The Soccer Thread

[Ren]

Cruyff speaks about Ronaldinho and Barcelona's fans

BARCELONA, Apr 12 (SW) - Dutch legend Johan Cruyff thinks that Ronaldinho's imminent departure from FC Barcelona is probably the best solution. The former player and manager also took a moment to criticize the Catalan crowd.

"It is always necessary to look for the best solution. If it isn't working anymore, and someone doesn't want to stay, then this is the best solution," said Cruyff.

Ronaldinho today came to an agreement with Italian powerhouse AC Milan, and it seems to be only a matter of time for the two teams to clinch a deal as well.

Cruyff, having watched Barcelona's Champions League clash with Schalke 04 this week, was also clearly disappointed by the home crowd.

"To whistle when a 17 year old boy is replaced by an 18 year old is not needed," said the team's former player and coach, referring to the whistling concert Frank Rijkaard received when substituting Bojan Krkic with Giovani.

"We all watched the match between Liverpool and Arsenal. There the fans showed how to behave. It's a shame to witness the enormous difference between that match and what is happening here. They wave their handkerchiefs, but have no idea what is going on. Suck lack of knowledge is sad, after all these years."

[youkeepmewaiting]

Bloody Everton 1-1 with Birmingham today. We are going to throw away everything we worked for all season

[Saint John]

Posted Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:33am AEDT
Updated Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:19am AEDT


Tensions boil over: A Cali player restrains his coach at the Pascal Guerrero stadium. (ABC TV)
A punch-up between two rival coaches has sparked a riot at a soccer match in Colombia, in which about 60 people were injured.
Tempers frayed on the pitch in the final minutes of the match between America and Deportivo Cali at Pascual Guerrero stadium, in the south-western city of Cali.

Referee Wilmer Roldan called off the match in the 82nd minute when America coach Diego Umana punched his Cali counterpart, Daniel Carreno.
America players, angry at the suspension of the game, chased the referee off the pitch.

Carreno tried to hit back at Umana but was held back by his players.

In the stands, members of the America supporters group, known as the Red Baron, began fighting amongst themselves.
Riot police moved in to quell the fighting, while other supporters tried to break down a fence and invade the pitch.

There was also fighting outside the stadium, where police used tear gas to disperse supporters.

Players from both teams lamented the stoush but America fan Octavio Romero laid the blame on his team's opponents.

"To me, it is unfortunate what these bandits from the south are doing, to end a game that was going so well and mess the match up," he said.

The Red Cross said the injury count was around 60 as the victims were treated at the edge of the pitch.Deportivo Cali was winning 1-0 at the time. Colombia media said the result would stand.

- Reuters





What a bunch of filthy fuckers watching a mindless activity.

[Moose]

Now this, I would watch

[Saint John]

Police officer dies in Italian soccer riot Homemade explosive device thrown inside policeman's vehicleLast Updated: Friday, February 2, 2007 | 10:01 PM ET
CBC Sports
A police officer was killed Friday as fans rioted at an Italian soccer game between Catania and Palermo, leading to the cancellation of all soccer matches in Italy's top two divisions on the weekend.


Fans clash with police outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium after the soccer match between Palermo and Catania, in Sicily, Friday.
(SkyTG24/Associated Press) The trouble started in the 58th minute of the game between the Sicilian rivals when the contest was temporarily suspended after tear gas, used by police to halt rioting outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium, drifted inside and filled the stadium.

The 38-year-old officer died after a homemade explosive device was thrown inside his vehicle, police said.

Another policeman was in critical condition, and police said dozens of people with lesser injuries were taken to local hospitals.
The game resumed after a lengthy delay and Palermo went on to win 2-1.

Hundreds trapped inside stadium
The violence continued after the game. Hundreds of fans were trapped inside the stadium while the authorities sought to avoid further violence and stop people from leaving.

