Andy Townsend threatened in Madrid restaurant

[Lurtz]

For some reason he was mistaken for Wolfgang Stark. This keeps happening to him; ITV keep mistaking him for a knowledgeable football pundit. I'm just surprised Adrian Chiles wan't mistaken for a steaming pile of shit and swept away by the restaurant's cleaning staff.

 

 

 

 

Andy Townsend has told how he was threatened in a Madrid restaurant after irate Real fans mistook him for Champions League referee Wolfgang Stark.

 

The Sportsmail columnist said he feared an attack from fans ‘baying for blood’ while enjoying a post-match meal in the city with Adrian Chiles and ITV bosses.

 

The ex-Chelsea and Aston Villa player put the blame for such behaviour firmly at the feet of Jose Mourinho, who he says had whipped the Real fans into a frenzy with his vitriolic press conference after the game.

 

Townsend said: ‘I went into a restaurant and was eating when I noticed people looking at me. Some of them started taking pictures and then someone came and gave me a pot plant, saying, “This is for you” with a funny look on his face.

 

‘There were 10 of us around the table thinking, ‘‘What is going on here?’’ When I stood up I got booed and when I went to the loo I got followed there and back. A waiter escorted me to my seat... I didn’t know why!

 

‘Then people came up to me, talking aggressively in Spanish and there was a man shouting at me from the other side of the restaurant. It was all getting out of control.

 

‘Then it dawned on me. Because I still had my UEFA accreditation around my neck they thought I was the referee. To them I was Wolfgang Stark! So I had to turn around and tell them I was from English television.’

The incident brought laughter from ITV anchor Chiles but for Townsend there is a serious lesson.

 

‘Adrian’s started calling me Wolfie,’ he said. ‘But actually there’s a sinister edge to it. The crowd were baying for the referee’s blood.

 

‘They totally saw the referee as the villain of the piece. That’s how Mourinho whips up a frenzy. As ITV were going off air there was actually a fight going on in front of me in the stadium — two men were exchanging blows. And these were the decent seats.

 

‘I witnessed first-hand the effect Mourinho has on fans. I wouldn’t want to see him back in England.’

 

 

Read more: Madrid mob turn on ITV's 'Wolfgang Stark lookalike' Andy Townsend after Real defeat | Mail Online

[razor]

They recognised him alright.

 

Townsend: "They must have thought I was the referee..."

 

Agent: "Yes, that's right, Andy, the referee."

[Anubis]

‘Then people came up to me, talking aggressively in Spanish and there was a man shouting at me from the other side of the restaurant.

 

Was it "Empuja tu maldito camión tácticas en el culo!"

[Trumo]

The Madrid fans were looking for the bloke with the tiki-taka truck.

 

Oh, and this is Wolfgang Stark.

 

And this is Andy Townsend.

[goatboy59]

"And these were in the decent seats"

 

Not the prole-ish, kick-fuck-out-of-anyone-for-the-hell-of-it-seats?

 

No one will ever top Stewart Lee's description of Chiles; "a talking toby jug full of steaming hot piss".

[waiting game]

Typical Andy Townsend, somebody has a go at him and hes says "must have thought i was somebody else"...

 

Nope, they knew it was you. Idiot.

[Liverpool lad]

It wasn't because of that Andy, it was that bastard Tactics Truck of yours that wound them up

[Pidge]

And these were the decent seats.

 

and BANG contempt for the average fan comes flying in from the national media. What a shock.

[Paulie Dangerously]

I hate that know-nothing cunt.

[moof]

I quite like townsend myself, bit of a nob but comes across as decent enough.

 

He's got a point about not having Mourinho back over here aswell. I don't care for what reason but the man's an odious cunt. Shouldn't be anywhere near the game (Mourinho, not Townsend).

[goatboy59]

Looks nowt like the ref, Real fans are more likely to have expanded their conspiracy theories to UEFA itself.

 

The Barcelona domination must be really pissing them off. If not Mourinho, then who can turn it around?

[kelster]

Over ever mistaken him for the Semenya-like 800m world record holder Jarmilia Kratochvilova.

 

[sir roger]

It wasn't because of that Andy, it was that bastard Tactics Truck of yours that wound them up

 

Ha Ha , That first Tactics Truck where he started ragging Ugo Ehiogu about his own goal & then started panicking whrn Ugo started getting annoyed was quality television.

[Jim MM]

Obviously anti Irish discrimination against the Hibernian by imperialist foreigners and royalists.

 

Human Rights Abuse 6

[dennis tooth]

Wasnt it Andy Townsend who said word to the effect he 'get people in a room' and could solve the middle east problems or was it it some other conflict in a throw away comment he made as a pundit a few years ago? Maybe someone else can remember the exact details but it was unintendedly hilarious.

[sir roger]

Wasnt it Andy Townsend who said word to the effect he 'get people in a room' and could solve the middle east problems or was it it some other conflict in a throw away comment he made as a pundit a few years ago? Maybe someone else can remember the exact details but it was unintendedly hilarious.

 

Get them all in a tent , Get the guinness in, Bang a few heads together.

 

Voy La.

[G Richards]

Townsend makes a good point about Mourinho. He wins stuff but there is a nasty edge to him that drags the game down. At first I though it was mere pantomime, but it goes beyond that. At some point he will wind the wrong person up and be on the receiving end of a vicious beating or worse. He is charming when winning, but true character is revealed in adversity, and this man is a whiner like Wenger, only with a more nasty side to him.

[JayPunk]

Google Paul Buchanan, frontman for Scottish band The Blue Nile. Practically his doppelganger. Presumably gets attacked in restaurants all the time by people assuming he's Andy Townsend.

 

I'd post a link myself but I've only got 1 post so I'm not allowed.

[col06]

Google Paul Buchanan, frontman for Scottish band The Blue Nile. Practically his doppelganger. Presumably gets attacked in restaurants all the time by people assuming he's Andy Townsend.

 

I'd post a link myself but I've only got 1 post so I'm not allowed.

 

 

[Jack the Sipper]

Mistaken for the ref on the strength of a UEFA accreditation badge? Someone needs to give the cunt an Ian Huntley wig the next time he's in Soham.

[mrw74]

I still cant over the fact that Townsend was stood in front of me with rock legend Tony Iommi at a Metallica gig in Birmingham a few years back. He looked like a right knob then as well

[RoboRiise]

I still cant over the fact that Townsend was stood in front of me with rock legend Tony Iommi at a Metallica gig in Birmingham a few years back. He looked like a right knob then as well

 

 

Just think though, how many people would have walked up to them during the night giving it "Oh my God, I don't believe it...", Townsend half turning to give his best professional smile as, yet again, they brush past him to talk to Tony?

[Sugar Ape]

Didn't someone on here say they were speaking to Townsend in the airport after a match and he was dead sound and bought them a can of coke? Think it might have been Juan Galonso?

[Anubis]

I actually think post-tactics truck Townsend is alright. He was unintentional comedy when he had that tactics truck though.

[mrw74]

Just think though, how many people would have walked up to them during the night giving it "Oh my God, I don't believe it...", Townsend half turning to give his best professional smile as, yet again, they brush past him to talk to Tony?

 

Haha, yes true, at the end of the gig, they walked past the crowd and everyone was trying to shake Tony's hand, and they all pretty much ignored Townsend