A Legend, a Thief and a Victory in Athens.
I woke on the Thursday morning so happy that I had actually got to bed at a reasonable time the night before match-day!
Once again, my lovely B&B hosts gave me a lift into town and I went to meet up with some of the others for the trip up to the Acropolis. Unfortunately it was raining on the drive in and it did not look good for the walk. However by the time we had gathered and left the hotel for the walk, the sun came out, the weather could not have been better.
The climb up was way easier than we expected and it was not long until we reached the ticket office. A nice surprise was that the price of entry was half price due to it being the winter season. Some members of the group with student ID even got in for free!
The Acropolis did not disappoint at all, was amazing to think that such magnificent structures could have been constructed without modern technology. We took in the amazing views from the top and managed to pick out the Olympiacos stadium near the port area.
At the top we bumped into Aaron (see...passport story from Baku earlier in this blog) and he handed out our tickets for the match, Seemed surreal to be stood by the Parthenon getting a ticket for the match when normal ticket handouts are done in a bar somewhere!
One of our group was wearing am Arsenal home shirt and a couple asked us if we had seen Ian Wright! They showed us a picture they had taken with him and the guy even admitted he wasn't an Arsenal fan! The group then started the 'hunt' for Ian, determined to track him down and to get our picture taken with him.
It took a while but we eventually spotted Ian. Everyone else in our group was too shy to approach him except yours truly who asked the Arsenal media guy with Ian, whether we could get a picture with him. I explained we were with the GayGooners and he said, "Absolutely, just go and ask him!". The Arsenal media guy then said he had been at the GGs 5-a-side tournament held the Sunday before and he said he had recognised me from it.
I went up to Ian and politely asked him if he minded having his picture taken with some GGs. He immediately said yes. I started getting my scarf out of my flag bag and Ian wanted to know if I would get the flag out. I told him it had a big rainbow strip across the middle of it and he said, "Get it out!". So we got the flag out and while we were trying to get ourselves organised, we were set upon by one of the Acropolis staff who said no flags are allowed. Ian tried to 'reason' with her but she was having none of it. What she didn't know was that one of Ian's team was already taking pictures!
In the above picture, you can see the Acropolis lady's right arm photo-bombing the picture!
Then we had a picture taken without the flag. The Acopolis lady was not happy about Dave's scarf but he insisted it was LGBT and he was not taking it off!
Ian Wright was brilliant with us and more than happy to have his picture taken with us and we were very thankful.
After the pictures were taken, we realised that none of our phones had been used to take the pictures. Thankfully the guy from Ian's team sent us a great selection of pics.
After much frantic tweeting, Whatspping and Facebooking of the pictures, we headed off to the exit excited at what had just happened.
Our next destination was the Acropolis museum. While we there, we noticed that Ian Wright had posted a tweet on his Twitter page and included the picture with us!! That generated further excitement within the group. What a fab morning it was turning out to be.
After a quick visit around the Acropolis museum and constant checking of how many likes Ian's tweet was getting, we looked for somewhere to get lunch.
We avoided all the restaurants that were happy to see us, offered us free beers or 10% discount for being Arsenal fans and opted instead for a place that looked like local people were eating at. The owner was very amusing and decided what we should eat! He made a great selection and the food was very local, very authentic and very delicious. There was so much food and we were pleasantly surprised when the bill came to less than Euro 15 each.
We then went to gather at the Athens Sports Bar in the build up to the game.
And so the beers began to flow and the laughter began. Despite being a Sports Bar, the owners were not keen on much chanting going on as they were worried the police would turn up and shut the place down! We did our best to chant quietly inside the bar!
There was much discussion whether to get the Arsenal organised buses to the stadium. In the end we opted to ignore the advice and we got taxis there instead. The taxi driver was another local who did not want Olympiacos to win!
When we got to the stadium, we covered up our club shirts as best we could. In the end everyone around us was in red and white and despite our mingling with home fans, we didn't feel at all unsafe.
Entry into the stadium went very smoothly and the excitement was beginning to build....would we at least get an away goal?!
Once inside the stadium, I set about putting up our GG flag, in the hope it would be seen by others watching the match back home on TV.
It took me a while to get the flag up as there were not many places to tie it up to. In the end, I tied it to an adjacent flag and then the other side I tied it to the security netting surrounding the entire away fan area.
With the flag in position, I went to where the other GGs were sitting/standing. Shortly after getting to my seat, I noticed a bright green laser light shining on me from the opposite side of the stadium. Thankfully it did not get me in the eyes and it stopped shining after less than 10 seconds and was not seen again during the rest of the match. I was amazed at just how strong a beam it appeared to be. When I complained to the local stewards about it, they did not seem to care at all and appeared to do nothing.
