Savages

Sad images from the Libertadores match in Buenos Aires between Independiente de Avellaneda and Universidad de Chile where savages entered into a massive fight in the stadium. It looked like scenes from Mad Max as fans attacked one another, notably Independiente fans who stormed the stands of the away side. Not that the savage away fans were innocent: from the upper decks they had been burning seats and throwing bottles, rocks at the home fans below, leading to the other savages attacking the stands. Most appallingly, as you see in the images, police was nowhere to be seen as the savages from both sides were allowed with impunity to commit their crimes.

The authorities who let this happen are as guilty as the savages themselves. 

CONMEBOL cancelled the match and the clubs are looking at "harsh" penalties. I say "harsh" because the most likely is a fine and maybe play a few matches without fans. But if anything is to be done about this the message must be stronger, and must include the local authorities. To the clubs I would recommend forceful relegation and suspension from all international tournaments for 10 years. Or harsher still: What about teams from both countries get suspended from all international tournaments? Or that all clubs from either country are not allowed to play any home matches, including national teams?

I know many will say that it is not the clubs' fault or that many fans are innocent. 

But are they? Don't they pour gasoline onto the fire that drives the savages? Are they not standing behind those savages to protect the fraught tribal image of their second-rate football club? 

Human Savagery

As if the world were not already falling apart, Mexican football had to add another example of humans as pure savages. While it fortunately appears there were no deaths (initial reports mentioned up to 10 deaths) in the Mexican league match between Querétaro and Atlas, the violence was disturbing. In this era of social media there are truly disturbing  images and videos of the raw and hateful violence between the fans.

I would imagine apologists would say that the perpetrators were provoked by the taunts of other fans. But as with other violence there is no other excuse than the very human nature that resides inside all of humanity.

Fucking depressing times to live in.

Why not throw them out?

 Hungary’s fans behaved as racist animals in their enormous defeat against England in Budapest. Besides the happiness that we should all have when Hungary loses, and the way we should celebrate when these people don’t qualify for the World Cup, this again brings to the forth the football organizers’ lack of willingness to do anything about it.

Firstly, if Hungary has already been ordered to play three matches without fans by UEFA; how come FIFA does not act on this? Do they not talk to each other? Or just assume that the racists are not interested in World Cup qualifiers?

Secondly, why such feeble punishments? Three matches without fans and some fine that they can pay with pocket change? Why not something like banning them from playing home games, not for a few games, but for years? Or rather, in my view, why not show that we mean to combat the scourge of racism by simply throwing out the teams of the tournament?! This would not be new: countries have been banned from World Cups for “government interference” or even using overaged players… 

I know some people would argue that a majority should not suffer from the animal behavior of a minority. But when the racism happens consistently at every game and there is no internal rejection of this behavior by the “majority”, then the majority is, sorry to say, complicit in the behavior. This includes everyone; also those in and around the team: your fans are part of your team, not just when they are great, but also when they are beasts (England knows this…), and so you carry a responsibility too; don’t’ turn away from it.

So these teams should just be thrown out of the tournament. 

Nobody will miss them.

The hate engendered by football

The European Championships were great but unfortunately the tournament was accompanied by the eternal problem of bad fans, nationalism and racism. The fans that were most widely discussed were the English fans with their booing of national anthems, breaking into Wembley stadium for the final, and the racist abuse against England players following the final. This appears as just a continuation of decades, many decades, of problems with English football fans (for many years I had a problem supporting English teams at all, still do, mostly because I connected English football directly with the hooliganism of the 1980s, when I started watching football), so this should not be that surprising. However, the problem of these "bad fans" is hardly only an English problem; booing at national anthems happens in every stadium and racism continues being rampant all over footballing Europe, becoming more evident with social media. I am still convinced the vast majority of football fans, English and beyond, are decent people, even the ones that behave in this way!

What is the problem then?

Football is a simple game of kicking a ball in an "us-against-them" contest. While idiots exist in all societies, the simple premise of the game attracts a higher proportion of idiots among the population. Idiocy tends to be enlarged by emotional events such as a football match; add nationalism and a media that pours gasoline on a fire rather than building bridges (including social media, but certainly not excluding the traditional media), and you get the perfect cocktail for idiots to do their thing, while the rest of people wonder who the hell those idiots are!!!???

As a fan I understand the passion: I have also experienced moments of intense disappointment, of injustice, of hating the other team when they score a goal. However, a minimum level of intelligent human beings should realize that these are fleeting emotions that cannot define our lives. That would be idiocy!

