Harry Truscott wrote:
Similar to Bored, I am always shocked at quite how much coverage Wales' two league clubs (and it's prime non-league one) get in the Welsh press (which I get every week) and on BBC Wales 1,2 and radio and S4C (which I have at home via Sky).


The Western Mail's coverage of Cardiff and Swansea is excellent - no question, but beyond that it's shocking.

There are countless instances of media giving preference to rugby - I'm not going to go trawling the net now, as I doubt whatever I say will make any difference ... and I've got to go and collect my car from the garage.

Harry Truscott wrote:
It's not really warranted by their level of support within our population. Speaking of S4C, is there another country which gives so much TV coverage to games that attract the level of crowds that the League of Wales achieves?

Probably not - except perhaps the Faeroes, Iceland or Andorra?
For all its faults it's our national league and it gets a half hour weekly highlights programme on a public service television channel.

Bored of Education wrote:
Jorge, Wrexham Frontline, Kurdish refugees? Want to talk me through that one?

Later ... I'm off out, but it wasn't the Frontline, it was a bunch of young hooligan wanabees calling themselves the "young Frontline" spouting BNP shite who have well and truly been shouted down at The Racecourse

Jorge Porbillas wrote:

The Western Mail's coverage of Cardiff and Swansea is excellent - no question, but beyond that it's shocking.

There are countless instances of media giving preference to rugby - I'm not going to go trawling the net now, as I doubt whatever I say will make any difference ...

It's extensive but I wouldn't really call it excellent. it's often poor quality journalism and, to be honest, I wish my club attracted less media attention. There's just too much copy swilling around about the club and I sometimes think it would be refreshing for a media blackout on everything except match reports.

I don't doubt that "There are countless instances of media giving preference to rugby" but I think it's justified and have no real problem with it despite my huge personal preference for football. Rugby's the national game.


Probably not - except perhaps the Faeroes, Iceland or Andorra? For all its faults it's our national league and it gets a half hour weekly highlights programme on a public service television channel.

I'd be interested to find out if the Faroes and Andorra have national TV coverage of their football leagues. I don't have a problem with the LOW or it's coverage but I think it belies the supposed level of anti-football bias. As another example, Cardiff have been live on S4C twice in recent weeks for FA Cup games where actual attendances struggled to reach 7,000 people and will be on again this weekend.

True, it gets a weekly highlights programme which belies the attendances ... and the Cardiff FA Cup matches are a massive coup for us - remember I work for the company who produces these programmes ...

... I'll leave it there, before I say something I shouldn't about the channel that ultimately pays my wages <winkything>

Etienne wrote:
Chilean fans apparently chant "Let's Go To The Beach" when playing Bolivia, to celebrate the fact that Chile grabbed Bolivia's coastline in the war of 1879. I like this rather more than "two world wars and one world cup".

Do they use the 80s pop song "Vamos A La Playa" by Righeira?

I'd forgotten that Cardiff supporters always chant "Pompey, What's the time?!" at Portsmouth supporters and point at our watches because we dismantled the clock at Fratton Park's Milton End during an eighties game.

As noted by Johnathan Owen in his pre-Cup fianl piece on Grandstand.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVme2hs2qo&feature=player_embedded

3'40 in ... very subtle ...

Not that anyone cares, but the Andorran League appears to have a one-hour long highlight show on Andorran television every Monday night.

And you can watch it live online from the home page of that link.

No indication of any live coverage, though.

Later ... I'm off out, but it wasn't the Frontline, it was a bunch of young hooligan wanabees calling themselves the "young Frontline" spouting BNP shite who have well and truly been shouted down at The Racecourse

Come on, Jorge, that is like mne saying the knobheads that shout racist chants and call themselves "Soul Crew" or whatever now are pretenders to the old lot that helped old ladies across the street and kept the streets safe for real hooligans.

I am not saying that Cardiff aren't worse than Wrexham even taking into account Caia Park but they aren't St Pauli. There are Cardiff/Celtic badges on Sloper Road and "No Surrender" would probably get shouted down (hopefully)but it doesn't mean that Cardiff are suddenly of a left persuasion

top stuff UA!

Bored of Education wrote:
Come on, Jorge, that is like mne saying the knobheads that shout racist chants and call themselves "Soul Crew" or whatever now are pretenders to the old lot that helped old ladies across the street and kept the streets safe for real hooligans.

I am not saying that Cardiff aren't worse than Wrexham even taking into account Caia Park but they aren't St Pauli. There are Cardiff/Celtic badges on Sloper Road and "No Surrender" would probably get shouted down (hopefully)but it doesn't mean that Cardiff are suddenly of a left persuasion

I don't think I ever said the older frontline were a bunch of saints, did I? What I did say is that they were strongly anti-facist.

You know what, I just typed out a long and convoluted reply, but then realised I really don't have the time, energy or inclination for this ...

... I started writing a piece trying to justify the political persuasion of a large bunch of lads, some of whom who used to be hooligans, lads with whom I sit at The Racecourse, discussing football, politics, women ... you know, like you do at the football.

I'm not arsed to go searching the internet for links to stuff to try and prove this that or the other. I know, as someone who attends the Racecourse on a very regular basis, that the older lads are, in as much as a large group of blokes can be described as one particular thing, anti-establishment and their politics are very much to the left.

The younger idiots I alluded to were easy pickings for the BNP at the time of the Caia Park riots - the BNP were stoking fires and seeing the area as a top target in the early 2000s. However they failed to make any inroads whatsoever.

