There will be a number of researchers at the World Cup in Japan and Korea. Firstly, one should be aware that it will not only be football violence (hooliganism) that will be studied. Secondly, it is prudent not to judge this World Cup against others. Asia from a football and a policing of large foreign groups is an unknown quantity.
Football Research Organisation UK (FROUK) is conducting research in Japan, concerning the day to day events and what really occurs on the ground compared with what is reported by the media. When details are back here in England, they will be published on this site.
Robin Manser 29/05/2002
Important Statements So Far!
I have been warning for a number of years that dissafection in the former Soviet Union would result in an influx of football violence in Russia, which would accompany and correlate with the general increase in crime and dissillusion amongst the people. Unfortunately this began a couple of years ago and culminated, nationally today. Russia is just like any other country, it has societal problems, and the World Cup is a stage of belief. It is not about football hooliganism, but football providing the vessel for the release of aggression and frustration.
Robin Manser 09/06/2002
Sunday, 9 June, 2002, 19:36 GMT 20:36 UK
Russians riot after World Cup defeat
This sort of violence is rare in Moscow.
Russian football fans have gone on the rampage in Moscow after the World Cup defeat of the national team, killing one man and injuring many others.
The violence happened in the centre of the capital after Russia went down 1-0 to Japan, severely denting the country's chances of progressing to the second round of the tournament.
The defeat is a major embarrassment for Russia
Thousands of fans had been watching the game on a giant outdoor screen in Manezh Square.
After the final whistle blew, many threw bottles and attacked cars while chanting the popular football slogan Forward Russia.
The violence then spilled into other parts of the city centre.
Parliament building damaged
A number of vehicles were set alight near the lower house of parliament, where windows were broken.
There had been only a small police presence, and reinforcements did not arrive until almost an hour later, when most of the rioters had left the area.
Several cars were set alight.
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Firefighters arrived first, and the rioters attacked their trucks.
Photographers and cameramen were also reported to have been beaten.
Police quoted by the Interfax news agency said the man who died was stabbed.
At least 20 more people are said to have been hurt in the fighting, including three police officers.
An unconfirmed report said five exchange students from Japan were beaten.
The BBC's Jonathan Charles, in Moscow, says such violence is highly unusual for the city.
Special forces police were brought into the centre of Moscow to bring the situation under control.
FIFA is happy there were no serious security incidents in connection with Friday night's World Cup match between England and Argentina in Sapporo, spokesman Keith Cooper said Saturday.
"There were no incidents of any kind and the whole game, before, during and after, went off just as anybody could wish it to do so," the spokesman said during a daily press briefing.
I have been wondering since the beginning whether we may end up researching how Japan and Korea have got it right. How, and is it early days? I have more comments but we must wait until the end!
MOSCOW (Reuters) - One man was reported killed and 30 other people hurt as rampaging soccer fans in Moscow torched cars, smashed shops and battled police after Russia's 1-0 defeat to Japan in the World Cup finals.
Police said the man died from stab wounds as mass brawls erupted on Manezh Square near the Kremlin where some 3,000 fans had been watching the game in Japan on a giant outdoor screen, Interfax quoted city police as saying.
A policeman received serious stab wounds and two other officers were also hurt, news agencies said. Thirty people were taken to hospital with various injuries.
However, Interfax later quoted Moscow's top police officer General Vladimir Pronin as saying he had yet to see concrete proof that anyone had been stabbed to death.
Thick, black smoke billowed from seven torched cars outside the landmark Moskva Hotel and the State Duma lower house of parliament, scenes not witnessed in central Moscow since the storming of the previous parliament in 1993.
Sunday's disturbances, barely 100 metres (yards) from the Kremlin's red walls, were the worst football-related violence to hit Russia since 2000, when two teenagers died in separate incidents after soccer matches.
Angry fans attacked cars and vans parked near the Moskva hotel, including those belonging to state-run RTR television which had broadcast the match, smashing windscreens and overturning others.
Around 20 vehicles were damaged, said police.
The rioters hurled bottles, sticks and other missiles at the police. Broken glass and plastic bottles, poles that during the match had held the Russian tricolour aloft, littered the main thoroughfare that abuts Manezh Square.
Interfax said one drunken fan in a car had run down three pedestrians. Their condition was not known.
VIOLENCE CONDEMNED
As riot police marshalled their forces and moved in to disperse the crowds, fire-fighters doused burning vehicles, a plume of smoke climbing over some of Moscow's best-known sites.
The violence spilled into adjoining districts, an estimated 300 hooligans streaming up the main Tverskaya Street, Itar-Tass news agency. According to Ekho Moskvy radio, some of them attacked a Japanese restaurant there.
"I don't like everything that is happening here. People gathered to watch (the game) and now there is this disorder. This isn't right," said another fan, Alexei.