I have had long periods of disappointment with football (as I have also shown in this blog), and these were mostly caused by the intensity of hate that I have repeatedly experienced in football: Hate towards other teams, players, fans, countries, races...  I still have a really hard time not seeing football as a sport of hate, but I do love the game, the passion and occasional fraternity between fans (that we fortunately also saw in this tournament, but is in my view all too rare), and have decided that I will try to ignore, as far as possible, all these idiots that are a scar not only on football, but to society at large.

Idiots.

The finals

I had a long trip from San Salvador to Denmark, but I managed to watch this weekend's two great football finals where the home teams, each in their own legendary stadium, lost to the away side.

The Copa America final on Saturday at Maracana Stadium between Brazil and Argentina, was won 0-1 by the Argentineans through an excellent first half strike by Angel di Maria. The Brazilians were not bad, and managed to put some pressure on Argentina in the second half, but in the end the Argentine defense stood strong and Argentina even had the biggest chances for a greater victory.

Argentina's first international title since 1993, and the first time Lionel Messi, losing three finals before this one, had taken a title with his national team, so in every way this was a special (and well-deserved) victory for the Argentineans.

On the European championship final: much of England had for days been prematurely announcing that football would come home, hardly aware that football is already home everywhere else in the world. And this kind of premature celebrations hardly win any sympathy: while the English were (understandably) disappointed most of the world (including myself) celebrated Italy's European Championship triumph.

Having watched the match, England should be disappointed: they went ahead 1-0 after only two minutes on a goal by one of the tournament's best players, Luke Shaw. England kept playing well, but slowly Italy got more comfortable on the pitch, while England, oddly, retreated more and more to defend their lead. One can only feel that they should have kept pressure, trying to close the deal, instead of more or less openly inviting Italy back into the match. 

The Italians do not say no to an invitation and Leonardo Bonucci's second half equalizer was fully deserved as England totally left the match to the splendidly unforgiving Italians.

As  extra time was approaching its end Gareth Southgate made some curious changes, clearly aimed at putting in the kickers for a nerve-wrecking penalty kick contest: Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho came in at the end, and it were exactly those two who missed for England after they had been put in a golden position by Pickford's save of Andrea Belotti's kick. Even though Jorginho missed another for Italy, the only 19-year old Bukayo Saka did not have the nerves to make a proper kick, which was saved by the best player of the tournament Gianluigi Donnarumma (only 22-years old, he may well become one of the best goalkeepers in footballing history), giving Italy their second European champion's title, the first being in 1968.

The most talented young players from England were punished for their infinite talent, and that was the most heartbreaking thing in a final won by the best team of the tournament.

Italy was the best team of the tournament as a whole; a solid, attacking team, scoring most goals (alongside Spain) and with one of the best defensive records, they showed few weak points. All in all, a splendid team, and I reiterate that I find this the best Italy side I have ever seen.

England, in the meantime, won few friends: granted, they played the tournament with the cynical planning required to win a tournament; winning, but not impressing, with a strong defense and some extremely talented players. That said, they seemed too calculating, too careful, despite their immense talent, something that only became too obvious in the final. 

But more than the team, the English fans won no friends in the rest of the world. The vast, vast majority of English fans are good, decent hardworking people (like the vast majority of fans in the world), but they retain a greater minority of brainless hooligans than anywhere else in the world, and their society seems in total denial that they exist: booing at national anthems, using lasers against opposing sides, insults and spits, were sadly overshadowed by the fans storming Wembley before the match and most of all by the racist insults suffered by English players after the defeat.

Who the hell wants to win with supporters like that...?

I have never supported England and never will, but I understand the greatest disappointment that real English fans may feel (even in their denial): that their team's achievement of reaching a final will forever be overshadowed by the memory of the idiotic few ruining the party of the many.

The beauty of ignorance

Today someone whom I have spoken with about football in an earlier life asked me: "Have you seen that Real Madrid is down 0-3?"
"Who are they playing?" I asked earnestly.
He laughed, thinking that I was joking, and after a moment of hesitation I said something brilliant: "Well, they ain't been playing well since Ronaldo left".
He smiled and replied that indeed, this was not the same Madrid as last season.
I don't think he ever realized that I could care less, and that I have in fact not looked at the standings of any league since last year.
But I was curious: I see that Barcelona defeated Real Madrid to make it to the Copa de Rey Final, and that the Catalans are also leading the League nine points ahead of Real Madrid on third place (one behind Atletico Madrid).
Now, did this curiosity awake any desire to again take up the old passion that meant so much to me? Nope. As I looked at the table I was reminded of all the insults, abuses, excuses, reprimands, blame-games, schadenfreude and outright hate springing out from these results.

