The ugly side of football: man dies in Moscow riots.

June 9, 2002 8:24 PM

The ugly side of football: man dies in Moscow riots. The World Cup has been great so far, but it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.
posted by claire (25 comments total)

in the states it's called soccer
posted by greyscale at 8:34 PM on June 9, 2002

only a matter of time before things got out of control? Are you serious? Every year there are riots.
posted by tomplus2 at 8:44 PM on June 9, 2002

"in the states it's called soccer"

speechless
posted by Catch at 8:50 PM on June 9, 2002

Tomplus2: yes, I know it happens all the time, that was my point (I meant to say this year's tournament had been okay up until now). Every World Cup it's the same thing; we all sit around waiting for the inevitable violent riots. It's just sad to see this sort of thing happen during what is otherwise a great sporting event.
posted by claire at 8:55 PM on June 9, 2002

Well, riots at home are one thing. The hosts are understandably going to be much more concerned now -- from what I've heard there has been nothing to speak of in Japan so far. But this is the point at which teams start to actually get eliminated from the tournament, so passions will be higher for those losses.
posted by dhartung at 9:13 PM on June 9, 2002

i went to see the mariners once and was wishing i'd have stayed home and done homework. find it hard to believe anyone could bring themselves to spend money on a game, much less riot over it. how anyone could feel passionate about organized sports leaves me wondering what i missed growing up. perhaps when they were distributing brains i thought they'd said trains, which is why i didn't show up?
posted by greyscale at 9:52 PM on June 9, 2002

greyscale is a loser
posted by azazello at 12:08 AM on June 10, 2002

"greyscale is a loser"

Hmmm, while I don't like endorsing petty slanging matches, I must agree. It's disappointing to see that some of our peers lack the perspicacity to overcome the simple fact that there are different words for 'football'. Big deal, get over it, and don't bother contributing if you don't have anything worthwhile to say.
posted by claire at 12:52 AM on June 10, 2002

The stupid side of football (and basketball and hockey) is the constant fake falls and pain. In real life, you could hit some of these guys in the side of the head with a baseball bat and they would hardly notice, but in a game they fall on their faces and moan like little boys.
posted by pracowity at 1:38 AM on June 10, 2002

I saw coverage of this story on the BBC 24 news channel last night, and the item contained details which have been omitted from the online story, and which cast a bit more light on the "organizers of this event were just irresponsible" comment in the linked story.

According to the slot we watched, there had been unresticted alcohol sales for seven hours before the game even started, which is surely a contributing factor to the ensuing mayhem. Also the local police had mounted units trained specifically to deal with this kind of violence - but they were not only not present, they were not even on standby during the game.

There were also shots of large numbers of police running into the area because they has been assigned alsewhere during the game, none of whom appeared to have the kind of protection normally associated with riot control. The overall impression given was quite definitely one of incompetence.

Personally, I believe that this kind of incident is almost unavoidable because although football/soccer is superficially a sport, it is a lot more like ritualised tribal warfare. I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the UK it seems to me that football has long overtaken religion as the opium of the masses, and obsession is actively encouraged. This item was the BBC's top story, while EU plans to essentially remove all online privacy didn't even merit a mention. Smoke and mirrors, I say.
posted by Gamecat at 1:41 AM on June 10, 2002

so no DADAists here, eh?
posted by greyscale at 2:36 AM on June 10, 2002

Well Greyscale, there's a fine line between Dadaism and stupidity, the former often used as an excuse to conceal the latter. Anyway, I'm just going to ignore you from now on.
posted by claire at 2:45 AM on June 10, 2002

I don't think you can blame football. Lots of countries confuse their national worth with their footballing performance, but what can you do about that? Stop it being popular?
posted by Summer at 2:47 AM on June 10, 2002

Er, hold on. Inevitable riots? I can remember skirmishes among fans, but not outright riots. And nothing compared to when Dutch, German, Italian and English clubs play each other. Interesting football fact: the Japanese call football 'sacca', not because they can't pronounce soccer, but because they learnt the word from the Americans.
posted by Summer at 3:01 AM on June 10, 2002

Personally, I believe that this kind of incident is almost unavoidable because although football/soccer is superficially a sport, it is a lot more like ritualised tribal warfare.

