Just seen this. Original Message:-----------------From: carole si, 3 Oct 2008 13:28:44 +0000 (GMT): : News from Mars(eille) How ya, hope u're well,Just been back from Madrid so I thought I'd better warn u about what youmight expect yourselves when u go there.U might have seen the pictures of that b*****d guardia civil charging us on the telly, but it's not the half of what really went on. - getting into the stadium took ages...and there were only 1400 of us! theyare very badly organised and their stewards very aggressive. They nearlystarted the beating then, pushing people queuing on one side then on theother. Even looking at them is seen as provocation, and we felt right away they were ready to go ...you know marseille supporters, lot of men and women of all ages like myself and my godmother, and you could see that theydidn't give a f*** if a 60 something woman was to take a few strokes.- then they searched us and pushed us away when they were done likebleeding animals.-once inside we started our usual singing and everything was going finetill they asked the Ultras to remove one of their banner because theydidn't approve of the Jolly Roger on it... the thing is that we could seethe same skull and crossbones drawn on one of their supporters'banderole.Of course the Ultras refused and then the guardia civil just went in without any warning and started bashing people to get to it and remove it.The truth is that they were only waiting for an excuse.- Reaction of the Spanish supporters when they see that?? .. they startclapping.- A few minutes later second charging of the police... for what??? I do notknow. Our security chief comes up in the stand to try and calm everybodydown... he finds himself on the ground at the bottom of the stairs and theonly reason he didn't get hit is because one of our steward went betweenhim and the coppers and took the blow for him. And that's an officialrepresentative of Marseille football club, with his badge on!!! the same man who had been to meetings with the spanish authorities a couple of days before.Our president had to come up for things to settle.- During the game, monkeys cries towards our black players, fascist salutes, permanent abuses from the spanish coach towards our players on thefield .. just unreal.At the end of the game a sickening "zieg heil" could be heard rising from apart of the spanish stand.- But it wasn't over yet! when we get out of the grounds there were many madrid supporters a few yards from our buses. we are made to understandthat we should get back into our buses pretty quickly by the police. .. but it wasn't quick enough, the robocops start charging us again, the last ones to get into the coaches feel the truncheon on their backs.They even went inside one of the coaches, the Dodgers, a real familyorientated supporters club, and their representative, a 73 years old womangets hit!!! All that to tell you the rumour has it the spaniards are very nervous about you lot coming over and they needed a bit of practice before welcoming you. In the city though (where we were all day) nobody had any problems, nobodycaused any problems ... that's why the attitude of the guardia civil is unbelievable. We really hadn't a clue what we were in for before arrivingnear the grounds. Franco may be dead but his sons are still alive andkicking (litterally!!!) And of course we lost against them b******s! Well done for your victory,you're practically through and I'm delighted for you.Enjoy your trip to madrid, the whole of marseille will be right behind youwhen you play them. I hope your Gerrard and your Torres give them a good lesson in football. Pity we couldn't do it. Bye bye from Marseille. good luck. Carole S
