Hooligans, go away

BUENOS AIRES (Martín Seldes' Brave New World) – A violent fight between two basketball clubs' supporters happened in the South of Argentina a couple of weeks ago but it seemed to be an isolated incident. And so, we let it be.

But the second time we had a violent incident in South American basketball, in Uruguay to be more precise, it was too much.

A woman was killed and several were injured when two groups of people started a fight with fire arms following a basketball game between Welcome and Cordon in Montevideo.

The reason why the fight started is absolutely uninteresting as whatever can make 30 people throw stones to each other, shoot two young guys and kill a woman just because she shouted from her apartment to stop breaking her car is not our problem.

It’s not our problem unless this is not an isolated incident or if any of the clubs are involved.

After last Friday's fight, the Uruguayan league stopped at least until January.

“On January 3rd, we will take the decision if the league starts up and it will depend on the commitment of every single club,” said Jorge Vázquez an important guy from the country’s Home Office.

The reason why the league could begin again next month as if nothing would have happened is the fact that it isn't something usual in Uruguayan basketball but seems to be an isolated incident the country.

One of our worries is that this happened twice in a month between Argentina and Uruguay. And the other worry is the fact that both clubs could be involved.

Football has always suffered violent episodes in these countries.

Please do not get confused. The fact that violence is around football doesn’t mean that going to a football game is dangerous. Normally, fights are just between hooligans. Normally but not always.

Violence still exists in football because hooligans are part of different organisations that have always been associated to the clubs.

And that is one of the conditions the Uruguayan government need to rule out before allowing a new jump-ball. They must confirm that Welcome or Cordon were not implicated with the fight. And so we hope.

One of the most common accusations is that people from clubs give tickets to some fans. Generally, that isn't a problem until a fight starts and people get harmed.

According to Cordon’s president statement, the club didn’t help the fans get the tickets for the game before they started the fight and, even more, he didn’t even see them that night.

“I’m still trying to find out if those who had the fire arms were Cordon’s fans”, said Juan Carlos Muiño.

Some international players left Uruguay after the shooting not because they were afraid of violence but because the clubs ended some of their contracts.

Everything seems too sad if we’re talking about basketball. That is why our first request is directed to hooligans: “get away from basketball”.

Martín Seldes

FIBA

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