'Angry' Manchester United fan kills four in bus attack, police say

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: CNN

A man "angered" by Manchester United's defeat to Barcelona in the final of the Champions League killed four people when he drove a minibus into a crowd celebrating the Spanish side's victory, police in Nigeria have told CNN.

Ten people were also injured in the incident in the town of Ogbo, where the driver was subsequently arrested, a Port Harcourt Police spokesperson said.
...
Meanwhile, more than 100 people were arrested in Barcelona city center in the early hours of Thursday morning following the Catalan team's 2-0 victory in Rome in the final of Europe's top club competition.

Police arrested 119 young people after violence flared at a special celebration party in Place de Catalunya near the Las Ramblas thoroughfare, while 238 people suffered minor injuries.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/football/05/29/nigeria.death.united.barcelona/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

---

Too many bloody football fans are still violent idiots, around the world.

[izquierdista]

1. You have it backwards

What's a violent idiot going to do with his spare time? Watch football.

[AngryAmish]

2. Ban soccer

[VWolf]

5. Over my dead body.

You've got about 1 billion people worldwide watching the CL final. Something was bound to happen somewhere.

[LeftishBrit]

23. Then the thugs will just find another excuse

If all games were banned except chess, you'd get chess hooligans.

[Odin2005]

3. I don't get soccer hooliganism.

I don't see this sports fans doing that crap here in the US.

[VWolf]

6. To be fair, this wasn't hooliganism

This was a sicko with a minibus.

[Mopar151]

8. What's our current ratio of burned cars

To NBA championships? How about the brawling around Texas HS football?

[gratuitous]

9. Well, except for the aftermath of practically every major sporting event

Riots in the winning city seem to be de rigeur. I still remember the story of the young woman killed in Boston after the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 2004. It isn't usually anger that drives the mayhem and destruction following a big sports game in the U.S., but alcohol-fueled exuberance that goes sour some time during the night's revels.

[Codeine]

12. Go to a Raiders game sometime.

Or hang out in LA after the Lakers win an NBA final. Alcohol + euphoria + the tribalism of sport and you're bound to have a few problems.

Considering the number of people worldwide that followed the CL Final so closely I think it"s a tribute that so few incidents occurred.

[Exultant Democracy]

19. Sports hooliganism has a long and colorful history including plenty in the US, in fact

the Byzantium Empire experienced a serious crisis when violent sports hooligans rioted for days bringing the city to a stop.

[finisterre531]

20. Watch the Special on HBO

How H.S. football and Basketball stars are killed by angry fans

[WildEyedLiberal]

24. The US has gangs; Europe has football hooligans

Football is just the surface excuse for angry, directionless idiots to band together and start anarchy.

I realized how similar it was when a lot of pubs I went to in the UK banned "football colors" much like a lot of places here ban gang colors.

[crim son]

4. I think in the first sentence, the quotations marks should be around the word "man"

and not "angered."

[slackmaster]

7. Clearly the only rational solution is to ban minibuses

Nobody needs to drive a minibus.

[oldironside]

10. Ban minibuses?

The answer is to ban Manchester United. Then, those sad, inadequate individuals looking for friends would have to face up to the fact that they are sad, inadequate individuals looking for friends.

West Ham till I die, but I don't want anyone else to die to prove it. :-)

[depakid]

11. What is it with football hooligans?

Are there any studies on the phenomena?

[Codeine]

13. This wasn't hooliganism at all

Hoolies are gangs of fans who beat on other hoolies; it's very structured and rarely involves non-hooligans at all.

[depakid]

14. Maybe not, but my bet is that it stems from the same source

[Sultana]

15. FUCKING SCUM!

:o

As a Man Utd supporter, you win some, you lose some. There's no need to kill ppl over it, just suck it up and move on.

Absolutely disgusting, idiots STOP ruining the beautiful game. :grr:

[Codeine]

16. They haven't ruined anything

any more than Raiders fans ruin football, rioting fans burning cars ruin basketball, or fighting players ruin hockey. It has nothing whatever to do with the sport.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. It ruined it in the 80s; English clubs were banned from European competition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/2/newsid_2494000/2494963.stm

and as the sidebar notes, there's been trouble up to 2000.

[LeftishBrit]

22. No but they've interfered with the right of genuine fans to enjoy the game in peace

and sometimes with the right of British teams to compete in places that don't want to get the thugs. The football hooligans are a big long-term pain in the arse over here.

