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Newcastle fans chased, attacked and tear gassed in Marseille with safety warnings made clear

Newcastle United fans were chased, attacked and tear gassed in Marseille with safety warnings made clear ahead of the Champions League tie.

Videos have emerged showing the troubling scenes, with Newcastle fans initially mixing happily with locals in a bar, bonding over a shared dislike of PSG.

But later they had to barricade themselves inside a bar after allegedly being targeted with tear gas by Marseille fans who then fled. Separate clips appear to show street clashes between rival groups.

Travelling Newcastle supporters had have already been told of the strict French police warnings, to avoid wearing club colours, to not put up flags, to steer clear of the Old Port (Vieux Port) area, and refrain from gathering in large groups on 24–25 November.

Newcastle fan Adam Pearson, who is out in Marseille, spoke in a video on this: “We are standing in the official meeting point today, where over 3,200 Newcastle United fans all have to be here for a mandatory Metro service that will take you to Marseille Stadium. You’re talking from 4.30pm onwards, Metros are going to be running the stadium and you’re getting back at approximately 1am.

“7 hours in a football stadium ahead and after the Marseille game today. And if you’ve seen social media and you’ve seen fan stories from last night, there’s a reason why this game is strict. And unfortunately, I’m here on this video just to inform and to let everyone know what has happened and just so people can be fully aware.

“There are a lot of Newcastle fans that are just doing a day trip, they’re coming out on a flight today and they’re going home as soon as the game ends. So I wanted just to make sure anyone that’s coming over, let’s say there’s any Liverpool fans watching this video who are also playing Marseille away this season.

“For any future fans watching, I just wanted to inform you all on what’s happening so people can just understand why things are happening and what you should be watching out for.

“I want to make the message clear now that on my personal experience over here on Marseille and I’m shouting and speaking on behalf of the majority of Newcastle United fans, and just say, during the day, on the evening time, Marseille has been great. Marseille supporters have even been chanting with Newcastle United fans. It’s actually been quite a friendly and nice experience for the most part.

“Everything we’re about to talk about in this video has all took place within the hours of 11pm on the Monday night until around 2am on the Tuesday mornings. We’re going to be talking the dark hours of night and early morning time.

“On top of that, not to try and make any Newcastle fans look bad, but Newcastle United has also stated on several occasions that supporters last night were not supposed to meet up in large groups.

“Newcastle has advised supporters to basically, without saying it, to basically stay in your hotel rooms and not go out and enjoy yourselves.

“Of course, some of the fans that were out here decided, ‘yeah, we’re going to do this, we’re going to go out and have some drinks and enjoy ourselves’.

“And that’s not blaming any Newcastle fans, by the way, because regardless of what they have been told from the club, do those supporters deserve to be in any danger? No. For those fans as well, they’ve spent a lot of money to be here, they want to enjoy themselves, they want to take in the culture, they want to just have a good time supporting this football club. I’m not blaming anyone, I’m just explaining what Newcastle United has told ahead of the game.

“The biggest incident that was reported and recorded on social media took place at the bars where you’ve had attackers that have approached a bar full of Newcastle United fans. And this part’s a bit conflicting, but some people inside the bar have claimed that the attackers have turned up and thrown tear gas at them, started a couple of brief fights before then fleeing the scene. Others have also said that the attackers that came from the bar started a fight and it was the police that have thrown tear gas at those supporters as they ran away.

“But the point being, tear gas has been thrown towards Newcastle fans and attackers outside the bar have went up to Newcastle, quickly started something and then backed off straight away. Some of that situation out at PSG a couple of years ago seemed to be more of a scare tactic, seemed to be more of a situation to try and distress and just ruin nights rather than actually being truly malicious and looking to seriously hurt people. And that’s the first situation and it does get worse than this from the other reports that have been stated on social media.

“I had politely requested from Newcastle fans out and about last night to let me know what’s happened, if anyone’s been involved with the situation. We all hope you are okay, but I politely asked them to inform me or inform others so supporters can be fully aware of what’s happened.

“And you might have seen it on Twitter, I’ve got a lad here, he’s talking, he enjoyed himself out in the bar, he’s had a great time, he had nothing going on all night.

