Monday, April 6, 2009

Hooligans

If I thought the fans were poorly behaved last game, I hadn't seen anything yet. In the first of the two district semi-finals (in which we were not playing), there was a disputed call as time wound down, and a group of severely inebriated fans ran onto to pitch to protest. The mob grew until about 100 fans were running around on the field, and had taken the ball, threatened the refree, assaulted a policeman, and stopped the game in its tracks. I've seen bad fan behavior before, but this took the cake. My self-righteous indignation grew and my desire to try to control the situation got the best of me, and I ran onto the field to try to recover the ball, in the hope that if I did that, things would begin to settle down. I quickly learned that I'm completely powerless in the face of a mob. While nothing dangerous happened, I found myself in the middle of a screaming mob and I came close to getting into a fight - it was pointed out to me that mobs can be pretty dangerous, something which I'll do well to remember if that happens again. We couldn't even play our game, which was supposed to happen next, because the mob wouldn't leave the pitch and the referees wouldn't continue due to safety concerns.

I was, of course, extremely frustrated with the disorderly, dangerous behavior of fans, and disappointed that there is no system in place to punish them. There were only three policemen there, and one of them was himself involved in yelling at the referee. But I was also struck by my own self-righteousness and my need to try to control and fix every situation, even an angry mob, where I am clearly powerless. Never a dull moment..

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I burst out laughing as I read this line: "I quickly learned that I'm completely powerless in the face of a mob." Lovely irony.