Handshakes, money and the UEFA way

When you use a search engine on the world wide web and type in 'soccer hooligans' unsurprisingly the sites that instantly pop up are the ones dealing with the British aspect, referring to hooliganism as 'The English Disease'. But is it solely an English problem? Events in Napoli last night and on other European nights would beg to differ. 

Movies like Green Street Hooligans and The Firm (that being the Gary Oldman one rather than the sassy pants Tom Cruise one) do nothing but glorify the activities. However I am not going to bang my drum about the fact that these movies should be banned. I believe that violent movies do not create psychos but merely make psychos more creative. In any case, these movies came after the culture of the 1980's and so reflect rather than incite. 

In 1985 you had the riots in the now infamous Heysel stadium in Belgium as the European Cup Final was being played. Numerous fans died that night in a game won by a Michel Platini spot kick for Juventus. Now Michel Platini heads the governing body that regulates the European competitions but seems more ready to impose bans for English clubs who do not meet his Financial Fair Play regulations rather than deal with the violence he witnessed back in Belgium in 1985 and continues to witness today. 

In Manchester City's group alone, numerous fans have been to hospital with stab wounds and so far it has been luck rather than anything else that someone hasn't been killed yet. Platini and UEFA continue to let teams with these types of followers participate in the competitions with no sign of repercussion. I am all for passionate fans and that is what the sport thrives on, people live for their team. They should not however be expected to die, or even kill for them.  

If this is not nipped in the bud then we may very well be in for yet another dark day in football in the not to distant future. Then all the suits at FIFA and UEFA can all record soundbites for the various sports news outlets, condemning the actions and stating that there is no place for this in football while looking forlorn and wondering how this could happen on their watch.

The Heysel disaster happened exactly a year after Liverpool fans had been attacked the previous year when they met another Italian side, Roma. This time, rightly or wrongly, the fans went prepared for a fight. This series of events combined with the poor condition of the actual stadium contributed to those peoples deaths. Afterwards though only the English contingent were blamed.The British Prime Minister urged the FA to pull all English clubs from future European competition but they had no time to act. On the second of June UEFA banned all English clubs for an unspecified time. Four days after that they did expand that to include all worldwide matches but seven days later changed it to allow friendlies. This only applied to English Club sides and luckily not the National team. 

Back to today and with Platini focused on his Financial Fair Play rules and Sepp Blatter wondering why handshakes cannot solve racism it is all too clear that the leaders of football are inept at best and down right negligent at worst. Tensions are bubbling below the surface and no one in charge seems to be noticing.   

PA Cityboy

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[UEFA Champions league 2015]

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