Time for action against UEFA

Can we do anything about UEFA treating us as second class citizens?

Of course we can and it is well overdue that we take some action.

I just cannot believe that we can as fans be treated so poorly whilst being forced to watch the "UEFA Family" rolling up in their limos to be wined and dined and given our tickets whilst we have to make do with crap facilities laid on for the fans.

The only thing that is going to change this is if we organise ourselves through not just this but every fanzine and website that our large network of international branches operate. Now this is not just a LFC issue this is an issue that effects every football fan that supports a team in the CL.

We have to start a campaign of negative publicity against the sponsors , advising fans if you are a true fan do not buy or use these companies products until such time as they use the competion for the reason they are involved. Publicity. There is no reason for sponsors to have tickets or hospitality tents, they pay for publicity and they get it because of the fans.

So lets start giving them the sort of publicity they do not want! Only then will we see the fans being given the tickets and being treated fairly.

I have already contacted the Chairman of Official French supporters club to put a banner on the french website with a list of companies whose products should be avoided and the reasons why. I would like to see the administrators of this and every other football site do the same. After all this is an issue that effects us all.

Comments please?

THESE ARE THE COMPANIES TO AVOID

HEININKEN-SONY-MASTERCARD-VODAFONE-FORD

DO NOT BUY THESE COMPANIES PRODUCTS

PLEASE CAN THE ADMINISTRATORS OF THIS SITE POST A BANNER TO THIS EFFECT AND NOTIFY ALL OTHER INTERNATIONAL BRANCHES TO DO THE SAME

I don't think doing that is a solution. The best way, for me, to avoid a new final like that one would be having meetings with UEFA responsibles to find some solutions. Not only supporters and UEFA, but polices from all countries members of UEFA, supporters, security responsibles of some clubs and justice ministers too.
UEFA sponsors completely don't care about us. For one supporter(Liverppol fan or an other team) who will stop buying their products, how many of us will go on?
Will you stop drinking Heineken? Will you choose your car make because of that, just to avoid ford?

Yeah i don't think that the boycott would change anything. I agree with Kilkenny. But if all the Branches of Liverpool FC will do that why not us?

Rather than a boycott, I'm planning to write a letter directly to William Gaillard and Michel Platini giving them MY feedback about the crap organization of the CL final. All together, I was with 6 friends (including one Season Ticket holder) and 2 of them didn't even get their ticket checked. In other words, they still have their entire ticket as if they didn't assist the final, but they still managed to get in. What if they had a knife, a gun or a bomb? Before criticizing us (the fans), UEFA should understand that the way the final was organizing the final was below standards before criticizing us!

Maybe if all the people who actually went there (or who have something to say about the way the final was organized) should contact UEFA directly. I'm even thinking of writing UEFA several times until they give me some explanation about what happened in Athens.

I make no apologies for not lying down and taking it because I am afraid of speaking out against UEFA and the possible repercussions.

I am pleased to note that both Tom Hicks (Read his comments this morning) and Rick Parry as well as Richard Caborn were not frightened to speak out either. Now all I ask is if you cannot find it in yourself to support what I am trying to do here. (Get a fairer deal for the fans) don't knock it. Because if you do you are helping UEFA.

There is a large body of public opinion forming against UEFA and the sponsors at this moment in time. With a little help form the fans we can make it swell.

And for those who prefer to call me naive I say this. You haven't thought this through. You do not need people burning the sponsors products to make a difference you just need enough people saying as the Chairman of the English supporters association said. "These sponsors need to think about how they are treating their customers and how this treatment is being associated with their products"

They do not spend millions to have these customers complain about their behaviour at the CL final. It is gross. In Istanbul for instance there were no chairs to sit on in the fan zone. Some fans sat on a stand that was displaying a Ford car and were ntold by security to get up and move. There was no food to be bought and nothing to drink. We were forced to watch sponsors guests at the same time being treated to the best of every thing. This is obscene and the sponsors need to hear about it.

im working on a banner today.

stand up and be counted,

the S*N has suffered from the boycot on merseyside as did VODAPHONE when they were man utds sponsers.

every little helps to sort it out, the long terme solutions have to be discussed at the highest leveels.

ant

Posted on RAWK and TTWAR



Hit Them In The Pocket -- Boycott UEFA Sponsors?



