Fans of Rio de Janeiro»s Vasco da Gama attack a fan of Parana»s Atletico PR, during a Brazilian Championship football match in Joinville, Santa Catarina, on December 8, 2013.
Shocking violence at a Brazilian championship match is not an indication of what can be expected when the South American country hosts next year’s World Cup, FIFA and Brazilian government officials have declared.
Three people were seriously injured when fans fought running battles at the Atletico Paranaense v Vasco da Gama match yesteday and at least 30 people have been killed in incidents in and around Brazil’s stadiums this year.
The game on the final day of the season had to be halted for 70 minutes and players broke down in tears as they watched fans chase each other round the terraces, trading blows with home-made clubs and weapons.
Brazil’s Sports Ministry condemned the violence and called for swift punishment for hooligans.
It also said it would consult with public prosecutors and police chiefs over security at matches. There were no police inside the Arena Joinville where yesterday’s game took place because the home side had opted to use private security guards.
President Dilma Rousseff also condemned the troublemakers and called for a special police station to be set up to deal with football-related incidents.
«I can assure you the lamentable scenes we saw yesterday will not be seen at the World Cup,» said Andrei Rodrigues, the special secretary of major events at the Justice Ministry.
«We can assure you that the stadiums at the World Cup will have at least 200 camera feeds providing real time video and what happened yesterday cannot happen at the World Cup.»
However, some stadiums in use already have CCTV but they are not always used to identify or track down troublemakers. Many of the hooligans belong to organised fan clubs sponsored by the clubs themselves.
buenosairesherald.com