“He’s got an Uber back with his mate. The Uber driver, for whatever reason, has decided to drop them off 250 metres away from the hotel. So even before I’ve looked into the rest of this, it seems a bit sketchy that the driver decided not to drop them off at the hotel door.

“That being said, once they got off the taxi, they’re then being chased by 30 plus individuals that are then chased into the hotel and they’re being able to get away. And it’s not just these two individuals as well that have been talked about. I’ve heard from a couple of our people as well that it’s also happened to them.

“So it looks like a target group that’s been looking for either tourists or been looking for any castigated fans to wait until the early hours. And they’re just, again, looking to scare them, looking to chase them down. And for some who have not been able to quite run away from them, that has also been shown on some of the hooligan pages on social media.

“Videos being sent in, blurred videos of fights apparently taking place in Marseille last night. In the video, it looks like an individual who has been quite literally surrounded by a group of people who are one by one taking turns into throwing digs and throwing little swings at what is apparently any castigated fan. So I just wanted to inform you all of what has happened.

“And just to tell you a couple of obvious points coming out from the game. And I especially believe going into the game, being here, you can see in the background, just look how wide the area is. It will be heavily policed.

“And realistically, when there’s over 3,000 people standing in one spot, will they try to look for that many people? Probably not. And if there’s one thing in common you can say about every single little incident and situation I’ve just talked about over the past couple of minutes, every single ward is an unfair fight. Every single thing I’ve just discussed there has all been targeted attacks where Newcastle has been the weak side going into it.

“They’ve purposely looked for small groups, they’ve purposely looked for people that are drunk or just having a good time. And then they’ve deployed their little scheme rather than a huge group where realistically they couldn’t take them on. They’ve actually waited until ideal situations where they knew they were going to win the fight.

“And I would say, especially considering the fact everyone’s going to be getting out here, you’re talking 1am in the morning and crowds are then going to be dispersed to the hotel rooms. Everyone then has to make their own directions back to the hotel. In my opinion, if they were going to do anything today, that’s when I think they would do it.

“In the dark hours of the morning again and when supporters have just beaten the game, still would have been likely drunk or had a lot of drink on them. That’s when I feel like if anything was to happen, it would be after the game. So especially getting back here at 1am, go back to your rooms.

“The bars obviously aren’t going to be open. So just make sure you go back, look after yourselves and just stay within a group where you know you’re not by yourself. I would say I must again make the message clear that Marseille for the most part has been brilliant.

“It has been sounding for fans that are travelling over. It does sound scary, but I actually don’t think it is as bad as things have been made out in social media. Again, the obvious factor is it’s between 11pm to 2am in the morning where supporters are amongst themselves inside bars or walking the streets.

“You have a normal day here. The weather is nice. Take it all in. Enjoy yourselves and you will be protected because this is where supporters are supposed to be at the game. So you are all going to be fine. But I just wanted to state that it’s not as bad as I probably have made it out to be in this video, but still needs to be on watch.

“I wanted to show another example of something that I don’t feel is probably the best idea. While I will say it’s brilliant that Newcastle fans have been enjoying themselves with the Marseille fans. Everyone’s been having a good time and chanting in.

“Problem being, I don’t want to be that guy, but do I need to remind everyone who we are playing in January? We are at PSG away. So what we’ve done last night is go inside a bar with Marseille fans. Of course, that’s their biggest rival.

“Joining chants, digging into PSG, saying FPSG and just properly almost asking for it at this point. PSG Ultras aren’t going to forget that. And I would argue being there two years ago, even when Newcastle were going into the game, didn’t have a reason to potentially be targeted by PSG.

“Even then, just still waiting to see fans left one of the pubs before then smashing the next bar they went to. You’ve just given them all the reasons in the world to come after us in January. Saying FPSG, bearing in mind we play PSG away in January.

“I feel like probably wasn’t the best idea in my opinion, but we’ll deal with it when we get there. For now, we’ll take care of the Marseille game first. We’ll make sure everyone’s all right and we’ll enjoy our day today.

“Obviously, hope everyone takes care of themselves. Just make sure you, I don’t want to say that word, but make sure you stay vigilant because you just need to be aware of what’s going on around you.

“You do need to be, not on guard, but you certainly do need to be understanding of the situation you’re in. Especially getting off back here around 1am in the morning because that is most likely, in my opinion, when you could potentially be targeted.”

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