silver_phoenix

I'm very proud to be British (I can't say English as I have welsh, scottish and english blood in me). At home, I'm still flying the St George in my bedroom window even after the world cup has finished. I just don't condone such behaviour and yesterday I was very ashamed of the state of our nation. We have just started clawing back our reputation in the world of football, we don't need to alter our reputation in speedway to a bad one. It was only a handful of people who did the bottle throwing and abuse hurling, but in the eyes of the foreign fans, it's the British. That was all I was saying. The Danish, Polish, Swedish and Australian fans that I saw around the track aren't going to remember it as a few louts. We were team GB supporters and it ends up reflecting badly on us as a whole. Don't presume to know me. I never criticise my country unless it's something like this, or other things that are unacceptable such as racism. Like I said, I'm very proud to be British and that's why this has affected me so much.

I agree! I was there at the press conference and I was disgusted by the fans. I thought NP had every right to tell them to shut up when they were hollering abuse. It was terrible to have to sit there and witness that when in reality we should have been celebrating a wonderful night of closely fought speedway. The British lout isn't the kind of reputation we want to get in speedway. It's bad enough in football. Ever since the press conference I've been really riled by this and have been ranting about it around the house all morning. It's a shame that we have to suffer fools in such a great sport. Speedway really is a family sport and one where most of the time rival fans get on. As a sport it's one of the few where it's nice to be a fan and you can talk to almost anyone. It should remain a friendly sport and a family sport. It makes this kind of behaviour even more unacceptable because of the number of children who attend these meetings.

I have to say that I was appalled by the behaviour of the British fans when they threw glass bottles at the Danish team on their parade lap! It's no wonder we get the reputation for being louts now, is it? Also, what is a stadium doing letting people have glass bottles to start with. That's just adding fuel to the fire when you give them something to hurl at people. The number of people injured in bar fights after people have had too much to drink, or sportsmen injured by such missiles is enough to show that in this day and age, people should be forced to have their drinks in plastic glasses. It's ridiculous that the stadium allowed the patrons to have bottles. What were they thinking? I know that at most stadia I've been to, having a glass bottle is out of the question! It's a simple matter of sense and safety. At a football stadium they won't even let you have lids on plastic bottles so you can't fill them with liquid and hurl them. It was a completely unforgiveable thing that the British fans did and it was an embarrassment to our nation and its place in this sport. Isn't it about time that British fans grew up a little? There was hard riding involved during this years WTC, but there always is. No one was hurt and riders gave as good as they got. Personally, to see the fans pressed up against the glass during the press conference and hurling abuse at the Danish riders was inexcusable. It was right for Hans to bring up what had happened to them out on the parade lap so the press knew. These kind of people need exposing before they sully our name and place in this great sport. Maybe we should get measures in place to ban such people? The stadium shouldn't be allowed to go unpunished though. I am ashamed of us as a nation. I know this is the classic case of a few people ruining it for everyone, but what happened is unforgivable.