Obviously, we have been slandered by UEFA in a deliberate attempt to cover for their own incompetence and corruption. Yes, some of our "supporters" certainly acted like twats and deserve all the criticism they have received. However, we and our club do not deserve to be the victims of a vicious slur campaign from UEFA that will -- among other consequences -- endanger our travelling supporters in future years.


Although I see Gaillard is already back-tracking, we all know how easily and how well mud sticks, and I suggest that we should opt, not to sit back and assume everything's now like totally copacetic, but to press on and try to achieve something spectacular.


I'd like to think we could involve all football supporters in a campaign to reform UEFA, but then I'd also like to think that the stars are Heaven's daisy chain and that world peace is right around the corner.


So waddaya say? Should we try a coordinated and public boycott of UEFA's sponsors? Should we ask the owners of RAWK or the much-mooted LFC Web Site Alliance (or whatever it may be called) to take the lead on this?


I'm afraid I certainly don't have the credentials or stature in these parts to take a lead in something like this, but here is my first draft (for whatever its worth) of a manifesto for a boycott.


Any takers?




Liverpool FC and UEFA
In 2007, following regrettable and dangerous scenes at the Champions League Final in Athens, Greece, Uefa's communications director, William Gaillard has branded supporters of Liverpool FC the "worst in Europe", after leaking the summary of a report that UEFA planned to hand over to the British government, adding that: "The incidents involving Liverpool fans have been well known to us before the trouble at the Champions League final which involved Liverpool fans last week. That was just the latest example. What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children? We know what happened in Athens, and Liverpool fans were the cause of most of the trouble there. There have been 25 incidents involving Liverpool fans away from home since 2003 and these are in the report -- most teams' supporters do not cause any trouble at all."


At the time he leaked the report, Gaillard did not provide any details of any of the "25 incidents".


While Liverpool supporters accept without reservation that the behaviour of a minority of ticketless supporters did indeed cause serious crowd safety problems at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, we do not accept the wholescale accusations made by UEFA and believe that they are nothing but a clear and further attempt to divert public scrutiny from UEFA's own failings with regard to venue selection, to the inadequate organisation of a major football event, and to the way in which UEFA allocates and distributes match tickets.


Before the troubles in Athens, Liverpool supporters had tended to be well regarded by UEFA. In 2005, for example, UEFA praised Liverpool FC following a potentially volatile match with Juventus. Deputy Chief Executive Markus Studer said then that: “Liverpool must be applauded for the way they handled the arrangements and the fans of both clubs understood the message. There was not a hint of trouble in the stadium, there was a fantastic atmosphere and both clubs must be praised. It was a very successful night for European football.”


UEFA also gave Liverpool fans an award following the 2001 UEFA Cup Final in Dortmund, and heavily praised Liverpool fans after the Champions League Final is Istanbul in 2005. Indeed, following that match, William Gaillard himself said that “Liverpool fans are wonderful people.” And, further, previewing the Final in Athens, he said that: “The two groups of supporters (Milan and Liverpool) have a tradition of good behaviour and at this point we are expecting that to continue.”


We also wonder how Gaillard can justify his accusations against Liverpool supporters given the following examples of recent football violence:


Milan, April 2005 - The Champions League quarter-final between Inter Milan and city rivals AC Milan was abandoned after 73 minutes after Milan keeper Dida was struck by one of dozens of flares thrown down from the stands. German referee Markus Merk took the players off the pitch at the San Siro stadium after Inter fans began hurling plastic bottles and then over 30 flares on to the penalty area below them after a header by Esteban Cambiasso was disallowed. The goal frame disappeared in clouds of smoke as flares continued to be rained down and burn on the pitch.


