drink time. Everyone was surprised when we all got a beetroot dish as a starter, have to say beer and beetroot is a strange combination! The food was nice, but expensive and we were paying around ? 4.50 for a pint of Herlimans (nice strong beer!). We did more wondering about, decided to give the 'toaster' museum a miss (Phil thinking of going today if he runs out of anything else to do!!). We went back to the hotel to drop off our bags and then headed out for the evening. More England fans were arriving by the minute and sadly it was the hooligan element. We met our mates from Rochdale and bumped into the usual faces from Middlesborough.
We were in one bar, but moved out as the nutters moved in, the bar we moved onto was brilliant and we sat down for a relaxing evening. Phil bumped into three scousers who treated him like a long lost brother, when they went Phil confessed he couldn't remember ever having met them before! Sadly around 11.30 the first signs of trouble appeared, the bar doors were locked as beer glasses were being thrown down the road. It was over pretty quickly and nobody had any idea what had happened. Liz and I wandered out the bar to go and get some food.
We returned about an hour later to find we couldn't get down the road to the bar
we had been in and people walking away from that bit of town wiping tear gas out there eyes!We headed in the opposite direction, found quieter back street bars and carried on until heading back to the hotel around 2am.Saturday, we planned to get the 9.10 train from Zurich to Sargaans that connected with a bus to Vaduz. We arranged to meet Phil who had a ticket in the England section, Liz and I had tickets in the Liechtenstein end that we picked up in London a couple of weeks ago for £130 each. They looked genuine after comparing them to tickets others had. We walked down the road to the train station and it looked like a war zone. Broken glass, a few broken shop windows, all very strange as nobody about at all. We bought our tickets to Vaduz for 60 Swiss Francs, and boarded the train. It was one of the most spectacular train journeys I have ever been on, first passing the lakes outside Zurich, then through other lakes and stunning views of the Alps. Despite my hangover it was breathtaking.
We arrived at Sargaans and boarded the bus to Vaduz. The bus was stopped on the border and they did the first hooligan passport check. Everyone was fine (only about 40 of us on the bus, hence the reason we left early!).
The bus was given the all clear after about 20 minutes and we were soon in Vaduz. Vaduz is beautiful, and we headed for a cafe for some food with stunning views of the Alps in one direction and Vaduz castle on the mountain side above our heads.
We ventured to the tourist information office to pay our 2 Swiss Francs to get a Liechtenstein stamp in our passport (yes I know that very sad, but in did mean a stamp on my last empty double page in my passport!)We wandered around 
taking a few photographs, then wandered back to the main square for a few beers. Liechtenstein is small, just 16 miles by 4 miles, the population is 33,000, the tourist attraction is a stamp museum, and everything is very expensive. The good news was that the majority of ticketless fans had remained in Zurich and the atmosphere in Vaduz was relaxed and friendly. We met up with our Northampton (had fake tickets and didn't get in), Coventry and Gainsborough mates and sat in the bars with the picturesque view and very very hot sun!.
The place slowly filed up, a big game of football took place in the square with the on looking Austrian Police sat quietly observing events. We decided to walk to the ground so left about 5pm, by 5.30 we joined the queue for the first ticket check, by 6pm we joined the queue for the 'home' stands and by 6.20 were in the ground.
Our tickets were genuine and I reckon that out of the 3,548 crowd, 948 were in the away stand leaving 2,600 in the bigger stand we were in, of which about 1/3+ were England fans. The range of prices people had paid was staggering. The 5 Charlton lads we know had paid out £1,250 between them, the West Brom lad £300, which was about the average!
..........................the merchandise stand was interesting.....................
..........................but we are heading in the right direction.....................
The Cov lads had paid £350 but had hospitality tickets, which included free food and drink from 4pm. They were the group behind the goal absolutely hammered!
The ground was like a mini Withdean, but with a proper roof and 2 empty small terraces behind each goal. The views were dominated by the Alps. It was good that the Police had nothing to do in the ground as the fans behaved, there were 9 arrest in Vaduz as the one bar showing the game in the centre, decided that the England fans had drunk enough. Very sad there should be any trouble after treating us with respect.The game - mmmm - bit like a practice match. 
