Poland’s thugs are preparing for battles with fans from England 'knives' 'axes'

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The Sunday Times​

Sun April 30, 2006
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Poland’s thugs plan Hooligan League
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Bob Graham in Warsaw
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POLISH football fans intent on disrupting this summer’s World Cup with organised fights are planning to establish a “hooligan league” which will be headed by the most violent thugs.
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The Polish fans, many of whom will be armed with knives, axes and 3ft truncheons, are preparing for battles with fans from rival countries, including England, throughout the five weeks of the tournament in Germany.
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They say they will be seeking “pre-arranged fights” with travelling England fans because of their reputation as “the best of the worst”. One group of Polish hooligans has warned that if the English “ignore invitations to fight, they will be attacked anyway”.
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The extent of the violence — often with fascist overtones — now commonplace in Polish football is understood by both German and British police. But little is known about the identities of many of the eastern European gangs who talk of turning Germany into a “battleground”.
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The rise in football violence follows a wave of extreme right-wing and vehemently anti-semitic political discourse in the former communist country. Within the Polish parliament there are politicians who openly praise fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Hard-core fascist and anti-semitic publications are sold on newsstands.
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Rafal Pankowski, who organises Never Again, a Warsaw-based human rights group, said: “The level of violence and its links to fascist and racist groups is a great concern to us. We are very worried this will be exported to Germany for the World Cup.”
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Polish hooligans interviewed about their plans boast that they will be able to slip across the border into Germany without being detected. They talk of night-time raids on the campsites where many of England’s 80,000 to 100,000 travelling supporters expect to stay.
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Although few of the 2,000-2,500 hard-core Polish hooligans have tickets for matches, they plan to organise fights away from stadiums where they will not be monitored by CCTV and a huge German police operation.
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The shocking level of violence at Polish football matches is far worse than that seen during the dark days of the 1980s in Britain. Virtually every professional club has developed a fan base rooted in hooliganism. In Krakow eight fans have been stabbed to death in the past 12 months.
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At a clash in Warsaw between Polonia and Legia a fortnight ago, more than 1,300 riot police armed with backpacks of CS gas and carrying rifles loaded with rubber bullets failed to contain a crowd of 3,000 fans.
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Instead of keeping rival supporters apart after the game, the police shepherded them away from the football ground and into the city centre, where running battles followed.
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ùGrzegorz Piatkowski, 29, a former trainee priest, fought alongside his fellow Legia Warsaw fans. “After every game there is fighting,” he explained. “It is part of the game, it is something we enjoy. It makes us all feel closer. We stand beside one another and we fight with our friends because it makes us stronger.”
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ùAlongside Piatkowski was Marek, 29, a father of a year-old child. “We will come together for our national cause,” he said of the World Cup. “We think only of beating the ‘hools’ from Germany first — because we hate them — and the ones from England because they have the reputation of being the best hools, because they invented it. If we beat them we will be considered the best.”
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He added: “If the English do not want to fight we will go looking for them and steal their flags, their scarves and their colours. And then we will burn them.”
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The ritual of ambushing rival fans, beating them and stealing their flags and scarves has become a common feature of Polish games. The stolen memorabilia are tied to railings around a pitch and set alight. After a game involving Wisla Krakow earlier this month, fans of the rival club Cracovia waited to fight in darkened alleyways near the city centre.
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ù“It is what I live for,” said Lukasz Pawlik. “I just want to fight the Wisla fans. To say I hate them is not enough.”
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ùPawlik, 26, who, like many young Poles on the hooligan scene, is unemployed, said he has been involved in hundreds of fights in the decade he has followed Cracovia. Dressed entirely in black and ready to put on a black balaclava, he carried what he called his “equipment” — a knife shaped like a miniature axe. He pulled it out from his belt and smiled. “This equipment is now a part of how I fight and it will taste the blood of a Wisla dog tonight,” he said. The shaven-headed Pawlik sat in a bar beneath portraits of former Cracovia players and the late Pope John Paul II.
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“He also was a Cracovia fan,” Pawlik said.
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ùA second hooligan who carried a knife with a 5in blade and a rubber hosepipe filled with sand warned: “Tell the English fans we are coming to Germany to hunt them down.
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“We will come for them silently and quickly. We hate the Germans and we will fight with them. We admire the English because of their reputation. That’s why we will fight with them. We want to take their reputation as the best fighters.”
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Polish police admit they have a severe problem with such hooligans. But unlike their counterparts in England, Germany and Holland, they appear ill-prepared to deal with their fans this summer. Privately, they speak of a lack of political will. ​