'What we're witnessing has nothing to do with soccer, therefore Italian soccer is stopping.'
—Italian Soccer Federation commissioner Luca PancalliThe death of the police officer and the rioting prompted Italian Soccer Federation commissioner Luca Pancalli to cancel all games in Serie A and B on the weekend. The Italian national team's exhibition game against Romania on Wednesday was also called off.

"The decision to block the championships was immediate," Pancalli told a news conference.

"We cannot continue like this. What we're witnessing has nothing to do with soccer, therefore Italian soccer is stopping."

Pancalli added that the Italian Soccer Federation would meet on Monday in order "to identify those drastic measures that will allow us to restart. Otherwise, we're not restarting the games."

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi condemned the violence.

"I feel it is my duty to say that we unfortunately need a loud and clear signal to avoid the degeneration of the sport that we, unfortunately and dramatically, are witnessing," Prodi was quoted as saying by Italian news agencies.

Friday's incident was the latest to besmirch Italian soccer this season.

Last week, Ermanno Licursi, director of amateur team Sanmartinese, was killed in a fight with opposition players after the final whistle of a game against Cancellese.

Uncivilized Euro trash. Plain and simple. Nice "sport."

[youkeepmewaiting]

Police officer dies in Italian soccer riot Homemade explosive device thrown inside policeman's vehicleLast Updated: Friday, February 2, 2007 | 10:01 PM ET
CBC Sports
A police officer was killed Friday as fans rioted at an Italian soccer game between Catania and Palermo, leading to the cancellation of all soccer matches in Italy's top two divisions on the weekend.


Fans clash with police outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium after the soccer match between Palermo and Catania, in Sicily, Friday.
(SkyTG24/Associated Press) The trouble started in the 58th minute of the game between the Sicilian rivals when the contest was temporarily suspended after tear gas, used by police to halt rioting outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium, drifted inside and filled the stadium.

The 38-year-old officer died after a homemade explosive device was thrown inside his vehicle, police said.

Another policeman was in critical condition, and police said dozens of people with lesser injuries were taken to local hospitals.
The game resumed after a lengthy delay and Palermo went on to win 2-1.

Hundreds trapped inside stadium
The violence continued after the game. Hundreds of fans were trapped inside the stadium while the authorities sought to avoid further violence and stop people from leaving.

'What we're witnessing has nothing to do with soccer, therefore Italian soccer is stopping.'
—Italian Soccer Federation commissioner Luca PancalliThe death of the police officer and the rioting prompted Italian Soccer Federation commissioner Luca Pancalli to cancel all games in Serie A and B on the weekend. The Italian national team's exhibition game against Romania on Wednesday was also called off.

"The decision to block the championships was immediate," Pancalli told a news conference.

"We cannot continue like this. What we're witnessing has nothing to do with soccer, therefore Italian soccer is stopping."

Pancalli added that the Italian Soccer Federation would meet on Monday in order "to identify those drastic measures that will allow us to restart. Otherwise, we're not restarting the games."

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi condemned the violence.

"I feel it is my duty to say that we unfortunately need a loud and clear signal to avoid the degeneration of the sport that we, unfortunately and dramatically, are witnessing," Prodi was quoted as saying by Italian news agencies.

Friday's incident was the latest to besmirch Italian soccer this season.

Last week, Ermanno Licursi, director of amateur team Sanmartinese, was killed in a fight with opposition players after the final whistle of a game against Cancellese.

Uncivilized Euro trash. Plain and simple. Nice "sport."

Take a pill. Its not the "sport", its the country.

Dont get much stuff like that in Britain, in the big leagues.

[Ren]

Take a pill. Its not the "sport", its the country.

Dont get much stuff like that in Britain, in the big leagues.

Exactly

[Saint John]

You sure?



Soccer Riots and British Character
New York Times, May 18, 1986
Brawling is as British as shepherd's pie. Murder isn't.

One year after the Brussels soccer riot and on the eve of the World Cup in Mexico City the British national character takes center stage.

