Posted on 14th August 2009
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ll be publishing a range of content promoting the fan-led #TerraceTalk campaign.
The Week That Was
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Welcome to another The Week That Was, with our take on what’s been making the headlines in the world of football in the past week. The biggest thing in our world has definitely been the police’s treatment of a group of Sunderland supporters returning from their pre-season friendly with Hearts last weekend.
What should have been a simple escort from their train to the Metro at Newcastle’s Central Station resulted in three fans being hospitalised after clashes with police dogs and batons. The police claim the fans set upon their dogs at which point they retaliated; the fans insist poor and heavy-handed policing was the cause of the clashes which resulted in one fan receiving 15 staples to two head wounds, and one losing 5 pints of blood. You can be sure that the FSF will make sure that we get to the bottom of this incident, and the matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
We were saddened to hear of the sudden and tragic death of Andre Young, half-brother of Aston Villa full-back Luke Young, while on holiday in Crete. Our condolences go out to Luke and his family and friends.
On the pitch we’ve seen the start of the season in the Football League, as well as the 2nd round of the Carling Cup. There’s far too much to round-up here, but Norwich’s 7-1 home defeat to Colchester caused a titter (although not from the two fans who ran on the pitch to throw their season tickets at manager Bryan Gunn), and we’re sure that the forthcoming West Ham v Millwall Carling Cup tie has both sets of fans licking their lips (and has given the Met Police something of an unwanted headache).
There was also a round of international friendlies, and the FSF Fans Embassy was out in force in Amsterdam giving our usual assistance to all England fans. The team managed to overcome some first half errors to record a 2-2 draw with the Dutch, while Wales went down 2-1 in Montenegro, and Northern Ireland drew 1-1 in a home friendly with Israel. Scotland were humbled 4-0 in Norway in a qualifier, and are third on goal difference in Group 9.
That’s all from us this week – we’re off to count down the hours till the Premier League gets underway on Saturday. Have a great weekend, everyone!
