Comment: Soccer hooliganism: Time to employ new technology
Soccer hooliganism has made an unwelcome return to Zimbabwean football.
Fans, club officials and players in this country do not appear to get it. Hooliganism in whatever form is unacceptable.
But lately, a number of matches have been abandoned while fights have broken out between supporters of opposing teams.
On Wednesday, the match between Highlanders and FC Victoria at Barbourfields Stadium was abandoned towards the end of the first half after the visiting team protested a penalty awarded to the home team.
During the stoppage, an FC Victoria official claims that he was assaulted by Highlanders fans after he told his players not to continue with the match.
Highlanders last month also featured in another abandoned match against Dynamos at the same venue.
The abandonment of the matches centred on controversial penalties. Missiles were thrown onto the pitch in a league match between Highlanders and FC Victoria.
Hooliganism is a dark stain on football and the Premier Soccer League and the Zimbabwe Football Association must be brave enough to act decisively at this stage before lives are lost.
They should take a leaf from the Italian League, which ordered Juventus to play in an empty stadium last year following racist chants by their fans.
And in 2006 the Italian federation briefly put the season on hold and ordered clubs to play “in camera” after a policeman was clubbed to death during rioting in Sicily between rival fans of Catania and Palermo.
Soccer authorities in this country have failed in this area.
The lack of decorum and unseemly behaviour of senior club officials is emblematic of the sick state of our football.
They have been at the forefront of fuelling their fans and supporters by ordering players to walk off the pitch; or performing over-animated gestures to protest referees’ decisions.
This cancer is spreading fast. Fans are being primed to see every penalty decision as a dubious one. They are already in protest mode when they come to matches.
Over the years, football authorities in hotspots of hooliganism have worked hard to kill off the scourge. Security of fans and players has become a key vocation that requires planning and innovation.
Football intelligence and closed circuit television in particular have meant that incidents of violence inside stadiums are rare.
Clubs have combined this technology with the trained security personnel and stewards who come to stadiums to protect fans, property and players and not to watch soccer.
The use of technology in the modern game has also spread to referees who can communicate with their assistants through minute remote radio systems.
This has allowed assistant referees to give the man in the middle four extra eyes, which enables the ref to make instant decisions in the event of an offside, in awarding a penalty or punishing an off-the-ball incident.
At Barbourfields Stadium on Wednesday the ref’s delayed reaction in awarding the penalty after he had noticed his flagging assistant incensed the fans.
Modern communication instruments could have avoided this.
But our soccer administrators have continued to live in the past. How do we develop football on the back of poor officiating and hooliganism?
But lately, a number of matches have been abandoned while fights have broken out between supporters of opposing teams.
On Wednesday, the match between Highlanders and FC Victoria at Barbourfields Stadium was abandoned towards the end of the first half after the visiting team protested a penalty awarded to the home team.
During the stoppage, an FC Victoria official claims that he was assaulted by Highlanders fans after he told his players not to continue with the match.
Highlanders last month also featured in another abandoned match against Dynamos at the same venue.
The abandonment of the matches centred on controversial penalties. Missiles were thrown onto the pitch in a league match between Highlanders and FC Victoria.
Hooliganism is a dark stain on football and the Premier Soccer League and the Zimbabwe Football Association must be brave enough to act decisively at this stage before lives are lost.
They should take a leaf from the Italian League, which ordered Juventus to play in an empty stadium last year following racist chants by their fans.
And in 2006 the Italian federation briefly put the season on hold and ordered clubs to play “in camera” after a policeman was clubbed to death during rioting in Sicily between rival fans of Catania and Palermo.
Soccer authorities in this country have failed in this area.
The lack of decorum and unseemly behaviour of senior club officials is emblematic of the sick state of our football.
They have been at the forefront of fuelling their fans and supporters by ordering players to walk off the pitch; or performing over-animated gestures to protest referees’ decisions.
This cancer is spreading fast. Fans are being primed to see every penalty decision as a dubious one. They are already in protest mode when they come to matches.
Over the years, football authorities in hotspots of hooliganism have worked hard to kill off the scourge. Security of fans and players has become a key vocation that requires planning and innovation.
Football intelligence and closed circuit television in particular have meant that incidents of violence inside stadiums are rare.
Clubs have combined this technology with the trained security personnel and stewards who come to stadiums to protect fans, property and players and not to watch soccer.
The use of technology in the modern game has also spread to referees who can communicate with their assistants through minute remote radio systems.
This has allowed assistant referees to give the man in the middle four extra eyes, which enables the ref to make instant decisions in the event of an offside, in awarding a penalty or punishing an off-the-ball incident.
At Barbourfields Stadium on Wednesday the ref’s delayed reaction in awarding the penalty after he had noticed his flagging assistant incensed the fans.
Modern communication instruments could have avoided this.
But our soccer administrators have continued to live in the past. How do we develop football on the back of poor officiating and hooliganism?
