If you see the same results I'm seeing, the entire page is filled with news about a stadium ban, fans, and a Champions League game. Here's what happened:
CSKA Moscow, as you probably picked up on, is a Russian team based in Moscow. They are one of the best Russian teams, and make it into the Champions League every year. They were put into a group (of death) with Manchester City from England, Bayern Munich from Germany, and Roma, from Italy. They played their second group stage game (each team plays each other twice) in Russia against Bayern last Tuesday, the 30th.
They played in an empty stadium.
CSKA played their first game in Rome, and lost 5-1. The result was big, but it was unfortunately marred by the actions of the CSKA fans.
The away CSKA fans.
Roma is not a club whose fans are known to be peaceful, as there have been multiple incidents of violence in Rome. However, this incident is the CSKA fans'.
Last year, Manchester City played in Russia, against the same team, and their star midfielder Yaya Toure was racially abused the entire game with monkey chants. UEFA hit CSKA with a fine and a stadium ban that is taking affect this year on a home game.
It started when Roma scored, and CSKA fans threw 10 flares at once over at the Roma fans. The fans were separated by a perspex barrier and stadium guards on each side. When the Roma fans threw the flares back, the CSKA fans charged the stewards and started a fight. Then riot police were called in, and the fans picked fights with them too.
They also showed "far-right" banners in their section of the stadium, another word for neo-facist and racist.
I found a link that gives a good depiction of what happened that day at the stadium - http://tinyurl.com/kxoqd7w - which shows mobs of these away fans fighting anyone they see, such as police, stewards, and opposing fans.
The combination of the ridiculous behavior by their fans in this game and the ridiculous behavior of their fans last year resulted in UEFA essentially saying "we've had enough of you," and banning CSKA from selling tickets to fans to the rest of their away games, along with a $268,000 fine, and, the kicker (no pun intended), the rest of their home games will be in empty stadiums.
This is the most extreme use of power by UEFA as of yet, but it is the only thing to do. The shameful thing is that it took riots inside an away stadium against police for UEFA to actually do this. This is something UEFA needs to do more often, because news of racist chants and hooliganism getting out of hand is getting closer and closer together, and more and more severe.
Soccer as a sport needs to get this together, and as hard as it may be, get this under control. It isn't good for anyone for a team to play in an empty stadium, but what choice do you have when the team's fans are so awful?
It's a disappointment to the sport that they need to resort to this, but they need to use this power more often so that this problem dissipates.
No comments:
Post a Comment