SOCCER : Fair Play Is Overshadowed by Violence and Corruption
LONDON — A fan is stabbed to death in Italy and another gunned down in France. Star striker Eric Cantona vaults into the crowd to attack a spectator. Players in England and Malaysia are accused of taking bribes.
Soccer doesn’t seem to be living up to the “fair play” image fostered by its organizers.
Last summer’s World Cup in the United States was a huge success in terms of finance, crowd behavior and even goal scoring. It was supposed to be the forerunner of new-look, 21st century soccer, marked by sportsmanship, good conduct and high-quality action.
Instead, the seven months since the World Cup have shown all the signs that the world’s most popular sport is sliding back into the ugly days of the early 1980s.
Almost two weeks ago, Genoa fan Vicenzo Spagnolo was knifed to death by a teen-age AC Milan supporter before an Italian league game. The game was abandoned and, the following weekend, all domestic sport in Italy was canceled as a mark of respect.
On Tuesday, a French fan died two days after being shot by a rival supporter at a game between two amateur teams.
While the world is stunned by these tragedies, Pele, the most famous soccer player in history, believes that the deaths of the two fans should not be blamed on the sport.
“We talk a lot about violence in sport, but violence isn’t in sport, violence is in society in general,” Pele said after the recent incidents.
“When you have a case like this in the game, it shocks people and makes them feel sorry and worried. Of course we want to stop it because violence is not for sports.”
English soccer, long plagued by fan violence, has been rocked by scandals this season.
Tax authorities, as well as the Premier League, are investigating allegations that some club managers involved in transfer deals with foreign players have broken the rules by receiving gifts from their agents.
One Premier League player, Zimbabwean goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, is under investigation for allegedly taking a $62,000 bribe to fix a Liverpool-Newcastle game.
Bribery allegations have been rife in Singapore and Malaysia, where 90 players have been implicated in match-fixing.
Although none have yet been charged, officials say many have admitted taking bribes. In Singapore, a referee is already in jail for accepting bribes from bookmakers.
Cantona’s unprecedented clash on Jan. 25 with a fan at the Crystal Palace-Manchester United game prompted worldwide condemnation. It also sparked a debate on how fans should be prevented from taunting players at such close range.
The striker, who has a history of violent on-field conduct both in France and England, leaped into the crowd after being expelled. He took a flying, two-footed kick at a Palace supporter who had rushed forward 11 rows of seats to hurl abuse at him.
United, under pressure from the English Football Association, banned Cantona for the rest of the season while Palace stopped the 20-year-old fan attending any more games.
But the Frenchman could still be suspended for life by the FA and face criminal charges, too.
The crowd trouble has resurfaced in England just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the worst fan violence tragedy of all time. In May 1985, Liverpool fans rioted at the Champions Cup final against Italy’s Juventus in Brussels’ Heysel Stadium, leaving 39 people dead.
That tragedy prompted UEFA, soccer’s governing body, to ban all English clubs from European competition for five years. Crowd violence has been kept in check in England since then, but field invasions have become more common.
The most recent was Wednesday.
After Millwall gained an upset victory at Chelsea in the FA Cup, hundreds of home fans invaded the field to try to get at visiting fans. Most were halted by a line of mounted police. Nineteen fans were charged and 11 police officers were injured.
“I hope we are not going back to the hooligan-dominated days of a decade or so ago,” said Graham Kelly, the English FA’s chief executive. “Great strides have been made in recent years over crowd control.”
Kelly was referring to the times 10 years ago when fans of Chelsea and Millwall were in the forefront of crowd violence in England. English clubs and the national team also exported violence to Europe and it became known as the English disease.
Crowd trouble has not been restricted to Europe.
In Chile, fanatical supporters of the University of Chile club practically destroyed large sections of Santiago’s National Stadium in a recent game with Chilean President Eduardo Frei watching in astonishment from his seat.
But most of the trouble in South America involves the players and coaches.
Diego Maradona, banned from playing because of positive drug tests and now a coach with Racing Club of Buenos Aires, was fined and banned from the bench after insulting a referee. Another referee accused the former World Cup star of chasing him into the dressing room.
In something approaching the Cantona incident, former Argentine international striker Claudio Garcia of Racing club was so incensed by the taunts of an Independiente follower that he ran off the team bus and tried to attack him.
Garcia denied that he physically hurt the fan, but added: “If I’d caught him I’d have smashed his face in.”
