Racing Fans Threaten Players
By: Jeremy | March 9th, 2009After the dismantling suffered over the weekend at the hands of Tigre (4-1) members of the Racing barra brava, Guardia Imperial (Imperial Guard) approached several players at practice on Monday and spoke with two of them for several minutes.
There were banners and graffiti in several areas visible to the players, with one of them promising “there is going to be enough bullets for everyone.” Another said “stay up or die” and there were a few more along those lines.
They made the “Thanks for sending us to the B. You’re horrible.” banner look positively friendly.
Seriously though, this crosses the line between fandom and criminality. Violence seems to be on the rise again in Argentine football, as the abandonment of Thursday’s match between Godoy Cruz and San Martin due to fan violence (that 800 or so police couldn’t control) attests.
Uruguay had to postpone their season indefinitely (ok a few weeks) to deal with fan violence. Is that what it is going to take in Argentina? Cancel a season? Or at least deduct points for violence or intimidation? Send the worst offending teams to the B? Or maybe start by arresting the leaders of the various barras that perpetrate these things? At least hand down some lifetime bans and keep the offenders far away from the stadium during matches and practice. Or exchange them for the MLS “barras”. That would kill two birds with one stone.
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Comments
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Its madness. But that’s what football is like in Argentina, and other parts of South America. The game is in fact more than a game to millions. Racing are a good case in point. I was in Argentina when they stayed up last season, and the sheer outpouring of emotion from fans, players, the media and everyone associated with the club was simply unreal. Amazing. It just means so much.
It almost becomes an albatross around the neck of the players. Clearly, you cannot condone them making threats against players etc, but I have to say fans out there are a different breed to here. They are just that – fanatic.
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