Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
Speaker: Okay, right. So we have to talk about this so that the build up to this game was completely dominated, overshadowed by this tweet from Liverpool's official account, which I'm going to read it out because it caused absolute outrage in Italy, well in Naples and understandably so. It was absolutely disgraceful that this could come from
Speaker: from an actual official account associated with football team, with Liverpool. Let me read out. Liverpool tweeted, fans should not congregate in public areas and should avoid becoming isolated in areas away from the port area of Naples. We strongly recommend that you avoid the city centre. If you choose to visit, please be aware that you may be targeted for theft, robbery or assault.
Speaker: I mean, how do you possibly react to that?
Speaker: Naples, 15 million tourists a year visit Naples, according to some stats sites. I understand what they were trying to do, but it was so poorly worded. It was so incredibly unnecessarily inflammatory and insulting. I don't think they did it on purpose. I really don't think so.
Speaker: But the way they worded it, the way they presented it, and the way they doubled down and dug their heels in, insulted an entire city for no reason. They insulted everyone in Naples, essentially calling them thieves. Every single person in there is a thief. That's the extension of this. And I'm just thinking, if somebody had said this about Liverpool,
Speaker: the city of Liverpool, they would have been absolutely for you. No, no, you can imagine what would have happened. But the thing is, they would be right. I think this is this is not how you do it, because secondly, this creates unnecessary this this inflames tensions. There's no there was no need to do this. You can say be careful and be this and be that without talking. Well, without being this blunt and expressing yourself this stupidly to piss people off.
Speaker: and insult an entire city for no reason. And as I said, I don't think they did it on purpose. I think this was just poorly worded.
Speaker: But when they double down and defend it, instead, when the shoe is on, because we know what would have happened if the shoe is on the other foot, and they would be furious and they would be right to. This was just very, very poor. And I think a simple apology saying we didn't mean any offense. We worded it poorly. This is what we meant. That would have been over. It would have been completely over.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just it's disgraceful to make a public announcement like that. You just don't put out that kind of message publicly. Not like you said, not worded like that. And it was it put Liverpool fans in danger. And we've seen, you know,
Speaker: We've seen, unfortunately, there is a history. Everybody knows it. There is a history with English fans when they go abroad. Everybody knows it. They've got a reputation for causes. They don't even need to go abroad. All you need to look at is the European Championship final in 2021. And what happened at Wembley to those poor low -wage workers and stewards at Wembley who were left to their fate
Speaker: You saw what happened. We all saw what happened. It was actually disgraceful. I was going to go to the final and decided not to go because I knew what was going to happen. But they have a reputation, English fans, when they go abroad. Sometimes it is true that they do become a target because of that. Yeah, exactly. That's also important to say. They've got a target on their head because
Speaker: the countries that they visit, the people there know, sometimes it almost becomes like a badge of honor, you know, we got the English, you know, we got the hooligans, you know, we did this to the hooligans. So, you know, it's not, you know, it's not all their fault. But a lot of the time, unfortunately, there is a big, big problem with English bands.
Speaker: traveling abroad, drinking heavily, getting absolutely pissed up before the game, then they, you know, they start being, you know, insulting, you know, doing stuff, you know, pissing over statues and, and, you know, this kind of stuff, throwing chairs around, which seems to be like a favorite pastime. You know, all this kind of stuff, unfortunately, this stuff does happen. So, you know,
Speaker: if anything, what Liverpool should have done is, okay, they can say, be careful, you know, because you might be targeted, you know, for the reasons I've just explained, but at the same time, they should also be saying, don't go out, don't go there and get pissed up. And, you know, just, you know, behave yourselves, you know, that kind of stuff. That's the kind of message, not the kind of message which unfortunately, this is what is always put generally always portrayed
Speaker: in the English media and in the end with the case of Liverpool that the media the Liverpool the Merseyside media is that it's never Liverpool fans fault it's never the English fans fault it's always the country it's always the police it's always that the people you know the country they're going to it's never their fault
Speaker: This has always been the case. So whenever they get into fights or the stuff, they blame bad policing, or they blame UEFA, or they blame the organization of the team or the country.
Speaker: that is what always happens. It's the same all the time. And sometimes, you know, that does come play a part. We saw in the Champions League final, didn't we, in Paris, you know, that that definitely played a big role as well. But even then, you know, when you have tens of thousands, you know, evading Paris, you know, then that that is likely to happen. You put them up, you put the police, you unnerved the police. You know, anyway, I'm going on a tangent now. The point is,
Speaker: that, you know, it's, it's also very hypocritical from from Liverpool's point of view as well, because, you know, we've
Speaker: Just take Haycel, for example. I mean, that has basically been airbrushed from history. I'm sorry, I have to say it. People like to pretend that this doesn't happen, but it has been basically airbrushed. It's never, basically never mentioned. It's almost like it never happened. It never happened. And okay, it's a long time ago and maybe we should say we shouldn't be bringing it up. It's what happened in the past happened. But it's just, I just found this so insulting.
