I've just come across this.
"Frisk retired from football because you lot threate...
I've just come across this.
"Frisk retired from football because you lot threatened to kill him"
Let me make it clear that I regard any threats coming Chelsea fans, or anyone else, to Frisk or any other referee as totally disgusting and abhorrent, and should be chased down and prosecuted by the authorities. I can't be responsible for the behaviour of other Chelsea supporters but I'm not going to defend any behaviour of this type. And neither is CFC as they made clear at the time. "Supporters" get life bans from Chelsea for far less than this.
Lester, you say a lot about Chelsea supporters, speaking from your position of expertise as having been to Stamford Bridge at least once in the 1980s. I go there something like a dozen times a season now. In the crowd of 42,000 people (minus the noisy away section) there is representation from all of society. There's the prawn sandwich brigade in the west stand, there's the chicken and chips brigade in the east stand (that's me on a mid-week match), there's the infiltration of the Shed by people who quietly seem to want the other team to win. And there are quite a number of people who I really wouldn't want to meet down a dark alleyway, even with my Chelsea shirt on, people who look like the bouncer on X-factor but not quite as good looking and plainly without the same intellect.
Now, you'll probably tell me they are all racist thugs as you seem to think that that characterises the Chelsea crowd. Well, if they are I can tell you that they don't exercise their racism and thuggery inside the ground. Chelsea has a zero-tolerance policy to any bad bahaviour in the ground - and they really do. I have seen people thrown out for merely not returning the ball to the field or cheering when the other team scored. Any suggestion of individuals going over the top with their commentary or throwing things (even celery) and they are hauled out.
It is for this reason that I have been happy to take my children there since they were small, not to mention someone else who has been the subject of another debate.
So you can carry on slagging off the Chelsea of old for all the things you allege happened back then. But I can tell you that this characterisation of Chelsea just does not match what I see today. If the Chelsea crowd is any more racist or thuggish than any other club's supporter base (and at present this is just an unsupported allegation from you) then you really ought to recognise that CFC does a good job of controlling this element. It is not clear to me what more CFC could do and I certainly haven't seen any suggestions from you.
Robert
