Football according to the world governing body FIFA is the beautiful game while stakeholders describe it as a unifying sport but as with all other human endeavours, both statements are flawed.
All around the world cases of corrupt practices ranging from betting off of games and bribing of referees to the sometimes unreasonable actions of some footballers dent the idea of the beautiful game.
But more recently, the violent turn of events; some of which have ended fatally, has posed a new threat to the beautiful game and if not curtailed in time, could result in unimaginable scenes of violence.
The latest occured in Port Harcourt on the night of Manchester United's tame relinquishing of the UEFA Champions League title to Barcelona when a fan of the Red Devils ran his bus into celebrating Barca fans.
It could have been taken for a mere, coincidental accident but the fact that the Man U fan turned his bus around to inflict death on four and injure about 10 others brings to a fore the spate of fan(atics) not being able to take a defeat in sportmanly manner.
What would such a "fan" expect the many Red Devil faithful that paid for plane tickets and hotel accommodation to the eternal city where the relationship with the Roma fans is not on such friendly terms to do after witnessing such a disappointing display for a prize so coveted, so prized it earned Barcelona a cool lump sum of $130m.
Worse still is the case of the Arsenal fan in Kenya who, so distraught with the first half display of the Gunners in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Man U coupled with the accompanying taunts from United fans, went straight home at half time and was next seen hanging dead in his Arsenal jersey.
It is about time we true lovers of the beautiful game not join in the violent tide of bad losers and unruly fans or the game would become an avenue for thugs.
It would not be far fetched for one to be worried about the result of this afternoon's FA Cup final between John Obi Mikel's Chelsea and Joseph Yobo's Everton at Wembley; worried about the "repercussions" of winning.
article by http://www.mynaijanews.com/content/view/3130/29/
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