The disturbances took place within a bottle's throw of the Kremlin but President Vladimir Putin, himself an avid sports fan, was away in his hometown, the second city St Petersburg, ahead of a meeting of Baltic states leaders.
But Alexei Volin, the deputy head of the Russian government administration, condemned the violence, saying it brought shame on the nation.
"These events discredit millions of normal people who supported the national team," he told the RIA news agency. The rioters "have nothing to do with sports or sports fans", he said, adding the troublemakers should be punished.
Some fans blamed heavy-handed policing for triggering the violence, but police said hooligans who had spent much of the match drinking had started the unrest.
"The police just began to beat people. There was just a release of energy and the police began beating people," one fan, who gave his name as Nikita, told Reuters.
Witnesses said appeared unprepared for the unrest, but city police chief Pronin told Interfax only 500 fans had been expected at Manezh Square, but in fact "around 7-8,000 had turned up".
There were no immediate reports of violence at three other sites around the capital where the Russia-Japan game was shown.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Soccer's governing body FIFA blamed riots in Russia after a World Cup defeat on alcohol and said fans' good behaviour at the 2002 tournament was setting an example to the world.
Riots in Moscow following Sunday's 1-0 defeat by Japan in Yokohama killed one man and left a trail of destruction. FIFA communications director Keith Cooper said the trouble had happened after Russians had drunk too much.
"FIFA regrets this has happened," Cooper told a news conference on Monday. "It is not the first time it has happened. It happened during the 1994 World Cup (when the Russians failed to make the second round)."
But he added: "These were local organisers who erected big screens. Apparently a large amount of alcohol was available and there was no control on the consumption of alcohol.
"This has little to do with football fans. The team is not eliminated. FIFA distances itself totally from it."
As an estimated one million South Korean fans prepared to watch their country's clash with the United States on outdoor screens around the country, Cooper praised the behaviour of the supporters of co-hosts Japan.
Japan beat Russia 1-0 on Sunday night, triggering huge celebrations.
"There were fantastic scenes in Japan. We are absolutely delighted that people can go out and enjoy themselves," Cooper said. "New standards are being set at this World Cup and there are lessons to be learned in other parts of the world."
The 1998 World Cup in France and the 1990 tournament in Italy suffered from hooliganism problems but so far the finals in South Korea and Japan have witnessed no major crowd problems.
The next World Cup takes place in 2006 in Germany.
We are too quick to blame disorder on alcohol. Ever heard of the term 'Dutch courage'? Alcohol gives people a sense of daring to do what would have been prior to drinking a bit nervy. Get back to the reality and do not sit on the fence FIFA! Russia has serious societal problems and football is a global language of unity behind 'your' team'. See the issue for what it is. Football is an excuse, as is the term 'blame it on alcohol'.
A Scottish football fan is in a "critical condition" after breaking his skull in a fall from a stand during a World Cup football match.
Korean World Cup officials said the supporter was taken to hospital after plunging from the stand during Monday's Portugal v Poland match in the South Korean city of Jeonju.
The man lay motionless after the fall and medical teams went swiftly to his aid.
The Scottish supporter fell into the moat and is in a critical condition
Seop Nam Mun
Stadium official
"He was taken from the stadium on a stretcher and transferred to the Chonbuk University hospital, where he has undergone emergency surgery"..
Stadium information officer Seop Nam Mun said the fan who fell from the stand was thought to have slipped as he ran down wet stairs.
"The Scottish supporter fell into the moat and is in a critical condition," he said.
He confirmed that the man had undergone surgery for a cerebral haemorrhage.
He added that a Polish man had fallen down stairs in an unrelated incident in the same stand, but was not seriously hurt.
Investigation
A Foreign Office spokesman said the Scottish supporter, who has not been named, had fallen over a barrier.
The spokesman said the man, who is understood to have gone to the match alone, was in a coma at the hospital.
Fifa communications director Keith Cooper said that the stadium in Jeonju had been checked and that it conformed to safety standards.
"This really was a tragic accident. Nobody else was involved. Fifa regrets it very deeply and we wish him well," Cooper said
Deep concrete moats
Freelance journalist Andrew Spooner visited all Korea's World Cup stadiums on an official visit last year.
Mr Spooner said that he was very impressed by the quality of the stadiums but was concerned that the combination of exuberant football supporters and deep concrete moats was "an accident waiting to happen".
He said that he pointed out to officials that similar moats had been equipped with netting at other stadiums.
"It doesn't come as a great surprise that someone has been very badly hurt by falling into these moats," he said.
"My regret is that I didn't push the concerns I raised harder and that my comments fell on deaf ears."
Portugal won the game 4-0, with Pauleta netting a hat-trick.