Rome, March 2006 - Three Middlesbrough fans were stabbed before the club's Uefa Cup game against Roma. The attack was blamed on Roma supporters. Five years earlier, Roma supporters were also blamed when five Liverpool fans were stabbed.


Paris, November 2006 - A Paris St-Germain fan was shot dead by police and another seriously injured during fighting between PSG fans and the police, after PSG lost 4-2 to the Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Parc des Prince in a Uefa Cup match. Around 100 PSG fans chased a French Hapoel fan, shouting anti-semitic slogans. A police officer who tried to protect the Hapoel supporter, was also attacked. He then fired tear gas, before he drew his gun. One fan was shot dead and another seriously injured.


Nancy, December 2006 - Feyenoord fans fought and smashed windows before ripping out and throwing seats during the Uefa Cup tie against Nancy. Police used tear gas, forcing the referee to halt the match. UEFA themselves banned Feyenoord from the tournament as a consequence.


Italy, February 2007 - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi suspended all play in the country's football leagues after clashes by rampaging fans at a match between Palermo and Catania left a policeman dead and as many as 150 people injured.
Rome, April 2007 - Fighting before during and after a match between Roma and Manchester United.




UEFA Champions League Sponsors
Liverpool supporters believe that a UEFA led by Michel Platini and William Gaillard has a clear bias against both Liverpool FC and English football clubs in general. Consequently, we do not believe we will ever be given a fair hearing by UEFA. Therefore we feel that our best recourse is to target the sponsors that UEFA values much more than it does football supporters, of whatever allegiance or nationality.


The primary sponsors of the UEFA Champions League are Heineken, Sony, Mastercard, Vodafone, and Ford. The supporters of Liverpool FC are now proposing to boycott these sponsors until both William Gaillard is removed from his position at UEFA and UEFA apologises for leaking a perjorative report at a sensitive time with the clear intent of further damaging the reputation of Liverpool FC and its supporters. Additionally, we wish to see significant changes made in the way that events such as the Champions League Final are organised and in particular in the way that match tickets are allocated and distributed.




Liverpool FC and The Sun - A Continuing Boycott
In 1989, the Sun "newspaper" reported that supporters of Liverpool FC were responsible for the tragedy at Hillsborough and claimed that 'Some fans picked pockets of victims'; 'Some fans urinated on the brave cops'; and 'Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life'. The story accompanying these headlines claimed that 'drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims' and 'police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon'. A quote, attributed to an unnamed policeman, claimed that a dead girl had been abused and that Liverpool fans 'were openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead'.


These accusations were widely denounced as lies and Lord Justice Taylor made particular efforts to refute all accusations against Liverpool supporters in his final report on the disaster.


Since 1989, Liverpool supporters (and others) have boycotted the Sun as a matter of principle. This boycott has cost the "newspaper" sales in excess of 200,000 copies per day over the 18 years since Hillsborough. The BBC has equated this to "tens of millions of pounds in lost sales."


An Appeal To UEFA's Sponsors
The supporters of Liverpool FC appeal to Heineken, Sony, Mastercard, Vodafone, and Ford to hear our concerns and publicly to advise UEFA to cease its attacks on the reputation of Liverpool FC, and to address instead the underlying issues at the heart of the problems in Athens: the selection of an inappropriate stadium, poor organisation, inadequate security, and a shameful policy for the distribution of Champions Leage Final tickets.


This is our game. Not Michel Platini's. Not William Gaillard's. And not Heineken's, Sony's, Mastercard's, Vodafone's, or Ford's.


We want changes. And we want them now.


