The scenes of riot and mayhem in Istanbul after the end of season match between two of Turkey's top football teams are a deplorable echo of the outbreaks of violence in Egypt in February and April this year. What is it about football that makes some supporters behave so lawlessly? With one or two very rare exceptions, there are no riots at cricket matches. Rugby is a hard, contact sport with far more aggression and physical engagement than football, yet rugby fans do not go on the rampage after games, attacking and sometimes killing rival fans, assaulting policemen and turning over police vehicles and setting them on fire. This is what happened on Sunday in Istanbul when Galatasaray held its long-standing rival Fenerbahçe to a goalless draw and thus won the Turkish championship. Disappointed Fenerbahçe supporters stormed the pitch and threw flares and broken-up seating. Police had to protect Galatasaray players and match officials. The losing team's fans who had been watching the match on television elsewhere in Istanbul, also took to the streets. This disgusting behavior is unfortunately not something new in Turkey. When Galatasaray played another Istanbul-based rival Besiktas last November, its defender, Emmanuel Eboue, a black player who used to be with UK team Arsenal, was pelted with fruit and stones and had flares and sharpened coins thrown at him. The rottenness in Turkish football may go even deeper. An inquiry has just concluded that allegations of match-fixing are baseless. However many fans and sports commentators remain skeptical of the findings and believe that corruption has indeed invaded the sport. It was not so long ago that football violence was almost unknown in the Middle East and we looked with horror at the thuggery in British and German football. Europe still has its football violence but it has managed, after a tough struggle, to stem the very worst excesses. Maybe the Turkish and Egyptian football authorities should be following Europe's tactics. These were first of all to pinpoint the troublemakers, prosecute them and if they re-offended ban them from all football grounds, in some cases forever. However the sanctions went further. If the fans of any club were implicated in criminal conduct, the club itself was punished, either by a fine or worse from the point of view of supporters, by having points docked from its league score. Initial protests by club owners and fans at the unfairness of having the majority suffer because of the criminal acts of a few fans, were studiously ignored. So what happened was that the decent fans, who loved the game and hated violence, began to watch the terraces. Troublemakers were sometimes sorted out by their neighbors or otherwise reported to the police. Outside football stadia, where violence had also become commonplace, the real fans monitored the streets and supported the police when confrontation or violence broke out. The Europeans have also cracked down hard on misbehavior by players during the game, on the basis that their actions can inspire hooligan elements among fans. It has taken Europe the best part of 20 years, to get on top of this scandal. Football authorities here in the Middle East should be working now to enforce discipline and good behavior among regional teams and their fans. __
