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13:51 GMT, Sunday, 18 May 2008 14:51 UK

Taylor condemns Manchester riots

David Taylor

Uefa general secretary David Taylor has condemned the rioting involving Rangers fans in Manchester but confirmed the club will not be punished.

"It was disgraceful and something on a scale we've not seen for some time," said the former SFA chief executive.

"There are absolutely no excuses for the sort of disorder that occurred.

"Our disciplinary rules relate to incidents in and around the stadium and Rangers, obviously, are giving their full co-operation."

Much of the trouble appears to have been sparked by giant screens showing the match failing to operate in the city centre.

"It was disgraceful and something on a scale we've not seen for some time"
Uefa general secretary
David Taylor


However, Taylor told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek: "Whatever the issues around it, there are absolutely no excuses.

"Thankfully, it seems the authorities got on top of it pretty quickly and have expressed themselves satisfied that, on the whole, the vast majority of supporters were well behaved.

"But it was, of course, a very distasteful incident."

Taylor refused to blame the Manchester authorities for what transpired.

"The numbers of people who actually came down from Scotland and all over the world to go to this match exceeded all expectations," he said.

"Yes, we were expecting some sort of invasion of Manchester but the numbers, in the end, were just huge.

"It was very difficult for the authorities to cope. They did lay on special arrangements for fans but the numbers of people coming into the city was just incredible."



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Related to this story:

Uefa powerless to act on rioting (16 May 08 |  Rangers )
Pc describes Uefa fan mob attack (16 May 08 |  Manchester )
Call to widen Uefa violence probe (15 May 08 |  Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West )
CCTV shows fans attacking police (15 May 08 |  Manchester )

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