On May 29, 1985, fifteen months after moving to London from New York, I watched a live broadcast of British soccer fans running amok in Brussels before the game between Liverpool and Juventus, from Turin, Italy had even begun. When it was over, the body count was 39 dead and hundreds injured.

Since then, several incidents have claimed additional victims at home, some of whom were seriously injured after being stabbed. Particularly brutal fights have occurred since the new year. The Brussels riots have not chastened Britain's soccer thugs and soccer officials are concerned about their behavior in Mexico City.

If violence is rooted as deeply and broadly in this culture as I suspect it is, they have good reason to worry.

The Brussels riot stunned the British as did many other people throughout the world, but here the shot was more at the scale of the violence than at the fact of it. Soccer violence is hardly a new phenomenon for the British.

But fighting in general isn't exactly unknown here either. In fact, a great deal of brawling, and boozing-brawling, goes on. Much soccer violence seems but a part of the overall cultural trait.

*

In two years here I've seen more fights that in my previous 25 adult years in America, mostly as a Manhattanite.

My list begins with a holiday visit to Bristol three years ago when, enjoying and after-dinner stroll, I saw a man strike his female companion, something I'd managed to never observe in America. A few months ago, I saw a repeat performance in London with a different cast. On this occasion, the malefactor was in turn pounced on by two besotted youths professing moral outrage but enjoying the opportunity to fight. If it provided a pretext for pugilism these lads would have been morally outraged at a lamppost the shining.

London provided another first: the spectacle of two men grappling with a third in that most violence-inducing of venues, a public library.

I've seen about 10 fights in all, a half dozen of which occurred inside or near pubs. On at least four occasions, I've also witnessed one group of youths chasing another: on a subway platform, on the concourse of the major railroad/underground terminal (culminating in the wild hurling of empty beer glasses), and twice on the street, probably (given timing and location) involving youths who'd just decamped from a soccer stadium after a match.

I don't frequent tough pubs or neighborhoods. I don't look for fights. My observations seem representative and statistically sound. Indeed, upon discovering my interest in this subject, friends and acquaintances often regale me with anecdotes that jibe with my personal observations.

*

The media provides reinforcement as well, reporting many violent robberies and rapes as well as large-scale fights and riots. Just three days after Brussels, police and hippies engaged in a pitched battle near Stonehenge, and four months later, a spate of inner-city riots erupted in London and elsewhere. Previously, the year-long miners’ strike (1984-85) was constantly punctuated by battles between police and picketers.

Why do the British fight so much? One factor in this complex situation may be that the fear that would act as an inhibitor is largely missing. In New York one avoids fights at all costs because anything can happen. Here, not much happens. The average brawler lacks not only weapons but the desire to inflict pain or injury, and the average brawl is a brief, self-limiting, harmless affair. Traditionally, many Britons find them enjoyable.

The library fight seems typical. Not a single punch was thrown, the participants preferring the grab-and-roll-around-on-the-floor technique. And your correspondent, a native New Yorker trained to the hilt in manic noninvolvement, hesitated not an instant before intervening to separate the combatants. They heeded my exertions and exhortations with an immediacy that was profoundly gratifying--and an utter relief.

Not one of the four of us was the worse for wear, but harmlessness doesn't come with a watertight guarantee. Fights in London don't alarm me the way they do in New York, but neither am I pleased at the prospect of being accidentally knocked onto an electrified rail or beaned by a beer glass.

*

Recently, too, the ante has been raised. Weapons, fists, and brutality are no longer a rarity. And some of the weapons are extraordinarily ugly. In a March raid against suspected hooligans, police confiscated crossbows, scalpels, spiked brass knuckles, and medieval devices designed to penetrate armor (maces and spiked steel balls suspended from chains).

Symbols of the new viciousness are not hard to find. During the Tottenham riot in early October, in which a policeman died of multiple stab wounds, guns were fired at the police. In the entire history of rioting in mainland Britain, this was the first time that police had been fired on.