The Copa Libertadores final of hate

The Copa Libertadores Final in Buenos Aires between arch-rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors had to be postponed today because of River Plates' fans vicious attack against the Boca Juniors bus, which not only left Boca players with minor injuries, but worse, very scared.
Nobody deserves to be in such a situation.
The whole thing was a disgrace not only to Argentina, but also to the rest of South America.
The match has been lauded as one of the most awaited matches of the century as the rivalry is perhaps the most intense in world football. I am sorry to say this, but Boca-River is not a question of friendly competition (not a single fan of either team understands this concept), even for people who outside football would be friends, family or lovers.
Following the cancellation the club presidents were quick accusing 10-15 "impresentables" who were to blame for the whole incident. Besides the fact that you can see much more than 15 guys on the TV pictures, this is not really true!
I do not feel sorry for a single of the 65000 fans inside the stadium who were unable to see the match. They were as guilty as the millions of River and Boca fans who are in fact intellectual authors of the crime; the vast majority of fans may not throw the stones, but were surely applauding.
The problem is football itself which creates these divisions!
Argentina is not the only place this happens, but today's events are just an extreme example. And football managers have no interest in solving it! They are the ones benefiting from this! They will say that football is "peace and friendly competition" but will at the same time be pouring gasoline on the fire of fierce rivalry, because it benefits them, and also takes the view away from society's wider problems.
"Blame society. We have nothing to do with it".
Football is hate. Prove me wrong.

Top 10 excuses for England

England is out, and with that their boring team and hooligans are going home to lick their wounds after showing their "skills" in Europe. Surely their manager Roy Hodgson (the most highly paid of all Euro managers) will have to go, and England will be reflecting and making excuses about their 2-1 loss to a much, much better Iceland side.
So with that, I would like to help the English and their excuses:

10. "Uh! Is that an Icelander farting or a mighty volcano!?!"
9. "We contributed to making football history"
8. "The Iceland manager is a part time dentist, which explains why they have more Teeth than the English"
7. "At least we lost to a non-EU side; better than being humiliated by France."
6. "The Icelanders do not have a professional league, which means they have more time to train passes and free kicks"
5. "Russia is out anyway, so nobody to get into fights with"
4. "We are still second best among the British teams"
3. "There are too many foreigners in English football; that is why we cannot develop the skills of our players"
2. "We are better off outside Europe anyway"
1. "I thought Iceland was part of the Shetland islands...?"

Go home Croatia

Croatia had in my view become the dark horses of the tournament: after an efficient victory against Turkey, they were again incredibly good against the Czech Republic. Up 2-0 on goals by Ivan Perisic and Ivan Rakitic, the Czechs got an undeserved goal on an outstanding header by Milan Skoda. Still, Croatia were in control, concentrated, to take the victory.
But then the Croatian fans stepped in: riots on the stands as flares were thrown into the pitch (I still do not understand how they can get flares into the stadium? Isn't France supposed to be under heightened security!!??? I feel so much safer....), and the match was stopped by the referee. Starting again, the Croatians lost some of their concentration, and gave away a silly penalty that Tomas Necid converted for the end result 2-2.
Croatia were on their way to the next round, but now they will be facing Spain, and if UEFA is in anyway consistent (don't count on it), they will hand Croatia a conditional disqualification, such as they did with Russia.
Sadly, a great team does not deserve to be in France, thanks to their Croatian supporters.
Go home Croatia.

Prelude to Russia 2018?

I cannot see there was such a surprise by the violent scenes inside the stadium after the England-Russia match in the Euro 2016. Let us face it: this had been building up for three days, with violence in the streets of Marseille, and anyone watching even on TV could feel the negative atmosphere in the stadium at the start of the match. It is fortunately not so common that fans buh during the other team's national anthems, but not so in last night's match.
There is understandably a lot of attention at the poor security arrangements in the stadium (it is truly incredible considering the apparent terrorist threat that they forget all other, more real, threats), but why is there not attention to the much deeper problem of European society?
UEFA, understandably, has campaigns against racism, but xenophobia is something that is inherent in all these tournaments, and with rising nationalism and economic and social crisis in Europe, the ghost of xenophobia is on the rise.
Because let us face it: football does NOT bring people together. Perhaps a few naive fans still think it is all about the friendly clash of sport. But reality is that football is increasingly becoming the  outlet for European nationalist sentiments; people who do not even know how to appreciate football, watch it because they get their hard-on with the national anthems and flags, and can look down on other nationalities.
This is, in my view, the real tragedy of the Euro in France and the clashes of the last few days.
I agree that UEFA should send the teams home if the fans cannot behave, but in the end it will do nothing to dampen the ugly nationalism. Football is only an image of wider society.
I hope I am wrong, but I think what we saw yesterday is only a prelude to much uglier things ahead in Russia 2018.

