The Moscow Police must have felt they had drawn the short straw with two English teams reaching the final. A nice all-Swiss clash between Appenzell Athletic and FC Graubunden must have been what they had dreamed of. But it seems they played a blinder: no violence, no arrests.
No violence is more than can be said of the football where, presumably out of the referee’s sight (I am not too clear on the rules), players were pushing, punching, kicking and in one case (Carlos Tevez) trying to strangle others. A poor example, and I think it is even worse that it seems to have gone unreported.
There were arrests at Stamford Bridge, of course, thousands of miles from where the match was staged. I am not of the Authoritarian Tendency but can on occasions be tempted to think that tougher penalties might be the answer. In more sensible mood I think we need an answer to this: what sort of society have we created where a game – 22 nancies chasing a ball – becomes so important, where people have so little else to cling to, that they indulge themselves in such behaviour? I suppose we’re all to blame, but how? How did it get this way?
Cricket: the second Test against New Zealand starts tomorrow.
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