Partizan out of UC … what’s next?
By: Ian Rose | July 26th, 2007Another week, another European ejection for fan violence. All we need now is one from the Champions League and we’ll have the UEFA Trifecta of Shame, a feat not accomplished in modern football history. Sigh … let’s get down to the details.
I predicted … let me look … “a former Yugo derby that has to have some strong feelings surrounding it”. I now present myself with the award for understatement of the year. Serbian side Partizan Belgrade and Bosnians HŠK Zrinjski Mostar met on Thursday in a match that police had already deemed high-risk, and it, sadly, more than lived up to that expectation. Fans clashed almost from the beginning, and by the time it was over, 28 police officers were injured, one seriously. All indications are that the officer will recover, and hopefully this incident, unlike the one in Italy last February, will not lead to the death of one of the brave officers trying to keep the peace so that a football game could proceed.
Partizan won the match, 6-1, but because of their fans’ pathetic behavior, their European campaign is over, and a ban may well be coming. It would have been one of the performances of the round, a great victory, but now, the team goes home shamed and humiliated by the very “supporters” that should have been cheering its success.
For those of you interested in seeing it, here is video of the incident. I would say more about what a sad day this is for football, but it’s hardly an unusual day, and I will concentrate instead on being thankful that these nationalist idiots who destroyed their own team’s chances in Europe seemingly took no lives. At least we have that.
There are some nasty scenes in this video, but I think its important that we watch and realize how bad things can get when nationalism and the passion of football meet.
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Tags: Europe, Fan violence, First Qualifying Round, HŠK Zrinjski Mostar, Intertoto Cup, Nationalism and sport, Partizan Belgrade, Tournament News, UEFA CupSubscribe
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Comments
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Far as I’m concerned, nationalism and anything equals disaster.
Posted from
Canada
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Serbian fans are notorious for behaving this way of late. While they were banned from international sport for other attrocities (nationalist ethnic cleansing)they were off the radar but now they are back in full glory. There is no place for this type of behaviour and I applaude UEFA for its decision. If I am not mistaken Serbia’s first EURO 2008 qualifier was before an empty stadium because their fans can not be trusted.
Posted from
United States -
Yeah but partizan fans shouldnt be all to blame for this since the entire incident was organized prior to the game by nationalist croatians who new the partizan fans would react in this sort of manner. Even the police officers wore Ustashe arm bands which was the WW2 croatian version of the NAZI SS that massacred millions of inocennt serbs, jews and gypsies.
Posted from
United States -
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