See ourselves as others see us

Images of Rangers fans attacking police and looting shops in the aftermath of last week's Uefa Cup final sickened people across the world, and the damage caused to Scotland's reputation won't be as easy to clear up as the blood and glass from Manchester's streets

WHA'S like us, eh? Wednes- day night's 10 o'clock news bulletin showed footage of Rangers fans fighting, wrecking cars and looting shops in the centre of Manchester. By Thursday morning YouTube was carrying footage of a full-scale riot – and of PC Mick Regan slipping over as he turned to run from a baying mob of drunken Scots.

Few watching would have avoided a shiver of horror as the Manchester beat bobby disappeared beneath a melee of punching, kicking Glaswegians, saved only by his body armour and a couple of good Samaritans.

The grainy CCTV footage of that assault was played on news bulletins around the world. It made headlines in countries such as America and Australia, where football is usually an afterthought. And if anyone missed the news bulletins, by noon yesterday there were 559 different versions of the riot posted on YouTube for them to watch at their leisure, one of them with more than 150,000 hits.

One viewer had added the following comment, common in the online reactions to the scenes of brutality: "This is how typical Scots behave, especially after a pint of beer or a tot of whisky."

In the letters page of the Manchester Evening News yesterday the verdict was blunt. "These vermin only came here to drink and cause trouble… if there were any way of passing a law prohibiting them from leaving Glasgow I would be behind it."

On a BBC Manchester website a local man said: "I thought Hadrian's Wall was supposed to keep these savages at bay."

So just how much harm has been done to Scotland's international reputation in the past few days? And what can we do to start to repair the damage?

For Anglo-Scottish relations, the riots couldn't have come at a worse time. Tensions in the Union are self-evident, with simmering English resentment about what is seen as preferential treatment for Scots, and the behaviour of Rangers fans fed into an abiding caricature of Scots as being drunken, aggressive and violent. We may like to believe that the world sees us as outgoing and friendly, but our neighbours had a less favourable stereotype reinforced in Manchester.

Ordinary English folk drew their own conclusions. "All the coverage in the run-up to the game was about the racism and violence of the Zenit fans," says Greg Atkins, 40, a media executive in London. "But all the bigotry and violence came from the Rangers fans. I like Scotland but have never been to Glasgow. Before Wednesday night all I knew about the place was that it is the murder capital of the world. Now I can see why.

"Would you honestly want to take your wife and kids to Glasgow now, or go clubbing or on a stag weekend there? Of course you wouldn't. I'd think twice about going up there for the Commonwealth Games. Those scenes would make me think twice about visiting Scotland, full stop. Many people down here feel the same way."

Views such as these are desperate news for a Scottish economy in which tourism is a major and growing component. England is the single biggest market for incoming tourists, according to VisitScotland, with 6.4 million English tourists heading north each year – the entire overseas market brings just 2.7 million visitors. The importance of English attitudes to Scotland cannot be overestimated.

The horrified reaction in England to the events in Manchester is hard to square with the relaxed comments coming from VisitScotland headquarters, where executives believe the furore will quickly die down and business as usual will soon be resumed.

"Our general view is that, after our landscape, Scotland is known for its friendly people and this remains a big draw for tourists," says Barbara Clark, the communications director of VisitScotland. "We think that people will be able to differentiate between a bunch of hooligans and a whole nation.

"I don't think this will tarnish us, no matter how disappointing and embarrassing it is. There have been incidents like this before, but we're confident that the Tartan Army will more than counteract the bad publicity."

That may be wishful thinking. Raymond Boyle, an expert on sport at the University of Glasgow's Centre for Cultural Policy, believes that the scenes in Manchester will inevitably lead to Scots and Scotland being tarred with the same brush. He says: "These were profoundly shocking acts of violence which were widely reported and will have captured people's attention.

"Of course there are football-literate people out there who will have looked at the violence and drawn a distinction between Rangers fans and the rest of Scottish football. But two people can see the same event and interpret it completely differently. For those people beyond our borders whose appreciation of us is not particularly nuanced, all they will see is Scots on the rampage. This hurts Rangers, but all Scots are damaged by association. For those who already harbour a negative stereotype of violent, drunken Scots, this will consolidate those feelings."

Paul Bush, the chief operating officer at EventScotland, which has helped bring big events such as the 2012 Commonwealth Games, 2012 Ryder Cup, the Champions League final, the Uefa Cup final and the Mountain Bike World Cup to Scotland, accepts there will be damage. "Sadly this does damage Scotland's image, there's no point pretending otherwise," he says, "but we've got a track record of staging events that have been organisationally impeccable. We are also seen as a welcoming country, so I don't think this will stop people coming."

While Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown both spoke of their shock, embarrassment and anger, the soul-searching has been most intense in Glasgow itself. The leader of the city's council, Steven Purcell, spoke of being "ashamed as a Glaswegian" as he took out a full page advert in the Manchester Evening News to apologise.

"I, as a Glaswegian, am ashamed of the behaviour of some people on Wednesday night and I know there are many other Glaswegians who feel the same way," said Purcell. "Newspaper photographs and television coverage of people verbally abusing police and stewards, and in some cases attacking them, are appalling and very disappointing."

Rangers were equally contrite. Even had Celtic's Tommy Burns not died, the open-top bus tour that had been planned whether Rangers won or lost, would surely have been cancelled. The club's chairman, Sir David Murray, was left to fume at the way in which an event that should have been his club's finest hour had become its nadir. "We deplore the actions of a small minority who were involved in the disturbances," he said, adding that he hoped "the severest action (will be] taken against them".

That seems likely. The scale of the devastation in Manchester, where the city centre was awash with broken glass the morning after a night of rioting and looting, was epic. There were 30 arrests overnight, 15 police officers injured and the ambulance crews who came under attack from feral fans dealt with 52 assaults.

VisitScotland will not be doing research on whether the scenes in Manchester have impacted upon their perception of Scots. "Even by asking people about it you're focusing on it when all we want is for people to forget about it," says Clark. But the ongoing prosecution of fans will keep the issue in the public eye south of the border.

This, after all, is not the first time that Rangers fans have caused trouble while following their side in European competition.

The ugly tradition goes back to 1972 and fans on the terraces at Barcelona's Nou Camp with Franco's police. There is no spin that can be put on more recent events, however, when violence accompanied the team's visits to other Spanish sides Osasuna and Villareal. After Rangers played in Barcelona, the city's police chief said that their fans' behaviour had been so bad that he pitied Celtic because they had to play Rangers regularly.

Even in the face of such a well-established track record of bad behaviour, there are those who immediately sought to downplay the scale of the Manchester violence. MSP Murdo Fraser, the deputy leader of Scotland's Conservatives, spoke of police "over-reaction" on Wednesday evening before swiftly revising his opinion after seeing footage of the carnage.

The SNP's Michael Matheson, a Glaswegian and former shadow minister for sport, sought to avoid all Rangers fans being demonised. But while he called for "robust" punishments to be imposed on those convicted, he added: "The vast majority of Rangers fans were well behaved, and I think we have to look at the issue of whether there were elements out for trouble who attached themselves to Rangers, who aren't Rangers fans but who were perhaps responsible for instigating a lot of the trouble."

If Matheson is giving credence to the unsubstantiated rumours of agents provocateurs from Ulster and England leading confused little lads from Govan into battle against their will, John MacMillan isn't. He is the general secretary of the Rangers Supporters' Association, and was in Manchester. He is in no doubt where the blame lies.

"This may be a societal problem, but the fact is that we had people following Rangers that night who aren't fit to walk the streets, who should be locked up," says MacMillan.

"The bottom line is that even though 99% of Rangers fans were very well behaved, 1% weren't and that's completely unacceptable. God knows what they (the people of Manchester] think of us."

We can, of course, guess, especially after Manchester council felt compelled to shelve plans to put up big screens in the city centre on Wednesday when Manchester United play Chelsea in the Champions League final in Moscow. After footage of 'British' fans bedecked in Union Jacks attacking Russian fans and reports of the stabbing filtered back to Russia, there is also concern at the possibility of reprisal attacks by Russians on fans travelling to Moscow this week.

And just in case we still doubt the impact that Wednesday's violence has had on Scotland's standing, it's worth listening to Greg Atkins' parting shot.

"Perhaps it's wrong, but the image many of us now have of Scotland football fans is the one of that CCTV coverage where they're kicking the crap out of that policeman."

Raised batons and overcrowding were 'a disaster waiting to happen'

Kate Foster

IN THE middle of the swelling crowd in Piccadilly Gardens, he was just another bloke in a Rangers shirt, trying to find a good spot to watch the big match. But this dedicated fan, caught up in last week's events in Manchester, was used to working on the other side of the riot lines.

The fan, who wishes to remain anonymous, is also a senior police officer in the Strathclyde force, with wide experience of crowd control. Yesterday, he launched a scathing attack on the policing of the event, calling into question the tactics used by colleagues south of the border. It was, he said, "a disaster waiting to happen".

The officer was in the throng in the city centre when he realised things were getting out of control. And it was not the crowd, but police who were behaving "excessively".

He said: "I am sorry to say that my impression of the Manchester public order officers is that things seemed to escalate almost immediately to shields, helmets and batons.

