That's how San Lorenzo's fans are seeing things after their team dropped yet more points on Saturday night. Lanús decided to have one of their good days and completely overran the joint leaders in the Nuevo Gasómetro. Boca can overtake San Lorenzo by winning on Sunday, whilst if Tigre win they'll be all on their [. Click to continue reading...

We received the following email at our mailbox and thought we'd share it. It gives an insider's view of the Toronto fan situation which makes some intelligent points worth of note and discussion...
Dear friends at mls-rumors,

I would like to share some information and a little opinion about Brett
Clarckson's "Kicking out at hooliganism"
article in the Toronto Sun. Click to continue reading...

For the fans of Red Star Belgrade, being considered a violent hooligan is a badge of honor. The ultras are more organized than the footballing directors of some clubs, and the games can and often do take a back seat to the extracurricular activities in and around the stadiums. So when a Red Star fan, [. Click to continue reading...

"We are actively working to identify and isolate those who would engage in hooliganism. The sport is meant to be an enjoyable experience for everybody, and for one person to take it upon themselves to act in a means that put others in danger, it's not something that's going to be tolerated by the Toronto Police. Click to continue reading...

Toronto fan kicked it all of this year when a 2,357 made the journey to Crew Stadium on MLS First Kick

A Toronto area newspaper took a look today on the incidents we first brought you here on MLSR in this video.

The following is an excerpt from an article in the Toronto Sun entitled "Kicking Out At Hooliganism"

Inside the stadium they were throwing beers, while outside they were throwing fists.

Click to continue reading...

The hooliganism that marred Napoli's Serie A opener at AS Roma last weekend may have been orchestrated by the Naples Mafia, Italy's police chief Antonio Manganelli said on Wednesday. Click to continue reading...

The other day, Kansas City Soccer Review had some great thoughts about what kind of stadium should be built to house the Wizards. The author hoped for a stadium true to the spirit of the game, not just the bottom line. Here's my idea.

How 'bout terraces? Morrison Stadium, home of Creighton Bluejay soccer here in Omaha, has a fine facility that includes terraces on one side.

Click to continue reading...

After the recent fracas at the Persib v Persija ISL game the Maung Bandung team's fans were banned from attending games wearing club colours for 12 months. As far as I'm aware no research has been done looking at clothing choice of rioters though it is worth noting in England the casual scene dominated hooliganism. Click to continue reading...

Over 200 teams from 27 countries will take place in the Anti-Racism World Cup in Bologna, Italy.

With no end to racism, hooliganism and violence in sight, it's always good to shine light on the efforts to erase the negativity from the beautiful game.

• As if on cue, German hooligans strike.

Click to continue reading...

It would seem that in the media's push to latch on to something tantalizing – yours truly not exempted of course – that the first reports of the so called "brawl" at Crew stadium were more than slightly overblown.

Some thoughtful exchanges with eye witnesses as well as some digging around for first hand reports prove that the so called 130 person hooligan style brawl was more of a scuffle between a handful of security guards and a few inebriated West Ham fans. Click to continue reading...

As we close out the soccer week in America, I've got to reflect on the MLS All Star game and events that led up to it. I've always been a critic of the MLS all star game – more the format really than the match itself. In fact, if America insists on a All Star game, I suggested in an earlier post that we look to Australia's State of Origin rugby league match up and emulate their format for our match. Click to continue reading...

To read Part I, please click here.


The soccer blogosphere was alive this week with the sound of hooligans. Not literally, of course. It's not like I was sitting in front of my computer listening to "up to our knees in [fill in the blank] blood" or anything like that. Just that there was lots and lots (and lots) of talk about hooliganism, fan violence, security violence, etc. Click to continue reading...

This week's show is now up as a podcast. You can listen to the show from here, via the On Demand player, or you can subscribe to the show via iTunes.

Plenty to talk about on this week's show.
* I give my thoughts on this week's five questions of the week.

* I breakdown a weekend of draws in MLS.

Click to continue reading...

The Columbus "hooliganism" story continues to percolate in the British press; meanwhile, we look at the problems the Chicago Fire's Sector Latino have had with security at Toyota Park, and consider the outlandish possibility of Israel and Palestine co-hosting the World Cup in 2018. Click to continue reading...

As All Star week or whatever it is now called has dawned upon us some reflection is needed at MLS HQ as to what has evolved recently. Not only have incidents of hooliganism and fan violence erupted but also as mentioned earlier this week MLS sides are looking less and less like the products they [. Click to continue reading...

Alright, soccer fans and all you other people. The MLS All-Star Game is tonight (on ESPN, ha!) versus English Premier League team West Ham United F.C.

I got all the info on the Brits you'll need for maximum enjoyment -- or you could just go to Wikipedia...

Nicknames: The Hammers, The Irons, The Academy, The Academy of Football, The Cockney Boys (don't ask, just heckle). Click to continue reading...

For the many things that British football has exported across the world - naked greed, hooliganism, you know the sort of thing - but some of them, just some of them, have been worthwhile. The league system is an British invention, as is international football. One of the less celebrated exports, however comes in the [. Click to continue reading...

By now, you'll have heard of the disappointing news that Crew and West Ham fans clashed in Columbus at half-time and after the game this weekend, apparently instigated when a group of supposed Hammers attempted to infiltrate the designated Columbus supporters' section. I'm not here to condemn supporters, except the idiots who instigated trouble in a mindless Green Street parody. Click to continue reading...