Walls that collapse as a result of soccer riots tell a tale of horrid escalation too: on May 11, 1985 in Birmingham England, one teenager was killed. Only two and a half weeks later, Brussels claimed more than three dozen lives.

Despite ongoing hooliganism, concerted action, including alcohol restrictions, by police, the courts, and league officials have given British soccer a relatively calm year. Further progress can be expected as the finite number of sociopaths and psychopaths are weeded out.

But the fan who enjoys the mild role may be another story. Boozer-brawlers spring from a seemingly inexhaustible supply. In addition, boys and booze will eventually find one another, despite the keenest efforts to separate them. Finally, behaving in a manner probably similar to that of their own dads, and of their dads before them, today's lads represent rather than subvert one of the mainstreams of their old, established, tradition-minded culture. Keeping them down will of necessity be an ongoing and uphill battle.

www.robertliebman.com

[Uno_up]

[youkeepmewaiting]

You sure?



Soccer Riots and British Character
New York Times, May 18, 1986
Brawling is as British as shepherd's pie. Murder isn't.

One year after the Brussels soccer riot and on the eve of the World Cup in Mexico City the British national character takes center stage.

On May 29, 1985, fifteen months after moving to London from New York, I watched a live broadcast of British soccer fans running amok in Brussels before the game between Liverpool and Juventus, from Turin, Italy had even begun. When it was over, the body count was 39 dead and hundreds injured.

Since then, several incidents have claimed additional victims at home, some of whom were seriously injured after being stabbed. Particularly brutal fights have occurred since the new year. The Brussels riots have not chastened Britain's soccer thugs and soccer officials are concerned about their behavior in Mexico City.

If violence is rooted as deeply and broadly in this culture as I suspect it is, they have good reason to worry.

The Brussels riot stunned the British as did many other people throughout the world, but here the shot was more at the scale of the violence than at the fact of it. Soccer violence is hardly a new phenomenon for the British.

But fighting in general isn't exactly unknown here either. In fact, a great deal of brawling, and boozing-brawling, goes on. Much soccer violence seems but a part of the overall cultural trait.

*

In two years here I've seen more fights that in my previous 25 adult years in America, mostly as a Manhattanite.

My list begins with a holiday visit to Bristol three years ago when, enjoying and after-dinner stroll, I saw a man strike his female companion, something I'd managed to never observe in America. A few months ago, I saw a repeat performance in London with a different cast. On this occasion, the malefactor was in turn pounced on by two besotted youths professing moral outrage but enjoying the opportunity to fight. If it provided a pretext for pugilism these lads would have been morally outraged at a lamppost the shining.

London provided another first: the spectacle of two men grappling with a third in that most violence-inducing of venues, a public library.

I've seen about 10 fights in all, a half dozen of which occurred inside or near pubs. On at least four occasions, I've also witnessed one group of youths chasing another: on a subway platform, on the concourse of the major railroad/underground terminal (culminating in the wild hurling of empty beer glasses), and twice on the street, probably (given timing and location) involving youths who'd just decamped from a soccer stadium after a match.

I don't frequent tough pubs or neighborhoods. I don't look for fights. My observations seem representative and statistically sound. Indeed, upon discovering my interest in this subject, friends and acquaintances often regale me with anecdotes that jibe with my personal observations.

*

The media provides reinforcement as well, reporting many violent robberies and rapes as well as large-scale fights and riots. Just three days after Brussels, police and hippies engaged in a pitched battle near Stonehenge, and four months later, a spate of inner-city riots erupted in London and elsewhere. Previously, the year-long miners’ strike (1984-85) was constantly punctuated by battles between police and picketers.

Why do the British fight so much? One factor in this complex situation may be that the fear that would act as an inhibitor is largely missing. In New York one avoids fights at all costs because anything can happen. Here, not much happens. The average brawler lacks not only weapons but the desire to inflict pain or injury, and the average brawl is a brief, self-limiting, harmless affair. Traditionally, many Britons find them enjoyable.

