Holy fuck - look at this shit (
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/foo...on-Roma-violence-Colin-Mafham-Sunderland-news)
Liverpool must take serious action after Roma violence or risk further trouble - MAFHAM
COLIN MAFHAM urges Liverpool Football Club to condemn the thug fans who shame them - and the country.
I have no wish to rain on Liverpool's parade here. The 5-2 demolition of Roma was often spellbinding, and worthy of winning the Champions League on its own.
But it's not the players who produced that performance who I have an issue with, it's some of the people who 'follow' them that frighten the living daylights out of me.
You would have thought the deaths of 39 Italians at the European Cup final Liverpool lost to Juventus in 1985 - plus the five year ban on English clubs that consequently came after that - would have had a sobering effect.
You would have thought the horrors at Hillsborough and 96 more deaths that followed only four years later would have made everyone more aware of their responsibilities to each other.
Those two tragedies, in which the central figures were sadly mostly from
Liverpool, are arguably football's most painful Achilles and hopefully will never happen again.
So why do I fear that the latest generation of that club's supporters could well add another chapter to England's footballing book of condolences?
Liverpool fans once again found themselves in trouble before the match against Roma
The club needs to recognise it has a big problem - and has had for some years - and proactively support and work with those whose job it is to preserve law and order.
We know where the empty bottles came from, but where the heck did they get those fire flares that were thrown at the
Manchester City and Roma team buses? You couldn't bring them through customs the last time I looked.
And why is a 53-year-old man now seemingly fighting for his life, and two Italians being held on suspicion of attempted murder, before a football match involving Liverpool?
When you have a team capable of playing the joyous football Liverpool have for most of this season how on earth are their fans always seemingly involved in such horrific altercations on big European nights.
Why does trouble seem to follow them like bees round a honey pot?
No one is suggesting that the violence that erupted on Tuesday night was solely the fault of Liverpool fans. Their visitors from Rome were clearly just as thuggish, and just as frightening.
But there are suggestions that the reputation of Liverpool supporters had gone before them and Roman yobs had simply decided to get in first, and with such awful consequences. It's not right, but it does again highlight a common denominator.
Liverpool fans have developed an unwanted reputation over the years
All of this is a crying shame because what Jurgen Klopp has produced at Anfield is a team - and I mean a real team here - of super talents that are worthy challengers for the crown that Manchester City have just donned. But without any of the accompanying trouble.
That's why I urge Liverpool Football Club to condemn, rather than giving succour to excuses like "it's society's problem" and "all the world's against us."
The club needs to recognise it has a big problem - and has had for some years - and proactively support and work with those whose job it is to preserve law and order.
If they don't then there is a very real danger that revenge will be sought by both sides when they meet in Rome for the second leg on May 2, and all hell could break loose again.
And if that happens we will all be losers, on and off the field.