[WildEyedLiberal]

25. I remember last year when Man Utd and Chelsea were in the CL final in Moscow

Russia banned a couple dozen well-known shit-stirring British hooligans from traveling to the game; I think they were ordered to surrender their passports to the government for the week prior to the game. Their mothers must be proud that they've achieved international notoriety for their hooliganism :crazy:

[T_i_B]

29. Yep, hoolies are a pain in the arse

When I go to the football I like being able to mingle with the opposing fans before (and possibly after) the game, have a bit of banter and a laugh.

I'm not interested in being part of a big gang who cause trouble for everyone else.

[T_i_B]

28. "you win some, you lose some"

That's not the attitude of your average Man U fan.

Man U fans tend to support Man U mainly on the basis that they win almost all the time. They are world famous glory hunters.

Mind you, Man U fans aren't big hoolies these days. In fact they aren't even seen as being all that passionate.

[Bombero1956]

18. say what you will about Nascar

but you never see this crap after any race. Sure there may be a few rowdy fans at the track but they are dealt with by security or police. I challenge anyone to find an instance of some Jeff Gordon fan killing a fan of Tony Stewart or any other driver. This stuff only happens with stick and ball sports.

[Mopar151]

26. I'm amazed we do so well - maybe tradition helps.

Even these days, the only incedent(s) I hear about involve disagreements about dead presidents - either about those ol' boys at the strip bettin' too many Franklin's on the Big Dog 8, or somebody's "funding" issues spilling over into their racin' life.

And then there's the argument that racer's are the kind of guys who finish fights, not the kind who start 'em. The flagman maybe useta be Golden Gloves, The NASCAR inspector is an off-duty state cop, and the track champ's ManMountain Joe the pitman brought his kids tonight for the fireworks. That's how it went where I grew up.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Disgusting

There are too many people in the world who seem to NEED something to be violent about. Gangsters without a gang; terrorists without an ideology.

[Mopar151]

30. True as a fact, that n/t

[rabs]

27. There is a very famous quote about the passion football generates around the world

Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly’s comment: “Football is never a matter of life and death, it’s much more important than that”, may have been tongue in cheek, but over the course of the last 100 years, his statement has a distinctly uneasy ring of truth about it.

----------------------------------


Colombian defender Andres Escobar

I was at a match between Netherlands and Ireland in 1994 in Orlando when the World Cup was held in several cities in the United States. Before the game began, the 70,000-plus fans were asked to stand in silence and prayer for one minute for Andres Escobar, a Colombian footballer who had been assassinated days before in Medellin.

Escobar had scored an own-goal enabling the United States to advance and eliminating Colombia.

Video of the goal that cost Escobar his life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUW8wFOytiY



(From Wiki)

Escobar was a defender for Colombia in the FIFA World Cup in 1990 and 1994. His jersey number was 2, and was known by the nicknames "El Caballero del Futbol" ("The Gentleman of Football" or "Football's Knight") and "The Immortal Number 2". In his club career, he played for Medellín side Atlético Nacional and Swiss side Young Boys Bern. He scored his only regular international goal in a 1–1 draw against England at Wembley in 1988.

Escobar's infamous own goal occurred in a match against the United States on 22 June during the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Stretching to cut out a cross from U.S. midfielder John Harkes, he deflected the ball into his own net in the second match of Group A. The USA won the game 2–1, and as a result, Colombia was eliminated from the tournament in the first round.


Death
On July 2, 1994, Escobar was shot outside "El Indio" bar, located in a Medellín suburb. According to Escobar's girlfriend, the killer shouted "Gooooooooooooool!" (mimicking South American sporting commentators for their calls after a goal is scored) for each of the 12 bullets fired.

The murder was widely believed to be a punishment for the own goal.<1> It is not clear whether the murderer was one of the gambling syndicates who had bet large amounts of money on Colombia to qualify for the second round.


Murderer
Humberto Muñoz Castro was found guilty of Escobar's murder in June 1995 and sentenced to 43 years in prison. Muñoz had been working as a bodyguard.

The sentence was later reduced to 26 years due to his submitting to the ruling penal code in 2001. Muñoz was released on good behavior due to further reductions from prison work and study in 2005 after serving approximately 11 years, in a controversial move