The Game Without Rules
Let's freak ourselves out about the World Cup
Hooligans! 3,500 predicted travel bans! World [Cup] War II! Just like the bird flu that's presagin' it (ooh, also, don't forget the Muslim upheaval), it's easy to get swept away with the violent possibilities of the World Cup, especially when they hit you with the figures. Here's one they missed: between 1985 and 1989, over 230 people died in football-related violence in Britain.
You'll have to forgive me; I'm under the influence of Among The Thugs by Bill Buford. I thought Britain was worse than ever with the football madness, whereas it doesn't seem like it could have been any worse than it was in the late 80's/early 90's. Well-coordinated gangs that dispersed and regrouped at a word to evade police notice; stabbings, manslaughter en masse and, in one case, the grisly blinding of a police officer from biting; "soldiers" who thought themselves playing the other half of the game, which they incidentally couldn't attend because of their zealous duties.
It's not as bad anymore, I tell myself while balled up fetal-style at the foot of my bed. And it's not just the English. There are many nearby friends who will seek to test Germany's hospitality this summer. I can hardly wait to see how "intelligently" the police handle it.
Comments
230? Where did you get that statistic from, dude?
Bennox; March 10, 2006 10:38 AM
Find you're article a bit strange after reading one book you seem to know all about english football "hooligans". I too am interested in your 230 statistic -football realted violence or gross mismanagement of the "crowd"? Be careful where you tread with the use of this number. England more than any country has cut down on crowd violence, with sensible policing (-although this came after a tragic loss of life which their old methods had more to do with than you'll read in any book).
Go to an English game and notice the lack of fences between people and the pitch and compare that to elsewhere in Europe, I've never felt threatened in an English stadium or outside, and having travelled to watch in Europe a few times I can't say the same thing.
Wherever there are crowds of people you get dickheads who are there for the trouble, they're not football fans...
Anonymous; March 10, 2006 11:10 AM
Yo, my [English] friends, the whole point of the Times article is that the Ultras and other instigators they're afraid of this year are not English, they're German and Dutch and so forth. One thing I obviously don't know a lot about is football violence -- I'm from America, dude -- but don't knock Among the Thugs 'til you've read it.
British people do get the most flak for football violence, but that's because there's been a lot of incidents. Be it rioting (1985, Brussels, 39 dead), crowd crushes (1989, Sheffield, 96 dead), or other incidents, when their team's playing, they tend to be associated. And that's not my fault, baby.
Christy; March 10, 2006 1:58 PM
There was no proof that Hillsborough was anything to do with football violence or football, it was lack of crowd control and the police have never been brought to account for their criminal negligence. In no way shape or form were the Liverpool fans ever blamed for what went on (read the Taylor report) Also when making statements about "football-related violence", please read the names of these 96 people they were football fans, who set off like any other Saturday to watch their teams and didn't come back (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/lfc_story/memorial), and what happened that day was a tragedy
The Heysel stadium was a delicate issue as this had as much to do with ageing stadia as it did with violence and was a tragedy. 39 people lost their life because a handful of people acted like animals , and I'll never condone that it wasn't about football.
Please don't make light of these issues as many of us had friends and family involved in these disasters...
I'm not knocking the book I've read it and I enjoyed it, that book is about a criminal element that used football as an excuse and an escape.
Anonymous; March 10, 2006 4:31 PM
When it comes to distinguishing sport from the violence done in its presence, the public has had the amount of success usually associated with organized religion. And who's making light of these issues? They're quite serious to me.
Christy; March 10, 2006 6:00 PM