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Just one problem Hooliganism could wreck England's 2006 World Cup bid
Posted: Friday June 30, 2000 01:27 PM
LONDON (AP) -- A new Wembley is on the way and 11 stadiums already stand, each of them filled week after week with 40,000 fans. Add to that more than a century of soccer tradition and England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup seems to have everything to satisfy FIFA. But the so-called birthplace of soccer also has some unwanted offspring it just can't keep quiet and are expected to wreck the bid. Hooligans. The violent scenes at Euro 2000 in Brussels and Charleroi, coming weeks after running fights before the UEFA Cup final in Copenhagen, provide fresh reminders to the soccer world -- and more importantly FIFA's 24 Executive Committee members who will vote on the 2006 World Cup in Zurich July 5-6 -- that English soccer remains synonymous with fan violence. Sixty-four fans were arrested in Copenhagen before the UEFA Cup final between Arsenal and Turkey's Galatasaray in mid May and more than 850 were detained by Belgian police in Brussels and Charleroi during the European Championship with 56 people injured. It got so bad in Belgium that UEFA threatened to kick the England team out of the championship if the violence continued. Happily for the organizers and the citizens of Belgium, the English team was eliminated in the first round and the hooligans went home. But where, FIFA is entitled to ask, will they be if the World Cup were held in England? Organizers of England's bid, spearheaded by 1966 World Cup stars Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst, have spent more than two years fielding questions about the fan problem when they would much rather talk about the refurbished grounds and England's passion for the game. But the barrage of questions reflects the strong public doubts about putting soccer's premier event in the hands of a country that has such a foul image in terms of crowd behavior. Charlton, Hurst and campaign director Alec McGivan reiterate what the police, English Football Association and clubs have done to considerably reduce the amount of crowd violence back home. State-of-the-art TV surveillance at each ground backing up well-organized stewarding has ensured there is very little crowd trouble inside the grounds compared with, for example, Italy, Argentina or Brazil. But the violent minority are still active and tend to seek out each other away from the grounds. The police say they can identify several hundred known hooligans and have stopped most of them from traveling abroad. But they also admitted that most of those detailed in Belgium were unknown to them and that becomes another worry. "The reaction of UEFA to Charleroi could not have been more unhelpful," McGivan said. "Its very public announcement that England would be thrown out of Euro 2000 if there was any more trouble echoed around the world and, in my view, magnified the events out of all proportion. "What happened at Charleroi was unacceptable and I am not excusing it. As a nation we must come to terms with the measures that are necessary to expunge outbreaks of this nature. But I genuinely believe the events at Charleroi have little relevance to a World Cup staged in England in 2006. "It will be safe, secure, trouble free and enjoyable and I know this view is general accepted throughout the world," McGivan said. "The problems we have had in the past in this country have paradoxically made us the world leaders in crowd control and security." The hooligan problem remains England's biggest own goal while its strike force, in terms of positive points, appeared to be a strong one. Wembley, the so-called "venue of legends" will be demolished later this year after 77 years as the home of English soccer in which it staged the 1948 Olympics, 1966 World Cup and 1996 European Championship. By 2003 a new 90,000-seat Wembley will be on the same site and the bidders acknowledge it is the centerpiece of the bid. The World Cup committee say the bid itself won't cost a penny because the stadiums are being built or expanded anyway at total cost of US$10 billion as part of what they call "the rebirth of English soccer." Other grounds in place already with plans to expand are Old Trafford (Manchester, 67,000), Anfield (Liverpool, 50,000), Hillsborough (Sheffield, 48,000), Villa Park (Birmingham, 50,000), St. James' Park ( Newcastle, 52,000), Stadium of Light (Sunderland, 64,000), Stamford Bridge (London, 43,000), Goodison Park (Everton, 40,000), Elland Road (Leeds, 45,000), Riverside Stadium (Middlesbrough, 42,400), and Pride Park (Derby, 41,000). Planned are the 45,000 Arena 2000 at Coventry, Leicester City's 41,000 replacement for Filbert Street and the City of Manchester stadium (48,000), which is being built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The bidders say that means more than 750,000 seats are available in total. The infrastructure would seem to be England's strong point. That was until the technical report of FIFA's inspection committee was leaked to the media on Friday and had England behind South Africa and Germany. The triumphs of Manchester United and Chelsea in European competition, albeit two or more seasons ago, have raised the profile of English soccer in Europe, and the Premier League continues to be a magnet for some of the biggest stars in the game who mostly have good impressions about the standard. If the World Cup were to come to England in 2006, the Premier League and soccer in general should go from strength to strength because of the financial spinoffs. But would it give an even bigger stage for the violent minority? "Football hooliganism is an emotive issue and it may be, despite all our strenuous efforts .... that we will not be given the 2006 World Cup," McGivan said. "We have spent the four years of this campaign trying to do something of real value for the country. I think it would be a terrible indictment of our society if we let the hooligans win."
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