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| Brazil's football violence is a symptom of a collapsed justice system | Brazil's football violence is a symptom of a collapsed justice system |
| (2 months later) | |
| 30 June 2013 was a very good day for Brazilian football, and a very bad one. Brazil beat Spain 3-0 to win the Confederations Cup in Rio de Janeiro that day – while outside the 1km Fifa exclusion zone around the stadium, there were major clashes between protesters and the police. It has now also emerged that earlier that same day, at an amateur game in the distant northern state of Maranhao a referee stabbed a player to death on the field. He was then stoned to death and decapitated by the crowd. | 30 June 2013 was a very good day for Brazilian football, and a very bad one. Brazil beat Spain 3-0 to win the Confederations Cup in Rio de Janeiro that day – while outside the 1km Fifa exclusion zone around the stadium, there were major clashes between protesters and the police. It has now also emerged that earlier that same day, at an amateur game in the distant northern state of Maranhao a referee stabbed a player to death on the field. He was then stoned to death and decapitated by the crowd. |
| It is regrettable that just a week after Brazil's huge wave of social protest, our focus is on these ghoulish but random acts of rural violence, rather than the more significant political earthquake that has occurred. Yet, prurient curiosity aside, something might be learnt here. | It is regrettable that just a week after Brazil's huge wave of social protest, our focus is on these ghoulish but random acts of rural violence, rather than the more significant political earthquake that has occurred. Yet, prurient curiosity aside, something might be learnt here. |
| This is not a rare occurrence. In 2009 Prof Mauricio Murad from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro published a report called A Sad Perverse Achievement. He found that between 1999 and 2008, 49 people died in Brazilian football stadiums as a result of violence or crowd disasters; a figure that made the country the world number one in football-related deaths. | This is not a rare occurrence. In 2009 Prof Mauricio Murad from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro published a report called A Sad Perverse Achievement. He found that between 1999 and 2008, 49 people died in Brazilian football stadiums as a result of violence or crowd disasters; a figure that made the country the world number one in football-related deaths. |
| Four years later things are no better. In 2012 gun-wielding Corinthians fans killed a Palmieras fan and injured three others in a gigantic brawl on the north side of São Paulo. Brazil's respected football weekly Lance! has calculated that 155 people have been killed since 1988, and increasingly the incidents involve firearms and criminal gangs. By contrast, the number of arrests over the same period is just 27. | Four years later things are no better. In 2012 gun-wielding Corinthians fans killed a Palmieras fan and injured three others in a gigantic brawl on the north side of São Paulo. Brazil's respected football weekly Lance! has calculated that 155 people have been killed since 1988, and increasingly the incidents involve firearms and criminal gangs. By contrast, the number of arrests over the same period is just 27. |
| Earlier this year Gremio, a club in Porto Alegre, had to close their stadium for 60 days after a crowd crush left eight people seriously injured. In February Corinthian fans from São Paulo launched a flare into the opposing crowd at a Copa Libertadores game in Bolivia. A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old scapegoat was offered to the police by the organised Torcidas who were responsible. Murad has argued that "violence in football is growing because overall violence in the country is increasing. Violence is on the increase because of lack of punishment for crimes and corruption." | Earlier this year Gremio, a club in Porto Alegre, had to close their stadium for 60 days after a crowd crush left eight people seriously injured. In February Corinthian fans from São Paulo launched a flare into the opposing crowd at a Copa Libertadores game in Bolivia. A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old scapegoat was offered to the police by the organised Torcidas who were responsible. Murad has argued that "violence in football is growing because overall violence in the country is increasing. Violence is on the increase because of lack of punishment for crimes and corruption." |
| Public safety is a very minor concern of the Brazilian authorities – the Gremio disaster is just one of many dangerous situations allowed in the stadiums. Disorder and criminality, if they don't touch the elite, are left to fester. Criminal gangs and organised fans have become increasingly entwined, made possible by the active negligence of the police and the football clubs. When the state does intervene, it is often with maximum force – as the programme of favela pacifications in Rio demonstrate. A point reinforced by the brutal actions of the police during the Confederations Cup. | Public safety is a very minor concern of the Brazilian authorities – the Gremio disaster is just one of many dangerous situations allowed in the stadiums. Disorder and criminality, if they don't touch the elite, are left to fester. Criminal gangs and organised fans have become increasingly entwined, made possible by the active negligence of the police and the football clubs. When the state does intervene, it is often with maximum force – as the programme of favela pacifications in Rio demonstrate. A point reinforced by the brutal actions of the police during the Confederations Cup. |
| Instigators and perpetrators are rarely caught and are even less likely to face justice. After an extensive investigation the Brazilian senate in 2002 recommended that 17 of the leading figures in the game go on criminal trial on a variety of charges. Not a single one of those cases has come to trial. Jose Maria Marin, the current head of the Brazilian FA and the World Cup organising committee, was caught on camera at a São Paulo cup final pocketing a winner's medal that should have gone to a young player. He denied it, brushed it off, claimed it was a prearranged gift and got away with it. | Instigators and perpetrators are rarely caught and are even less likely to face justice. After an extensive investigation the Brazilian senate in 2002 recommended that 17 of the leading figures in the game go on criminal trial on a variety of charges. Not a single one of those cases has come to trial. Jose Maria Marin, the current head of the Brazilian FA and the World Cup organising committee, was caught on camera at a São Paulo cup final pocketing a winner's medal that should have gone to a young player. He denied it, brushed it off, claimed it was a prearranged gift and got away with it. |
| It is in such a context that events like the horrific murder in Maranhao take place: a world in which there appear to be no consequences and no come-uppances, in which the use of barbaric force has been normalised. | It is in such a context that events like the horrific murder in Maranhao take place: a world in which there appear to be no consequences and no come-uppances, in which the use of barbaric force has been normalised. |
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