the stick, the stone and the puddle

a while ago i came across a blog post in regards to sport supporters and the way they show and/or manifest their ‘love’ and/or ‘admiration’ to the respective bunch of over-paid ‘professionals’ that go out on a field (indoor or outdoor) and perform. performance in front of ‘n’ number of screaming spectators is nothing new to society…afterall one of the world’s wonders is the colosseum in rome (given we’ve ‘evolved’ in the type of sports now occurring). well, one would certainly hope that we value life a bit more than seeing it destroyed for pure entertainment in front of thousands of screaming paying customers. now, leaving bull-fighting and other such sports aside, most of the arena sports now are promoted as ‘fair-play’. while lives are not taken inside the arena…the practice seems to have transferred outside. as i opened up my laptop this morning, the first news was about a group of irish ‘supporters’ of a team called rangers (yes…i’m fully aware who they are) that have decide to celebrate in ‘style’ the most recent achievement of their idols. as it turns out, the rangers have won the scottish football championship. keep in mind…for the last ‘n’ number of years…that championship has been played between two teams…the rangers and celtic. it’s either one of the two that wins every year…and every year they do it with a margin of at least 10 or more points…ahead of the 3rd place team. now, these supporters decide to celebrate the fact that their team managed to finish first by take bats…going for a spin in the car…and pray on the first person they see…they essentially took a life, and injured two in their ‘celebration‘. to add insult to injury…as it turns out…religion was brought into this…the ‘fans’ were protestants (one really does stand and wonder…) and the victims were roman catholic.

not quite sure where to begin in stating my opinion on this…the team ‘wins’ a championship played between two teams (it’s a 50% chance of getting it right in september if you bet on either of the two winning)…and these ‘supporters’ decide to celebrate by taking action into their hands…showing their support and ‘admiration’ for the team they ‘cheer’ for by deliberately taking life. now, while it’s quite obvious that regardless the punishment (if they all do get caught) received (even if it is life in jail…yes i fully believe they deserve life in jail for this), they most likely won’t that devastated. as they have shown their forever ‘love’ to their team. so besides jail time, why not hit them where it hurts (and while i know this won’t happen…simply because this sort of actions usually don’t occur). thus, in my humble opinion…i think first the football federation in northern ireland should…hit the fans and hit them hard. by this, i mean strip away the title from rangers (not fair?…why not…it’s the only thing the ‘fans’ will actually be devasted by) and while you’re at it…make sure they don’t represent northern ireland in europe next year…and demote the team to the second league for a few years. let’s see how that quiets down the so called ‘fans’?

how will this actually hit the fans? well, they will see that their actions have hurt the team they support. their actions resulted in their team being punished. the team itself, well in all due respect, the players got their money…for playing. and continuing to play and demand they are not responsible…i have one question to them: would they want to continue playing for ‘fans’ that will go out and intentionally hurt other fans as a sign of ‘devotion’ for them? the owners, i’m certain they will be devasted, given the profit they will have to give up give this punishment…but let’s face it…if they start taking actions and start promoting betters ways to support them team…i’m sure it won’t go overlooked. but then again…i’m not talking profit so they won’t listen.

what should the team do…and yes, i’m fully aware this is impossible too…? well, they can for one try to promote less violent ways of supporting the team. try to reach out to their supporters…as they will listen. if not, at least they are taking action…which at this point i don’t recall any professional team in the world doing. i don’t think i’ve seen any commercials started from a sports team to promote a reduction in violence by their supporters (and no, violence by supporters does not only occur in football…recall the lakers’ supporters a few years back? the vancouver canucks supporters in 1994?, and so on).

another body that can take action…well that’s the politicians…they can get involved…sports are parts of the country…thus they have a responsibility to get involved if sports or actions due to sports promote violence and/or put the population at risk. they should pressure the football federation to take action…take action to ensure this does not occur again…

last i recall, the current uefa president is promoting zero tolerance against racism…need i say more? a person was killed for two reasons…being a fan of a different team (or at least thought to be a fan of a different team) and being present in a roman catholic neighbourhood (it’s assumed he was roman catholic). i’m sure each alone are enough to consider this a racist action…what will uefa do about this? probably nothing…and that’s too bad. because at this point…if uefa was true to its word about ‘zero tolerance’ they should take action. ban the rangers from european competition…put pressure on norther ireland to take action and reduce violence or suffer more consequence. and it’s not as if this wasn’t done before…recall the 1990s? england was banned from international competition for five years due to violence by the ‘fans’. so, it’s not as if there is no precedent to this.

so, hit the ‘fans’ where it hurts, and hit them hard. punish them as well as the teams they support. make it understood that supporting team does not imply violence….does not promote violence. by not taking action, it can simply been seen that the actions of these ‘fans’ are accepted…too bad this won’t happen, and nothing will be done to prevent such senseless actions from occurring again. i’m shocked that they are calling themselves ‘fans’…sports are there to entertain and provide a way for the followers to relax…not to add extra burden to society…