The images quickly reached Europe. The video of vandals throwing firecrackers on the lawn of Vila Belmiro, in Santos vs. Corinthians on Wednesday (21), is on British sites such as The Guardian and BBC. Scenes that contrast radically with the last time the club had been in international news – in homage to Pelé after his death.
Incidents of this type have been happening in Brazil for decades, but now they instantly travel the world, exporting the worst of our football and tarnishing the image so admired on this side of the ocean. Punishment of 30 days behind closed doors is too little when lives are put at risk. It’s not a fan protest, it’s a criminal act. And it still harms the women’s team, which will play without fans.
There are many questions.
How can someone get firecrackers into the stadium? What needs to happen? Is nothing tragic enough to bring about real change? Less than 24 hours later, vandals (I repeat the word because you can’t call it a fan) threw objects on the field in São Januário and there was violence around the stadium after Vasco’s defeat by Goiás. There is no frustration with results or with management that justifies such anger. Meanwhile, episodes continue to traumatize real fans, including children.
England, a model when it comes to audience experience, went through something similar, which always comes to mind when I think of examples from which Brazil could learn.
In the 1980s, English football was in decline, with hooliganism at its peak and lack of investment.
In 1985, 56 people died in a fire at Bradford City’s stadium. At Heysel Stadium, in Brussels (Belgium), 39 lost their lives in a clash between Liverpool hooligans and Juventus fans in the final of the competition that today is the Champions League. English clubs were banned from European competition for five years and Liverpool for six.
The English turning point came after the Hillsborough tragedy, the worst in the country’s sporting history. On 15 April 1989, in the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death by overcrowding at Sheffield Wednesday’s stadium – Steven Gerrard’s cousin among them – and 766 were injured.
These episodes had in common outdated stadiums and police concerned with combating violence instead of guaranteeing security, reacting and not preventing. Hillsborough was the last straw. The “general” were abolished and in stadiums of the first and second divisions fans started to watch the games seated. There was cultural change and the creation of new business models and a basis for the future Premier League.
Today, it’s easy to enter a stadium, you can be in your seat in five minutes, have a complete view of the field and go home without risk. The fans are the customers and the show is for them, not for the rioters. The atmosphere may not be the same and tickets are more expensive, but most agree that if that’s the price to pay for everyone’s safety, it’s worth it.
It gets tired of being alone in the debate that football is a reflection of society, not least because they all have good and bad sides. The difference is in who authorities and managers privilege in the sporting event. After years of education and punishment, the transformation in England is clear. English football has healed from its chronic illness.
And Brazil, which image do you want to continue passing on to the world? And, more importantly, for your own fan base?
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