Hooliganism Follows British Team to Ohio COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A brawl among more than 100 fans at halftime marred an exhibition match Sunday between West Ham United of the English Premier League and the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. The fights overshadowed West Ham United's 3-1 victory. Click to continue reading...

I decided to wait a while before I dived into this subject here this season. It kind of took one event in Columbus to get me really out on to the field about it. Racist comments and bottles thrown on to the field after New England scored a late goal against Columbus got some people [...] Click to continue reading...

Hasta El Gol Siempre's Sam Kelly looks at a judgement that might finally mean Argentina's battle against football violence is headed in the right direction. Friday saw the culmination of a legal case that had been ongoing for exactly twenty-two months in Santa Fe, the capital city of the province of the same name in Argentina. Click to continue reading...

As we look forward to Euro 2008, we shouldn't be fooled that domestic Swiss football runs like clockwork. Joe Westhead explores the game there from the passion of the Zurich derby to tragedy in the "Disgrace of Basel". Derby Day It's never just a game. It's never just three points. Grasshoppers Club Zürich are not having [. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday, we reported that after fans of Serbia's Red Star Belgrade uncovered a policeman covertly filming them in the stands, they responded by attacking him with flares. His clothes were set on fire, he was beaten with chairs, and he was left badly burned and bruised. Some fans are pointing out that he did not help [. Click to continue reading...

Serious trouble erupted in Serbia and Greece this weekend. As Red Star Belgrade took on Hajduk Kula in the Serbian first division, a policeman was seriously injured after fans spotted him filming them in plain clothes. The policeman (right) fired two shots into the air after he had been hit with burning flares, his clothes setting on [. Click to continue reading...

Turnstiles, barrels, chairs all hurled by fans onto the pitch over a tall gate as all hell broke loose when Costa Rica's Alajuelense took on Guatemala's Municipal in the UNCAF (Central American) Cup's third place consolation game at the Morena Soto stadium. Hexagonal Blog described the scene live last Tuesday: The players of both teams, [. Click to continue reading...

Once upon a time, the last thing any country hosting the a major championship wanted was for England to qualify. At Italia 1990, England were stationed on the island of Sardinia, with suspicions raised that FIFA had fixed the seedings to ensure the "English disease" of hooliganism was quarantined from the Italian mainland. Click to continue reading...

Photo credit: Hugo* on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion photo pool. In the second of our photo series this week on the 2006 World Cup, here's the unpleasant side of "celebration" from the night France beat Brazil 1-0 in the quarter finals. The photographer explains: Paris took to the streets to celebrate, invading the whole Champs-Elysées. Click to continue reading...

It's never good when a football stadium looks more like a warzone. On Saturday, the Marele Derby (Great Derby) between Steaua Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest in Romania descended into chaos as the game was interrupted three times when fans of both teams fired flares at each other, and lobbed smoke bombs onto the pitch. Click to continue reading...

Gabriele Sandri, a well-known DJ from Rome and a Lazio supporter, was shot dead by the police this morning at a gas station in Badia al Pino, Arezzo. This followed an incident in which a group of Lazio ultras had attacked Juventus fans in their cars, the latter appealing for help from passing police; the [...] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Lazio Fan, Gabriele Sandri from Rome, Shot Dead Today", url: "http://pitchinvasion. Click to continue reading...

As mentioned before, I moonlight (as if this were a paying job itself!) for the Chicago Sports Weekly. My column there this week is on the prospects for hooliganism in American soccer. The piece was prompted by the new book from British ex-hooligan Dougie Brimson (known to frequent these parts himself), March of the Hooligans, [...] Click to continue reading...

Leeds. Millwall. Trouble. Surprising? Not really, is it? Still, the only published report I can find about it from this weekend's visit of Millwall to Leeds' Elland Road ground seems desperate to sensationalise events. Trouble flared at about 2.15pm on Saturday as three busloads of away fans pulled up near the Billy Bremner statue [...] Click to continue reading...

According to the Moscow Times, "Sixty-three football fans aged 13 to 16 were briefly detained last weekend amid drunken clashes that left a dark-skinned man dead and two others injured." The dead man was Sergei Nikolayev, from Siberia. The violence came after Spartak Moscow's win over FK Moscow, but far from the stadium, and the catalyst [...] Click to continue reading...

- Failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championship could cost the England Football Association as much as £8m in merchandising and revenue. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the good old boys network who hire crap coaches? Never fear England fans, I will be shocked if they don't pull out a spectacular performance against Croatia and Israel somehow rise to the occasion and at least draw with Russia. Click to continue reading...

The England-Russia game is kicking off right now the Chinese commentary I've got for it on Sopcast is proving more entertaining than John Motson and Trevor Brooking ever were on the BBC but I thought I'd pass on the unsurprising news that several England fans were "beaten up" in Russia. A spokesman said two [...] Click to continue reading...

The Booing of Frank Lampard is, according to Reuters Soccer Blog (generally a great blog, by the way), a reflection of the worst of English culture over the past several hundred years. Mr. Frank Lampard, the Victim, has been randomly selected by England fans to be the subject of bizarre and unjustified criticism. The case against [...] Click to continue reading...