The library fight seems typical. Not a single punch was thrown, the participants preferring the grab-and-roll-around-on-the-floor technique. And your correspondent, a native New Yorker trained to the hilt in manic noninvolvement, hesitated not an instant before intervening to separate the combatants. They heeded my exertions and exhortations with an immediacy that was profoundly gratifying--and an utter relief.

Not one of the four of us was the worse for wear, but harmlessness doesn't come with a watertight guarantee. Fights in London don't alarm me the way they do in New York, but neither am I pleased at the prospect of being accidentally knocked onto an electrified rail or beaned by a beer glass.

*

Recently, too, the ante has been raised. Weapons, fists, and brutality are no longer a rarity. And some of the weapons are extraordinarily ugly. In a March raid against suspected hooligans, police confiscated crossbows, scalpels, spiked brass knuckles, and medieval devices designed to penetrate armor (maces and spiked steel balls suspended from chains).

Symbols of the new viciousness are not hard to find. During the Tottenham riot in early October, in which a policeman died of multiple stab wounds, guns were fired at the police. In the entire history of rioting in mainland Britain, this was the first time that police had been fired on.

Walls that collapse as a result of soccer riots tell a tale of horrid escalation too: on May 11, 1985 in Birmingham England, one teenager was killed. Only two and a half weeks later, Brussels claimed more than three dozen lives.

Despite ongoing hooliganism, concerted action, including alcohol restrictions, by police, the courts, and league officials have given British soccer a relatively calm year. Further progress can be expected as the finite number of sociopaths and psychopaths are weeded out.

But the fan who enjoys the mild role may be another story. Boozer-brawlers spring from a seemingly inexhaustible supply. In addition, boys and booze will eventually find one another, despite the keenest efforts to separate them. Finally, behaving in a manner probably similar to that of their own dads, and of their dads before them, today's lads represent rather than subvert one of the mainstreams of their old, established, tradition-minded culture. Keeping them down will of necessity be an ongoing and uphill battle.

www.robertliebman.com

I'm leaving this thread before I get pissed off. This article is from 1985 you retard. Its well known football riots in the 80s were very bad. Maggie Thatcher almost closed down stadiums.

[Rick]

This article is from 1985 you retard.

Nobody said you Brits don't have a way with words.

[youkeepmewaiting]

This article is from 1985 you retard.

Nobody said you Brits don't have a way with words.

Just like to point out that it wasnt ment as truly offensive. I like St John.. well not "like".. i.. dont hate him anyway

[Andrew]

You sure?

Seriously. Enough. You don't like the sport. We get it.

[Andrew]

Cruyff speaks about Ronaldinho and Barcelona's fans

BARCELONA, Apr 12 (SW) - Dutch legend Johan Cruyff thinks that Ronaldinho's imminent departure from FC Barcelona is probably the best solution. The former player and manager also took a moment to criticize the Catalan crowd.

"It is always necessary to look for the best solution. If it isn't working anymore, and someone doesn't want to stay, then this is the best solution," said Cruyff.

Ronaldinho today came to an agreement with Italian powerhouse AC Milan, and it seems to be only a matter of time for the two teams to clinch a deal as well.

Cruyff, having watched Barcelona's Champions League clash with Schalke 04 this week, was also clearly disappointed by the home crowd.

"To whistle when a 17 year old boy is replaced by an 18 year old is not needed," said the team's former player and coach, referring to the whistling concert Frank Rijkaard received when substituting Bojan Krkic with Giovani.

"We all watched the match between Liverpool and Arsenal. There the fans showed how to behave. It's a shame to witness the enormous difference between that match and what is happening here. They wave their handkerchiefs, but have no idea what is going on. Suck lack of knowledge is sad, after all these years."

I prefer folks have just one username on this board thanks. Sorry it took me so long to pick up on this fact. Your other username remains active.