Football is a sport that evokes passion, emotion and sometimes even madness among fans. Football fans around the world are known for their aggressive antics. One of the most recent occurred in Italy, where fans of a football team set fire to their rivals’ stadium.
Italian fans vandalized stadium after defeat
On August 3, the season in the third division, Serie C, started in Italy. In the first round, the Taranto stadium, where the team of the same name plays, hosted guests from Foggia. The game ended in victory for Taranto with a score of 2:0.
Approximately 250 Foggia fans were only able to enter the arena midway through the second half due to an accident. Once in the stands, they immediately began throwing pyrotechnics. And a fire started: a smoke bomb probably hit the plastic materials under the stands.
When firefighters arrived at the arena, visiting fans threw stones at them. Firefighters extinguished the fire throughout the night and did not allow the flames to spread to the central stand. No one was injured in the fire, but the guest sector was declared unsuitable, so matches at the stadium cannot be temporarily held.
Unfortunately, this is not the only fan outrage in football history. We’ve picked out a few notable examples that show just how crazy fans can get when they worry about their favorite team.
Riots after the Russia-Japan match
This happened in 2002, when Russia performed unsuccessfully in the group stage of the World Championship in Japan and Korea. Due to the difference in time zones, the games were shown during the day, and a mass viewing was held in the center of Moscow. After Russia lost to Japan with a score of 0:1, fans started serious riots — right in the center of Moscow.
They overturned and burned cars, smashed the windows of fashion boutiques and even damaged the State Duma building. The result of the riots: 1 person died, 75 were injured. Many people cite the reason for the free sale of alcohol near the fan zone, because most of the hooligans were drunk.
Fans on the field in the match “Zenit” — “Dynamo”
This incident occurred on May 11, 2014 in St. Petersburg. In the 86th minute, with the score 2:4 in favor of the guests, Zenit fans ran onto the field and disrupted the match.
One of the fans, nicknamed Gulliver, hit Russian national team player Vladimir Granat in the face. Later, the offender surrendered to the police, but did not suffer serious punishment.
Zenit was punished with a technical defeat, a large fine, and holding two home matches without fans, as well as three matches with a closed fan section.
A fan killed a football player who scored a goal
Perhaps the most terrible incident occurred in Colombia on July 2, 1994. It was a consequence of the national team losing the match on June 2 — with a score of 1:2 against the US team. In the match, Colombian national team defender Andres Escobar cut the ball into his own goal in a match against the US team.
Colombia was eliminated from the tournament. 6 days after the national team arrived home, Andres, who was called “the darling of Colombia,” was killed. The accused turned out to be a fan of Humberto Muñoz Castro, who, in his own words, killed the football player as a result of an emotional outburst.
Fans beat their own team players
In 2010, fans of the Serbian national football team beat their team goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic before a Euro 2012 qualifying match against Italy. Fans attacked the Serbian national team bus, several players tried to protect Stojkovic, but the fans managed to beat the goalkeeper. Stojkovic was taken to the Genoa hospital, and Zeljko Brkic came on the field instead.
Stojkovic played unsuccessfully in the previous Euro 2012 qualifying match against Estonia (1:3). In addition, in August of this year he moved from the Red Star club to Partizan — to a principle rival. This was probably the reason for the attack, as Stojkovic received threats from Red Star fans.
A similar incident occurred in 2017, when in the 11th round of the Polish championship Legia lost heavily to Lech (0:3). After the match, the Legia players walked out to the parked bus and saw that about 50 fans were waiting for them. They asked the players to go outside to talk, after which they began beating them right in the parking lot. Fans hit the players on the back of their heads and slapped them in the face.
Later, the ultras of the club from Warsaw commented on what happened: “If you play like this, we will come again.” And it happened: in 2021, fans again beat Legia players when they were unhappy with the results.
Fans at the Spartak base with a pistol
In Russia, football fans also come to the clubs’ bases to talk to the players about poor results. This often happens at Spartak Moscow. Irishman Aiden McGeady recalled that skinhead ultras with weapons came to the base:
“Six or seven people came. The leader, who looked like an ordinary guy, took the floor, and the rest all had skinheads and tattoos everywhere. He was angry, but said quite politely: “We must improve, we always support you, but other results are needed.” And next to him stood a guy who cursed in Russian and pointed at the Brazilians.
This was after we suffered a crushing defeat to Porto with a 2:10 aggregate score. One fan told Welliton: “If I see you again in a nightclub after such a defeat, I’ll smash your head.” I didn’t understand what was happening.
This guy kept yelling and swearing, and then they all started cheering us on: “Listen, guys, we just want you to do well. Good luck in the next game. We will be with you.” After that, they moved towards the exit, and I noticed that in the back pockets of their jeans everyone had pistols. How did they even let them into the base with pistols? It was very strange.”