World Cup & European Racism

[Sidhe]

Every country, including America, has a standard-issue supply of idiots.

Football matches just seems to gather a lot of them up in the same place at the same time.

Actually it's the ringleaders that do the damage they bring a small minority of retards or "henchmen" with them and they use there influence to spread in some cases cleverly an anti other team message, this spreads and the other team react, chairs are thrown etc,etc. Suffice to say the retards are in a small minority of the crowd and are usually arrested, ring leaders are smart they do there damage and leave as if they are shadows, so as not to get caught, however cameras on fans in England caught a deal of these 'tardlords and put them on blacklists, this lead to the ringleaders being stopped at customs or at internal games, especially those who have criminal records. Unfortunately you lop of the head and a new henchman replaces the tardlord. There has been alot of success in ridding the sport of terminal losers, but it's an ongoing battle, this is one thing where America can honestly and justifiably look on and despair, because this sort of thing doesn't happen there, not that I've heard.

As always it's a small minority with the loudest voice, that cause the most trouble. It's a pattern in all walks of life.

 

[EdwardTking]

I've been to games where an English side were playing a Welsh side and their was alot of racist chanting directed at Welsh people. I've also seen many a football fan chanting songs about Germany which could be considered racist and most likely would offend if sung in Germany. So alot of English fans are racists, they just don't think they are

Well now that depends upon definitions of rascist.

If I referred to Welch defence as "Leeking" or shouted out "Harpoon
those Wales" most people would consider such derogatory comments
about the opposition as normal, but the PC would deem them rascist.

 

[ummmm........]

Tardlord is my new favorite word

Is that an established term or did Sidhe just coin it?

 

[Kyriakos]

There are, as has been said, low sub-cultures in every country. They form their suprastructure ( :marx: ) in the way that they can, depending on the specifics of their over-culture, and with a very epidermic understanding of it too. Hense it is to be expected that the british hooligans also have the fact that they are divided from the continent to think about, and this can make them have a false sense of identity, in opposition to a vague impression of 'the continent'.

 

[Zwelgje]

I think that one piece of the article explains the ongoings in stadiums best:

U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who plays for German club Borussia Mnchengladbach, says many taunts are aimed at getting opposing players angry and affecting their play. "You have to accept that it's going to happen," he says. "The truth is, it's going to happen to me."

I don't want to talk down the racism but I think the jungle noises made in the stadiums are more a cheap way of getting people on the field angry and by that playing worse.
2 examples come to my mind. First, there was the coach of a dutch team whose wife had died of cancer, in the next matches often songs were sung in which fun was made of this. Second, a player was involved in a car accident in which somebody else was killed, in the following matches he was often called a murderer when playing the ball.

All in all you gotta realize that many 'fans' are just the worst scum you'll find in Europe and saying that racism is very common in Europe based upon ongoings in a stadium during a match is just crazy.

Perhaps something else americans should realize is that in every match there are large groups of fans from both teams present. These groups of fans usually are responding to eachother both in violent clashes but also in songs they sing and sounds they make in the stadiums. Because two groups are present this usually escalates because they challenge eachother. From what I heard it's not very common in the US that fans of the visiting club are present (because of large distances), is this correct? Or are hardcore US fans of different clubs sitting next to eachother in stadiums without incident?

 

[ummmm........]

The home team in American football generally has the vast majority of fans at a game above the high school level. Visiting team fans are still present, but in smaller numbers (perhaps 10 to 1 in college, far fewer at the pro level). Neutral site games like the Super Bowl, college bowl games and certain college rivalry games are an exception, but generally the above is true.

Unsurprisingly then, "incidents" are much more likely at high school games. But it's still not anywhere near what you're describing. When something does happen, it's news, not the norm.

That's what so surprising. It's that the behavior is tolerated. If a crowd really got that out of hand at a US football game, play would be interrupted until control was re-established . . .

 

[warpus]

You can't just interrupt a soccer game. It's either disbanded or the clock keeps ticking.

 

[Winner]

I couldn't agree less. From this side of the pond, it seems more like many Europeans have a superiority complex, seeing themselves as cosmopolitan and enlightened and Americans as poor, benighted yokels.

Isn't that funny how both sides are trying to hide their inferiority complex under the cover of pretended superiority complex?

Europeans look at America with a little enviousness, seeing that America is now what they used to be. US economy is growing, US military is superior and Americans seem to be much more resolute and determined in dealing with world problems. That all is way too much for Europeans to admit. Instead, they play their own game - they're enlighted, living in eco-friendly, egalitarian and post-modern societies with low crime, social understanding and pure aversion for military solutions of any kind. Yeah, that's the ticket, the Americans are just uneducated, violent, arrogant yokels responsible for all the problems on this planet.

Americans on the other side look at Europe and many of them feel partially inferior because of the thousands years old European cultural heritage, vast cultural diversity among many nations, each with rich history, unique traditions and customs. The roots of America lies in Europe. But, much like Europeans, they cover this beneath the pretended superiority complex - Europeans are arrogant, weak, decadent, snobbish and unable to deal with their own problems, so they need mighty young and fresh Americans to save their asses all the time.

Isn't that crazy?

 

[Zardnaar]

Gotta go with the yanks on this one. I asked one of my German friends on how easy it is to pick up women in Germany. He said you're white you'll be fine and they would just about rape you at his university- the women outnumber the men and half the men are Asian/Turkish.