Tag: hooligans

Hooligans

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English football at it again, I suppose?

Not like those nice Serbians. Or the lovely Croatians. The darling Greeks.
And I won’t hear a word said against those absolute sweeties from Italy.

But yeah. Always an English problem.

And always a football problem. You never see any trouble at a rugby match.
Well, unless it’s an SA schools match. Or an SA provincial rugby match. Etc etc.

But yeah. Only the English football. Or the South African rugby. Or the Irish ploughing.

Wait… what?

Not more ploughing news?

Yep:

It’s another brilliant article from the Irish local press.

The Electric Picnic turns out to be an annual music festival in County Laois in Ireland. It’s actually pretty big. And the Ploughing? Well, that’s the Irish National Ploughing Championships as mentioned (extensively) in this post here.

“More assaults and trouble come from the Ploughing match than the Electric Picnic,” Judge Cody said as he inspected an occasional licence application by The Wrens Nest. 

Judge Cody asked Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby if he was right to suggest there was more assaults and trouble from the National Ploughing Championships. 

“The statistics would back that up,” agreed Sgt Kirby. 

That exchange is so much better when you do it with Irish accents.

I love the fact that Ploughing is the third most important subsection of the local news site.

Just ahead of “National News” there.

And it really is great stuff. Everything you’d expect from a local Irish news site.

The big news, including the National Brown Bread Baking competition results:

The photos of all the lovely girls*, and the suspense! over next year’s venue.

As for the prospect of trouble at the National Ploughing Championships, Judge Cody decided that the best way forward was the grant all of the alcohol licences which for which applications had been made.

Hey, itis Ireland, after all.

* iykyk

Happy Days in Europe

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I watched a little Bundesliga and La Liga football this weekend and for their sakes, let’s hope that the games I chose weren’t representative of the wider situation in those countries.

First off, 1. FC Köln v Bayern München. Bayern aren’t the team you want to face in your final league game of the season, especially when you’re struggling to avoid relegation. And when the visitors led 4-1 with seconds to play, the Köln fans showed thei disapproval thus:

 

(Another pic here). Obviously, the ref had no option but to take the players off, the game was (technically) abandoned and the result stood, much like the lines of riot police and stewards across the centre of the pitch for almost an hour afterwards.

But of course, it’s England that has the hooligan problem.

Meanwhile in Spain, Real Madrid were coming from behind to condemn home side Granada to a nervy last match next week. The result of this was an ugly brawl between Granada players and the match officials at the end of the game, including a bottle being thrown at the referee by one of the players. Can’t blame the fans for that one, although the referee had to leave the pitch under the protection of three riot shields. In all my years of watching footy in England, I’ve never ever seen that either. Although it seems fairly common in Spain – who could forget the UEFA Champions League encounter between Real Madrid and Barcelona last year, when exactly the same thing happened.

But of course, it’s England that has the hooligan problem.

And the beautiful game, as played in South America, is actually far less beautiful when you look more closely.

I’ve seen players injured on the field of play before, but rarely does the trainer have to come on and treat the player while riot police protect them from objects thrown from the crowd. And by “rarely”, I actually mean “never”.
Police in England don’t use rifles and rubber bullets to disperse angry fans, like they do in Brazil (World Cup 2014, anyone?).

Yes, England has certainly had it’s fair share of problems with hooliganism in the past. But that reputation should be left right there, in the past. While there are problems occurring regularly in other leagues around the world, English football has been free of any major trouble for many years now.
Maybe it’s time that FIFA sorted out some of the other “big” names in world football before accusing English fans of being troublemakers.

Hooliganballs

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Great news as South Africa’s new Advanced Passenger Processing (APP) – which I complained about bitterly when I flew to the UK last year – nips the plans of 10 Argentinian hooligans in the bud.

And while that’s just brilliant, this quote from Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni has got me confused and amused all at once:

Asked about whether the department will be able to bar other possible hooligans entering the country, the Director General said: “What we are saying is that in terms of the risks to the country we’ve put in place systems which will eliminate that risk to zero percent but I can’t say that I’ve got a foolproof system.”

So don’t worry, South Africa – zero percent risk means that you’re completely safe.  Although of course, the system isn’t foolproof.

Right.

Anyway, Apleni’s staff will face another stern test this evening as I collect my parents from Cape Town International for their much-anticipated World Cup visit.
Here’s hoping they don’t get deported before baggage reclaim…