SAO PAULO (AP) – As video of Brazilian fans kicking, beating and using metal bars to pummel supporters of a rival team spread across the globe, officials moved quickly to assure people considering coming to the 2014 World Cup that they won’t see that type of violence at the global tournament.
A day after four people were hospitalized following clashes in a key match in the final round of the Brazilian league, World Cup organizers said today that fan safety will not be a problem during soccer’s showcase event.
“We can assure that the safety of this event will be guaranteed” said Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues, one of the Brazilian government’s officials in charge of security during major events. “The lamentable scenes such as the ones that happened yesterday will not be repeated.”
But violence around Brazilian football is growing, including about 30 deaths this year. In July, a referee in a village match fatally stabbed a player after an argument. The referee was then stoned and decapitated by the crowd.
In the Brazilian league this year, police and fans clashed in and outside stadiums at least once a month. In most Brazilian games, anyone with a ticket can sit anywhere in the stadium. Rival fans take up separate sections, and taunting and physical confrontations often erupt where the two groups meet.
Yesterday, hundreds of supporters from first-division clubs Atletico Paranaense and Vasco da Gama charged against each other in the southern city of Joinville, exchanging punches, kicks and using homemade weapons in the fight that stopped the match for more than an hour. A police helicopter had to land on the field to airlift a man with a serious head injury.
The match was played in Joinville instead of Atletico Paranaense’s base in Curitiba because the club had been punished for fan fighting earlier this year.
The disturbing images from the fight came just two days after FIFA held the draw for the World Cup with an extravagant ceremony in a luxurious resort in northeastern Brazil.
“This is very sad for Brazilian football,” FIFA said in a statement. “FIFA and the local organizing committee condemn any form of violence and such incidents should not happen in any football stadium.”