"If this can be termed the century of the common man, then soccer, of all sports,
is surely his game.... In a world haunted by the hydrogen and napalm bomb,
the football field is a place where sanity and hope are still
left unmolested. " - Stanley Rous, 1952 the football field is a place where sanity and hope are still
Stanley Rous was a referee. Yes, a referee. These days, there are players who might not even subscribe to his statement above. These players are playing in front of empty stadiums. Soccer is getting its old black eye back and the fans are the ones molesting the game. Fans have been banned from Italian stadiums and they are now talking about the same thing in Germany. I can't say that I have experienced the atmosphere of an Italian match and what this is like, but I can say that I have experienced the atmosphere of World Cup games on both American and European soil. It can be amazing (especially in the latter). It does the game a disservice and it is crazy that law enforcement has to treat soccer fans like children in order to drive home a message.
2 comments:
I have been to soccer matches in Rome, and they were incredible fun. The crowd was definitely animated-- kind of in the same way that crowds at American hockey games can be animated. If you can tolerate that kind of bristling intensity, you'd be able to tolerate the games I attended.
There were some wire fence type structures for crowd control which felt sort of like cages. And there was lots of security, and that felt sort of scary-- the visibly armed cops and we're all behind cages.
You know, that sign in the photo reads, "Never without soccer!!"
What an impassioned people, the Italians.
I would definitely like to experience that one day. I grew up watching Italian soccer with my father every Sunday but for some reason the EPL is much more interesting to me these days. I like the phrase on that sign.
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