utter bulls**t. also the cardiff swansea bubble experience

hopefully it's just heresay as it sounds way ott, pathetic even...

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Daniel Storey travels to Swansea to attend the South Wales derby, where he discovers it’s probably time to cut supporters some slack

It is 11am on a Sunday morning and coaches are lined up in the car park of the Cardiff City Stadium. Most of them have tinted windows, because there’s no benefit to letting anyone see the gestures those seated inside may be making in two hours’ time. Supporters are beginning to gather in bunches.

The atmosphere is like a school playground on exam results day, all nervous laughter and helplessness. Nearby, McDonalds and Greggs have done an unusually roaring trade. An enterprising salesman has scarves draped over his shoulder with two messages: “We are your capital. You Jack bastards.” A child holds one proudly aloft while his dad takes a photo. A hundred yards away, a teenager has been sick. Let’s generously put it down to the tension.

Over the next 45 minutes, cars arrive, park up and the coaches are filled. Police vans and motorcycles move to the front and rear of the convoy. A chant goes up for Michael Chopra, who scored the winner for Cardiff against Swansea in 2010. It soon becomes clear why his name is being sung: Chopra has taken his place on one of the coaches.

The occasion is the 11th South Wales derby in five years, the longest sustained run of this fixture since the 1980s. It is famous as the only “bubble match” in British football, where away fans can only travel (barring the odd prearranged exception) on official supporters’ coaches from one stadium to the other. Supporters are given their match tickets as they climb onto their transport and can only return the same way.

It creates vaguely farcical logistical issues. In the car park, i speaks to Cardiff fans who live in west Wales. They are forced to get up early, drive two hours to Cardiff (almost literally past the ground where they will spend the afternoon), pick up the coach, go to Swansea, come back to Cardiff after the game and then drive the two hours back home (again, past Swansea). The same applies to Swansea supporters living in Cardiff for the reverse fixture. To the uninitiated, it is bizarre.

The bubble started as an idea in response to crowd violence in the 1980s and early 1990s. Swansea and Cardiff didn’t meet between 1965 (when Swansea were still Swansea Town) and 1980, but that decade coincided with a rise in hooliganism in English (or in this case Welsh) football. In 1988, Swansea supporters infamously chased a group of Cardiff fans from the Vetch – their old ground – into the sea, where police finally managed to intervene.

Then, in 1993, the Battle of Ninian Park saw Swansea supporters rip out seats and throw them at Cardiff fans. Disorder broke out onto the pitch, described by then-Cardiff City supporter and then football intelligence officer Simon Chivers as “the worst violence I have ever seen anywhere in my entire life.” Away supporters were banned entirely for four years at both grounds. When they returned in 1997, it was in bubble conditions.


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u/theipaper avatar
theipaper
OP
•
1y ago
As the coaches depart Cardiff and head down the motorway, the police escort kicks into gear. When they reach a junction, it is closed to allow the convoy to pass through without stopping. At bridges over the roads, police stand at both ends, presumably to report upon their progress and stop anyone from gathering on the bridge and risk an incident. As they enter Swansea’s environs, home supporters gather at roundabouts to offer a special hand-gestured welcome.

The intricacies of the bubble means that Cardiff fans arrive at the Swansea.com Stadium – still the Liberty to you and I – two hours before kick off. There has been some relaxation on measures, opening up bars inside to allow them some precious nerve-settling pints, but the sea of metal fencing is also covered in opaque black netting. On a day like today, even allowing supporters to see each other is off the agenda. The sound of a ground empty bar away fans is a unique experience, the noise of Cardiff fans filling the Landore air unabated.
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Posted By: Tombs, Feb 9, 09:58:12