Speaker: And I think one of the reasons we have to be honest, we have, yeah, no, from Liverpool, from the club's account, there should be an apology. There's no need to be to use that kind of inflammatory language. And like I said, I don't think they did it on purpose. I think it was it was just very clumsy.
Speaker: What I think was poor was that they didn't back down, that they didn't delete it and publish a retraction. We didn't mean this. This has been interpreted. They went on a blocking spree. They went on blocking spree. They went on blocking spree with people that were criticising. I didn't even say much.
Speaker: I barely said anything. All I said was, if anything happens to Liverpool fans, if anything happens to Liverpool fans now, you will have to share the blame. That's basically all I said, which is absolutely true. Yeah, I mean, but the thing is, on the other side of why Liverpool fans are distrustful of the police, they have reason to. There's history there as well. Of course. They have absolute shame and despicable behaviour by the British authorities after Hillsborough.
Speaker: Of course. And I'm with them every step of the way. I'm with them every step of the way, you know. And what they did in bringing the establishment, you know, in the States of Justice, there wasn't really any justice. No, there still hasn't been any justice. But bringing that into so that everybody knows the truth of what actually happened. Beautiful. Amazing. But you know,
Speaker: You've got to be able to maintain two thoughts in your head at the same time, and you have to be able to take responsibility. And I don't think a tweet like that intended, and again, I don't think they did it on purpose. I think their intention was to calm tensions down. And instead, whoever sent that message is not a very good communicator and shouldn't be doing that job. And they should have just deleted it, apologized. It's absolutely stupidity.
Speaker: and then move on and then move on. It's stupidity towards their own fans. It's putting them into so much danger. I mean, I would not have wanted to be in a Liverpool fan traveling to Naples if my club has just done that because I'm thinking bloody hell, I'm going to have to hide the whole time now because there's going to be people after me.
Speaker: you know, and it reminds me a little bit, I remember the, and this is a famous one, the Battle of Santiago in 1962, right, the 1962 World Cup where Italy played against Chile, Chile were the hosts of that World Cup. Now, the big reason why that game erupted, the main reason why that game erupted into the most brutal, you know,
Speaker: game of football we've ever seen in a World Cup. Italy had two players sent off. There were players that had noses broken faces broken. It was it was full of fights and free for rules. And it was it was an absolute I mean, check out that game on YouTube. Watch that game. I mean, it was like it was like WWE. It was it was
Speaker: It was unbelievable. The reason why that happened is because before the game, two Italian journalists wrote, and I quote, because I just dig this out, they described Santiago as a backwater dump where phones don't work, taxis are as rare as faithful husbands. A cable to Europe costs an arm and a leg, and the letter takes five days to turn up. It is full of malle nutrition, illiteracy, alcoholism, and poverty.
Speaker: Okay, that's probably, that's a little bit worse than what Liverpool said about Naples. But you get the point. That stirred up. It inflamed all the temperatures. It infuriated the whole of Chile. The whole of Chile were absolutely infuriated by this and including the players themselves. And that created, you know, it was unnecessary. Like the thing is, I think Klopp said it best when somebody in Naples try to ask them about it before the game.
Speaker: I thought he said he said look that the intention is what he said is the intention one group of fans should not meet another group of fans because something will happen that was what they were trying to say instead they made Naples sound like it's more dangerous than the Ukraine during Putin's bombings like it's just it's ridiculous I mean this notion that you can be you know it's it's a city that is
Speaker: one of the biggest tourists, the tourist places for tourists to visit in the world, 15 million before the pandemic visited Naples annually, 15 million. And so we're not, you know, it's it's it's ridiculous. The way they spoke, again, I must be a lot of robberies, a 15 must be 15 million robberies. But it's name me the city that is safe. I'm sorry. Name me the city that is safe in the West.
Speaker: from theft robbery and stuff like that. That's what's ironic about it because you know Liverpool has a reputation and I love Liverpool by the way you know when I was a little bit younger and I used to you know we used to go out me and my friends we used to always regularly you know at least once a year we would go for a night out in Liverpool beautiful the people were great on nights out
Speaker: You know, it was, you know, there's lots of stuff to do there. You know, you've got the Beatles, obviously, you know, I mean, everything else. There was a lot of culture there as well. You know, it's, you know, I love Liverpool, but, you know,
Speaker: At the same time, it does have rightly or wrongly, Liverpool also has a reputation for this as well. And actually Salvatore Esposito actually tweeted about it. They're the famous actor actor from Gamora, you know, because he got pissed off about it as well. Well, of course he did. And, you know, so people didn't like being insulted. I mean, you know, it's it's it was unnecessary. Like I said, I mean, it's it's I don't think they meant to, but they
Speaker: But to be fair, maybe I'll tell you one thing, though, one thing, though, they were right to tweet about it for one reason. No, Liverpool. And that's because Joe Gomez, he got robbed three times in the first half. I mean, it's like God assaulted all game, didn't he? Yeah. So they obviously they didn't get the memo and they should have sent it. So they should have sent it to their play. Their players, as my colleague, Ronan Murphy, also tweeted, he said, Liverpool should have told their players to stay away from Naples, not their fans.
Speaker: because they really could take a hiding.
