THE scenes of riot and mayhem in Istanbul after the end of season match between two of Turkey’s top football teams are a deplorable echo of the outbreaks of violence in Egypt in February and April this year. …With … rare exceptions, there are no riots at cricket matches. Rugby is a hard, contact sport with far more aggression … yet rugby fans do not go on the rampage after games, attacking and sometimes killing rival fans, assaulting policemen and turning over police vehicles…. This is what happened on Sunday in Istanbul when Galatasaray held its long-standing rival Fenerbahçe to a goalless draw and thus won the Turkish championship. Disappointed Fenerbahçe supporters stormed the pitch and threw flares and broken-up seating. Police had to protect Galatasaray players and match officials. The losing team’s fans who had been watching the match on television elsewhere in Istanbul also took to the streets.

This disgusting behaviour is unfortunately not something new in Turkey. When Galatasaray played another Istanbul-based rival Besiktas last November, its defender, Emmanuel Eboue, a black player … was pelted with fruit and stones and had flares and sharpened coins thrown at him. The rottenness in Turkish football may go even deeper. An inquiry has just concluded that allegations of match-fixing are baseless. However many fans and sports commentators remain sceptical of the findings….

It was not so long ago that football violence was almost unknown in the Middle East and we looked with horror at the thuggery in British and German football. Europe still has its football violence but it has managed … to stem the very worst excesses. Maybe the Turkish and Egyptian football authorities should be following Europe’s tactics. These were first of all to pinpoint the troublemakers, prosecute them and if they re-offended ban them from all football grounds, in some cases forever. However the sanctions went further. If the fans of any club were implicated in criminal conduct, the club itself was punished, either by a fine or worse…. Initial protests by club owners and fans … were studiously ignored….— (May 15)