OK, I'm going to be a bit controversial. Not defending the police

or anything, but my argument would be that they had no, or very little, training for the sort of situation that arose. Their subsequent behaviour was like any large organisation thrashing around protecting itself.

It's really about the complacency about safety standards in football generally, which really involves all of us. Jamming tens of thousands of people into inadequate spaces was the proverbial accident waiting to happen. Remember that awful fire (Bradford?). Who's fault was that?

As I say, I have no remit for the police. My experience of them has been mixed - depends on individual officers - but we expect them to do a lot more nowadays than collaring crims & clipping apple scrumpers round the ear. Proper training is essential.

Posted By: dennis moore, Apr 15, 08:56:48