[Lorrie]

If you're a fan of the visiting team you either have to sit with the travelling supporters (who buy their tickets from the host club) or sit with the home supporters and don't say a peep. And don't wear colours.

I've done a bit of travelling with Toronto FC supporters and we're kept in a separate parking lot for tailgating. Then we're escorted into the stadium to our seats and escorted back out.

DC United plays at RFK and we get our own part of the second level, our own beer guys and told to smoke in the stadium to avoid trouble.

[Sweet_Kicks]

As an away fan you buy your tickets through your own club, who are given an allocation by the home club, depending in the club that is visiting the allocations do vary due to rivalry/policing etc

You sit in a separate corner of the stadium, seperated by the orange bibbed brigade, use a separate entrance though dependant on the clubs involved (rivalries) fans do mix before, I think even the facilities (toilets/food) inside are separate as well. You get kept behind to leave separately from home fans. If its a big rivalry you even get separate trains/underground queue's.

Some of the rivalries run pretty deep over here utd/city, utd/liverpool, arsenal/tottenham etc, and as with all teams you get an element of knob head fans who cause drama, so they are kept as seperated as they can.

Realised I used the word seperate/separately a lot there, so in case you aren't clear they are generally well and truly separated

[Big Vern]

watch The Firm for an insight into old fashioned blighty hooliganism.

[olskool720]

thanks guys for letting me know the "ins and outs". very interesting.
always the knob heads that cause probs for the non-knobbies.

[Vortec]

If you need to know how it works in the Netherlands you need to ask Marco, he is a very fanatic supporter if i may believe Facebook. I believe the precautions in the stadiums in the Netherlands are much harder then in the UK but in the UK the sanctions are harder. So in the UK the supporters will behave better.

I`m not going so often to the matches but if i`m right in the Netherlands the out supporters are seperated from the home suporters. At my club there is a special parking lot for busses. Some of the "risk-matches" you can only visit them by bus. The bus brings you in the special parking lot, with high fences so the "supporters" can`t trow stuff at each other. They have a special entrance and their tribune is fenced to. The visiting supporters are escorted by the police (even when they arive and leave with the busses) and have their own bar in the stadium.

The field is surounded by a "canal" so nobody can get on the field.
http://www.voetbalprimeur.nl/sites/defau...Veste2.jpg

[Marco82]

Indeed, over here in the Netherlands the away fans are separated from the home fans as much as possible. In the stadiums the section for the away fans is separated from the home sections with fences or safety glass (sometimes in combination with nets). In some stadiums you even have a net in front of the away section, to prevent that things are thrown onto the pitch. Like Vortec said, most of the stadiums have special parking lots for the away fans.

The canals to prevent people going onto the pitch is something that most Dutch stadiums that are built in the 1990s have. Most of the older stadiums don't have these canals, but just have high fences. There are also some stadiums that don't have canals or (high) fences for the home sections.

The matches are classified in different "risk levels". The way you can travel to these matches depends on the risk level of a match. The matches in the highest risk level can only be visited with a bus (buscombi), and you're not allowed to drink alcohol underway.
It can happen that the police take the bus off the road to check that there's no alcohol onboard. If they find something the bus will be send back. Drinking alcohol after the match is allowed, so beer in the luggage room of the bus is allowed.
By these buscombi matches the last 10/ 15 km you'll get a police escort to the stadium. When we play a derby we'll get a police escort from our own stadium to the stadium of our rivals.

Sometimes there's an autocombi, that means that you can travel in your own car, bur that you have to stop at your own stadium first to trade your sign up form for another form, and you have to stop a second time underway to trade the second form for the match ticket.

There are also matches without any risk, offcourse you're free to travel the way and time you want to these matches.

Shame that all these rules are needed, but there are always some cunts that ruïn it for the rest of the supporters.

[olskool720]

I know about the craziness that happens at football matches outside of the USA. Didn't know about all of the measures that go on behind the scenes for visiting team fans to enjoy an away match. WOW Very enlightening for sure. As Tif would attest, even baseball games between long time rivals the Red Sox and the Yankees don't even come close to those types of security measures. We Americans love our sports, but no extreme security stuff like what's been described here. Thanks for sharing guys. I appreciate your time. I'll be up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to watch the Spurs/Gunners match!!!!

[flyingcod]

I remember watching a pre season friendly many moons ago at Amsterdam Arena and I asked my mate (who lived there) what the cage was in the far upper corner.

He said: 'Ah that's for when Feyenoord come to visit.'

You craayzee Dutch peoplesch!

fc

[Marco82]

^ Not only Feyenoord, it's for all the visiting fans.

In fact, in matches between Ajax and Feyenoord and Ajax and ADO Den Haag no away fans are allowed the last couple of years.

Because of this the Dutch Cup final which is played traditionally in de Kuip in Rotterdam didn't go on in it's normal way a couple of years back. Instead of it the final was played over two legs that year, the first one in de Kuip with only Feyenoord fans and the second leg in the Amsterdam Arena with only Ajax fans.

Crazy Dutch people indeed.

[llcoolgee]

Whats the deal with the Den Haag rivalry? Rotterdam I understand, buf the Dem Haag I dont.
as a caveat, I'm on my way to the football here in Melbourne, to watch my adopted team. all very sedate in comparison to what I'm used to from back home