Serious action must be taken to eradicate threat of violence in Spain
MADRID --
Spanish football has a problem. Sunday's sickening scenes in Madrid saw one 43-year-old man lose his life and many more injured as ultras clashed in a brutal battle down by the city's Manzanares river. For the rest of the world it was a shock, yet for those who live in Spain the issue is nothing new.
Around 200 so-called supporters of Atletico Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna traded blows close to the Estadio Vicente Calderon, with ultras from Rayo Vallecano, Alcorcon and Sporting Gijon also taking part in the fight as men attacked each other with weapons such as metal bars, knives and even explosives.
Two men ended up in the river and one, Galician Francisco Javier Taboada Romero (known to his friends as 'Jimmy'), died in hospital after being brutally beaten by members of the Frente Atletico group. Later, the two teams met at the Vicente Calderon in a match that should have been suspended but went ahead amid a tense atmosphere as Atletico won 2-0. Many, however, had not come for the football.
As in the United Kingdom when hooliganism was a huge problem back in the 1970s and 1980s, many in Spain see football as an excuse to push political agendas. Frente Atletico, the supporters' group involved in Sunday's bloody brawl, are known for a far right, fascist ideology, while their rivals in Sunday's scrap -- the Riazor Blues -- are an extreme-left organization.
A member of Frente Atletico was also responsible for the death of a Real Sociedad supporter in 1998, stabbing the fan after an argument began in a bar close to the Calderon. Aitor Zabaleta, a 28-year-old Basque, had been peacefully enjoying a drink with his girlfriend before the game until he was picked on by a radical group of Atleti fans.
In 2003, the Riazor Blues were guilty as a Deportivo fan lost his life ahead of a Galician derby against Santiago side Compostela. Manuel Rios, who was 31, had only been trying to stop a rival supporter from being attacked and suffered a cardiac arrest after he was kicked repeatedly by members of the group outside the stadium.
That led to the dissolution of Riazor Blues, who apologized for the violence, but the group returned to support Depor in its famous 4-1 win over AC Milan in the 2003-04 UEFA Champions League. Members of the group (and its more extreme faction, Los Suaves) were seen embracing former Deportivo president Cesar Augusto Lendoiro at the funeral of 'Jimmy' on Wednesday and the 69-year-old was immediately axed as Primera Division ambassador by LFP president Javier Tebas.
"In a moment in which we are condemning any act of violence and fighting hard against this, we cannot allow a representative of La Liga to be seen with these people," Tebas said.
In the meantime, the stand where the Riazor Blues watch home games at Riazor has been closed for two matches, while Atletico announced on Wednesday that Frente Atletico will no longer be recognized by the club as an official supporters' group. That same day, television station La Sexta was allowed access to a storage space belonging to the group inside the Calderon, which was shown to be filled with flags, banners and fascist symbols, including pro-Hitler graffiti.
But radical collectives exist all over Spain and every team in La Liga is represented by one such group. Sevilla's far-left Birris, founded in 1975, are the oldest, while Valencia's extreme-right radicals Ultra Yomus are also notorious and have been involved in several violent brawls with other groups in recent years.
Barcelona led the way in 2003 by exiling the Boixos Nois group of ultras from Camp Nou after years of violence and controversies. The Boixos Nois had begun as a group made up of left-leaning youngsters and Catalan nationalists but was joined by a wave of skinheads in the 1980s and later became more of a fascist organization. The group was banned by Joan Laporta as he took up the presidency in 2003.
Likewise the Ultras Sur at Real Madrid. The radical fans were praised by former coach Jose Mourinho as "the only ones who get behind the team" but were banned by president Florentino Perez earlier this year and are unlikely to be able to return after the events of last weekend. "Real Madrid are a good example of improving the situation with the ultras," Carlo Ancelotti said this week. "Just like Barcelona before them. It is important to condemn violence in football." And he added: "In England, there is no violence or insults."
That, however, has taken decades of dedication and work.
"When I was a professional, my mother saw me play only once," former Manchester City and Liverpool striker Michael Robinson (now a respected pundit in Spain) said this week. "Inside the stadium, not much happened but, arriving to the ground, after the game, at the train station, terrible things happened. I have lived this once already. I never imagined that I would be experiencing it again in Spanish society."
But it is happening. Insults are common, as Ancelotti said, while Lionel Messi was struck with a bottle thrown by fans at Valencia on Sunday and several supporters spat at Luis Enrique after Barcelona scored the winner at Mestalla. Racist chants, meanwhile, remain widespread.
"It is not a football problem, but a problem with society," Diego Simeone said this week, while Atleti president Enrique Cerezo added: "This has nothing to do with football."
Such views, however, will not help the issue to be solved.
"The argument is that these people have nothing to do with football," Robinson added on his video blog, "but they sing the songs, they wear the shirts and they wear the scarves so it has everything to do with football and everything to do with the clubs. We can't bury our heads in the sand because, if we do, this scourge could turn into a plague. If we can eradicate it now, we will save decades of problems."
Indeed. Spain is still a long way from experiencing the problems seen in England during the 1980s or in Italy or the Balkans in the modern day, but serious action must be taken to end the threat of violence in and around Spanish stadiums.
To achieve that, the LFP has devised a plan to eradicate ultrasin a period of 24 months. Spain's Professional Football League has called for the collaboration of all clubs to draw up sophisticated lists and databases of renowned troublemakers. They have also demanded a much more strict policy in terms of ticketing as well as police presence and the monitoring of how fans travel to matches.
The hard work starts now.
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