As I alluded to, there are Verona banners, the obligatory St Pauli skull and crossbones and there's even a free tibet flag which makes regular appearances.

A few of the old boys regularly travel to Vitrus Verona to watch their matches because of the craic they have with guys of a similar political bent.

Now whether you believe me or not, or think I'm exaggerating or not, I don't really care. I'm the one who sits in the Tech End next to the away fans and their songs of Jerusalem, GSTQ and (ho, ho) Sheep, Sheep, Sheep Shaggers ... and I'm the one who knows that not one racist chant is aimed back at them ... unless, of course, it's an anti-English chant!


EDIT: To Moonlight Shadow
Just to clarify, much as it would be great to think that the supporters were a group of left leaning Ultras, it's not true.
The supporters are left leaning rather than being a left leaning group of supporters.
Does that make sense? What I mean is that whilst many supporters help organise the anti-fascist multi-cultural events to protest against the EDL, it was a case of the guys doing the organising and helping out being Wrexham fans, rather than Wrexham fans doing the organising and helping .

When Celtic player Johnny Doyle electrocuted himself after working on the electrics of his new home,the Rangers fans sung
Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
but the lights went out the same time.
Its my attic and i'll fry if i want to.....
Prior to this the Celtic fans had been singing
Where's your Bobby gone?
He left his engine on.This was prompted by the death of Rangers midfielder Bobby McKean after he died of carbon monoxide poisoning after parking in his garage and leaving the car running to heat himself up.

Jorge Porbillas wrote:


Now whether you believe me or not, or think I'm exaggerating or not, I don't really care. I'm the one who sits in the Tech End next to the away fans and their songs of Jerusalem, GSTQ and (ho, ho) Sheep, Sheep, Sheep Shaggers ... and I'm the one who knows that not one racist chant is aimed back at them ... unless, of course, it's an anti-English chant!



I don't understand, why would a racist chant (aside from anti-English ones which obviously are as racist , or not, as "sheep-shagger" ones) be expected to be aimed back at them? Where on earth would "Jerusalem, GSTQ and Sheep, Sheep, Sheep Shaggers" be met with overt racist responses?

We're in to Chris Rock " "I take care of my kids." - You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker!" territory here.

Sorry, yes that's a bit obvious ... I was trying to say as in, you know, I'm the one who is there and I'm the one who doesn't hear racist chanting back at them ... nor towards any players ... any officials ... or in general.


Anyway, I knew I shouldn't have bothered, I knew something I'd write would have a hole in it for somebody to pick at.

[see, I've even had to edit this]

most vaunted live wrote:
When Celtic player Johnny Doyle electrocuted himself after working on the electrics of his new home,the Rangers fans sung
Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
but the lights went out the same time.
Its my attic and i'll fry if i want to.....
Prior to this the Celtic fans had been singing
Where's your Bobby gone?
He left his engine on.This was prompted by the death of Rangers midfielder Bobby McKean after he died of carbon monoxide poisoning after parking in his garage and leaving the car running to heat himself up.

Very true, well remembered. At the same time we also had the equally repugnant rejoinder of 'Tommy Burns, so does Doyle' whenever the Celtic fans sung about Tommy Burns.
Burns himself died 18 months or so ago but I've never heard a song or chant about him from our support.

"Chilean fans apparently chant "Let's Go To The Beach" when playing Bolivia, to celebrate the fact that Chile grabbed Bolivia's coastline in the war of 1879."

But a tad greedy of Chile, no? It's not as if they're a country short of a coastline.

Look, jorge, if you are saying that, regardless of what the police said, a group of well-known bunch of Wrexham hooligans are left-leaning and not racist at all and the "Frontline" lot that were involved in the Caia Park thing were just appropriating their name then I genuinely believe you.

What this does, however, show is that racists work under whatever flag they see as convenient. Therefore, the Caia Park lot don't make even the Wrexham Frontline lot racist just as your "Turban/rose" lot don't make rugby fans racist just as Swansea Loyalist lot don't make Jacks racist.

I am not asking you to scour the net for evidence but if you can find anything from the Welsh media suggesting that football fans are racist while rugby fans are thenthat has proved your point

Jorge, is there really a difference between football fans that happen to be leftwing and a leftwing groups of supporters, particularly if the former are involved, up to a point, as a group of like-minded invididuals?

Do they ever go to meets from the anti-racist unions of ultras, I think there is one regularly organised in Geneva with mainly French and Swiss lefties joining for concerts and discussion (and getting rat-arsed doing so...)?

I really can't be arsed with this.
My initial posting was that the "Turban/Rose" song is sung at rugby matches - I didn't suggest that all rugby fans are racist, I did, however, suggest that the media makes them all out to be fun loving non violent types.

I stand by those comments.

What I said may have come accross as a sweeping statement which caused offence to Harry and perhaps yourself, and if so, then it wasn't meant that way and for that I apologise.

As for the Wrexham lads, I'm telling you as I know it. The Frontline as I know (and perhaps you knew from Wales trips) were well passed their 'hooligan' days by the time of Caia Park in 2003.

The kids doing the rioting were, in the main, impressionable shit bags a few knobs and some BNP agent provocateurs - the BNP have, however made no inroads as far as council seats are concerned and that is thanks to the stirling work of anti fascist groups in the area.

Anyway, that's my last word - I can't be doing with having every syllable of every post analysed and poured over.

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