Don't Fuck With UEFA

People are still talking about last Saturday’s football (read: soccer) match between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden took a 3-0 lead after only 28 minutes, but Denmark rallied in the second half to tie the match at 3 before a red card against a Danish player provoked a fan to charge the field and attack the ref. The match was awarded to Sweden with a score of 3-0 and the team has been banned from playing their next 4 matches within 250 km of Copenhagen. Oh man, you should’ve seen the headlines after last weekend. The guy’s face was plastered across every front page in the city. That guy had a bounty on his head - and a couple million really pissed off Danes willing to collect it, too. The guy was arrested, but released the next day. He turned himself in to the public and apologized - but the Danish Football Association is still thinking about fining / taking court action against the guy to compensate the loss in ticket sales. Think about it. The next biggest stadium in Denmark seats only 5,200, which is nothing compared to the 42,000 in Copenhagen. Multiply that difference by the price of a ticket…and by four matches. Holy fuck, he better hope they don’t take his ass to court.

Something I really admire about football (in Europe at least) is the atmosphere of sportsmanship. That’s why you don’t see fences or large gates separating the fans from the players. The Danes, especially, pride themselves on their fan conduct. A lot of trust is put into the fans, which is very admirable. You trust that they won’t do something violent. You trust that nothing dangerous is brought into the stadium. You don’t bank on a fan to drink 20 beers and charge the field and nearly grab a ref around the neck. You just don’t. Everyone knows that football is huge in Europe, but being here to experience it - and the controversy - is something else, let me tell you.

The ironic thing? That fan lives in Sweden.