Pepe the kicking hooligan

Last nights match between Real Madrid and Getafe in the Spanish first division had a spectacular ending: five minutes before the end of the match Real Madrid equalized to 2-2 by Guti, before Getafe was given a penalty, which they missed, and then Gonzalo Higuaín scored a spectacular winner so that Real Madrid is still pushing FC Barcelona for the Spanish championship.
In spite of this incredible ending of the match, the penalty given to Getafe (which Casquero nevertheless quite pathetically missed) was a disgrace for football in every sense of the word. Firstly, it is clear that Casquero dives, and that Pepe hardly touches him, so there is no penalty for that infraction. But an even greater disgrace (and maybe one can say that is when the penalty is given?) is the Portuguese defenders reaction as he performs a violent and crazy kick on the player lying down.
Even as pathetic is Real Madrid coach Juande Ramos, defending Pepe by saying he was frustrated and desperate at the penalty. Well, there was no penalty indeed, but that doesn't justify the reaction! Hooligans are usually people who are desperate and sad at their team having lost; that doesn't justify their violent acts!

I don't know, but when people attack someone in such a way, they are usually indicted - we all know any hooligan would get indicted, and Mr. Pepe has just inscribed himself as a top-hooligan; a disgrace for football.
I hope Pepe is banned for a billion matches.

Being a Brøndby fan....

I am a Brøndby supporter, and I consider Brøndby the best team in Denmark. That said, there are some bad things about supporting Brøndby, primarily the "fans"/hooligans who give the rest of us Brøndby supporters the following reputation:

• We have never read anything but the label of a beer
  
• Our diet is composed of pizza, burgers and cheap beer
• We have never talked to any woman besides our mothers and the woman selling beer at Aldi
  
• If we ever have children, we will name them all Kim Vilfort, even the girls
  
• Our geographical abilities are limited to knowing the bus number to the stadium
  
• We cut each others hair, and that is why we're all bald skinheads
  
• None of us have ever held a job for any longer than until the next match
• More than a Brøndby victory, we like beating up people
• Burp, fart, shit, puke...
  
• None of us actually know the rules in football...

Sadly for the real Brøndby fans, the vast majority of supporters who dearly love the blue-yellow team, who love football and who know how to behave, there is a small group of Brøndby supporters who for some reason keeps following our team, giving us the above reputation and making trouble like they did yesterday in Århus, after Brøndby lost 2-1 to AGF. Therefore the loss is doubly sad.

Go Brøndby!

Italian football violence

I have never been a fan of Italian football. Any reader of this site knows that. Why? In fact, because of what I consider a boring and overly organised style of play, when there is such huge potential there! I stand by that I don´t think Italy was the best team in the 2002 World Cup, but I still congratulate them for their victory!

Otherwise, if I had to choose which country´s fans to party with with after a victory, Italian tifosi are surely to be on the top of the list, mainly because of the passion and kindness characterizing them (and Italians in general).

It is therefore so sad to see what is going on now in Italy, with the death of of young Lazio fan and riots in many places. Nobody deserves to get hurt when it comes to football!
I don't know whether the blame is on (all-to-often) trigger-happy cops and plain bullies mingling with the fans. But truth is that Italy is World Champion in the greatest sport on Earth! And I hope the Champions don't give such bad publicity for their otherwise strong teams, great players and wonderful fans!

Bad fans in Valencia

I consider myself a Valencia supporter. It is sad to have to nominate something bad from the team you like. But I have to give Valencia fans a nominations as football turds of the year.

Valencia was playing Deportivo La Coruña at home in the Copa del Rey. Although the referee had been harsh by showing Marchena a red card early on, Valencia was stil ahead on a goal by Villa. But the spectators kept throwing things on the pitch, until a coin or something hit a linesman. While he was bleeding, the referee decided to suspend the match. The match will be re-started behind closed doors.

