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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Focus Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'A disgrace to their country'
Compiled from wire servicesThe first week went almost free of incidents. The same could hardly be said for week No 2. Hooliganism before and after the England-Germany clash in Euro 2000 not only left the Belgium cities of Brussels and Charleroi smoking, UEFA threatened to kick England out of the championship if its fans ran amok again. And the violence had another, wider impact: determining the host country for the 2006 World Cup.
Police detained 450 brawling and rioting fans in the build-up to the championship's showpiece match between England and Germany. Several people were injured in a day of sporadic violence, none seriously.
On Sunday, English fans, pumped up over the tense 1-0 victory of their team, threw bottles at police as they poured out of the stadium and smashed windows and a McDonald's in the industrial Belgian town of Charleroi. In Brussels, hours after the match, police fired tear gas to disperse one large group of dozens of English fans in the downtown area near the stock exchange. The English fans apparently had returned from Charleroi and appeared to instigate fights with local residents.
Even during the match, ticketless England supporters stormed through bars and cafes, venting their frustration at failing to get into the game.
The clashes renewed a battle that had begun in Charleroi earlier in the day when supporters of the two old rivals went at each other with plastic furniture from the town's cafes.
Police fired water cannons and started rounding up fans well before the crucial match began. Another 28 Britons were detained for drinking and rowdiness in Brussels, the Belgian capital 50 kilometres from Charleroi, where hooligans had run amok the previous evening.
By Sunday morning, Charleroi's main square was crowded with 2,000 drinking fans. Officers moved in to effectively partition the square into German and English zones as thousands more fans reached the city. German fans shouted "Deutschland, Deutschland." English fans retorted with "Rule Britannia," and riot police tried to keep them apart.
Police put their zero tolerance policy immediately in action when the first fight broke out. Jet hoses from tank-like vehicles doused the hotheaded, drunken visitors. Tables, chairs and garbage were hurled across the square in both directions, even while the water cannon swept some fans off their feet and washed them into side streets, followed by officers on horseback.
In 24 hours, Belgian police had hauled off more than 850 people in the two cities, and had begun shipping them back home in batches of 40 aboard Belgian military aircraft.
Alan Shearer (R) fights for the ball with German midfielder Diemar Hamann during their Euro 2000 group A match between England and Germany; German supporters clash with Belgian police in Charleroi (photos: AFP)
The first fans were deported back to Britain on Saturday. English fans flown to Manchester, England, complained the Belgian police had used excessive force and made indiscriminate arrests. But Home Affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said in London that "the Belgian authorities have our full support in being as tough as necessary on the English visitors who are behaving not like fans but like hooligans." He added: "England football fans are sick to the back teeth of our fellow-countrymen."
Sky television reported from Charleroi that a Turk had attacked an English fan with a knife in a central square. It said the fan had been badly hurt and had been taken to hospital. Police had feared trouble between England fans and Turkish supporters following the fatal stabbing of two Leeds fans in Istanbul in April. Charleroi has a significant local Turkish community.
In a statement announced by UEFA, Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner threatened to throw England out of Euro 2000 if its fans continue their violence.
"The UEFA Executive Committee has today called on the UK government and the FA London to take the necessary steps to stop English hooligans from travelling abroad," the statement said. "Following the violence in Brussels and Charleroi, the UEFA executive committee stated that these English hooligans are a disgrace to their country and a blight on the national team. The action over the last 48 hours have left a scar on the tournament and left us wondering why more was not done to prevent them from travelling.
"The scenes in the last two days cannot be allowed to continue," the statement added. "Euro 2000 is a celebration of European football, not an excuse for a small minority of English fans to cause havoc.
"UEFA will have to determine whether the presence of the English national team at this tournament may be maintained should there be a repetition of similar incidents."
The English Football Association (FA) reacted to UEFA's threat by issuing a statement, read at a news conference by Executive Director David Davies.