Inspector Zbigniew Matwiej, of the Warsaw police, said there was a hard core of 500 highly aggressive hooligans and up to 2,000 more he described as “really bad”.
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“We hope the German border police refuse entry to our bad ones. But there are many crossing places between our two countries so it will be difficult to watch them all. We are watching the ring-leaders but it is difficult because they know we are watching and they are clever.
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“At the moment there’s nothing we can do. This is not for the police, it is for the government and a matter of justice.”
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The Polish authorities appear to believe that violence is almost inevitable. England fans facing direct threats from Polish thugs may feel they deserve better protection.
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Cup marketing blitz kicks off
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Germany’s World Cup fever has reached bizarre heights with the appearance in a Berlin undertaker’s window last week of “special edition” funeral urns in the shape of footballs, writes Matthew Campbell.
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Not to be outdone, another undertaker was offering to decorate coffins in the national colours — or with any other World Cup motif.
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From funerals to garden furniture, the marketing machine is in full swing. Fancy a World Cup railcard allowing discounted tickets? Each time Germany wins a game, the expiry date will be postponed by one month.
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Germans are embracing it all in good cheer, buoyed, perhaps, by a £20m advertising offensive whose purpose is “to combat grumpiness”.
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In keeping with the wishful official slogan of the competition, “A time to make friends”, bus drivers and railway workers have signed up for English lessons.
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The tourism board has prepared kits for taxi companies, hotels, airports, stations, restaurants and travel agents explaining how to charm foreign visitors.
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The brothels, said to be proliferating in expectation of a surge in demand, probably need no such advice.
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Source:
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2157934_2,00.html
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Peace and love
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Note: Silly, repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style losers' fate , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!
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Bring a camera.

 

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You got me that time "rare".

 

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Note: Silly, repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style losers' fate , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!
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My money is on the English. For the fighting, not the world cup.

 

i really dislike that the english have gained a reputation as footbal hooligans. i hope the report of what has been planned in Gemrnay is an exagerration and not as large of a problem as claimed. i hope and pray for a peaceful World Cup, where the nations of the worlds can come together, not fight together
peacex

 

Tight!

 

Not in 1940.

 

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Note: Silly , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim! ​

 

.........dont waste your money man. their are thousands of english football hooligans banned from travellin "so i reckon their wont be much trouble from from the english . now poland (that is suprizing ) thought they are a dont give a shit about football nation ...........hmmmmmmm .....hope its a peacefull world cup and like hope a underdog wins it .

 

paulfreespirit​

Really, Good news.​

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Note: Silly , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​

 

amen brother ........cat who do you think ll win world cup on the footballing stage ........PEACE MAN

 

and people say that Parents fighting over here in the US over sports are out of control. . .

 

paulfreespirit​

I Don't know. No idea. What about you?​

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to be honest cat i dont take as much interest in football as i once did . i dont even know all the teams that are playing " apart from the usual suspects ie= brazil - germany - england - argentina -holland etc etc . brazil or argentina would be possible favourites for me " but i would like to see someone who have never won it win it . i gotta look up who playing ..........peace

 

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have a good day cat .

 

have a nice, peaceful and faithful day dear brother, enjoy Allah's creation,Amen.

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Note: Silly , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!
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If you are an English football fan banned from travelling to the continent you get on a boat to Ireland. (The government won't stop you doing that). Then you fly to a country who couldn't give a toss (switzerland). Then you make your way across Europe to Germany. Easy Peasy.

As for fighting about football. I'm a football fan but I wouldn't fight over it. I support Everton. Everton are shit. So if someone says they are shit then how could I possibly argue.

As for the Poles..... If they start we'll let the Germans take them again like they did before.