The Liechtenstein fans got very excited when they won tackles, or passed the ball about, but I have to say it was all very muted. Once we had scored the game was pretty much over and at 2-0 England slowed down a game that was already very slow and boring! The highlight was when they hit the post, the crowd nearly erupted.At the final whistle they had buses waiting to take us back to Sargaans, we were on the 8.40 back to Zurich and back to Zurich Central at 9.50. Sadly the nutters were all about (looking for the local Turkish community who had allegedly stabbed 2 England fans the night before. Nobody seamed really sure how 3 people got shot, 2 stabbed and who did it, but as usual the Swiss Police managed to arrest 26 England fans over 2 nights, but had been unable to trace the knifeman or gun man). It was all looking ugly so we went back to the quiet side of town and head a cracking Chinese meal and wandered back to the Hotel about midnight, £120 lighter after the meal!!!!!!
Sunday morning we ventured to a local beer hall, Piers had a 350g sausage and I tucked into the local pork and veal alongside the local specialities of rosti potatoes (hash browns!) and large beers! We flew home at 3.30 and were back in Durrington by 7pm.England must perform better on Wednesday as the Turks are a different proposition to Liechtenstein. I just hope everything passes peacefully, but as the FA in their wisdom has given 5,000 tickets to the Turks I fear not.
Mark Raven
A few more pictures at the match.
.....................................Below are a few more of Zurich....................
<-----Well I think we should go this way??
Phil starts to loose the will to live. He just wants a visit to the toaster museuum!---------->
Phil spots a tram, does that go to the toaster museum? We could stop at a bar on the way....................
Well you just have to have a picture of cuckoo clocks in Switzerland!
.................Views looking down across Zurich from up at the local University
We set out to Zurich on Thursday evening, flying from Heathrow to Zurich on Swiss International. Surprisingly there appeared to be no spotters or Police at the airport and we passed through the check in, passport control and boarding with no checks (very unusual for England away games!). Our plane was virtually empty, I counted 37 people in the departure lounge for a 737!!!We landed just after 10.30pm local time, just missed the 10.43 train into central Zurich but caught the 11.02 train. 15 minutes later we were at the central station, so set about finding our hotel! After a detour or two - well how was I to know that we were following a smaller river and heading in the wrong direction!) we finally arrived about 11.45 so checked into the 'Zic Zac Rock' Hotel. Each room was named after musicians / bands, Liz and I were in the Elvis Presley room, Piers was Frank Zappa! Piers went out and met Phil Blackman who was staying just down the road.Friday morning and we were up reasonably early. We strolled down to look at the lakes, and wondered around old Zurich.
One of the main sites is a clock face nearly 9 meters wide, then again there were clocks all over the place. 
It is an interesting city and we went up to the University for views over the city. It was soon around midday so food and drink time. Everyone was surprised when we all got a beetroot dish as a starter, have to say beer and beetroot is a strange combination! The food was nice, but expensive and we were paying around ? 4.50 for a pint of Herlimans (nice strong beer!). We did more wondering about, decided to give the 'toaster' museum a miss (Phil thinking of going today if he runs out of anything else to do!!). We went back to the hotel to drop off our bags and then headed out for the evening. More England fans were arriving by the minute and sadly it was the hooligan element. We met our mates from Rochdale and bumped into the usual faces from Middlesborough.We were in one bar, but moved out as the nutters moved in, the bar we moved onto was brilliant and we sat down for a relaxing evening. Phil bumped into three scousers who treated him like a long lost brother, when they went Phil confessed he couldn't remember ever having met them before! Sadly around 11.30 the first signs of trouble appeared, the bar doors were locked as beer glasses were being thrown down the road. It was over pretty quickly and nobody had any idea what had happened. Liz and I wandered out the bar to go and get some food.
We returned about an hour later to find we couldn't get down the road to the bar
we had been in and people walking away from that bit of town wiping tear gas out there eyes!We headed in the opposite direction, found quieter back street bars and carried on until heading back to the hotel around 2am.Saturday, we planned to get the 9.10 train from Zurich to Sargaans that connected with a bus to Vaduz. We arranged to meet Phil who had a ticket in the England section, Liz and I had tickets in the Liechtenstein end that we picked up in London a couple of weeks ago for £130 each. They looked genuine after comparing them to tickets others had. We walked down the road to the train station and it looked like a war zone. Broken glass, a few broken shop windows, all very strange as nobody about at all. We bought our tickets to Vaduz for 60 Swiss Francs, and boarded the train. It was one of the most spectacular train journeys I have ever been on, first passing the lakes outside Zurich, then through other lakes and stunning views of the Alps. Despite my hangover it was breathtaking.We arrived at Sargaans and boarded the bus to Vaduz. The bus was stopped on the border and they did the first hooligan passport check. Everyone was fine (only about 40 of us on the bus, hence the reason we left early!).
