| Spiked- 4/3/07 by Eho Recently in international sporting news, the Greek government has suspended all team sports play until April 13th. The cause of this unconventional two-week national hiatus was a 300-fan brawl in which one man was stabbed to death as rioters attacked each other and police with clubs, stones, and knives. These kinds of brawls are not uncommon in the sports world. Soccer hooligans are commonly involved in stadium riots and brawling between opposing sides’ most belligerent fans (a.k.a. “firms” to those who know, or have seen the movie Green Street Hooligans). The interesting, nay, dumbfounding aspect about this deadly brawl is the fact that the sports match in question—after which the brawl appears to have been planned to take place—was a volleyball game. And more surprising still is that the athletes playing that day were women. That’s right: 300 people fought, and a man died, because of a dispute over a women’s volleyball game. To our American sensibilities (such as they may be), this seems absolutely ludicrous. And it is, obviously; no game is worth a human life. But we’ve seen this before, and though we’re sometimes surprised, or even appalled, at the news of a brawling death among sports fans, we know that this happens from time to time. But for someone to die over a sport played by women… the only conceivable stateside rioting over a women’s sport would probably come if the networks tried to air women’s basketball during the football playoffs (psh, like that will ever happen). I can’t even begin to think of the conditions that would be necessary to cause Americans to brawl over volleyball. The fact of the matter is that American sports rivalries are of a different breed from those abroad. In the U.S., sports teams are divided among the major cities. A few cities, like New York or Chicago, have more than one team belonging to the same league. Even still, Lalaland, for instance, doesn’t have a pro football team. This means that our sports rivalries, like the longstanding Redskins-Cowboys one, are generally cross-country affairs where the most devoted fans are the ones who might take a long weekend to fly down to Dallas for the next installment. Europe is different. But hell, we knew that. They’re smaller, more densely populated, more socialist, and more diplomatic. Depending on who you are, these are the continent’s advantages, or, if you’re pro-Bush, disadvantages. Regardless of personal viewpoints, we can all agree that European life is practiced much more locally than American life. Our homogenous suburban culture, along with the often huge distances between ourselves and the teams we watch on TV, keeps us somewhat estranged from the fanaticism and pride associated with the backing of a team that one feels a true connection with. European cities often have several teams competing in the same league, in the same city. Say you grow up in London. You live north of the river, near the center of the city. Living about a mile from Stamford Bridge, you are going to grow up a die-hard Chelsea fan. Arsenal, across the river in southeast London, is one of your biggest rivals, Throughout your whole life, you are going to be immersed in this conflict, with your friends, family, and the entire neighborhood reinforcing your allegiance, while strangers, mostly, but maybe some schoolmates as well, try to weaken your faith and crush your resolve. It is not hard to imagine how, with the solidarity created among the community and centered around these soccer teams, intra- city rivals might evolve into opposing pseudo-political entities, in the form of brawling blue-collar fans. The brawling fans in Athens were from rival teams, Olympiakos Piraeus and Panathinaikos. These are not just women’s volleyball teams, however. They are different suburbs of Athens, with rival teams in several sports, so it seems like the brawlers might have had more than volleyball on their minds. It has been suggested that the volleyball game was selected as the venue of choice because of the low police presence. Either way, the quarrelsome nature of European sports is a battle of localities and subcultures, ‘hood versus ’hood, something that this country equates only with inner city gangs, a consequence of drugs and guns. The bare equation that produces fan brawls and gang violence is the same wherever and whoever you are, and it applies to nations as well as people: with differences and passion come conflict and violence. |
Inside the Mind of Eho
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