Football violence

Everything around professional football (I mean, European football) is rotten. And so it stinks.

When some unfortunate agression occurs, everybody (including the presidents of the teams, people who usually make me feel a strong suspicion about their dubious integrity) claim to be faithful fighters against violence. But it's only one more of their lies. In some cases, they don't even hesitate to say both things at once: that they fight violence, but at the same time the incidents have not been that severe.

Today is one of those days. During a match between Valencia and Deportivo de La Coruña at Mestalla, Valencia's field, in a Spanish tournament, an assistant referee was reached by a coin thrown by a spectator. The main referee cancelled the match immediately.

Let's see what these peace champions had to say:

It has not been a severe injury, although it is regrettable.

[Cancelling the match] is a provocation for the supporters.

The fourth referee can substitute any other in case of injury.

It's regrettable, but we should see what has really happened at the field, because Moretti says that the coin came from a zone with blue-and-white [Depor's colors] T-shirts. At least there should be some doubt, because I'll always bet on Valencia's supporters, and since there are supporters of both teams it's best to remain uncertain.

Nobody is going to close the pitch so easily, there are precedents with other teams and I'm not going to surrender before anybody.

If there is something I've wanted to fight against since I'm the president is violence in football. If somebody can prove who and how did it, measures will be taken against those people.

Juan Soler, Valencia's president.

But there's more:

The agression has been an isolated event. Subirats, Valencia sport director.

The cancellation has been an exclusive decision of the referee. I don't know what happened. I only saw the assistant referee, lying on the floor and bleeding, and the referee leaving and saying that the match was canceled. We could have waited for ten minutes to study the possibility of resuming the match. But the referee sticked to his guns right from the sart and kept is decision, that from the first moment was to cancel it. Francisco Dopico, Valencia board member.

These guys also criticized the referee for "keeping his position, shut in his locker room".

These are the fighters against violence, which supposedly is one of their main concerns. They didn't seem to charge against the blockheads who assaulted a referee, neither to support the referees in their decision of not accepting even the least aggression. Their main concerns were, indeed, to minimize the importance of the incident, to blame the oponents' supporters, to ask for not being forced to close the pitch (mentioning unfortunate precedents of condescension set with other teams) or to get cocky. When somebody dies at a field, they in no doubt will put a sad face and play their liar role... and blame it on others again.

Professional football stinks.