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British government should take stand
Posted: Monday June 19, 2000 11:11 AM
It was only a matter of time before England's mindless thugs brought the country's football team to the brink of major tournament elimination. The hooligans caused their own particular brand of hideous havoc here in Brussels and the small town of Charleroi in the past few days, with close on 1,000 so-called fans arrested and 56 people injured. It's long been called an English disease, which football supporters of other nations have caught over time. But none are as consistently destructive and despicable as the English louts who masquerade as soccer followers. Now UEFA, European football's governing body, has had enough and threatened England with expulsion from Euro 2000 if more violence erupts. Gerhard Aigner, UEFA's chief executive, said: "UEFA calls upon the government of the UK and the FA [Football Association] to take every step to stop English hooligans from travelling abroad. They are a disgrace to their country and a blight on the national team." He added: "UEFA will have to consider the future presence of the English team if there is more violence." UEFA President Lennart Johansson, when asked if England should be booted out, said: "That shouldn't be excluded." But he continued, "This cannot go on. I hope that hooligans understand what they are doing to their country. We cannot neglect what happened in Istanbul, in Copenhagen, in Brussels, in Charleroi. We cannot take responsibility that someone gets killed on the street or cannot walk safely in the street." The problem is, the hooligans don't understand what they are doing to their country or their team - moreover, they wouldn't care, even if they did have the ability to comprehend issues that require more than a single brain cell. Two Leeds United fans were stabbed to death in fighting in Istanbul. English and Turkish fans fought in Copenhagen before the UEFA Cup final in May -- and now the ugly scenes in Belgium. UEFA had to make a stand. English clubs were thrown out of Europe for five years after the Heysel tragedy here in Brussels. This city could now be at the center of England's national team losing the right to participate in the rest of Euro 2000, or perhaps even future major competitions.
England's 2006 World Cup bid is certainly in tatters. The British government and the FA should withdraw the bid before the announcement early next month and allow South Africa and Germany to contest the hosting honors. The government and FA then need to work together to create a real solution to hooliganism ... a zero-tolerance, get-tough policy to breathe fear into would-be traveling fans. Passports should be withheld and prison terms enforced. To hell with civil liberties. If you're caught driving drunk, your license to drive a car gets taken away. Why, then, if you're violent, abusive and destructive in a country you're visiting shouldn't your right to travel be taken away? It's so difficult to stop every single hooligan, every single foolish person who decides his idea of fun is a weekend away terrorizing a foreign city and its inhabitants. But, as UEFA pointed out Sunday, other countries have managed to control the export of their hooligan element, why not England? This is where the British government has to take responsibility for its failure to act as other countries have. Tony Blair, the British prime minister, made a statement on UEFA's announcement from the European Union summit in Portugal that suggested he still doesn't get it. "Hopefully, this threat will bring to their senses anyone tempted to continue the mindless thuggery that has brought such shame to the country," said the statement. Sorry, Mr. Blair, you are sadly misjudging the situation if you think these trouble-causers react to such threats from UEFA. They need to be dealt with personally and harshly, regardless of what happens to the team. You need to lead the stand against them. Tournament director Alain Courtois said: "Everybody did what he had to do. But what has the British government done?" I'm sure it's not been lost on anyone that if England reaches the quarterfinals, it will play Italy at the former Heysel Stadium, where in 1985 39 fans died before the match between English club Liverpool and Italian side Juventus. It remains to be seen, with England's crucial group encounter against Romania to come in Charleroi on Tuesday, whether English hooligans will actually allow their team the chance of getting that far.
Phil Jones is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International. Jones is part of the World Sport crew that is in the Netherlands and Belgium covering Euro 2000.
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