Why All of The Violence at Soccer Games

Gary66 · Joined: Sep 01, 2005 Posts: 8353

LINK

Quote:

Thai gunman kills two noisy World Cup fans
Posted 6/14/2006 7:53 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print |
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Thai police are searching for a gunman who shot and killed two soccer fans at a beach resort after complaining they were cheering too loud.

The two men, both Thais, were watching Italy's 2-0 win over Ghana at a restaurant Monday at the Thai beach resort town of Pattaya, and erupted in roars when Italy scored its first goal, said Panipha Wattakul, a girlfriend of one of the victims.

A man seated at a nearby table asked them to quiet down, prompting a heated argument during which the man pulled out a handgun and shot the soccer fans at point-blank range, said Police Col. Somnuek Chanket. The victims were identified as Chamlong Rongsaeng, 30, and Somnuek Sonkun, 41.

These are not isolated incidents. I read about rioting at just about every other soccer game.

More Violence

Gary66 · Joined: Sep 01, 2005 Posts: 8353

No answers from you soccer fans. Question

piero · Joined: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 78 Location: UK

awfully

KHyuga · Joined: Feb 26, 2007 Posts: 5

You can add the fatal incident involving an italian policeman in a recent SerieA match to that long list.

seaeagle

I think there are a couple of reasons for the violence. The first is that, for some reason, soccer/football seems to be treated almost like a religion in many communities. Teams don't just have supporters - they have followers. Maybe it's to do with the fact that soccer knows little wealth boundaries. As long as kids have something round to kick they can have a game. So many children dream from a very young age of becoming a soccer star, and their team loyalty stays with them for all of their life.

The second reason is that a match is 90 minutes or more of uninterrupted tension. Unlike other football codes, a goal can come at any moment, whether you're currently in possession or not. But most shots at goal miss, so the fans get frustrated. And at the end of a match you may still have no result (a draw). So you have a bunch of fans who have sat through nearly 2 hours of tension whilst drinking beer all walking out of the stadium hyped up. It doesn't take much to get things started after that.

Anyway, that's amateur-psychologist seaeagle's take on it.

tbernstein · Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 1576 Location: London

seaeagle

It looks like sporting violence amongst fans isn't the sole domain of soccer:

Melee erupts after NYC basketball game - Yahoo! News