Russian Soccer Brawl (video)

A few days ago, Brian wrote about the measures being taken in Germany to prevent soccer hooliganism at the next World Cup, namely, subjecting attendees to 26 hours of the ambient stylings of Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel. It's hard for us Americans to understand why such measures are being considered. When we riot at sports events, we don funny hats, tear down goal posts and shoot rubber bullets at each other. This video of a brawl between two Russian soccer clubs offers some perspective: download video [5MB wmv]. The two teams, Moscow's Spartak and Dinamo football clubs, march towards each other in a parking lot like Roman armies, before going at it with fists and flares. Look for the guy on fire at around the 1:55 mark. via fazed.

Comments

[Lonnie Bruner]

That is the most insane video I've seen in like three months. Thanks for making my Sunday morning.

LB

[ec brown]

Britain's Alan Clarke made a film "The Firm" 1988 where Gary Oldman leads a gang of soccer hooligans, but has amibitions for uniting with another gang to create a national coalition.

[Rufus J.]

Your analogy to Roman armies is spot-on, Ken. Maybe "Spartak" is Russian for "Spartacus," 'cause that's what came to my mind.

[poesboes]

Aren't we all animals... I've seen that photo of the little finger boy -bless him- before! He is a young Feyenoord fan. Feyenoord is a soccerclub in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The picture made it to the newspapers here.

[EUROPE IS SUPERIOR]

The main reasons Americans don't have brawls after games, is because they are all scared pussies, who only show "braveness" when they're in a super modern tank or a Stealth Bomber, attacking innocent countries.

[Blackmore]

Nah, European soccer fans are the real pussies, or I shall say western Europeans in general. Yeah, it takes real balls to sit back and let 250,000 people die in the Bosnia-Serb "incident", while the Danes were the only real men out there actually trying to stop the slaughter.

Anyhoo, one of the many reasons why American sports fan don't riot on the same level as the Europeans is 1) police have guns and 90% of them have never fired a gun in their career and just waiting for any excuse to shoot any idiot 2) Americans have guns and will not tolerate hooliganism and finally 3) most sports fan know it is just a game.

[riley]

this picture of this one kid fliping people is freaking great it is so cool i seet it aas my bakroung

omggg thats sooo cute!!!!