The alternative will be a boycott of sponsor products. This boycott will be led by the supporters of Liverpool FC, but we will be inviting the supporters of other clubs who are sympathetic to our cause to participate as well.

youknowwho wrote:

And for those who prefer to call me naive I say this. You haven't thought this through. You do not need people burning the sponsors products to make a difference you just need enough people saying as the Chairman of the English supporters association said. "These sponsors need to think about how they are treating their customers and how this treatment is being associated with their products"

They do not spend millions to have these customers complain about their behaviour at the CL final. It is gross. In Istanbul for instance there were no chairs to sit on in the fan zone. Some fans sat on a stand that was displaying a Ford car and were ntold by security to get up and move. There was no food to be bought and nothing to drink. We were forced to watch sponsors guests at the same time being treated to the best of every thing. This is obscene and the sponsors need to hear about it.

Excuse me if I don't understand, but what will change in UEFA's mind if we boycott the sponsors? They'll still think Liverpool fans are "the worse in Europe". If we boycott the sponsors, they will stop their "partnership" with UEFA and in stead of Ford, we'll have Honda and in stead of Heineken, we'll have Carlsberg.

In other words, shouldn't we "attack" directly UEFA rather than their sponsors?

I think you are missing the point Candy, I doubt very much we could acheive a change of sponsors. What we might achieve though is a fairer deal for fans when it comes to how fans are treated by UEFA.

It only needs the sponsors to say "We don't want to take thousands of tickets any longer as we are getting bad press for it"

Does anyone have a list of our international branches network where they can be contacted to request they post articles in support?

My point is that is that it is UEFA who decides how many tickets are allocated to the clubs, sponsors, etc. I doubt that Ford or Heineken ask UEFA for 10000 or 20000 tickets; UEFA decides to "give" them these tickets. And on top of that some fans like me were one of the 9000 lucky people who won the draw that ... UEFA organized.

And if we boycott the sponsors, where does the bad press come into action? My point is that the UEFA should get bad press in order to think again about the tickets allocation or am I getting it all wrong?

In other words, I seriously doubt that the sponsors will end up saying that they don't want the tickets any longer, because I don't think they'll get that much bad press. Thinking about it, even the Sun remains one of the bestsellers in England even if there's a boycott from Liverpool since Hillsborough. So, is there a chance of winning this "battle"? I don't know.

Uefa are unaccountable Candy and that is the problem, they sit in an ivory tower and ignore the fans.

The sponsors however are not, by bringing pressure to bear on the sponsors
they are the people that can put pressure on UEFA.

It only needs the sponsors to say "we don't want these tickets as we are getting bad publicity for depriving the real fans of tickets" and we will have acheived something.

UEFA need to learn that they are not unnaccountable.

I agree with you concerning UEFA, that they're in an ivory tower and they ignore the fans.

Anyway, I doubt that we can change what's going on via the sponsors. If the sponsors get bad press, I doubt that they'll go to UEFA saying: "Oh, we're having bad press, because we received too many tickets for the Champions League final, please give more to the clubs."

Anyway, good luck with your action.

slt
merci de penser à ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais.

stephane wrote:

slt
merci de penser à ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais.

L'anglais de A à Z

Le mot et l'idée

L'anglais pour les nuls


Franchement, de beaux cadeaux pour la fête des pères ....

Ici Anfield wrote:

stephane wrote:

slt
merci de penser à ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais.

L'anglais de A à Z

Le mot et l'idée

L'anglais pour les nuls


Franchement, de beaux cadeaux pour la fête des pères ....

† Øweñ † wrote:

Ici Anfield wrote:

stephane wrote:

slt
merci de penser à ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais.

L'anglais de A à Z

Le mot et l'idée

L'anglais pour les nuls


Franchement, de beaux cadeaux pour la fête des pères ....

jsuis pas papa et j'en ai besoin aussi (P.S : je mendie parce que moi pas avoir de sous

lol

moi j'ai quand même apprécié la réaction des proprios du club notamment,t Hicks qui a critiqué vivement l'UEfa et dit qu'il n'y avait que des bureaucrates qui n'y connaissaient rien.

il a défendu nos supporters, d'habitudes les acheteurs de clubs s'en fiche de ce genre d'histoire et lui il a défendu son club et ses supporters. j'aime beaucoup.

voici un quote de eurosport.fr

Quote :

Liverpool attaque

Le copropriétaire américain de Liverpool Tom Hicks a vivement répliqué mardi aux "bureaucrates" de l'UEFA après les critiques de l'instance européenne sur le comportement des supporters du club anglais en marge de la finale de Ligue des champions contre l'AC Milan.