The laser incident was soon forgotten as we started getting more excited about the start of the match. The atmosphere created by the home fans was very impressive, but I have to say, the prize so far this season would have to go to the Frankfurt fans in the qualifiers. They were mega impressive with their co-ordinated chanting and jumping up and down!
I won't do a report on the match here but needless to say, we definitely appeared to hold our own, but thank goodness Leno was on top form!
After around 75 mins of play, I noticed a home fan in a light coloured hoodie (with his hood up) runing up to where I had put up the flag. He put his arm through a gap in the netting that I had not spotted and he grabbed hold of the flag and yanked it away. He did not expect our flag to be tied to another much large flag and he got that one too. As soon as he had the flags, he ran quickly to the nearest exit. Not one steward or home fan in that section tried to stop him, in fact most of them cheered.
Complaining to the local stewards was a waste of time and approaching a UEFA representative was met pretty much with the same uninterested response. The thief was in the stadium and the stewards/police could not care less and made no attempt to apprehend him. My B&B host had warned me against putting the flag up at the stadium as he felt homophobia is still too prevalent in Athens. Perhaps I should have listened to his advice, but I do not regret putting the flag up at all. My personal view is the flag was targetted for it's obviously gay appearance although I accept others might think it was just a 'trophy' hunter. I also wonder if the laser targetted me shortly after putting up the flag(?).
After the theft and then the magnificent winning goal by Lacazette, it was brilliant to hear other away fans join in our chant "We want our flag back!"
The good thing is, no one else in the group was hurt or harrassed. Flags can be replaced and ours is being replaced. We will put up the flag at other away venues and be proud to put it up. We as a group have the same right as anyone else to attend football matches without prejudice and fear. I for one (as many GGs know) will call out hate whenever I hear it (and as long as it is safe to do so). I think visibility of our group, especially at away games is important and sends out a strong message that we love football and we intend to keep attending games! My polite defiance in the face of LGBT+ phobia will continue!
The flag stealing and laser incident have been reported to Arsenal FC, Olympiacos FC and Fans Supporters Europe (FSE say they are going to escalate this to UEFA as a possible homophobic incident). I doubt anything will get done on this occasion, but both Arsenal and FSE have said they are concerned at the incidents. I have yet to hear back from Olympiacos FC and asked them to get our flag back!
Finally, many thanks for the support and concern of other GGs with me at the game and others back at home. It is nice to know we stick together.
Once again, my lovely B&B hosts gave me a lift into town and I went to meet up with some of the others for the trip up to the Acropolis. Unfortunately it was raining on the drive in and it did not look good for the walk. However by the time we had gathered and left the hotel for the walk, the sun came out, the weather could not have been better.
The climb up was way easier than we expected and it was not long until we reached the ticket office. A nice surprise was that the price of entry was half price due to it being the winter season. Some members of the group with student ID even got in for free!
The Acropolis did not disappoint at all, was amazing to think that such magnificent structures could have been constructed without modern technology. We took in the amazing views from the top and managed to pick out the Olympiacos stadium near the port area.
At the top we bumped into Aaron (see...passport story from Baku earlier in this blog) and he handed out our tickets for the match, Seemed surreal to be stood by the Parthenon getting a ticket for the match when normal ticket handouts are done in a bar somewhere!
One of our group was wearing am Arsenal home shirt and a couple asked us if we had seen Ian Wright! They showed us a picture they had taken with him and the guy even admitted he wasn't an Arsenal fan! The group then started the 'hunt' for Ian, determined to track him down and to get our picture taken with him.
It took a while but we eventually spotted Ian. Everyone else in our group was too shy to approach him except yours truly who asked the Arsenal media guy with Ian, whether we could get a picture with him. I explained we were with the GayGooners and he said, "Absolutely, just go and ask him!". The Arsenal media guy then said he had been at the GGs 5-a-side tournament held the Sunday before and he said he had recognised me from it.
I went up to Ian and politely asked him if he minded having his picture taken with some GGs. He immediately said yes. I started getting my scarf out of my flag bag and Ian wanted to know if I would get the flag out. I told him it had a big rainbow strip across the middle of it and he said, "Get it out!". So we got the flag out and while we were trying to get ourselves organised, we were set upon by one of the Acropolis staff who said no flags are allowed. Ian tried to 'reason' with her but she was having none of it. What she didn't know was that one of Ian's team was already taking pictures!
In the above picture, you can see the Acropolis lady's right arm photo-bombing the picture!
Then we had a picture taken without the flag. The Acopolis lady was not happy about Dave's scarf but he insisted it was LGBT and he was not taking it off!
Ian Wright was brilliant with us and more than happy to have his picture taken with us and we were very thankful.