The bus was given the all clear after about 20 minutes and we were soon in Vaduz. Vaduz is beautiful, and we headed for a cafe for some food with stunning views of the Alps in one direction and Vaduz castle on the mountain side above our heads.
We ventured to the tourist information office to pay our 2 Swiss Francs to get a Liechtenstein stamp in our passport (yes I know that very sad, but in did mean a stamp on my last empty double page in my passport!)We wandered around 
taking a few photographs, then wandered back to the main square for a few beers. Liechtenstein is small, just 16 miles by 4 miles, the population is 33,000, the tourist attraction is a stamp museum, and everything is very expensive. The good news was that the majority of ticketless fans had remained in Zurich and the atmosphere in Vaduz was relaxed and friendly. We met up with our Northampton (had fake tickets and didn't get in), Coventry and Gainsborough mates and sat in the bars with the picturesque view and very very hot sun!.
The place slowly filed up, a big game of football took place in the square with the on looking Austrian Police sat quietly observing events. We decided to walk to the ground so left about 5pm, by 5.30 we joined the queue for the first ticket check, by 6pm we joined the queue for the 'home' stands and by 6.20 were in the ground.
Our tickets were genuine and I reckon that out of the 3,548 crowd, 948 were in the away stand leaving 2,600 in the bigger stand we were in, of which about 1/3+ were England fans. The range of prices people had paid was staggering. The 5 Charlton lads we know had paid out £1,250 between them, the West Brom lad £300, which was about the average! 
..........................the merchandise stand was interesting.....................
..........................but we are heading in the right direction.....................
The Cov lads had paid £350 but had hospitality tickets, which included free food and drink from 4pm. They were the group behind the goal absolutely hammered!
The ground was like a mini Withdean, but with a proper roof and 2 empty small terraces behind each goal. The views were dominated by the Alps. It was good that the Police had nothing to do in the ground as the fans behaved, there were 9 arrest in Vaduz as the one bar showing the game in the centre, decided that the England fans had drunk enough. Very sad there should be any trouble after treating us with respect.The game - mmmm - bit like a practice match. 
The Liechtenstein fans got very excited when they won tackles, or passed the ball about, but I have to say it was all very muted. Once we had scored the game was pretty much over and at 2-0 England slowed down a game that was already very slow and boring! The highlight was when they hit the post, the crowd nearly erupted.At the final whistle they had buses waiting to take us back to Sargaans, we were on the 8.40 back to Zurich and back to Zurich Central at 9.50. Sadly the nutters were all about (looking for the local Turkish community who had allegedly stabbed 2 England fans the night before. Nobody seamed really sure how 3 people got shot, 2 stabbed and who did it, but as usual the Swiss Police managed to arrest 26 England fans over 2 nights, but had been unable to trace the knifeman or gun man). It was all looking ugly so we went back to the quiet side of town and head a cracking Chinese meal and wandered back to the Hotel about midnight, £120 lighter after the meal!!!!!!
Sunday morning we ventured to a local beer hall, Piers had a 350g sausage and I tucked into the local pork and veal alongside the local specialities of rosti potatoes (hash browns!) and large beers! We flew home at 3.30 and were back in Durrington by 7pm.England must perform better on Wednesday as the Turks are a different proposition to Liechtenstein. I just hope everything passes peacefully, but as the FA in their wisdom has given 5,000 tickets to the Turks I fear not.
Mark Raven
A few more pictures at the match.
.....................................Below are a few more of Zurich....................
<-----Well I think we should go this way??
Phil starts to loose the will to live. He just wants a visit to the toaster museuum!---------->
Phil spots a tram, does that go to the toaster museum? We could stop at a bar on the way....................
Well you just have to have a picture of cuckoo clocks in Switzerland!
.................Views looking down across Zurich from up at the local University