From: Joao Magalhaes (joao.magalhaes@fundp.ac.be)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 06:40:53 MDT
Hi!
>A better question for the short term is to ask what is it about society
>in nations where such things occur that not only causes or contributes
>to this happening, but also what is that allows it to continue? We don't
>have such problems here in the US over any sport I know of.
The problems with soccer fans have been solved in England (generally
considered the most dangerous fans). By increasing security in stadiums
and, most of all, by identifying hooligans and punishing them (either by
jail or by preventing them to go to games). In Italy or Turkey, on the
contrary, authorities don't really want to solve these problems; my theory
is that it's in their culture to support their teams in a very aggressive
fashion and authorities don't want to intervene. As for sports in the US, I
agree there's much less violence; I remember watching an NBA game at NY in
which at the start of the game it was asked the public not to use
aggressive language. Something I, as a Portuguese, find amazing; it can
happen for police officers to insult players from the away team in
Portuguese soccer matches! Anyway, in the US you have seasonal riots, high
incidence of violent crimes, etc. to compensate for a lack of violence in
sports.
Best wishes.
Unité de Biologie et Biochimie Cellulaire
Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix
61, rue de Bruxelles
B-5000 Namur
Belgique
tel : 32-81-724321
fax : 32-81-724135
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:29:13 MST