After the pictures were taken, we realised that none of our phones had been used to take the pictures. Thankfully the guy from Ian's team sent us a great selection of pics.
After much frantic tweeting, Whatspping and Facebooking of the pictures, we headed off to the exit excited at what had just happened.
Our next destination was the Acropolis museum. While we there, we noticed that Ian Wright had posted a tweet on his Twitter page and included the picture with us!! That generated further excitement within the group. What a fab morning it was turning out to be.
After a quick visit around the Acropolis museum and constant checking of how many likes Ian's tweet was getting, we looked for somewhere to get lunch.
We avoided all the restaurants that were happy to see us, offered us free beers or 10% discount for being Arsenal fans and opted instead for a place that looked like local people were eating at. The owner was very amusing and decided what we should eat! He made a great selection and the food was very local, very authentic and very delicious. There was so much food and we were pleasantly surprised when the bill came to less than Euro 15 each.
We then went to gather at the Athens Sports Bar in the build up to the game.
And so the beers began to flow and the laughter began. Despite being a Sports Bar, the owners were not keen on much chanting going on as they were worried the police would turn up and shut the place down! We did our best to chant quietly inside the bar!
There was much discussion whether to get the Arsenal organised buses to the stadium. In the end we opted to ignore the advice and we got taxis there instead. The taxi driver was another local who did not want Olympiacos to win!
When we got to the stadium, we covered up our club shirts as best we could. In the end everyone around us was in red and white and despite our mingling with home fans, we didn't feel at all unsafe.
Entry into the stadium went very smoothly and the excitement was beginning to build....would we at least get an away goal?!
Once inside the stadium, I set about putting up our GG flag, in the hope it would be seen by others watching the match back home on TV.
It took me a while to get the flag up as there were not many places to tie it up to. In the end, I tied it to an adjacent flag and then the other side I tied it to the security netting surrounding the entire away fan area.
With the flag in position, I went to where the other GGs were sitting/standing. Shortly after getting to my seat, I noticed a bright green laser light shining on me from the opposite side of the stadium. Thankfully it did not get me in the eyes and it stopped shining after less than 10 seconds and was not seen again during the rest of the match. I was amazed at just how strong a beam it appeared to be. When I complained to the local stewards about it, they did not seem to care at all and appeared to do nothing.
The laser incident was soon forgotten as we started getting more excited about the start of the match. The atmosphere created by the home fans was very impressive, but I have to say, the prize so far this season would have to go to the Frankfurt fans in the qualifiers. They were mega impressive with their co-ordinated chanting and jumping up and down!
I won't do a report on the match here but needless to say, we definitely appeared to hold our own, but thank goodness Leno was on top form!
After around 75 mins of play, I noticed a home fan in a light coloured hoodie (with his hood up) runing up to where I had put up the flag. He put his arm through a gap in the netting that I had not spotted and he grabbed hold of the flag and yanked it away. He did not expect our flag to be tied to another much large flag and he got that one too. As soon as he had the flags, he ran quickly to the nearest exit. Not one steward or home fan in that section tried to stop him, in fact most of them cheered.
Complaining to the local stewards was a waste of time and approaching a UEFA representative was met pretty much with the same uninterested response. The thief was in the stadium and the stewards/police could not care less and made no attempt to apprehend him. My B&B host had warned me against putting the flag up at the stadium as he felt homophobia is still too prevalent in Athens. Perhaps I should have listened to his advice, but I do not regret putting the flag up at all. My personal view is the flag was targetted for it's obviously gay appearance although I accept others might think it was just a 'trophy' hunter. I also wonder if the laser targetted me shortly after putting up the flag(?).
After the theft and then the magnificent winning goal by Lacazette, it was brilliant to hear other away fans join in our chant "We want our flag back!"
The good thing is, no one else in the group was hurt or harrassed. Flags can be replaced and ours is being replaced. We will put up the flag at other away venues and be proud to put it up. We as a group have the same right as anyone else to attend football matches without prejudice and fear. I for one (as many GGs know) will call out hate whenever I hear it (and as long as it is safe to do so). I think visibility of our group, especially at away games is important and sends out a strong message that we love football and we intend to keep attending games! My polite defiance in the face of LGBT+ phobia will continue!
The flag stealing and laser incident have been reported to Arsenal FC, Olympiacos FC and Fans Supporters Europe (FSE say they are going to escalate this to UEFA as a possible homophobic incident). I doubt anything will get done on this occasion, but both Arsenal and FSE have said they are concerned at the incidents. I have yet to hear back from Olympiacos FC and asked them to get our flag back!
Finally, many thanks for the support and concern of other GGs with me at the game and others back at home. It is nice to know we stick together.
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