Although the referee sucked, this is an example of fans being the worse enemy of a team sometimes.

Turkish shame

Turkey was a great footballing nation in the Japan/Corea World Cup in 2002, when they managed to win bronze.

This time around, they will not be missed. In their last play-off match against the Swiss in Istambul, they won an otherwise exciting match 4-2. However, after losing 2-0 in the first match, they were out. This led to an massive violent outburst from the whole crowd of assembled Turks, from fans, police, to the Turkish players themselves. Swiss players were attacked and abused, and could not leave the stadium. Many have received serious injuries. I have seen some of the pictures, and I must admit that this is a deplorable show from the Turks. They are not worth having in the World Cup, let alone let participate in tournaments in the near future. This was a complete disregard of sportmanship, of honour and of normal human decency.

This is certainly a country that will not be missed in Germany next summer.

Spain-England

On the football aspect, a very boring game last night between Spain and England, although a deserved victory for the Spanish team, with an excellent Xavi in control.
Now, the greatest shame about the game, were the pathetic Spanish fans. Their racist shouts have no place in football. But Spain has shown absolutely no willingness to fight racism in football, mostly shown by the national coach, Mr. Aragones', comments earlier this year about Thierry Henry. While a formal regret has been posted on the website of the Spanish football federation (http://www.rfef.es/artavan-bin/Rfef/init), it is still quite unapologetic. And of course, the racist Mr. Aragones did not even want to apologize (Who would have expected he would anyway? He was probably shouting as well...). If FIFA is any serious about anti-racism, Spain should be punished harshly.
Football is a microcosm of society around it. The great things about football, are great things about life: passion, team spirit, competition... Bad things about football, are the bad things about life: loss, violence, xenophobia.
When Spanish fans are demonstrating such behavior, and nobody in Spain seems to mind, there must be something terribly wrong in Spanish society.
Spanish fans are absolutely pathetic.

Ferencvaros-Millwall

Big trouble with fans at the UEFA Cup match between Millwall and Ferencvaros in Budapest. While the Millwall fans are known to be rather troublesome, it does in no way excuse the fact that four were stabbed. I certainly hope they recover and that the perpetrators are found. Nobody deserves this to happen to them when going to watch the greatest sport on Earth.
Most fans of any team are great people (in spite of what I might feel when my team looses...). Therefore, the first to denounce such incidents are the real fans of Ferencvaros and Millwall respectively, in spite of the disagreements engendered by the fights.
It is hard to make an example, but a good thing so far has been to let Ferencvaros play its home games in an empty stadium, and give fines to the clubs, so that they may work harder to take the violent elements out of their fan-clubs.
Please, no real football fanatics need this shit in football.

On a more amusing note, I would recommend all to go into the Ferencvaros website (http://www.ftc.hu/), where you will be welcomed by the "YMCA" in Hungarian... Dunno how proud I would be if it were my club...

Danish fans and Mohammed Zidan

Going to a football match, in any league in the world, you ahve to be prepared to hear bad language. It is often the lowest common demoninator which leads football fans in their enthusiasm. Fans know this, and players know this.
Now, there are different kinds of fans in the world. There are Roma fans, an example of bad behavior, and there are the fair and funny Celtic fans.
In Denmark, there is currently one player overshadowing all in the Danish league. Mr. Mohammed Zidan, from FC Midtjylland. Danish fans are indeed a strange bunch, exemplified in the treatment they are giving Mr. Zidan.
Danish fans support their team unconditionally, but at the same time, they always show a distasteful disdain against players from opposing teams, especially if these are great stars with a strong personality. An example which I am ashamed of myself (as a Brøndby fan), was the whistling against Ronaldinho when he came to play with Barcelona in the UEFA cup in February 2004.
Presently, Mr. Zidan is experiencing attacks by fans of every team in the Danish Superliga. While these are increasingly becoming more and more evil, Mr. Zidan is not helping the situation by openly letting himself be provoked.
Notwithstanding this, I understand that it is annoying to have a super player score against your team. The joy of winning, becomes the helpless frustration of just being able to watch while your team (and thus yourself) is humilliated. On the other hand, a great loser accepts the superiority and beautiful football being displayed for us.
Right now, Danish football is as boring and lacking quality as watching paint dry. Mr. Zidan is giving us a bit of spice and high quality football. Let us be thankful to Mr. Zidan, and just hope the Brøndby defenders will be able to face the challenge! At the same time, Mr. Zidan, please just show that you are indeed a super player by not letting them get to you!