"The FA takes today's statement by UEFA very seriously indeed. Let us be absolutely clear straight away. We condemn utterly and without reservation the actions of thugs and criminals we have seen on our television sets, and some of you have seen in person, in Brussels and in Charleroi. We know the British government shares in that condemnation.
"As far as the FA is concerned, it is public knowledge that we called for emergency legislation to remove passports from potential troublemakers.
"We are bound to point out then that all the evidence available suggests that the vast majority of those causing trouble in Belgium this weekend were not previously known to the authorities.
"We have restricted the sale of tickets to members of the England Members' Club, all of whom are subject to official vetting," the FA statement said.
The rival bids by England and Germany for the World Cup, soccer's showpiece event, may have been dealt a fatal blow by the violence of their hooligan fans. The fighting could be a major boost to the bids of South Africa, Brazil and Morocco when FIFA decides next month on the 2006 host. England seems the biggest loser.
The events in Brussels and Charleroi can only have harmed England's bid. The same could apply to the Germans. The 24 FIFA members who will vote in Zurich on 5 July will recall that it was German fans who left a French policeman in a coma after an attack at Lens at the 1998 World Cup. Both England and Germany have notorious reputations for fan violence and the latest trouble less than three weeks before the vote can do nothing but help the other three bids, despite the street crime and violence associated with cities in Brazil and South Africa. Morocco, which does not have a reputation for violence, is still the outsider because it doesn't have the same soccer infrastructure compared with England, Germany and Brazil. South Africa appears the front runner.
About the game that triggered all the violence, England beat Germany for the first time in a major tournament since 1966 with a goal by English captain Alan Shearer seven minutes into the second half. David Beckham earned a free-kick on the England right and swung a dangerous ball into the box. Michael Owen failed to connect but the ball bounced kindly for Shearer who headed back across Oliver Kahn to give England the lead and the victory.
"We deserved to get a tie and maybe even win, but we lost and it hurts, not because we lost to England, but because we cannot now reach second place on our own," said coach Erich Ribbeck. When Ribbeck, 63, took the helm two years ago, he recalled Lothar Matthus and decided to build his European championship team around the veteran libero. Ribbeck's plan failed miserably. At 39 and playing in the United States now with the MetroStars, Matthus was a pale shadow of his old self. A nagging thigh injury reduced his fitness and the veteran had to endure harsh criticism from home.
Ribbeck never enjoyed unlimited authority in the team and it became clear during the championship that many players did not think highly of the coach. A majority of players also resented that Matthus had a designated place as a starter.
The three-time champion now faces the unthinkable: failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. England is again in its qualifying group and Germany may need some years to rebuild the national team. "We haven't been playing exactly great soccer over the past two years," said Kahn, who became the captain after striker Oliver Bierhoff's tournament-ending injury. "We don't have the quality and the players at the moment and we have to accept it. We are going through a drought. We have to be honest, we simply don't have quality players with whom we can look forward to the future," Kahn said. "We are at the point where the younger players need to mature and gain experience. In two years it could look differently, perhaps," the goalkeeper said.
Defender Jens Nowotny also said Germany did not have 22 quality players. "We are not going to be so dominant as in the past two decades," said Nowotny, who along with Kahn is sure to be one of the leaders of the future German team.
One could have bet there would be scathing if not downright brutal media attacks against the German team following its loss to England. But nothing of the sort. The reaction was mild, resigned, sometimes even surprisingly positive. "Too bad that we lost despite this super fight. Boys, Germany is crying alongside you," wrote the Bild am Sonntag, one of the most influential tabloids. Apparently the public and country's soccer experts had already feared the worst. "The German team did what was expected, namely showed a willingness to fight and perform," said Guenter Netzer, a member of Germany's 1972 Euro champions and the country's most respected television commentator. "But the main point -- and this has been the problem of German football for two years -- we don't have the skills any more to outplay a team like England. But you also have to say the Germans didn't have any luck."
"We have to recognise that we no longer belong to the great soccer nations. Now we have to rebuild," said Jupp Derwal, who coached Germany's 1980 Euro champions.
