Taming of the football fan

The English have shed their hooligan tag at the football World Cup.

Last Sunday, television cameras descended on Pavlos Joseph, 32, as if he had scored the winning goal in England’s previous match against Algeria. That could not have been possible because the match had ended in a 0-0 draw. Joseph, a rotund follower of English football, earned his 15 minutes for being arrested and charged with trespassing and being banned from attending any more matches of this football World Cup.

Joseph had managed to pass through security checks and enter the England changing area, where — he claims — he spoke to David Beckham. He said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror that he had been trying to find the toilets in the Cape Town stadium and had taken a wrong turn, that a security guard sent him in the direction of the players’ tunnel.

 

Outside, Joseph was full of it. Going by his claims, he shamed the England players by telling them that fans had spent a lot of money getting to South Africa and were bitterly disappointed at the team’s performance. He said the players, sitting on benches with towels around their waists, kept quiet, their chins on their chests.

Joseph may be boasting; it is difficult to imagine professional footballers sitting like lambs while a trespasser gave them a lecture. But this incident stands out because at this World Cup the notoriety of England fans has taken a nosedive. UK’s newspapers say this World Cup has truly rehabilitated their reputation.

In the wake of England’s qualification for the second round — at one stage, the team looked ready to go out in the group stage — there had been no football-related arrests in South Africa. This is unheard of.

The average England fan is said to be a beer-swilling ogre wearing tattoos. If provoked — sometimes even without provocation — he would begin to hurl plastic furniture. This stereotype is conspicuous by its absence, showing that the stiff measures taken over the last 10 years to curb just such fans are working. Those who threaten order have been confined to their homes through banning orders. As many as 3,143 people have been banned from travelling for the duration of this tournament.

We see more families, women and children following the English team now as fans have taken this as an opportunity to holiday with the family in South Africa. They do drink and sing all day in the build-up to a match and partied all night when England qualified for the second round, but there has been no untoward incident. Such incidents have taken place back home. There was some violence involving England fans at an open-air screening in Bristol and four arrests at a screening in Manchester.

However, the real test of whether the England football fan has really come of age will come on Sunday, when England takes on Germany. This will be a knock-out round match where the stakes are much higher than in the group stage. The estimated 20,000 travelling England fans are expected to be bolstered by others arriving to replace those going home. They will surely sing a World War II anthem to rile the opponents. We will see how far beyond that they go.

(suveen.sinha@bsmail.in)