this sht doesn't happen in cycling

[bironi]

Dutch Soccer Fans Vandalize Rome's La Barcaccia Fountain : The Two-Way : NPR

Pretty damn disgusting.

[Mr B]

I hate professional soccer. About 0.005% of its fans actually play football, and the fanaticism it fuels is pathetic.

[Nierman]

The Dutch are among the happiest people in the world.

[abbeyQ]

I hate professional soccer. About 0.005% of its fans actually play football, and the fanaticism it fuels is pathetic.

Not really sure what that has to do with anything.

[David Tollefson]

I hate professional soccer. About 0.005% of its fans actually play football, and the fanaticism it fuels is pathetic.

And how many of the rabid fans of American Football, basketball, of baseball actually play the game?

[Saab2000]

I'm not always a big cheerleader of US things and all, but I've been to sporting events in the US (Packer games in particular) and the fans are good natured and there to have a good time. There's no violence.

I went to a soccer/football match in France once and it was kind of an ugly scene. And I had the feeling it was always like that, except when it was worse. Lots of drinking, fights, projectiles, and people with aerosol cans using them as flame throwers.

US sports tend to be more well behaved.

[Mr B]

Not really sure what that has to do with anything.

Having grown up in England, and seen what soccer-related territorialism actually does to people, everything.
It's moronic.
By all means cheer your team on from the sidelines or your couch, but don't let the media manipulate you into thinking this stuff really genuinely matters.
At grassroots level, team ball sports are awesome. A great part of life, a positive thing to be involved in. If a stray football rolls towards me, I kick it back (and enjoy it).
As soon as it gets to cable-tv-contracts levels of 'professionalism', it all goes to hell. Sorry for the rant, but I feel quite strongly about this. Money and fame seem to ruin everything where team ball sports are concerned.
Fans are treated like brainless cattle, fed overpriced merch and bullied by the media into worshipping the players (who, as they prove time and again, aren't worth the steam off your piss).
I don't know what it is about male team ball-sports, but violence seems to be a constant.
Whether it's star players raping and beating others or fans kicking seven shades of shit out of each other, there's an atmosphere the likes of which I've never seen in Cycling, Motorsport or Track & Field Athletics.

[rabo]

Football as the pressure valve of society?
Disgusting, but in the bigger picture, nobody died.
In the same 3 days 300 people in the US died through firearms according to the statistics.

[joosttx]

I hate very few things. But Feyenoord fans are one. Feyenoord fans are punks. Dudes would wear Stars of David necklaces and slur out their best anti semitic English phrases while on trains at least when I was around.

I was thrown off a train in Holland going after 4 of these punks. I was lucky I was not thrown in jail or out of the country or beaten to death. Only creatures lower than a Feyenoord fan are child molesters and water moccasins.

[gravity]

Sorry to interrupt but this should be on OT..

[Matthew Strongin]

Sorry to interrupt but this should be on OT..

Good catch.

[bironi]

I'm just a bad boy trouble maker. I can't help it.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm just a bad boy trouble maker. I can't help it.

Forum hooligan, it seems.

[the bottle ride]

I hate very few things. But Feyenoord fans are one. Feyenoord fans are punks. Dudes would wear Stars of David necklaces and slur out their best anti semitic English phrases while on trains at least when I was around.

I was thrown off a train in Holland going after 4 of these punks. I was lucky I was not thrown in jail or out of the country or beaten to death. Only creatures lower than a Feyenoord fan are child molesters and water moccasins.

I go so far as to ask every Dutch person I meet whethere they are Ajax or Feyenoord- Ajax is always a friend.

[quickag]

It's important to remember that these were Feyonoord fans...one of the worst fan bases in the world...in Rome...home to the worst fans in the world (I guess you could argue for Gala or Sparta Prague, but you're splitting hairs at this point).

I'd counter this with .

[monadnocky]

It's important to remember that these were Feyonoord fans...one of the worst fan bases in the world...in Rome...home to the worst fans in the world (I guess you could argue for Gala or Sparta Prague, but you're splitting hairs at this point).

I'd counter this with .

Remarkable.