UEFA levies fine on Man U & ROMA
Roma and Manchester United have been fined after crowd trouble at the Champions League quarter-final first leg tie at the Stadio Olimpico.
I don’t understand how a club can be held responsible if the fans behave badly. You can understand if there was a brawl between the players or the support staff. But supporters? What does UEFA expect Sir Alex to do? Go and plead to every supporter ‘Please dont retort to violence’ etc? Is he there to train the players or the supporters?
And even more interesting is this fine concept. Does UEFA take any step to reduce these violent clashes? They happily leave it to the hosting club and local police. All they do is play one anthem in the beginning. Apart from that what does UEFA do? The amount of fine is not a joke. Roma was fined 31,000 GBP and Man U 14,500 GBP. 4 such violent matches and UEFA’s bosses will be rubbing their hands in glee. Recently Inter Milan and Valencia were fined too (This was for the fight between the two club players). Where does all the money go?
Does it go to the parent body FIFA so that Sepp Blatter can make trips to places like India and say ‘India has a great potential. Its a sleeping giant’ so that it remains in headlines for few days, and everyone forgets about it till the next world cup? Doesn’t make sense to me. I really wish to know what UEFA or FIFA does to develop the game in the so called grassroots level? Isn’t it the local clubs that spend time and money in identifying and nurturing talent?
on 26 Apr 2007 at 11:01 am # LakshmiNarayanan
Its absolute stupidity……
on 26 Apr 2007 at 11:28 am # Maverick
Thats because all member associations and clubs are submissive to UEFA’s disciplinary powers. It is the local body which hosts the match and they are responsible for all security arrangements. If for some reason, a particular section of crowd goes violent, UEFA holds the member association responsible for it. The point of being held responsible for supporter’s behaviour might be debatable but nobody but the member associations can help control it. UEFA won’t have much control over these things and unless they have measures such as penalising the member club, it will be impossible for the clubs and their supporters to be controlled.
A classic example in cricket would be to cite the behaviour of Eden Gardens crowd for quite a few matches in the recent past. Unless you penalise them by not awarding them matches or imposing a financial penalty, CAB won’t take much serious action in controlling the unruly crowd. 1996 WC semis was the prime example when the match was awarded to Srilanka when it wasn’t even over (though we hardly had a chance, the match still wasn’t over by any means). So unless you hold the member associations responsible for safety and spectator behaviour, there is no other way UEFA would get a guarantee that the discipline would be maintained.
Penalties range from paying fines to playing matches behind closed doors (no ticket money which is bigger than these fines), deduction of points, awarding match by default.
UEFA as such is responsible for Europe’s soccer interests and is partly responsible for the growth of the game in the continent. So I am sure they are a body who contribute a lot to the game and i believe would publish their financials openly for everyone to see.
on 26 Apr 2007 at 11:57 am # F e r r a r i
LakshmiNarayanan,
Hmmm!
Maverick,
I agree on punishments. But a fine? Do these fines serve as any deterrent for the hooligans? How can Man U be responsible if the supporters indulge in violence? Clubs don’t have a choice right? I mean, how can they determine who their supporters are? At the end it is the club that suffers. These hooligans are just the same!
on 26 Apr 2007 at 12:08 pm # Maverick
Those fines might not deter those hooligans but it will make sure that the clubs control these hooligans in a better way the next time. The point about deciding who are the actual supporters are, I think they have a way of doing it through the UEFA match officials present on the stadium.
Another thing in this particular incident is, these English soccer fans are very notorious when they are travelling across Europe. They are much better off in their own country but when they travel across Europe, they show up for matches in a completely drunk state. The clubs would do well to educate them and have more stringent measures of not allowing completely drunk fans inside the stadium.
on 26 Apr 2007 at 12:13 pm # Maverick
Check this file for last year’s Champions League financials…
http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/405652.pdf
on 26 Apr 2007 at 12:19 pm # F e r r a r i
Maverick,
I hope they do some more with the help of local police to control the violence. It was too dirty in ROMA, and if am not wrong someone got killed in Paris last year or the year before!
on 26 Apr 2007 at 4:33 pm # Shhhhhh
Kofi… Nalla iruku.. and the sepia touch..
But the mug doesnt seem to go with all your posts.. 
on 26 Apr 2007 at 6:20 pm # sathya
your previous template in minimal white was very good.. why the sudden change?
on 26 Apr 2007 at 6:43 pm # Shhhhhh
let me reserve my comments till the trial runs stabilize..
on 26 Apr 2007 at 9:06 pm # swaychaa
http://swaycha.blogspot.com/
interesting one!
on 27 Apr 2007 at 8:54 am # Bindu
I love this template!! Beans!! Yummm!!
on 27 Apr 2007 at 1:23 pm # raj
And what if I , as a Chelsea supporter, organise a big band of hooligans to masquerade as Milan supporters, and create trouble. Would Chelsea be fined then? Ofcourse, I dont have the money but Roman sure does and I wonder if it is not a good idea - for example, in Cricket, our all-powerful BCCI can create a hooligan infrastructure whereby it will recruit Aussie, Paki, Lankan trouble makers and get them to riot in Stadiums so that India can be awarded those matches.
I am convinced - all we need for the 2011 WC is 15 such sets of hooligans from the 15 otehr participating countries. 15 are needed becuase you never know if India will lose to any of these 15. Then, depending on India’s draw, send the appropriate squad to the stadium and get them to riot and hurl abuse at Indian team and disrupt play - this would convince that the rioters are the opposite team supporters and ICC will award the match to India, Do it 11 times, and India would be champions!
on 27 Apr 2007 at 9:54 pm # Cricketer
I don’t agree with Maverick. Not a bit. Clubs are NOT the authority to enforce law and order. If someone should be fined, then it should be local police who did not arrest all the hooligans. It will be anarchy if clubs are given the power to enforce law and order. Then I will pay only for match tickets, no taxes!
on 27 Apr 2007 at 9:56 pm # Cricketer
Raj, don’t be so naive. You should have patented this idea and gifted it to Pawar or Dalmia. Now you have let it out in public domain and Ferrari’s blog is so famous that even Arabs read it before their first night as he was boasting (!) Pakis’ are already recruiting hooligans.
on 29 Apr 2007 at 9:49 am # raj
Do Pakis need to recruit any more hooligans in their team? Isnt it like their team is supposed to have murdered their coach and all?