MOL, I doubt very much you work in the industry. I certainly would have doubts that you are a pilot on a commercial aircraft as part of a team that includes cabin crew. Just because someone has posted those comments on the Cabin Crew forum on PPRuNe about certain aspects of their job doesn't mean you can associate that with the crew on the Astraeus flight under discussion here.
What does come across is your disdain for cabin crew. I can assure you that the training the Astraeus cabin crew receive and those of every airline I have worked for is primarily focused on safety and the standards of training are very high. Add to that the accumulated experience that they have and I know that whenever I get a report from the crew about anything going on behind the flight deck door it is reliable. If any of us on the flight deck have a query about a report from a cabin crew member then we make it and get an update on any situation and then make the appropriate decisions on what actions to take.
MOL, if you were a pilot and had that much trust and that kind of attitude to your fellow crew members then I would be very worried and would suggest a review of your CRM training. In this case it would appear that the media created the monster about the 'riot' by believing their own hype but the decisions made by the captain were based on facts that he had and not based your prejudices about a part of your crew who you obviously believe are of a lesser status than you.
As has been stated already, it is much better to deal with a situation where more than one pax is being unruly, when on the ground with the appropriate authorities available rather than at high altitude. Having seen how 'mob' mentality can sweep through a tribal group such as football supporters I am not surprised that the captain made the decision that he did. The current media reports showing some of the fans being meek and apparently 'victimised' reminds me of those fly-on-the-wall TV documentaries that follow police chasing thugs and criminals. You invariably see the the thug pleading innocence and even blubbing for his mum as soon as he is caught and not in a position to bully any more victims. How tunes change when they realise it has all gone wrong.
I am quite saddened by some of the contributors to this thread if they really are flight crew and prepared to criticise the actions of a fellow professional who was faced with a difficult decision regarding disruptive pax. I thought we were all agreed that there would be no tolerance whatsoever of disruptive behaviour by pax and that the full weight of the law should be used to achieve prosecutions and yet I fear that some of the contributors to this thread believe that there should somehow be exceptions to this rule.