Les critiques de l'UEFA ont été formulées par "un gars qui ne sait pas de quoi il parle", a déclaré Hicks à propos de commentaires du porte-parole William Gaillard, qualifié de "bureaucrate qui essaie d'alléger la pression sur lui". "L'UEFA n'a pas du tout géré ça bien. Ne donner que 17 000 tickets aux deux clubs, notamment en sachant que 40.000 supporters de Liverpool allaient venir, était de la folie pure", selon Hicks.

"Ils n'ont pas de véritable procédure de billetterie et, malheureusement, il y avait des billets contrefaits. Il y a eu des supporteurs qui ont dépensé leur argent durement gagné pour avoir leur ticket, ils sont allés au stade et on leur a dit qu'il n'y avait plus de place. Est-ce qu'ils étaient fous furieux? Bien sûr qu'ils étaient fous furieux", a poursuivi Hicks.

au moins quelqu'un de réactif et qui n'a pas peur de la "toute puissance" des instances européennes....

quelqu'un aurait il le plaisir de tout traduire?

Any translation please for people dont speak english? ( even if I understand and speak english)
thanks

Puisque tu viens gentiment de te proposer...

C'est de moi qu'il s'agit? malheureusement je n'ai pas trop le temps..

Steven Gerrard a aussi prit la défense des scousers.
C'est sur le site offciel :

Steven Gerrard has sprung to the defence of Liverpool supporters after Uefa spokesman William Gaillard labelled them the worst in Europe after problems marred the Champions League final.
The Reds captain, speaking while on duty with England, claimed he couldn't understand how the Liverpool fans – his friends and family included - could be blamed for the chaos in Athens.

"What Uefa have said really upsets me," revealed the midfielder. "We've travelled everywhere together for the six or seven years I've been in the first team and from what I've seen, their behaviour has been fantastic.

"I had friends and family at the final. Their opinion was that the organisation wasn't good enough. I'm sure when it all gets broken down, they will conclude the organisation wasn't good enough and maybe a minority of Liverpool fans let themselves down but as far as I'm concerned the European Cup Final has to be in a bigger stadium with better organisation."

So far, Tom Hicks, Rick Parry and the UK Sports Minister Richard Caborn have criticised both Gaillard and UEFA. Platini has officially said yesterday that we are not the worst supporters in Europe.

This campaign for change though is not about what Gaillaird said it is about a fairer deal for the supporters of all football clubs in Europe as we are all affected.

The Chairman of the English Football supporters association has criticised UEFA for choosing stadiums not suitable for Football matches and also has raised the question that the sponsors should be aware that their customers are the ones who are being deprived of tickets. The difference in the treatment of the corporate sponsors "guests" otherwise known as the "UEFA Family" and that of the fans is nothing short of obscene. Champagne and caviar for them and in the case of Istanbul nothing for the fans. Amnd I mean nothing, no food , no drink not even a chair to sit on in the fan zone!

Then explain how 4000 tickets handed back to UEFA and supposedly for their "Family" end up on the black market being bought by Liverpool fans at way over the cost price. And then UEFA have the nerve to complain about crowd problems at the game! This was a problem of their own making.

We need to bring pressure to bear on UEFA through targeting their sponsors to acheive a fairer deal for fans.

You should think seriously about buying the sponsors products if you are a football fan.

Heininken Sony Mastercard Vodafone and Ford are the companies concerned.

Don't waste your time writing to UEFA write to the companies concerned this will have more effect.

Youknowwho,

I fully understand your point, but I also agree with Candy, we have to express our concerns to UEFA directly. It may be of no use, but still it has to be done.


As we all do not know you, can you tell us more about you. Are you from RAWK ?