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'Pride and shame' Violence tarnishes England win over Germany
Posted: Sunday June 18, 2000 09:33 AM
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's tabloids on Sunday hailed England's first major soccer victory over Germany in 34 years, but also played up two days of hooligan violence that once again tarnished the country's image abroad. "Hun Nil!" declared the tabloid Sunday People, reaching for a pejorative British description of Germans dating to World War II to report the 1-0 victory Saturday in Euro 2000 in Charleroi, Belgium. "The Great Escape," said The Mirror on its front page. "Now let's beat the thugs," a reference to more than 800 arrested in two days -- the vast majority English -- of violence in Brussels and Charleroi. "England's glory night marred by fan's riots," said The Observer in a banner, Page 1 headline. "England's Pride and Shame," said The Independent on its first page. Newspapers, radio talk shows and television newscasts, in a tradition each time English fans cause mayhem abroad, were stumped about how to stop a large minority of English fans from smashing up bars, picking fights and breaking shop windows when England plays. Home Secretary Jack Straw was criticized for not taking passports away from known troublemakers to keep them from traveling. English fan supporters' groups hit out at the Belgian police for not being visible enough -- and then for cracking down too hard. Others blamed strong Belgian beer for the problem. Former sports minister Tony Banks, who is now heading England's bid to land the 2006 World Cup, on Sunday called for "Draconian" measures to stem the violence. "We have got to now think in terms of whether we give the police the power to take away the passports of suspected hooligans, people we fear will cause trouble and arrest them." Banks said. "That is Draconian practice, but I would not be loath to see those laws come forward. But we can only do that with the support of the whole country." The Observer newspaper, quoting a senior Belgian police official who called the violence "multi-national mayhem," said the chaos threatened to "scupper" England's hopes of hosting the World Cup and said the England Football Association might "scale down its bid." The Sunday Telegraph, in an editorial entitled "The National Shame," lashed out at "English fans smashing up windows ... and chanting their racist, abusive slogans." "The spectacle of baying England hooligans, rampaging yesterday through the streets of Brussels and Charleroi, is a source of national shame," the newspaper said. "They have inspired disgust and fear ... sullied the efforts of the England team and spoiled the enjoyment of many genuine football fans." The Mirror, like ever Sunday newspaper, displayed about a half dozen photos of the match and a few more than that of men heaving chairs, blood flowing from a man's bandaged head, police pinning fans to the ground, horse-mounted police charging in to fans, and water cannons blasting a Charleroi outdoor plaza. The Sunday Times described how English fans in Charleroi attempted to burn German flags and quoted one fans who said getting hit by a water cannon "was like being hit by a lorry [truck]." The Times reported police saying eight of 10 English soccer hooligans were on drugs and said "generals" who organize the violence were involved in "drug trafficking." Defending the nonviolent fans was Kevin Miles, coordinator of the Football Supporters' Association, who questioned the Belgian policing. "On the day before the game, the policing was virtually nonexistent until it was too late. Then after one or two problems had developed, the policing became heavy-handed and indiscriminate," Miles said. "There can be few methods of policing less precise than firing tear gas into a crowded pub and arresting everyone who emerges." "It is clear that dozens, if not hundreds, of entirely innocent English supporters have been arrested and even deported merely because of where they were."
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