After seeing some of the footage from last weekends crowd trouble at the Geoffrey Guichard and the Dugauguez and obviously the tragic events in Italy I want to know what the the authorities that "look after" our game are doing about this worsening trend?!
It's not just France and Italy but there has been racist chanting in England, Scotland and Spain recently. I know there is pretty much always at least a couple of 'incidents' at footy matches across europe but it does seem to be more noticible these days!
If football is argued to be a reflection of society, one can argue that from a political perspective with the climate becoming ever more right wing in Europe, this was bound to happen. Although racist chanting at West Ham is never a surprise. With regards Italy, I think they need to get professional stewards in the stands watching the crowds.
In Italy, yes, perhaps professional stewards may help but they will more than likely be infiltrated by the ultras. Maybe Italian football needs a separate, somewhat uncorrupt governing body who, when it says will dish out fines and ban some of the ultras that display offensive banners etc. The clubs won't do this as, unfortuantly and kind of romantically at the same time, the fans are the ones that run the team.
Italy has a major problem and I think some other european countries aren't actually that far behind.
I read somewhere that ultra fans often dictate kick off times etc but at the same time do a lot of good work in the community, so its perhaps a difficult issue for the authorities to deal with. Although their attempts of late do seem rather half-hearted to say the least.