"I personally saw officers who were excessive in their behaviour. They were pushing people back with shields when those persons were just approaching them to ask questions.

"There's no doubt there were hooligans there and some of them got what they deserved, but it would appear that, perhaps on some occasions, the policing was excessive."

Part of the problem, he said, was an apparent lack of preparedness for the scale of the Rangers support. "They were caught out by the numbers of fans and where they were congregated.

"All the designated fan-zones were grossly overpopulated. I can speak from experience when I say it was a recipe for disaster. I went to Piccadilly and Albert Square, and I couldn't have turned round to get something out of my rucksack in either of them. I couldn't have tied my laces."

The actions of the riot police were, he said, questionable: "They had full public-order (riot] gear on and two officers had their batons above their heads. That should only have happened if there was an imminent threat, and to me that was excessive and shouldn't have happened.

"We in Strathclyde have only escalated to that level of public order once, and that was during G8, so that gives you some idea. We just wouldn't have done that. Maybe their training is different from ours."

The start of the trouble came quickly, he said. "Everything just came together: the screen going off; the English football casuals throwing things; it was so vastly overcrowded. I was in there for three minutes and came straight out. It was a disaster waiting to happen. It should have been spotted long before by the people in charge of the arenas, the security guards. But there would appear to have been no number-counting. People kept coming. It was crazy. Without a doubt, there should be an inquiry."

John O'Connor, a former commander of Scotland Yard's Flying Squad, called for an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into the "utter stupidity" of the policing operation.

He said: "Police were outnumbered and let down by senior officers. They have been almost conned into believing this was going to be a fun festival of football and all the jolly folk from Glasgow were going to come down."

Blood, beer and baying mobs: eyewitness accounts of a night of carnage

"A handful of fans were picking up bottles and hurling them at the police. They charged forward in full riot gear. There were guys covered in blood and shattered glass all over the floor and litter everywhere."

Rangers fan Robert Brown, 26

"There's guys fighting one another in there now. Rangers fans are turning on Rangers fans. This wasn't the day it should have been."

Rangers fan David Farries, Cumbernauld

"I've watched them commit damage, assault my officers and I'm really sickened and disappointed. I saw officers chased down a street by a baying mob of around 200 people."

Manchester Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran

"We have been squeezed out. There's no space left for us."

Zenit supporter Yelena Rakityanskaya, St Petersburg

"From the outset we were bombarded with bottles and cans. It was frightening, on a different scale from any other match I have worked in my 23-year career. It seemed the vast majority were drunk and they just wanted to cause trouble."

PC Mick Regan, who was ambushed by 20 Rangers fans after helping a colleague escape a bottle attack

"I was walking down the road when the police started charging. I was doing nothing wrong when they hit me across the back of the head."

Injured Rangers fan Ian Crawford, 30, Galashiels

"I lost my younger brother in the crowd and they just started charging at us. The police were out of line."

Rangers fan Willie Smith, 29

"Some guys had carry-outs piled three crates high. It was unbelievable when the shops ran out of beer. The off-licences have scored a massive own goal."

Rangers fan Jimmy Ferguson, 36-year-old labourer

"There is blood all over me. I can't believe this has happened. I walked out with my hands out and they hit me."

Rangers fan Richard Cheyne, 28, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire

"It felt like I'd swapped one war zone for another."

Rangers fan Gregor Moffat, 43, Dunfermline, who serves with the Royal Logistics Corps

"I've never seen anything like it in my life. I don't think so many Rangers fans have ever come together before. It's absolute chaos, but it's brilliant."

Nigel McBride, 36, Jersey

"It must be over-whelming for the Mancunians… they will be glad to see the back of us after a few days."

Dave McKinley, Irvine

"I can't understand it. The Rangers fans were very friendly. We were fraternising. We were hugging. How could this have happened?"

Zenit supporter Alexander Kutikov

"We spent the whole day going in and out of the fan zones and did not witness one bit of crowd trouble. What we did witness was a city that was not ready to handle this kind of invasion."

Eyewitness Dominic Quigley, Motherwell

"Uefa will have to look at whether Rangers are allowed in next year's European competition. These scenes are not acceptable, and neither is the damage to individuals and property."

Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley

"There is no excuse for it. From what I saw before the game there was no need for attacking paramedics and the police. It is indefensible."

John MacMillan, secretary of the Rangers Supporters Association

"It's going to take a powerful rainstorm to get the layer of sticky filth off the streets."

Ben Schmidt, Manchester

"The devastation is just unreal. I've got Scottish blood in me and it makes that bit of me cringe to see what's happened. I'm in shock."

Debbie O'Malley, 43, from Sale, Manchester

"Do you really think we were going to stop 100,000 plus Glaswegians wanting to have a drink?"

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