After crowd trouble during their last home Champions League tie against Marseille, Napoli could be punished by UEFA who could insist the game against Arsenal takes place behind closed doors.
A decision is expected today or tomorrow from the game’s authorities, but the move would clearly not just punish the Italian side but all the Arsenal fans who have made travel plans, and booked flights and hotels.
The Guardian suggest that Arsenal are not expecting a ban, but it would be a huge inconvenience and cost for away day Gooners if UEFA did decide to get strict.
Clearly there’s a lesson here for Napoli fans though. If you have to misbehave, you should stick to outright, clear as day racism because Platini and Co can’t be arsed punishing that properly.
Should be interesting to watch a virtually silent game…
Just to hear Per, Flamini and Woj shouting at everyone, I’ll take it. That it hurts Napoli is a bonus.
they should punish napoli by only letting arsenal fans in…
I want to hear what yell ,
THEOOO!! help zem defend ze lead!
Closed doors or not we’re fucking coming for our 3 points…
It would be unfair on the Marseilles and Dortmund. But perhaps us getting them at home again would be a bigger punishment.
Fuck the racism gunners deserve a c/lge spot, as it is shown napoli fans kicking off o respect the team & fans it is good to consider the safety for team & supporters i mean who wants to end up in the cells with
Assault charges, lets be sensible gunners
Yeah fuck the racism.
Lets be sensible.
Think of the children – won’t somebody please thing of the children and leave brittany alone.
I feel for the thousands of gooners who have already paid for tickets, flights and hotels. But at the same time bad behaviour must have strict punishment. Also the idea of a silent game as Mustafa said, would be very interesting to watch.
Silent game are horrible, we get them from time to time in Italy and they look like training session.
I watched one such Monaco game on TV, needless to say i switched it off after 10 mins.
We played Roma away once in an (for similar reasons) empty stadion. Henry scored a briallian free kick as i recall it.
Good times. Lets do that Again!
PS: Feel sorry for the travelling fans. Seems totally unfair to dish out the punishment so late before a game.
Wasn’t that game though. Anyone with a better memory than mine?
I always think that it should just be the home team that has their fans banned. That way you’d have the away fans cheering on their team and the home team would have to motivate themselves
There is also a big concern of fans’ violence outside the stadium. So the away fans’d better not show up at all.
Surely it would make more sense to only allow the travelling Gooners into the stadium and ban the home support?
I realise that this would be hard to implement, but for us to play in a silent stadium would surely affect us as well?
It doesn’t matter though as we all know that there is no way Uefa will close the stadium. The game will be televised and it would reflect badly on them as an organisation
I think the punishment should be for the only for the home fans. Let the traveling fans in as they are not at fault and shouldn’t be punished.
The real shift of supporter power in their back yard would be a real deterrent against the small minority of hooligans who’d rather fight than watch a game of footie. That’s a long sentence.
Still, this is UEFA we’re talking about and probably nothing will happen.
A much better punishment than closing the stadium would be to switch the venue of the match and forbid away fans. That way you still get the punitive loss of revenue for the offending team, you still get a full stadium for TV, and you avoid potential trouble between fans outside the stadium.
So the away fans should be banned because the home fans are racist?
Would be gutted for the travelling support. But this would give us an advantage, however slight (in this group that could be the difference). As mentioned a silent game would be interesting in itself, we’d be able to hear the coaching staff yelling out orders and Flamini and Mertesacker screaming at their team mates to put the defensive shift in. The tactical geek in me is actually looking forward to the prospect.
I would pay good money to see Per and Flamini barking orders in an empty stad…oh!
Either let the away fans in or just give us the 3 points, or deduct 3 points from Napoli.
I’m sorry but do you really think letting the away fans in would work and banning the home fans? If we were to then win the game our fans would be absolute sitting ducks coming out of the stadium and into the bars for the night.
Anyway it’s not going to happen, Napoli will just get a 1 Euro fine and be told not to do it again
The only CL game I can remember that was played behind closed door by Arsenal was a must-win group game against Juventus. Lee Dixon was still in the lineup as I remembered him standing by the goal post while defending a corner, in which the ball flew past him into the top corner while he can’t do anything.
The stadium was eerily quiet, and you can clearly hear what all the guys were shouting to each other, which was very awkward to say the least.
F*** me, it was not a closed door match! According to the report the stadium was ”half empty”
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2001/matches/round=1546/match=1018357/postmatch/report/index.html#torment+arsenal+turin
Should play it at Arsenal. The punishment should be that they don’t play the next game at home. Then easier to implement no away fans.
silent or noisy we aim for the 3 points and will get it.
The ban would surely help us. Without their fans behind them they would lose home advantage. And we’ll probably only need a draw.
The comments about only allowing us away fans in are stupid: it’s not practical and could lead to Gooners getting attacked.
Shocked that I agree with fatgooner…
something something monkeys on typewriters Shakespeare…
It realy doesn’t make any difference, close door or open door arsenal will always remain the same and aim for the maximum 3points.
A silent stadium would work in our favour as it will make our players feel they’re playing at the Emirates.
Yes, I went there and you know it’s true.
*refuses to get coat*
The same people who complain about having no atmosphere at the Emirates are the ones who don’t go to any home games. Think we should shout louder? Then make yourself heard.