|
|
| Steve McClaren smiles for the camera with Britain's most notorious football hooligan James Shayler. |
|
| Heartbreakers | |
| Written by Dave Jarvis | |
|
 England manager Steve McClaren smiles for the camera with one of his new mates – notorious football hooligan James “The Pig of Marseille” Shayler. The shaven-headed thug – wearing the grey T shirt on the left – fooled the hapless England boss into thinking he was a genuine fan. McClaren didn’t seem to realise that his smiling new pal was the man responsible for triggering some of the worst scenes of soccer violence ever seen at the World Cup in France in 1998. Our snap was taken on October 10th this year (2006) in the bar of the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb, Croatia, where Shayler and his pals were drinking just before we went on to lose 2-0 to Croatia. McClaren was in the bar with his right hand man Terry Venables and goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence when Shayler and his mate Simon Mottola – pictured with his arm around McClaren – joined them. Less than 24 hours later England suffered one of their most humiliating defeats of recent years when they lost to Croatia in the Maksymir Stadium. “I never told McClaren who I was and he didn’t ask,” said Shayler. “He was happy to pose up with me and the lads.” McClaren got his tactics all wrong on the night of the match just as he seemed to do in the bar before the game.
But you could hardly forgive him for not recognising Shayler. He is one of the most photographed hooligans in Britain after being snapped during the Battle of Marseille. His image was flashed around the world and genuine England fans alerted the cops to his activities after seeing his picture in British newspapers. His ugly mug has been shown repeatedly in books about soccer hooligans. Fat Shayler, 39, was dubbed The Pig of Marseille in France and thrown in a French jail for two months after starting riots in the port City. He was arrested after throwing rocks at cops and Tunisian fans in the worst violence of the 1998 World Cup. Shayler, from Wellingborough, Northants, a Leeds fan, was banned from the club’s Elland Road ground for life after he returned to England. He is notorious in his home town where he is barred from some pubs for fighting. He has also done time in the UK for drug offences. But hapless McClaren can console himself with the knowledge that it is not the first time Shayler has pulled the wool over the eyes of the men from the FA. Before the 1998 World Cup he was allowed to join an official Football Association supporters’ club despite having convictions for violence. Shayler, a roofer by trade and father of three, passed vetting procedures despite his record of football violence.
|
|
| Mysteries and the Unexplained | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||
Near-death experiences are usually dismissed as delusions by scientists but a pioneering group of British doctors claim that there is now so much evidence for an ‘afterlife’ that they have launched a study to discover whether there truly is “life after death”.
Supernatural frogs falling
from the sky, mysterious airships, spontaneous human combustion...
it all fascinated Charles Fort, whose appetite for the paranormal
lives on today in sci-fi, conspiracy theories and that quirky
chronicle of the unknown, the Fortean Times.
The spirit of Montague Keen watched helplessly as his body was loaded
into an ambulance. His wife, Veronica, stared blankly into the
distance, tears flooding down her face. Her friends whispered words of
hope, but in her heart she knew her husband was dead.
| Health news | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||
Ever wanted to lose weight permanently? Lorna Houldsworth appeared on Channel 4's Richard & Judy programme as a weight-loss guinea pig. Lorna was a depressed serial dieter who had never succeeded in losing weight. Here she describes how she managed to permanently lose weight and become a happier, more contented person.
| Latest news | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||
| Animal Stories | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||
Santanero the fighting bull fell to his knees. Blood poured from his
mouth, pooling in the dust. Vicious stab wounds scarred his chest and
every breath only caused him more agony.
Over the coming days tens of thousands of baby seals will be clubbed and hacked to death off Canada’s east coast. Hundreds of thousands more will be shot and left to die. The lucky ones will die swiftly. Many will suffer long lingering deaths….
'Cultural tradition' or the world's cruellest sport? Horse-fighting is big business in the Philippines and has a huge following. Here we reveal the true horror of horse-fighting.... | NewsMonster recommends | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
|
|
| Latest news |
|---|
|
|
| Gadget Reviews | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||
Apple’s various iPods are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are capable
of producing wonderful sound quality but end up sounding like a bee
trapped in a jar because of the dreadful earphones they come bundled
with.
|