Welcome to the human race. We have tribes. We have conflict. We have competition. The most popular pastimes in any given group (eg country) will reflect this.

There are many incidents of mass violence that don't involve football or sport. In the North America, where football (soccer) is a minority sport, trouble has occured after basketball, hockey & collegiate football (gridiron) games as well as during Mardi Gras-type celebrations. Pick any other countries...

Violence & drunken violence is a daily occurence around the world. We're going to have to dig a lot deeper into the various social, anthropological & historical aspects of people & sports before we start tossing off the simplistic 'football leads to violence, its inevitable'-type comments.
posted by i_cola at 3:04 AM on June 10, 2002

i thought the riot was pretty stupid, and then add to that that someone ripped off a front-page-of-bbc news item and put in on MF, then add to that that my comment about a difference in terminology between the states and europe aroused an offense and uproar which resulted in 'I'm just going to ignore you....' blah blah. feeble insults all. true, I was lampooning the post and participants, but no reason to make it personal--for you or me. what a haughty lot you are. can't appreciate a little cultural diversity without resorting to personal insults, aye?
posted by greyscale at 3:22 AM on June 10, 2002

Summer: I suppose you're right, there isn't really much we can do about it. Humans will be humans, I guess.
posted by claire at 3:28 AM on June 10, 2002

...but here in the UK it seems to me that football has long overtaken religion as the opium of the masses.

in the States it's called "the crack of the masses." ;-)

I watched the game at a friend's house here in Japan. On the subway on the way home, about 11:30 p.m., I did see two guys shout "Nippon! Nippon!" enthusiastically. That qualifies as pandemonium in Japan.
posted by planetkyoto at 3:43 AM on June 10, 2002

I was lampooning the post and participants, but no reason to make it personal--for you or me.

One (not I, necessarily) might argue lampooning of the participants is personal. And though football is known in the US as soccer, the term is in fact British, being an alteration of assoc., an abbreviation of "association football".
posted by jalexei at 5:47 AM on June 10, 2002

Clearly, violence and physical attacks upon one another in the soccer stadium or at the pub over the performance of two groups of men paid to run around in short pants kicking a little ball are not only warranted but necessary for the well-being and progress of our species! (And murder is just good, clean fun, people.) As are verbal attacks upon one another here. Keep up the good work!
posted by rushmc at 6:40 AM on June 10, 2002

Today was a beautiful, sunny day in Japan. I was cycling for about an hour after work. But the weatherman said the rain now coming in is the start of "tsuyu," the rainy season. You can expect two solid days of rain for the cup matches, and probably more. A typhoon also seems to be skirting Japan. can you find Japan and Korea under the white clouds in the map?Weather radar map (clouds go southwest to northeast)
posted by planetkyoto at 6:43 AM on June 10, 2002

First the Russians, now the Chinese.
posted by vbfg at 7:47 AM on June 10, 2002

"soccer, the term is in fact British, being an alteration of assoc., an abbreviation of "association football"."

Well, as for greyscale not adding anything to the thread, there you go. Because of his bringing up Soccer I've learned something.
posted by Catch at 12:54 PM on June 10, 2002

This sounds more like the ugly side of alcohol more than anything else.

Also, ditto what pracowcity said. The main problem in football is not the low scores but the stupid floppers and their cheesy on-pitch acting. Lame.
posted by cell divide at 12:57 PM on June 10, 2002

Welcome to the human race. We have tribes. We have conflict. We have competition.

Hey buddy, take it to MelanieGriffith.com.
posted by holloway at 1:00 PM on June 10, 2002