Football violence S America’s interminable problem

MONTEVIDEO: Argentina’s problems with football hooliganism were thrown into the spotlight by the postponement of the historic Copa Libertadores final between Buenos Aires arch rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors.

The match had to be postponed twice after River fans attacked the Boca team bus, and the South American football federation ultimately chose to relocate it to Spain.

But this phenomenon is not confined to just one country in South America, where several others also wrestle with the scourge of football-related thuggery. It’s a blight that has left hundreds of people dead and which transcends local rivalries and street brawls among fans, into organized crime and corruption facilitated by politicians.

“In Argentina, people tend to think that football violence is monopolized by the Barras bravas” organized hooligan groups, said sociologist Diego Murzi. The member of the Let’s Save Football (Salvemos al Futbol) charity told AFP that “what is overlooked is that in Argentina there is a football culture in which violence is (seen as) legitimate, and not just by the hooligans, but by all the sectors that participate.” Even so, football violence is fed by illicit businesses run by hooligan organizations.

In Paraguay, “behind the violent fans there are drugs, prostitution” and business relations between them and “both sporting and political leaders,” said Eugenio Ocampos, an expert at the Paraguayan public ministry. Football hooligans in Argentina are deeply ingrained in the myriad of money-making businesses that operate around football matches. Hooligan groups use their criminal connections “to obtain benefits in the resale of tickets, control of parking, food stalls within stadiums, participation in political and union activities, and activities in the world of crime,” said Murzi. In Colombian, the hooligan groups are even involved in money laundering. “The fans operate underground where they can move certain funds that allow them to keep themselves going, both with legal and illegal businesses,” sociologist John Alexander Castro, a football violence expert at Colombia’s national university, told AFP.

Those groups organize sports events, arrange the sale and distribution of replica jerseys, and also sell drugs. The phenomenon is slightly different in Brazil, where the “groups linked to organized crime and drug trafficking infiltrate organized supporter groups,” said Mauricio Murad, author of a book on football violence. He told AFP that the organized criminals are the ones who provoke fans into committing acts of violence.

Unlike the Argentine groups, these criminals “have no relation with the clubs but join the supporters groups as fans so that they can sell drugs and weapons.”